Madelene Sagstrom ended the first round of the JM Eagle LA Championship with her first – ever – tournament ace. The recent winner of the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas opened the LA Championship with a 7-under 65. The hole-in-one occurred on the par-3 ninth from 120 yards.
“It got really cold our last three holes so I was – I have the shot that I play, we call it a 2-2-2, and it’s like a little lower wind shot,” said Sagstrom.
“I’m like, you know, I don’t think I can reach with my pitching wedge right now. Let’s hit a little 2-2-2-9. It was perfect. I hit it really well. It would’ve been good anyway, but I was like, nope, it went in, and I was like, oh, did that just happen?”
And the celebration?
“I wish I was that athletic but I’m not,” she said. “Well, I think I threw my hands up in the air and I was very excited. No, I don’t know. It’s weird because I actually got to see it. That’s the best part. You get to see it go in.”
While her driver isn’t as dialed in as she’d like, Sagstrom said momentum on the greens has carried over from Vegas. She’s also trying to carry on a “match play mentality” of letting go of bad shots and moving on quickly.
Sagstrom trails former AIG Women’s British Open champion Ashleigh Buhai, who shot 63, by two strokes and sits tied with three-time major winner In Gee Chun. World No. 1 Nelly Korda trails by four.
Amateur Asterisk Talley, 16, opened with a 69 at El Caballero Country Club, where she was a finalist at the U.S. Girls’ Junior last summer.
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