Wichanee Meechai would not suppose she’s assured. She’s main the U.S. Open anyway.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
LANCASTER, Pa. — Saturday might have gone very in another way for Wichanee Meechai.
Such is golf. Miss a putt right here, get a nasty bounce there. Anybody who has performed golf is aware of how shortly some dangerous luck can flip an 89 right into a 94, a 79 into an 84, a 69 right into a 74.
The latter is what might have occurred to Meechai and maybe it’s what was anticipated. She almost admitted as such. The 31-year-old from Thailand is within the midst of her ninth LPGA season, however nonetheless may not have been a reputation even a number of the most avid girls’s golf followers have been aware of earlier than this week. She’d by no means completed higher than T5 on the LPGA Tour and hadn’t received anyplace on the earth since 2015.
If Meechai had light from rivalry Saturday, falling sufferer to a brutal Lancaster Nation Membership setup after torching it the primary two days with rounds of 69 and 67 to take the lead, nobody would have batted an eye fixed.
However as an alternative, she battled and she or he’ll enter the ultimate spherical of the U.S. Girls’s Open tied for the lead with Minjee Lee and Andrea Lee at 5 beneath.
It wasn’t fairly at occasions — there have been many one-handed finishes and lengthy seems for par — however by making 5 par putts from outdoors 4 toes, she fairly actually turned 74 into 69.
Sounds quite a bit like a really assured participant, however that’s not Wichanee Meechai, at the very least in line with Wichanee Meechai.
“I’m the one who has no confidence in any respect,” she mentioned in a really candid press convention Friday afternoon. “I by no means suppose that I’m ok. I by no means suppose that I can win tournaments on the LPGA, however … if I can keep in my place and I simply maintain working onerous as I can … I believe it’s going to point out up in the future.”
Clearly, the onerous work has proven up this week as Meechai and Minjee Lee are the one two golfers within the subject to interrupt 70 each day this week.
However even after posting the 69 that gave her a share of the lead going into Sunday at a significant, she doubled down on her supposed insecurity.
“To be trustworthy, yesterday I thought of lacking the minimize as a result of I was on this place,” Meechai mentioned. “Like the primary day I play fairly good, after which the second day I simply [shoot] like 80s and missed the minimize by one. I cried quite a bit. I by no means suppose that I’m going to be on the leaderboard or one thing like that. Nevertheless it’s nice.”
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But, on Saturday, a assured and resilient participant plodded her method round Lancaster Nation Membership.
She birdied the primary gap, drilling a putt from 22 toes proper within the heart of the cup with good pace, not even touching the again of the outlet. After 5 straight pars, she hit it into the center of the inexperienced on the par-5 seventh in two and two-putted to get to 6 beneath for the event.
Then the spherical might have gotten away from her. She hit it lengthy of the tenth inexperienced and made bogey. She did the identical on the tough par-3 twelfth, leaving her second shot from simply off the inexperienced 10 toes quick, above the outlet.
As her enjoying companion, Andrea Lee, stroked her birdie putt, Meechai stood within the heart of the inexperienced and regarded on, away from the outlet, away from the water guarding the inexperienced, away from the lots of of followers who had flocked to comply with the ultimate pairing on a U.S. Open transferring day.
She was alone.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
In that point, she discovered her focus.
“I simply really feel like, okay, it’s going to be very downhill, and also you simply give the break and putt it,” Meechai mentioned. “Simply deal with it, and I made it.”
Her focus ended up being precisely what propelled her to play her final six holes in even par and maintain her place atop the leaderboard.
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“I believe my deal with the sport was fairly good right now,” she mentioned. “I hit lots of dangerous pictures, however, you understand, like I don’t have any dangerous ideas about my swing or in regards to the consequence in any respect. I’m simply staying in my zone and making an attempt to maintain going after which be affected person.”
Her endurance was examined all day Saturday, particularly when her group was placed on the clock after the twelfth gap, however she responded every time she needed to.
She drove it in jail on 4 and 16, however got here again with magical restoration pictures each occasions. That took confidence.
She ran off to the thirteenth tee when her group was placed on the clock. She regarded assured.
She responded to a bogey on 14 by lacing a tee shot and throwing a dart for an strategy at 15 for a birdie. It was a assured stroke.
Meechai could not suppose she’s assured, nevertheless it’s onerous to steer the U.S. Open if you happen to’re not. Ought to she grow to be the primary qualifier since Birdie Kim in 2005 to win the U.S. Girls’s Open, she most likely received’t lack confidence for much longer.
