“I have every intention of coming out and playing.”
Paula Creamer returns to a familiar and favorite spot playing a bit like it’s the first time because she’s carrying a child. The 2005 Amundi Evian champion revealed on social media last Sunday that she and fiancé Shane Kennedy, a retired baseball player, are expecting.
Creamer, who opened with a 4-over 75, said she’s definitely lost quite a bit of distance off the tee and had trouble catching her breath on the Evian Resort’s hilly terrain.
“It’s incredible,” said Creamer, “you feel like you’re swinging hard and hitting it hard and it goes nowhere.”
The 34-year-old returned to the tour earlier this year in May at the Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill, her first start since October 2019. The 10-time LPGA winner said she needed the extra time to let her left wrist and thumb injuries heal.
“I feel really good,” said Creamer. “It’s been exciting now that everybody knows and to be able to celebrate, which is nice to be able to do it with your friends. I actually don’t have to feel like I’m sucking in everywhere I go. I can actually say ‘Yes, I am pregnant.’ ”
Creamer said she’d like to play in several of the U.S.-based events later this fall at stops in Arkansas and New Jersey. Of course, it all depends on how she feels, not to mention how far she’s hitting it off the tee.
And after her new bundle of joy arrives?
“I definitely want to come back,” she said. “I have every intention of coming out and playing.”
The LPGA mom squad is about to get bigger as Paula Creamer announced her pregnancy Sunday on Instagram.
The 2010 U.S. Women’s Open champion held up a onesie with fiancé Shane Kennedy, a retired baseball player.
Creamer, 34, returned to the tour earlier this year in May at the Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill, her first start since October 2019. The 10-time LPGA winner said she needed the extra time to let her left wrist and thumb injuries heal.
Creamer has played in six events in 2021, making her first cut at the Volunteers of America Classic earlier this month.
“I feel great,” said Creamer last week at the Marathon Classic in Toledo. “My body feels really good. My left hand, I haven’t had any problems with it since I’ve come back, which, played a lot of golf. You know, (the break) was needed in multiple ways.”
When asked in May if a wedding was in the plans for 2021, Creamer said not this year.
“This year is a little packed right now,” she said.
Ana Belac isn’t wasting any time as an LPGA rookie and has put together two powerful rounds at the Pure Silk LPGA Championship.
Two years ago at this time, Ana Belac was a senior on the Duke roster, helping her Blue Devils work their way through NCAA Championship week and ultimately to the national title. Belac was a big part of Duke’s seventh NCAA trophy – its first in match play – and hasn’t looked back since charting her career as a professional.
The 24-year-old from Slovenia finished first on the Symetra Tour money list last year, which earned her LPGA membership for the 2021 season as well as a start in the U.S. Women’s Open in December. Now, she’s lurking on an LPGA leaderboard.
After rounds of 70-67 at the Pure Silk Championship, Belac is tied for second with big names Jessica Korda and Stacy Lewis. They all trail Australian Sarah Kemp by a shot at Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Virginia.
This is a particularly big week for Belac considering it’s the last week before the first reshuffle of the 2021 LPGA Tour season.
“It’s in the back of my mind,” Belac said. “My ultimate goal, my life goal, is to play on the LPGA and do well here. I try not to think about it [the reshuffle] when I’m on the course and just play my game.”
Belac had a steady round with five birdies and a bogey. Korda, on the other hand, does what Korda does, and that’s create fireworks. She eagled the par-5 seventh and the par-5 15th.
“I just try to put myself in the right positions, and luckily I was able to have a good amount of birdie opportunities and saved a good amount of par putts,” said Korda on how her round went. “Obviously the eagles help. If you take those eagles away, I would’ve shot even par today, so eagles always help.”
Korda won the season opening Tournament of Champions in January.
As for Kemp, a second-round 67 that included six birdies helped her get to 6 under and the solo lead.
“It was great. Had a really good warmup. I just felt really good,” said Kemp who said she slept great the night before. “And sometimes you just feel like you’re going to play well, and it was one of those days. Hit some great shots. Made some putts. I didn’t miss a whole lot of fairways. Probably had under 30 putts, and that leads to 4-under.”
Paula Creamer, making her first LPGA start since October 2019 this week, fired rounds of 76-74 to miss the cut by five shots.
Paula Creamer will compete on the LPGA this week after a wrist injury and the pandemic kept her sidelined.
For a time there at least, mortals could relate to Paula Creamer. After 18 months away from the game, she felt like the rest of us on the range when she’d look over at her dad, coach or fiancée and say, “What the heck is going on here? Like I cannot make contact. Is this really happening?”
“It came back quickly,” said Creamer, “but that first month I was thinking, my goodness gracious. It was embarrassing. It was bad. Definitely humbled me.”
Creamer tees it up in the Pure Silk Championship this week, her first LPGA start in more than 18 months. She’ll be in the TV window on Thursday (3-6 p.m. ET), playing alongside Jessica Korda and 2020 U.S. Women’s Open winner A Lim Kim at 12:59 p.m.
“When I saw that I was like, ‘OK, here we go, back in it,’ ” said Creamer of her grouping. “It doesn’t surprise me. I’m always thrown little curve balls here and there. It’ll be fun.”
Creamer, 34, lost in a nine-hole playoff to Jiyai Shin that extended to Monday at Kingsmill in 2012. The 10-time winner played her last event in October of 2019, taking time off to heal her left wrist and hand and then taking more time away after the pandemic hit.
The biggest question mark, she said, will be her yardages. Carry distances with her irons will be found by trial and error.
“My short game is really good right now,” she said. “I feel very confident with that. We worked really hard on my wedges.”
Creamer said the No. 1 goal of the week is to take what she’s been working on with Whelan inside the ropes and not deviate because she’s nervous or excited to hit it farther or make something happen.
She doesn’t feel pain right now when she’s hitting golf shots. It’s important that she avoids the bad habits that might change that.
“Ever since my thumb surgery I’ve had a really hard time with my grip,” said Creamer. “It’s very hard for me to get my right hand on top of my left because I don’t have much motion in my thumb. Most people, when they put the left hand on the club you can push your thumb down. I can’t do that, so I always have a big gap in my hands.
“We’ve tried building up clubs, I mean, you name it, we’ve done literally everything you can imagine. I’ve had to work on that scar tissue, but because of so many times I’ve hit balls where I’m afraid it’s going to hurt, my right hand gets moving over, moving over to the right side which promotes a bad takeaway for me which makes me go inside.”
That forces Creamer to reroute and miss big to the left. That’s why posture, grip and takeaway are so important. Like most, she has a tendency to grip too tight when she’s nervous.
“Those are things that happen before the actual club really moves,” she said.
“Those are my main tendencies right now, that kind of create the bad habit which then affects my whole left arm.”
Cristie Kerr joins fellow former champion Paula Creamer as the two special exemptions into the U.S. Women’s Open in June in San Francisco.
Cristie Kerr has accepted a special exemption into the 76th U.S. Women’s Open, the USGA announced Monday.
Kerr, 43, will make her 24th consecutive start in the championship June 3-6 at The Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco.
Kerr won the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina. The championship returns there for a record fourth time in 2022. She has eight top-10 finishes, the most recent coming at the 2016 USWO at CordeValle in San Martin, California.
“Winning the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles was a career- and life-changing moment,” said Kerr. “I’m grateful to everyone at the USGA for this special exemption and the opportunity to continue to play in what I consider our sport’s greatest championship. I can’t wait to arrive at The Olympic Club and tee it up in my 26th U.S. Women’s Open.”
Last week, 2010 USWO winner Paula Creamer accepted a special exemption to compete in this year’s championship. Creamer, 34, grew up in Pleasanton, California, less than 50 miles from the historic venue. She’s had five top-10 finishes and 11 top-20 finishes in her 17 USWO career starts, including a victory at Oakmont.
Kerr’s special exemption brings the total to 13 U.S. Women’s Open champions in the field.
Prior to Creamer, two-time champion Karrie Webb of Australia was the last player to receive a special exemption into the U.S. Women’s Open, in 2018 at Shoal Creek in Alabama. The two most recent special exemptions before Webb were given to Se Ri Pak in 2016 at CordeValle and Juli Inkster in 2013 at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, New York.
Kerr, a 20-time winner on the LPGA and former World No. 1, has made six starts on tour this season, with her best, a tie for 28th, coming at the ANA Inspiration.
Paula Creamer, who won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open, has been extended a special exemption into this year’s event at Olympic Club.
Paula Creamer’s first trip to The Olympic Club came in 1998 when she attended the final round of the U.S. Open with her parents. An 11-year-old Creamer wound up getting an oversized golf umbrella – almost as big as she was – with an American flag on it. It remained a treasured item for decades.
Now, as the best women in the world get set to compete at Olympic for the first time, Creamer, the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open champion, will once again be among them.
The USGA announced on Monday that Creamer, a 10-time winner on the LPGA has received a special exemption into the 76th U.S. Women’s Open, conducted June 3-6 in San Francisco. Creamer, 34, grew up in Pleasanton, California, less than 50 miles from the historic venue. She’s had five top-10 finishes and 11 top-20 finishes in her 17 USWO career starts, including a victory at Oakmont.
“It’s home,” said Creamer of her return to the Bay Area. “It’ll always be home. No matter where I’ve lived longer or not, whenever I’m announced on the first tee, it’s always Pleasanton, California. Anytime I represent the United States, my flag is always California. I’m a Cali girl, and you can’t take that away from me just because I live here in Orlando now. But I’m excited.”
Creamer, who hasn’t competed on the LPGA since October of 2019, had a 10-year exemption into the Women’s Open that expired last year. She’ll make her first LPGA start at the Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill later this month.
For the first time in years, Creamer said, she doesn’t feel pain in her wrists and hands when she’s out practicing.
“You know, in 2017 after that surgery, I just came back too soon, and I felt OK but I just, I pushed it too hard,” said Creamer, “and that was a mistake that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. Looking at it on my career, it wasn’t the best of moves that I did. But I’m a fighter, I’m a grinder, and I didn’t want to sit out.
“When this happened, I just really had to sit there and kind of sit on my hands and tell me, OK, we’re not going, we’re not doing this this time.”
Creamer, who also plans to compete the following week at nearby Lake Merced, is back working with her longtime instructor David Whelan. With her wrists feeling good, she’s able to generate more clubhead speed and is unafraid to go after the ball.
“We had to work a lot on my grip,” said Creamer. “I’ve always had a tough time with my right hand being more on top because my left hand doesn’t sit as well on the club because of my thumb surgery. It’s so stiff. I have so much scar tissue that it’s tough to be able to put my right hand on top.”
Creamer now lives 10 yards from the driving range at Isleworth and said there are days when she’s working on her game from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., taking breaks when her body dictates it and loving every minute of it.
When asked if there was a time that she thought she might not return to the LPGA, Creamer said it was always a matter of when, not if.
“Honestly even when I wasn’t playing I was always thinking about it,” said Creamer, “I was always, should I go hit balls tomorrow, should I do this, constantly doing that.
“But I’m thankful for it because every time I step out the door and put my golf shoes on, I enjoy it. I really am loving what I do right now.”
Lexi Thompson is only 25, but she ranks highly on the list of longest active streaks at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Karrie Webb’s record for the longest active streak at the U.S. Women’s Open will come to an end next week at 24. The seven-time major winner will miss a Women’s Open for the first time since her championship debut in 1996.
Paula Creamer, the 2010 USWO champ, won’t be at Champions Golf Club either, missing for the first time since 2003. Her streak will end at 17 consecutive appearances. This marks the final year of Creamer’s 10-year exemption into the championship after her stirring triumph at Oakmont.
China’s Shanshan Feng who, like Creamer, won’t compete on the LPGA at all this year, is skipping the USWO for the first time since 2007.
Here’s the craziest part of the USWO active streak list. After the 2020 championship, only three players will have longer active streaks than 25-year-old Lexi Thompson. Thompson qualified for her first U.S. Women’s Open in 2007 at the tender age of 12 and, amazingly, hasn’t missed one since.
Thompson posted a career-best T-2 at last year’s USWO at the Country Club of Charleston. She has four career top-10 finishes in the event.
After this year’s championship, Cristie Kerr, the 2007 USWO champion, will top the longest active streak category with 23 appearances. Texans Angela Stanford (now at 20) and Brittany Lang (now at 15) will round out the top three.
The field is set for the final major of 2020 as the USGA announced 28 additional players who earned their way into the U.S. Women’s Open.
The field is set for the final major of the season after the USGA announced the 28 additional players who earned their way into the 75th U.S. Women’s Open through the Rolex Rankings. Notables among those include former USWO champion Cristie Kerr and 2020 AIG Women’s British Open champion Sophia Popov.
Several big-name players who didn’t sign up to compete in Houston next month include USWO past champions Michelle Wie (2014), Paula Creamer (2010) and Na Yeon Choi (2012). This marks the final year of Creamer’s 10-year exemption into the championship after her stirring triumph at Oakmont.
“I just don’t know what COVID is going to look like,” Wie said. “I just don’t know if I feel comfortable traveling with her yet. In my mind I always thought by December it’s going to be safe to travel with her, but now … I’m not quite sure.”
The 2020 USWO, pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, takes place Dec. 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The 2019 champion, Jeongeun Lee6, will be on hand to defend her title. Lee6, who last competed on the LPGA in February, is in the field at this week’s inaugural Pelican Women’s Championship in Florida.
The following 28 players gained entry via the Rolex Rankings: Hae Ran Ryu, Sophia Popov, Ayaka Furue, Hyun Kyung Park, Yuka Saso, Sakura Koiwai, Na Rin An, Song Yi Ahn, Erika Hara, Yuna Nishimura, Ji Hyun Kim, Anne van Dam, Alena Sharp, Min Sun5 Kim, Lala Anai, Eri Okayama, Cristie Kerr, Ga Young Lee, Ah-Reum Hwang, Pornanong Phatlum, Jun Min Lee, Ji Hun Oh, Emily Kristine Pedersen, Mi Jeong Jeon, Maria Fernanda Torres, Bo Ah Kim, Teresa Lu and Wei-Ling Hsu.
Popov, currently No. 28 in the world, will make her second USWO start in Houston. Kerr, the 2007 USWO champion at Pine Needles, has now qualified for her 22nd consecutive Women’s Open.
The list of the 156 golfers who are in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open field (as of Tuesday, Nov. 17):
During the LPGA break due to the coronavirus pandemic, Paula Creamer has planted a garden and she’s determined to make it successful.
The “Stuck at Home With” series profiles players, caddies and staff in the women’s game who are making the most of an unprecedented break in tour life due to the coronavirus pandemic. New stories will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday.
Paula Creamer went over to help her fiance’s father put down mulch one day, thinking it would be a nice workout, and something surprising happened: She actually enjoyed it.
The exercise reminded Creamer of the garden she and her father maintained growing up in Pleasanton, California. It wasn’t long before she and Shane Kennedy, a retired baseball player, were taking measurements to build their own raised garden bed from scratch.
The man who sold them the plants was giving replacement advice before they’d put the first shovel in the ground. He obviously didn’t know that professional athletes have high expectations – about everything.
“Failure is not in my vocabulary,” said Creamer. “We are not letting this die.”
Well, they haven’t gotten that far in the plans yet. But for now, the 33-year-old has embraced the extended break. Creamer’s original plans had her returning to the LPGA around late April, early May after rehabbing her wrist. She hasn’t competed on tour since October of last year and remains conservative in her practice.
But because she’s had extra time at home without being in a cast, she’s been able to focus on the weak areas in her body more than ever. She’s hoping that comes in handy during what should be a packed second half of the year. The first event on the LPGA’s revised schedule is the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, a team event in Midland, Michigan, held July 15-18.
“The most (weeks) I’ve ever done in a row is 11,” she said. “I was a young pup then, so that’s not happening. I think four or five is my max.”
These next couple of months will be different for Creamer mentally too because it’s a forced break that has nothing to do with injury. There’s something refreshing and peaceful about that.
Most evenings Creamer and her fiancé load up the dogs in their boat and head out for a sunset cruise around Lake Butler. Creamer has lived in Windermere’s tony Isleworth community since 2007, and said that for the first decade, she went on the lake a total of three to four times.
“I know what I like now,” she said. “I know I want to be on the water. I know I want to see sunsets. I didn’t really realize how special they were.”
After renovating her stunning 11,100-square foot Isleworth mansion, Creamer put it on the market earlier this spring. She took it down for a bit after the pandemic hit, but recently put it back up for $6,350,000. Her favorite spot is the kitchen, though the couple spend most of their time on the bottom floor, where they’ve just finished work on the simulator hitting room. There’s a pool table, ping pong table and gym on that floor, too.
In the kitchen, Creamer has been making tons of fish tacos, frittatas and whatever she can whip up in her new air fryer. Her current obsession is eggplant dip, and she now dreams of adding avocado and lemon trees to her next piece of property. Creamer isn’t sure where they’ll move to next but said it won’t be far.
Any vices while on lockdown?
“The other day I made apple fritters and they didn’t turn out,” she said, “and I wanted to make them again.”
A double batch of baked goods seems to be the worst of it. To counter, they eat a lot of salad, she said, and order takeout from Bonsai Sushi.
She’s listening to podcasts for the first time, mostly focusing on the subjects of history and self-growth. She’s about to dig into Sue Monk Kidd’s book “The Secret Life of Bees.”
Creamer looks at the ever-changing LPGA schedule as one big rain delay, where officials say they’ll give another update in an hour.
While she doesn’t go into her closet to pack these days, there are daily reminders of her triumphs. Creamer has the Sunday shirts from each of her 10 LPGA victories and her Solheim singles matches hanging in her closet. She recently pulled out the pink one she wore on Sunday at Oakmont when she won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open.
Last month she taped a look-back interview with the USGA about the 10-year anniversary of her biggest victory. She could hear the crowd cheering in the background when they played several clips.
“It was like it just happened,” she said. “I had goosebumps again.”
She then went back to tending her garden, a different kind of challenge that yields a new kind of joy.
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