Pia Babnik on Friday on the fifteenth gap at Le Golf Nationwide.
Golf Channel
Pia Babnik had simply made Le Golf Nationwide as straightforward to digest as a croissant, and a reporter was curious Thursday after her Olympics second-round 66. “How have you ever been in a position to mentally preserve your self in it,” they puzzled, “figuring out that should you hit within the tough or one thing like that, it might penalize you fairly closely?”
Right here was her response:
“I used to be extra centered on making an attempt to hit the golf green. It’s positively not straightforward. You simply must preserve the ball on the golf green, after which yeah, it’s rather a lot simpler, but additionally some second pictures are fairly robust. And yeah, I managed as we speak to beat these items.”
Friday, nevertheless, at a most unlucky time, Babnik didn’t.
Throughout the Olympics third spherical, on the 397-yard, par-4 fifteenth gap, she missed the golf green off the tee, had a “fairly robust” second swing — a shank, the truth is — and was penalized “fairly closely.” Babnik began the opening two again of the lead, and, following a quadruple-bogey eight on it, she’ll begin Saturday’s last spherical seven again of leaders Morgane Metraux and Lydia Ko.
Forward of the fifteenth, she’d been surging, after bogeys on the first and third holes. She birdied the par-4 sixth on a 12-footer. She birdied the par-5 ninth after hitting her third shot to three toes. She birdied the par-3 eleventh after rolling in an 11-footer. However catastrophe quickly adopted.
On the fifteenth, so as, Babnik:
— Discovered the water to the best on the dogleg proper together with her tee shot.
— Took a drop that put her 143 yards out. Right here, Golf Channel cameras caught as much as her. She swung, and she or he shanked. The ball rocketed proper and about 25 yards wanting the inexperienced. Babnik murmured. She walked again to her caddie, masking her mouth together with her proper hand en route. At her bag, she gently pounded her iron into the bottom, earlier than being handed a driver from her looper in preparation for a second penalty drop. On Golf Channel, announcer Tom Abbott stated this: “Oh expensive. Oh, it’s a shank. The water makes these gamers do foolish issues. Superb, isn’t it?”
— Hit her fifth shot left of the inexperienced.
— Hit her sixth shot to eight toes.
— Missed that.
— Made a 20-incher for the quadruple bogey.
It’s right here, although, the place we’ll attempt to spin issues positively.
She wrote down the proper quote. Now she’s main the Olympics
Notably, the week’s been good for the 20-year-old from Slovakia who’s gained twice on the Women European Tour. She stated she’s starting to discover a groove with a reworked swing; beforehand “it was all over.” She stated she’s loved herself a lot that she might play in Video games-like atmospheres each week. She’s seen different athletes, too. One stood out.
“In all probability one of the best half was after Novak Djokovic gained the medal,” Babnik stated, “he got here to the Village and he was within the Serbian home, and we drove by they usually have been simply dancing, screaming and it was simply so enjoyable to observe.”
Can she bounce again? Can she medal? In fact. She’s additionally 5 again of the group tied for third.
The thought will likely be to simply discover the golf green. To simply navigate these second pictures.
Identical to she stated.
