By Mark Lamport-Stokes
RANCHO MIRAGE, California, March 30 (Reuters) – Totally
unflappable as she claimed her first LPGA title on Sunday,
Germany’s Sandra Gal plans to draw on the same ice-cool manner
at this week’s Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Gal had been expected to wilt under pressure in the final
round of the Kia Classic but she held her nerve to come from
one shot behind and pip South Korean world number two Shin
Ji-yai by a stroke.
“You would think in that moment that maybe you would get
overwhelmed by the situation,” Gal, 25, told reporters at
Mission Hills Country Club on Wednesday. “But I didn’t on
Sunday.
“Hopefully that is something that I can take with me, just
to keep that calmness.”
A stroke behind eight-times LPGA winner Shin going into the
final round at the Pacific Palms Resort in Industry Hills, Gal
sealed victory in champion fashion, hitting a wedge from 83
yards to just two feet for a tap-in birdie.
Yet throughout that pressure-filled round, she felt exactly
as she usually does when competing on the LPGA Tour.
“It’s funny,” the six-foot (1.83 metres) Gal said. “On
Sunday when I was on (hole) 17 or 16 and I was in the lead or
shared with the lead, I was like: ‘Well, this is how it
feels.’
“You’re still on the golf course, you’re still playing the
shots, you have the ball there, your clubs and your caddie. At
the end of the day, it’s not different from anything else.
“So I’m just going to try and carry the same feeling on to
this week.”
Gal, who began playing golf at the age of six, was still on
a psychological high following her breakthrough LPGA victory.
“It’s an awesome feeling to win for the first time,” she
said. “It’s been crazy the last couple of days but I’m just
kind of soaking it all in and really enjoying the feeling.
“All my friends have congratulated me, my mailbox has been
full and my phone is constantly ringing. It’s a good thing.
Wherever I go, people want autographs and congratulate me. I’m
just very thankful for that.”
Gal has competed only twice at the Kraft Nabisco
Championship, the first women’s major of the season—missing
the cut in 2009 and tying for 34th last year.
“It is a major and everything is bigger here but I really
love this course,” the world number 44 said.
(Editing by Frank Pingue; To query or comment on this story
email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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Golf-Gal aims to repeat ice-cool winning recipe at Mission Hills (Reuters)