Tag: Pauline Roussin-Bouchard

LPGA Q-Series: Breaking down the final week of golf’s biggest grind

“So we’re all here for different reasons, some good and some not good.”

Sarah Jane Smith finds herself back at LPGA Qualifying School for the first time in 13 years. The anticipation of coming back started to build in July for the Aussie mom and by the time the Pelican Women’s Championship had finished, Smith knew there was no getting around it.

“It was a lot,” she said, “but at the same time, I felt like a little weight came off once we got there.”

Smith is one of 74 players who made the cut to advance to the second stage of LPGA Q-Series. The top 45 players and ties will earn status for 2022. Smith ended the 2021 season No. 151 on the CME points list and 149th on the money list.

“I feel like it was always over my head,” said Smith, “and then once Tampa was finished it was like, ‘Right, this is what we’re doing. There is no ifs and buts. I’m going to Q-School. Let’s get ready.’ ”

At 37, Smith is on the veteran end of the experience scale at the RTJ’s Highland Oaks Highland & Marshwood Courses in Dothan, Alabama. Play begins on Thursday and scores from the first 72 holes of the event carry over. They’ll vie for a purse of $150,000.

France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard paces the field at 19 under.

There are seven players in the top 100 of the Rolex Rankings, including Ayaka Furue (No. 14), Atthaya Thitikul (No. 18), Hinako Shibuno (No. 38), Hye Jin Choi (No. 53) Na Rin An (No. 67), Emily K. Pedersen (No. 71), Steph Kyriacou (No. 77).

There are six amateurs, 17 Symetra Tour winners, nine LET winners, two Korea LPGA winners, three JLPGA winners, three China LPGA winner and three Solheim Cup players.

Early on in her Q-School experience, a shier Smith felt uncomfortable not knowing anyone in the field. Like she didn’t belong.

“Now having a lot of years on the LPGA, I don’t want to sound like in a bad way, but it’s girls coming out that either have little experience, or – obviously they’re amazing golfers – but girls that have struggled.

“So we’re all here for different reasons, some good and some not good. You just got to remember everyone is here for a reason and make sure you stay in your lane.”

Bianca Pagdanganan, 24, looked like she was poised to never return to Q-Series after a terrific half season in 2020. She led the tour in driving distance, made noise in her first major and advanced to the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, finishing 60th on the money list.

But none of that carried over.

LPGA Drive On Championship
Bianca Pagdanganan tees off of the sixth hole during the final round of the 2020 LPGA Drive On Championship – Reynolds Lake Oconee on October 25, 2020 in Greensboro, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images)

Pagdanganan made her first start of 2021, her real rookie season, in April at the ANA Inspiration and her final in October at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. She made only $68,215, less than half of what she earned in 2020.

Pagdanganan tried to view the opportunity of a second rookie season in a positive light, focusing on the benefits of success and experience. But the results didn’t follow.

“Obviously, I feel like this year was a little bit tougher seeing how well I played the previous year,” said Pagdanganan, who is tied for 19th entering the second week of Q-Series.

“Again, there was a lot of pressure on myself trying to force myself to play the same way, trying to be who I was last year, trying to, I don’t know, just play great golf when I shouldn’t have, you know, done that.”

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Pauline Roussin-Bouchard leads LPGA Q-Series while Haley Moore, Sierra Brooks among those who missed the cut

The top 45 players and ties earn LPGA status for 2022. The rest of the field earns Symetra status.

The final stage of LPGA qualifying has a familiar feel to it. Frenchwoman Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, winner of Stage II, is once again atop the board at the midway point of the Q-Series marathon.

Roussin-Bouchard fired a 7-under 65 on the Crossings Course Sunday to take a two-shot lead at 19 under into Week 2 on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. There are six players ranked in the top 75 of the Rolex Rankings in the Q-Series field, and four of those players are in the top 10: Hye-Jin Choi (-17), Na Rin An (-14), Atthaya Thitikul (-13) and Ayaka Furue (-11). Major winner Hinako Shibuno and two-time European Solheim Cup player Emily Kristine Pedersen are tied for 24th.

Roussin-Bouchard credits her early success to the peaceful atmosphere her team has helped her to create, calling it “pressure-less.”

“I do a lot of martial arts, boxing,” said Roussin-Bouchard, “and I went boxing before leaving because I needed to let some pressure go. It really helped because it puts me in the mood where I really want to destroy everything on my way.”

Atthaya Thitikul (Photo credit Ben Harpring/LPGA)

Aussie Stephanie Kyriacou carded the low round of the week on Sunday, a 9-under 63, on the Crossings Course with seven birdies and an eagle. Kyriacou first won on the LET as a 19-year-old amateur at the 2020 Australian Ladies Classic Bonville.

“Over the last couple days some things were working and some things weren’t,” she said, “and then today they just both were in sync.”

Currently ranked 77th in the world, Kyriacou won the 2021 Big Green Egg Open on the LET and notched a dozen top-10 finishes.

While Roussin-Bouchard and Kyriacou look ahead to the 72-hole event at Highland Oaks Golf Club in Dothan, Alabama, not everyone in the field will make the trip.

There was a cut on Sunday to the top 70 and ties and 74 players advanced. Among those not making the cut: Haley Moore, Sierra Brooks, Beth Wu, Sarah Burnham, Virginia Elena Carta and amateurs Polly Mack and Hyo Joon Jang.

LPGA veteran Mariah Stackhouse carded a fourth-round 69 to bolt up the board into the next week. England’s Meghan MacLaren’s back-to-back 68s moved her back in contention for a tour card at T-39.

The top 45 players and ties earn LPGA status for 2022. The rest of the field earns Symetra status.

Six amateurs made the cut including Arizona’s Hou sisters, who are currently tied for 29th. Yu-Sang shot 66 on Sunday to join her sister Yu-Chiang at 5 under.

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Trial and error begins as Pauline Roussin-Bouchard logs Symetra Tour top-5 in pro debut

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, formerly a top player at South Carolina, is on a fact-finding mission as she starts her professional career.

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard is big on trial runs. When she played the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last spring, the Frenchwoman showed up with Sebastian Clement, a professional caddie on the European Tour, on her bag and with a specific goal in mind for their work together.

Roussin-Bouchard said she likes to be alone on the course, but as she made the transition to professional golf, needed to get better with a voice in her ear. Clement’s has been a good one.

“The biggest part I needed to improve was working with someone on my bag,” she said that week, and he has remained by her side.

Now Roussin-Bouchard has fully transitioned, having dropped her amateur status last week as she teed it up at the Symetra Tour’s Four Winds Invitational at South Bend (Indiana) Country Club. She finished fourth, banking $9,906 in her professional debut.

The former South Carolina standout made all her own travel arrangements for the Four Winds, which is a big change from college (“It’s just playing with the team and everything is already settled and you don’t have to worry about anything,” she noted) and from competing in Europe.

“This was really my first time on my own, taking care of the flight, taking care of the rental car, because I didn’t have one at first, and just see how the girls are playing, how is the atmosphere and how I like to be organized,” she said.

Call it a fact-finding mission – and one that she plans to continue in the initial months of her professional career.

Roussin-Bouchard now has her sights set firmly on the LPGA. After the tour canceled Q-School in 2020 – effectively freezing status in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – the first stage of 2021 Q-School kicked off Thursday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, and Shadow Ridge Golf Club in Palm Desert, California, featuring a 340-woman field. That included more than 80 amateurs.

Roussin-Bouchard, however, was one of a handful of players who gained an exemption straight to the second stage of LPGA Q-School because of her season-ending top-5 position in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. She landed fifth after a sophomore season in which she won four times individually, including at the SEC Championship.

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard tied for third at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. (Michael Holahan/Augusta Chronicle)

Stanford’s Rachel Heck (the reigning NCAA champion), Arizona State’s Linn Grant, LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad and Florida State’s Beatrice Wallin also earned a pass to Stage II through that category. Add incoming Stanford freshman Rose Zhang, the top-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and Oklahoma State’s Maja Stark to the exempt list because of their position in the top 5 in the WAGR.

Only Grant, Stark and Wallin filed Q-School applications, however, and thus appear in the second-stage field.

Roussin-Bouchard was a former world No. 1 amateur, having spent 34 weeks atop the ranking from January to August 2020. Her amateur swan song came at the European Ladies’ Team Championship earlier this summer at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland, with the French National Team.

She secured a sponsor exemption into the Amundi Evian Championship, an LPGA major, through acquaintances connected with the tournament.

“They just surprised me with the invite, to be honest,” she said, explaining she needed to remain an amateur to compete that week. She remained amateur, too, through the Q-School entry deadline of Aug. 9 to stay in the amateur rankings and be sure she got her exemption.

Roussin-Bouchard finished T-38 at the Evian (which could have netted her $21,890 had she been a pro).

The second stage of LPGA Q-School will be played at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida, and begins Oct. 21. Even though she won’t compete for the Gamecocks this fall, Roussin-Bouchard will still return to her old apartment in Columbia, South Carolina, attend in-person classes toward a psychology degree and continue to practice. She also plans quick trips back to Europe to play the Didriksons Skafto Open next week and the Lacoste French Open next month. Both are Ladies European Tour events.

Initially, Roussin-Bouchard had promised South Carolina head coach Kalen Anderson that she’d return to school.

“I didn’t want her to be in any kind of bad situation, having to recruit someone at the very last minute and all that so the plan was to come back and then I just talked with her a little bit,” she said. “She asked me why aren’t you turning pro? I want what’s best for you.”

Truly, it felt like the right time.

“If I can’t get invites on the LPGA or Symetra I’m going to definitely find something elsewhere, either mini tour or LET or LET Access,” Roussin-Bouchard said. “Anything that can keep me playing to be honest.”

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South Carolina’s Moon Golf charge started early behind a Pauline Roussin-Bouchard birdie run

South Carolina’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard had five opening birdies on her way to a record 9-under 63 at the Moon Golf Invitational.

MELBOURNE, Fla. – Pauline Roussin-Bouchard birdied her first five holes to open the Moon Golf Invitational on Sunday. Live scoring didn’t immediately reflect that, but word travels fast at a college-golf tournament. Roussin-Bouchard’s name seemed to carry with the wind that whipped around the flat Florida layout, wreaking havoc on many other scorecards.

Given the kind of efficiency with which the South Carolina sophomore executed a 9-under 63 at Duran Golf Club – the lowest 18-hole score in program history – it would seem she knew where to play every shot, land every green, line up every putt. Turns out Roussin-Bouchard had only played five holes in a Saturday practice round that was eventually washed out.

South Carolina saw several holes only by golf cart.

“We still had a practice round, we didn’t play the practice round,” Roussin-Bouchard said by way of explanation. “We imagined the practice round.”

Scores: Moon Golf Invitational

Roussin-Bouchard is capable of reaching every par 5 in two at Duran, and she birdied all of them on Sunday. She missed only three greens – including one at the par-5 ninth, where she bombed her second shot over the green. The Frenchwoman, who is ranked No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, averages 275 yards off the tee.

“Without a practice round, I just told myself just get birdies on the par 5s, and then green and two-putt on par 4s,” she said. “Get your par and then next. I actually holed a couple putts.”

Roussin-Bouchard, who once fired off seven consecutive birdies to start a round, continually gave herself birdie looks on Sunday. If this act looks familiar, it’s because it got quite a bit of play in the opening round of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, when she fired a 2-under 70 at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek course in Houston and landed in a tie for 12th.

With South Carolina coach Kalen Anderson on the bag that week, Roussin-Bouchard made the cut and finished T-46.

The beauty of Roussin-Bouchard’s game is in its layers. On Sunday, Anderson was waiting for the sophomore on the tee box of Duran’s par-3 seventh – a third consecutive hole that played dead into a south wind. Roussin-Bouchard pulled a 4-iron – a lot of club for the 172-yard hole.

“It was too much if she hit it full,” Anderson said, but Roussin-Bouchard’s plan was to take some off and spin it.

“She’s that calculated that she is able to know what the spin is doing and the wind and those kind of things,” Anderson said. “It’s a total different level of a player out here.”

South Carolina women's golf
South Carolina huddles after Round 1 at the Moon Golf Invitational.

At South Carolina, Anderson and assistant coach Kevin Williams have helped Roussin-Bouchard with short game and also with how to handle emotions on the golf course. Anderson says Roussin-Bouchard isn’t just a hard worker, but an efficient one. She often plans out her own practice.

Sometimes, the challenge in coaching Roussin-Bouchard is in focusing her – preventing her from practicing too much, or from leaving a round and fitting in a workout back at the hotel.

“I’ve never, in my whole career, I’ve never seen anybody work like she does with her organization and the way she wants to prepare,” Anderson said.

Roussin-Bouchard’s 9-under 63 went a long way toward South Carolina’s 8-under total on Sunday, one that put the team two shots ahead of UCF in second. Florida State, LSU and Virginia are all tied for third at 3 under.

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It took five qualifying rounds back in Columbia, South Carolina, to set the five-player Moon Golf lineup out of the eight-woman Gamecock roster. On Sunday, Anderson also got a 2-under 70 out of Lois Kaye Go and a 1-under 71 from Ana Pelaez.

Combine the experience Roussin-Bouchard brings from the French National Team with that of fifth-year seniors Pelaez, Go and Pimnipa Panthong (a transfer from Kent State), and South Carolina looks awfully deep – and with a family-like team culture to boot.

During a global pandemic, players from all corners of the world have had to lean on each other more than ever. If there was an advantage to playing three tournaments in the fall – something few teams the SEC and Big 12 were allowed to do – it was being able to travel together and build a bond. Anderson recognized that early.

“We have a lot of depth, which is great,” Anderson said. “And it’s young depth, which is also fun.”

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The amateurs made a U.S. Women’s Open statement. Amelia Garvey is ready to ‘smash it’ again Friday

Amelia Garvey and Pauline Roussin-Bouchard were among the players to make big opening statements at the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston.

In Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Women’s Open, the amateur highlights were plenty. Then again, they were coming from 24 different directions.

Pauline Roussin-Bouchard’s near slam-dunk at the par-3 16th on the Cypress Creek course ranked highly on the list. The South Carolina player, who spent time in 2020 as the top-ranked amateur in the world, was in the second group off Cypress Creek’s No. 1 tee on Thursday morning. Her birdie at 16 was her second consecutive. It helped her put the finishing touches on a round of 1-under 71, good for a tie for 12th.

The day felt much longer than it actually was. Roussin-Bouchard, a native of France, played the golf course in her head all night. On Thursday, she played the first 10 holes without a bogey.

Consider it revenge. Roussin-Bouchard played the Evian Championship last year, another LPGA major. She opened with 87 and still has a bad taste in her mouth about it.

“I’m happy because I really played the golf I wanted to play and I had the behavior I wanted to have, so really satisfied from this round,” she said.

USWO: Leaderboard | Photos | TV info

Roussin-Bouchard is No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking – a position she gained on the strength of victories at the 2019 Portuguese Ladies Amateur and Italian Ladies Amateur – and it got her into this championship. The USGA selected the top 20 players in that ranking to compete at Champions

Ranking also would have also easily gotten her into the U.S. Women’s Amateur, but four months ago, Roussin-Bouchard was still at home in France. With quarantines still a reality for international travelers, she ended up remaining in Europe until the start of the college season.

Roussin-Bouchard is playing this week with her college golf coach Kalen Anderson on the bag. The two are keeping the routine they’d usually go through in a college tournament, Roussin-Bouchard said.

Anderson is one of a handful of college coaches with a caddie bib in Houston this week. Georgia head coach Josh Brewer is carrying Bulldog sophomore Caterina Don’s (77, T-126) bag and USC head coach Justin Silverstein is on the bag for 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur champ Gabriela Ruffels (71, T-25). Texas assistant Kate Golden is caddying for Kaitlyn Papp (71, T-25)

Six of the 24 amateurs are at par or better. Arizona State’s Linn Grant, with a 2-under 69 at Cypress Creek, is in the best shape at T-6 on the leaderboard. That’s the same number she fired to open the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, her only other U.S. Women’s Open start.

Ruffels, of Australia, is one of three USC players in the field. Teammate Amelia Garvey, a New Zealander, fired a 1-under 70 at Cypress Creek and is T-12. After a birdie on her first hole, it went through Garvey’s mind that she might be the early leader at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Not a bad thought process for her first major.

In 2015, Garvey became the second-youngest player, behind Lydia Ko, to win a pro event in New Zealand. Early week at Champions, Garvey played with Ko. The LPGA veteran raved about the state of Garvey’s game since the two saw each other three years ago – another confidence boost.

“Actually I said to my caddie when we were walking off the green, I actually thought to myself this morning, I have the game to win this thing,” Garvey said, “and then coming down 18, which was my ninth hole today, it was nice to see Garvey up on the leaderboard.”

Second-round tee times were moved up an hour and half because of expected weather on Friday afternoon, so there won’t be much time for Garvey to think overnight.

“Refocus, I guess,” she said of facing Champions’ Jackrabbit golf course in the next round, “set some new goals and go out there tomorrow and smash it.”

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