CAVALLERI COMES IN CLUTCH TO SLIDE INTO LEADER SPOT
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — With a different day brings better weather, and that was very good news on Saturday at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship.. The weather wasn’t the most important factor of the day though, but rather who could sink the final putt to take over first place through two rounds of play.
Janie Jackson held the lead at 7-under prior to her 2:25 p.m. second-round tee time on Saturday, but her lead didn’t last for long. There was a 6-way tie for first place heading into the latter portion of the afternoon. Between Jackson, Karolina Vlckova, Linnea Johansson, Casey Danielson, Kendall Dye, and Maia Schechter, nobody could pull away to take over solo possession of the lead.
Schechter was playing lights out, marking five total birdies on the day, compared to a lone bogey on her card. However, it was experience over tenacity that changed the leaderboard late.
Former LPGA Tour player Silvia Cavalleri decided it was her time to shine.
Cavalleri got off to quite the rough start, starting her day with back-to-back bogeys in her first two holes. She quickly bounced back from her issues, and birdied the third hole.On the 15th hole, she tallied her third birdie of the day, which put her in a tie for first at 7-unde-parr. Her fourth birdie of the day came at just the right time on hole No. 17, as it pushed her into the sole possession of first place at 8-under-par.
With the lead in her hands, Cavalleri needed to par the 18th to maintain sole possession of the lead heading into Sunday’s final round. She was lyingtwo on the fringe in front of the green, and needed to two-putt to finish with the lead. With her short game consistently having her back all day long, she decides to putt from nearly 25 feet away, and ended up just about a foot short of the hole.
Cavelleri tapped in to preserve the lead, and will head into the final day of competition one stroke ahead of the field.
WORKING HARD TO GET AHEAD
Min-G Kim’s work ethic isn’t meant to impress others despite the strong levels of dedication she has toward the game of golf. In fact, she’s been a hard worker all her life.
“I’ve become so accustomed to the way I get things done these days,” said Kim. “One of the reasons I come in so early and leave so late is that I like to give myself a break when it’s hot out. If I have a mid-afternoon tee time, I won’t hit balls or practice an hour before, I just like to relax or just spend some time cooling down in the locker room.”
Kim posted a Epson Tour career-best score during the opening round of the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship of 6under 66, but with the amount of focus she brings to her golf game, she had no idea just how well she was playing during her round.
“I didn’t even know how well I was playing till I added up my scorecard at the end, and that’s when I felt pretty good,” said Kim. “I was somewhat astounded that I shot what I did, but I really didn’t feel like I was making every single putt that I needed to make.”
While her short game seemed to be working for her all afternoon, her drives didn’t match up with her lights-out putting.
“I was able to avoid mistakes after a bad drive and I was able to save myself throughout the round,” said Kim. “I’ve been working on my putting for so long; I didn’t miss any short putts or miss any par putts.”
While Kim had a personal-best round on Friday to get the tournament started, she might have left her excellent putting skills in the locker room. She got off to a bumpy start to the second round on Saturday morning with a bogey on the first hole, and had another bogey on nine, finishing 2-over on the front. After a couple of pars, Kim recorded her third bogey of the day on 13, but finished strong with a birdie on 17.
“Unfortunately today, I did the exact opposite of what I wanted to accomplish on each hole,” said Kim. “I managed to make no mistakes yesterday, maybe I got a little bit lucky.”
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