It was a great day for American golf in France.
It was also a very sad day for American golf in France.
It was a sensational, ecstatic uplifting Sunday for 18-year veteran Angela Stanford.
Was also a sad, heartbreaking, soul-crushing, gut-wrenching day for Amy Olson, who was one hole short of a major breakthrough in her LPGA Tour career.
This is a tale of two Americans in France.
One is about redemption and icing on the cake after a long and productive career.
One is about the thin line between victory and defeat.
Angela Stanford came to the Evian Championship, closer to retirement than to a major win. She’ll turn 41 in a couple of months, majors rarely come at that point in one’s career, especially in women’s golf.
Yet she found herself in the hunt, she played two groups in front of the final threesome that included Olson, who had played stunningly good golf for three rounds. Stanford’s big move came when she eagled 15th hole, then hurt herself with a double-bogey at 16, then made a fist-pump birdie at 17. A par at the difficult 18th put her in the house at 12-under par. A shot shy of Olson, who stood on the 18th with a one-shot lead, preparing to pull a Pernilla Lindberg and make her first win a major.
For Olson, a 26-year-old from North Dakota who turned pro in 2013, this was deep, uncharted territory. She controlled her nerves for 71 holes. Sadly, it was a 72-hole event.
Olson’s nightmare started with a hooked drive into deep rough followed by a weak layup attempt that left her still in the deep stuff, a bit more than 130 from the hole. Her third did not fly and left her with a difficult 45-footer for par at 18. Just what you don’t want when your mind is racing and your nerves are frayed. She blew it nine feet past the cup and needed that one to force a playoff with Stanford, who was busy signing autographs for kids.
Olson’s result was too predictable. Her fifth putt was weak and missed. Double-bogey, welcome to your major nightmare.
By the time Stanford figured she had won a major, tears were flowing down her face. She was the first American to win this major, it finally happened for her after 76 previous trys.
She started the final round five behind Olson and her closing 68 tied for the best final day among the top five finishers. This one gives her an even half-dozen wins on the LPGA Tour — hardly Hall Of Fame stuff but at age 40, she finally has that great title — Major Champion.
Through her tears of joy, Stanford put it all in words:
“I’m grateful, and so happy for everybody at home, everybody that’s all cheered for me and never gave up on me,” she said, in a reference to her mother’s battle with cancer. “I mean, God is funny. He catches you off guard just when you think that maybe you’re done. It’s amazing. I mean, I don’t think — I couldn’t have asked for it any other way. It’s not my plan, so it’s pretty cool.”
Olson pretty much shook off her collapse:
I’m very pleased,” she said. “This is my best finish, I believe, in a major so that’s always a positive. Obviously, disappointed to finish the way I did, but, honestly, I did everything I could, and double bogeys happen.”
She’s only 26 and maybe has fallen into that state of mind where she believes these chances to win majors are a yearly occurrence.
She needs to take a lesson from Stanford, who lost a shot a the 2003 Women’s U.S. Open in a playoff.
“As the years go on and you have all the near misses you think, ‘Wow, am I ever going to get that close again?’’ Stanford said. “I had that moment on 16 tee today. Okay, you know, here you are again. This is as close as you’ve been in I don’t know how long. So now what? We saw what happened.”
Stanford also thought back to her near-miss in 2003:
“I didn’t know at the time how close I was,” she reflected of that playoff loss 15 years ago. “It was only my third year and I had no idea what I was doing, to be perfectly honest.”
She thought there would be another chance around the corner and “around the corner” took a decade and a half.
Amy Olson might want to remember that.
These majors are tough to win.
Just ask Angela Stanford.
