Madelene Sagstrom has a sense of comfort this week in San Martin, Calif. Her longtime coach flew from Sweden to be with her at the U.S. Women’s Open.
“It means a lot that he made the trip, I don’t get to see him often,” said Sagstrom after a 9-hole practice round on Tuesday at CordeValle. “He was my high school coach eight years back and it is always fun when he comes out. It’s his first U.S. Open and it is just a good experience to have him and Josh (caddy) out here.”
Sagstrom, who has two Epson Tour wins and leads the Volvik Race for the Card money list, said the course is in pristine condition.
“It is so nice to have really, really pretty fairways,” said the bubbly Sagstrom. “It is a great reward to be here and I know I deserve to be here right now. Everybody is so nice and I feel really welcome so it has been great.”
Sagstrom finished in a tie for second at the Island Resort Championship and took the Tullymore Classic off to spend time in Baton Rouge preparing for her first LPGA sanctioned event. She heads into the major with confidence.
“I have a lot of confidence, especially in my ability to play well during a long stretch of tournaments,” said Sagstrom. “I know that my game has been in a really good place and I’m really excited to go out and test it here because I know there will be different conditions than I am used to. It is a good test and a good experience.”
Sagstrom played 18 holes on Monday, nine holes on Tuesday and said she expects to play nine on Wednesday before her 12:57 p.m. tee time off the tenth on Thursday.
Sagstrom currently ranks 281 in the world according to the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Prior to the start of the year, she was ranked outside the top 1,000 in the world. With a strong performance at the U.S. Women’s Open, she has a chance to move inside the top 200.
)
)
)
)
