Paula Creamer was once a young, rising star on the LPGA Tour.
When Creamer last topped a major leaderboard, she won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open by four strokes at age 23.
She won at The Evian as a teenager, before it became a major.
Somewhere along the way, life got in the way. Creamer played well, then not so well. She was married, then divorced. Now at age 32, she trying to make a comeback and she looked pretty darn good Thursday in France as the temperatures pushed into the high 90s during the first round of the LPGA’s fourth major — The Evian Championship.
Creamer, who used to be known as The Pink Panther, put seven birdies on her card and took the day one lead with a 64.
She was back in her happy place.
“Coming here obviously puts a big smile on my face,” said Creamer who was the LPGA’s Rookie Of The Year in 2005. She won the Evian Masters at age 18.
At the 2017 Evian, Creamer withdrew with a wrist injury then had surgery on her left wrist. The following season she had no top-10 finishes. Today, she’s fallen to 156th in the Rolex rankings and has made just a shade north of $133,000 this season.
“It’s been crazy these last four or five years in my life,” she acknowledged. “It’s hard enough out here, then you bring your other life into the mix of things.”
Now, the 10-time winner on the LPGA tour said she feels “like mentally I’m in a very, very strong place.”
She was in a good place Thursday and her play earned her a one-shot lead over four other players including fellow American Brittany Alomare and seven-time major champion Inbee Park.
A total of 37 players broke par at the Evian Resort course during day one.
World’s No. 1 Sung Hyun Park was three back of the lead with 67.
Lexi Thompson, one of the pre-tournament favorites, had a miserable day. She shot her worst-ever round in this championship — a six-over par 77. Early Friday, she was on her way to missing the 36-hole cut. Thompson was one-over through 15 holes in her second round and seven over for the tournament. She finished with 72 and missed the cut by a whopping five shots.
Ireland Will Host 2026 Ryder Cup:
Stately Adare Manor in Adare, Ireland, will host to the 2026 Ryder Cup, according to Ryder Cup Europe.
The consortium that manages the matches on the European side has made that decision. It will be Ireland’s second staging of the Ryder Cup, after Europe’s 18½-9½ drubbing of the U.S. in the 2006 match at The K Club. Adare Manor, a 1995 Robert Trent Jones Sr. design in southwest Ireland, near Limerick, played host to the Irish Open in 2007 and 2008.
