Pia Babnik on Friday on the fifteenth gap at Le Golf National.
Golf Channel
Pia Babnik had simply made Le Golf National as straightforward to digest as a croissant, and a reporter was curious Thursday after her Olympics second-round 66. “How have you been able to mentally keep yourself in it,” they puzzled, “knowing that if you hit in the rough or something like that, it could penalize you pretty heavily?”
Here was her response:
“I was more focused on trying to hit the fairway. It’s definitely not easy. You just have to keep the ball on the fairway, and then yeah, it’s a lot easier, but also some second shots are pretty tough. And yeah, I managed today to overcome these things.”
Friday, nevertheless, at a most unlucky time, Babnik didn’t.
During the Olympics third spherical, on the 397-yard, par-4 fifteenth gap, she missed the green off the tee, had a “pretty tough” second swing — a shank, in truth — and was penalized “pretty heavily.” 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.
Ahead 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 ft. She birdied the par-3 eleventh after rolling in an 11-footer. But catastrophe quickly adopted.
On the fifteenth, so as, Babnik:
— Found the water to the proper on the dogleg proper along with her tee shot.
— Took a drop that put her 143 yards out. Here, Golf Channel cameras caught as much as her. She swung, and she or he shanked. The ball rocketed proper and about 25 yards in need of the inexperienced. Babnik murmured. She walked again to her caddie, protecting her mouth along 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 mentioned this: “Oh dear. Oh, it’s a shank. The water makes these players do silly things. Amazing, isn’t it?”
— Hit her fifth shot left of the inexperienced.
— Hit her sixth shot to eight ft.
— 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
Dylan Dethier
Notably, the week’s been good for the 20-year-old from Slovakia who’s gained twice on the Ladies European Tour. She mentioned she’s starting to discover a groove with a reworked swing; beforehand “it was all over the place.” She mentioned she’s loved herself a lot that she may play in Games-like atmospheres each week. She’s seen different athletes, too. One stood out.
“Probably the best part was after Novak Djokovic won the medal,” Babnik mentioned, “he came to the Village and he was in the Serbian house, and we drove by and they were just dancing, screaming and it was just so fun to watch.”
Can she bounce again? Can she medal? Of course. She’s additionally 5 again of the group tied for third.
The thought will probably be to only discover the green. To simply navigate these second pictures.
Just like she mentioned.
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