Tag: Dana Open

19-year-old Lucy Li fist pumps her way to 54-hole lead at Dana Open

Li has won twice on the Epson Tour this year and locked up her 2023 LPGA card.

Lucy Li wouldn’t be the youngest player to ever win on the LPGA, but if she goes on to win the Dana Open at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, it’d be one of the great accomplishments in the tour’s history.

Li birdied the 17th hole Saturday to regain the solo lead over Lexi Thompson and will enter the final round one ahead of the woman who owns the honor of the second-youngest player to win on the LPGA. Thompson won the 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic when she was 16 years, 7 months and 8 days old.

Lydia Ko is the youngest player to win, as she won the 2012 Canadian Women’s Open at 15 years, 4 months and 3 days.

The 19-year-old used a second-round 7-under 64 to jump to the top of the leaderboard and followed it up with a Saturday 67. She was 2 over through seven holes but cashed in six birdies in her last 11.

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She has won twice on the Epson Tour this year and locked up her 2023 LPGA card.

Ko had the round of the day, using seven birdies and an eagle to shoot a 7-under 64 and sits 11 under for the event and tied for fourth. She’s tied with six others at that mark including Sei Young Kim, Leona Maguire and Nasa Hataoka.

Dana Open: Leaderboard

Brooke Henderson is 10 under, tied for 11th through three rounds, while Madelene Sagstrom is 9 under, T-16.

Lucy Li, 19, leads Dana Open, eyes first LPGA victory

The 19-year-old has her sights set on her biggest accomplishment to date.

She has two wins on the Epson Tour this year, which locked up her 2023 LPGA card.

Now Lucy Li has her sights set on her biggest accomplishment to date.

Li, 19, shot a 7-under 64 Friday at Highland Meadows Golf Club to get to 10 under and a two-shot lead after 36 holes in Sylvania, Ohio, the Dana Open.

She burst onto the golf scene in 2014 when she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 11. She turned professional at age 17, and has played the last three seasons on the Epson Tour.

Carlota Ciganda and Ruoning Yin each fired 69s and are tied for second at 8 under, two shots back.

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A year ago, the tournament known as the Marathon LPGA Classic was shortened to 54 holes to due heavy rain which made the course unplayable. Nasa Hataoka was up six shots after three rounds and was named the winner. On Friday, Hataoka shot a 66 and is in a five-way tie for fourth along with Lexi Thompson.

Two new moms were playing this week. Azahara Munoz shot a 69 to make the cut on the number at 1 under. Paula Creamer also shot a Friday 69 but it wasn’t enough to overcome her first-round 77. She finished 4 over.

Paula Creamer and Azahara Munoz return to the LPGA as new moms at Dana Open

“You feel stronger, I think, as a mom. I definitely want to play well for her, not only for myself.”

SYLVANIA, Ohio – Paula Creamer feels like a rookie all over again. Only this time, she’s a rookie mom, competing for the first time on the LPGA this week since giving birth to daughter Hilton Rose in January. Creamer is one of two LPGA players coming back from maternity leave at the Dana Open as Spain’s Azahara Munoz returns with son Lucas, who was born in late February.

“I just feel very in control of my golf game, very motivated,” said Creamer. “It’s a different mindset than I think what I’ve had in the past, and I truly believe that is also because of Hilton. Just you feel stronger I think as a mom. I definitely want to play well for her, not only for myself.”

Creamer, a 10-time winner tour who last competed at the 2021 Amundi Evian, won the 2008 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club on the strength of an opening 60, the lowest round of her career.

The 36-year-old thought about coming back earlier to the tour, but decided it was too early for Hilton to travel – and she wasn’t going without her.

Creamer, who like Munoz had a C-section, said she got back to practicing a bit later than she had planned. She mostly stuck to walks around the neighborhood for several months until early March.

“Picking up the club was probably the easiest part of it,” said Creamer. “The mental side of it took me a little bit, but I was able to — we live so close to the driving range and practice area where I could bounce back home. It’s only 20 yards from where I live, so I was able to check in and out.

“At the same time, I had to tell myself, she’s safe, she’s good, she’s fine, go and do my job.”

Munoz didn’t miss a workout until the day she had Lucas, texting her trainer to let her know that she wasn’t feeling so great. Staying active until her son’s birth, she believes, helped her to bounce back quickly after taking off the initial six weeks.

Munoz’s husband Tim Vickers, a wealth advisor at FineMark, is in town this week and the couple is taking advantage of the LPGA’s Smuckers Child Development Center.

“Yesterday, walking in I was a bit – like you know when your heart is a bit tight,” said Munoz, “but as soon as I was there and they are so good, they grab the back and he’s mine. He’s good. I’m good.”

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Munoz battled anxiety, fatigue and hair loss before being diagnosed several years ago with Hashimoto’s disease, a thyroid problem that robbed her of precious energy.

“Like at the bottom of it, I remember we got a new puppy and I was so tired,” said Munoz. “Like I can’t even walk the puppy. Then I start thinking, what’s wrong with me? Why don’t I want to do things? So it’s never been that bad anymore, so now I’m feeling like pretty fantastic.”

The tiredness is still there, but thanks to medication, she’s feeling quite strong for a new mom now working from the road.

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Both Creamer and Munoz will be tuned in Wednesday night to watch Serena Williams’ final U.S. Open run with a new appreciation.

“I did see a quote that she did, ‘I’m going to from good mom to great mom,’ ” said Munoz. “It kind of hurts because it’s true. The other day traveling I’m like, ‘Oh, God, I’m putting my baby through so much.’ You know, it also has the positives. There are things that my baby is going to experience other babies are never going to experience. I really want to travel at least for a few years with him and see how it is.”

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Creamer got goosebumps on Monday night watching Williams’ daughter take pictures of her mom walking onto the tennis court. She’d love for Hilton to one day do the same watching her.

“It would be very easy to step away from the game right now and be content with my career,” said Creamer, “but I definitely want to do a lot more.”

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Meet 14-year-old Gianna Clemente, who has Monday-qualified for the last two LPGA events

It’s Gianna Clemente’s second time in as many weeks to Monday qualify.

SYLVANIA, Ohio – Lexi Thompson signed a glove for Gianna Clemente not far from where the 14-year-old stood on the first tee at Highland Meadows Golf Club on Tuesday giving an interview. From ages 5 to 10, Clemente and her family made the three-hour trek from Warren, Ohio, to Sylvania to watch what’s now known as the Dana Open.

“A lot of people still think I have the attitude of Lexi,” said Clemente, “really feisty, really serious at times. I literally wanted to watch Lexi for 18 holes, that was me as a kid.”

Clemente, a high school freshman who was runner-up at the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior, played in her first LPGA Monday Qualifier last week in Canada and earned a spot in the CP Women’s Open field for her first LPGA start. Incredibly, she Monday-qualified again for this week’s Dana Open, bouncing back from a late double with two birdies to shoot 3-under 69 and win the qualifier.

“I saw Lexi in the locker room in Canada,” said Clemente, “and I was just way too scared to go up and say hi.”

She played a practice round with Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Anna Davis and Cristie Kerr and hit balls next to World No. 1 Jin Young Ko. (“I was like oh, oh my goodness.”) Clemente shot 69-74 to miss the cut in Ottawa.

“Just seeing everybody inside the ropes, Nelly and Lexi, all the big names you see on TV,” she said. “To be inside the ropes and playing, that was surreal.”

Mostly though, Clemente seems relatively at ease in the professional environment. Certainly when it comes to the media.

“I’ve always loved the cameras and attention,” she said.

Clemente was given an exemption to compete in the Monday qualifier for next week’s new Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati, as well. Amateurs must apply for an exemption to participate in LPGA local qualifiers.

Patrick Clemente, a former collegiate player at Youngstown State, gave his daughter her first set of plastic clubs when she was 18 months old. She played in her first tournament at age 5. The Clementes live on a golf course, Avalon Lakes, in Warren.

“At about 9, 10 as crazy as that sounds,” said Patrick, “you could see this is what she wanted to do.”

Gianna has done online schooling since the fourth grade, and at age 11, she became the third-youngest player to qualify for the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Old Waverly. Only Lucy Li (10 years, 10 months, 4 days) and Latanna Stone (10 years, 11 months and 2 days) were younger.

Patrick, VP of sales for a manufacturing company, is on the bag most weeks. Both father and daughter typically have homework left to do once they leave the course.

“We’re seeing a little bit of overdue marks on my assignments right now,” said Gianna. “It’s OK. I’m going to do it later when I get back to the hotel.”

Next month, Gianna heads to the Amundi Evian Juniors Cup in France. She’ll also try to defend her title at AJGA’s Ping Invitational at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

As for turning professional early, Gianna said she can’t yet talk to college coaches but isn’t ruling anything out.

“For now, I do want to go to college,” she said. “But we’ll see what happens. I still have a lot of time.”

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