Paula Reto Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Amundi Evian Championship Day 1 takeaways: A leader with no luggage, and a local trying not to care

Golf Digest Middle East — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 07:12:15 +0000

Paula Reto grabbed the opening-round lead at the Amundi Evian Championship with a seven-under 64. Stuart Franklin

Soaking in the picturesque views of glistening Lake Geneva from the hillside Evian Resort Golf Club during the Amundi Evian Championship never gets old. Paula Reto, a 33-year-old making her fifth career Evian start, carded a seven-under-par 64 to claim a two-stroke lead with an eye toward the serene water.

“I had so much fun,” Reto said. “This golf course is so fun, and the views and everything, it’s just awesome to be here.”

As the South African who won the 2022 CP Women’s Open last August for her maiden LPGA title sits atop the leaderboard, a number of past tour winners are lurking after Day 1. New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, the 2015 Evian champ, and France’s Celine Boutier, a three-time LPGA winner, are two behind. Major champions Eun-Hee Ji and Yuka Saso are three back. The previous two Evian winners, Minjee Lee and Brooke Henderson, trail Reto by five strokes.

With drama already starting to bubble, here are our three takeaways from the first round of the Amundi Evian Championship.

Alison Lee. Stuart Franklin

Beware the golfer missing her luggage

Alison Lee might be going through a nightmare travel week, but it didn’t stop her from getting into contention with a five-under 66 on Thursday. That score matched a her career-best major round, coming previously at the Evian in 2015. Lee tweeted on Tuesday that her luggage was stuck in Detroit for 40 hours and shared that she is still waiting for her clothes to arrive after her first round.

“I’m going to go track my suitcase [this afternoon] and make sure everything is there,” Lee said. “Maybe take a little nap. I slept through the night last night so I might not have to do that. But I’m going to send Delta a pretty nasty email.”

In Evian and my suitcase has been stuck in DTW for 40 hours and counting. Have been on the phone with @delta countless times but have not been able to speak to someone in Detroit directly. Pls pls help. pic.twitter.com/9YaeEAKkLh

— Alison Lee (@alisonlee) July 25, 2023

Lee, 28, credited her success at the Evian Resort to increased confidence on the greens. After last month’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, where she finished T-52, her team noticed she was 15th on tour in strokes gained/tee to green but struggled with her flat stick. The American is 131st on tour in putting average this season. Lee hired a putting coach before the US Women’s Open, focusing on her mental approach over putts, speed and feel.

Despite dealing with nerves from seeing her name near the top of the leaderboard, Lee delivered with 25 putts and seven birdies on Thursday, matching her season’s best putting performance. “Making a few good putts gave me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the round,” Lee said. “Every time I had a birdie chance, I really looked at it as if I can make this. That’s what I said to myself.”

Celine Boutier. Stuart Franklin

The local who’s taking a foreign approach

Celine Boutier’s five-under 66 is the best score in the first round by three strokes for the Frenchwoman at the Evian in seven career starts. Boutier sees the most significant difference this time around coming not from any technical change she made with her game but rather a mental one. Boutier purposely altered her mindset for her homeland’s major this time, insisting she look at it as just another week rather than giving it more weight.

“You play mind games with yourself,” Boutier said. “You just tell yourself you’re not at home.”

The new, more relaxed approach has Boutier sitting T-2, a jump compared to her past performances. In Boutier’s six previously Evian starts, her best finish is T-29, done in 2014 and 2021. The Evian is the only major Boutier has not had a top-10 finish in her seven-year LPGA career.

Expectations for Boutier, 29, increased this year when she became the most successful French player in LPGA history with her third career victory in March at the Drive On Championship. She delivered with a consistent Thursday, hitting 15 greens in regulation and carding only one bogey to begin the championship.

There are, however, benefits to playing in a home major. Boutier felt the support of the local fans in Evian-Les-Bains, France, enjoying the additional cheering compared to a typical week on the LPGA. Boutier’s family is watching this week, with her twin sister Christie attending for just the second time.

“I definitely feel like I haven’t performed my best in the past at this tournament, so I’m just really eager to like try to change that this year,” Boutier said.

Lydia Ko. Stuart Franklin

Star turns in her best round of 2023

When you’re the No. 3 player in the Rolex Women’s World Ranking, a bogey-free five-under 66 shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise. The same holds true if you’ve had seven top-10s in nine starts at the Evian. Yet Lydia Ko’s year has been anything but predictable, as she’s posted just one top-10 (back in February) after being the LPGA’s Player of the Year in 2022.

Returning to a familiar course let Ko lean on positive thoughts, which translated into Ko shooting her lowest score of the year and her first major round in the 60s.

“I think the longer you play at a golf course you realise you make so many different memories, whether it’s good or bad, and I think I try and draw on the good memories,” Ko said.

Ko credited numerous par saves, such as a 10-footer on the 17th, to maintain her momentum. But it wasn’t with her usual flat stick, as to her husband’s surprise, Ko took her old Scotty Cameron putter out before the US Women’s Open.

Ko’s renowned short game remains immaculate, as she posted a clean card despite only hitting 11 greens in regulation and six of 13 fairways. The performance puts her in contention for her third major title, which in turn would lock up the last two points she needs to earn her spot in the LPGA’s Hall of Fame.

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After 157 starts, Paula Reto finally collects her first LPGA victory

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 06:21:30 +0000

By Keely Levins
Paula Reto had nothing to lose in Canada as she started the final round of the CP Women’s Open one shot behind the leaders. The 32-year-old from South Africa liked that she didn’t have the lead; it let her put her foot on the gas from the start. She stormed out with a five-under front nine. Though her back nine was birdie-free, it was just enough to earn her first LPGA Tour win by shooting 67.

It didn’t come a moment too soon. This was Reto’s 157th LPGA start. Her final tally of 19-under was one shot better than Hye-Jin Choi and Nelly Korda.

As Reto cooled on the back nine, playing it in one-over, Korda heated up. After turning at even, the former World No. 1 went par-birdie-eagle on the next three holes. She bounced back from a bogey on 14 with back-to-back birdies. Standing on the 18th tee, she was one shot back with the opportunity to reach the par 5 in two at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club. But her approach landed in a greenside bunker, leaving her with a long bunker shot that came up far too short to be a reasonable birdie chance. She gave it a good run but finished with par.

Korda was projected to regain her World No. 1 ranking with a win, which would have been her first on the LPGA Tour in 2022. But after a season where she was out for the spring with a blood clot in her arm, she maintained a level head.

“I think I had a decent shot at it,” Korda said. “I played good golf, and honestly, I’m just grateful that I am playing golf and I’m out here, and I’m enjoying every second of it.”

Korda’s speaking from the experience of winning nine times — including her most recent on the Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Team Series in Spain. As for Reto, it was her first.

Reto grew up in South Africa and her family moved to Florida when she was a teenager. She was an athlete, but it took her a while to find golf. After a bad field-hockey injury, Reto’s father encouraged her to try golf when she was 15. Her dad brought her to a tournament to show her what golf was like.

“My dad just took me to watch and I was like, ‘That’s what I want to be,’” Reto said.

Reto went on to play college golf at Purdue and was on the team that won the 2010 NCAA Championship. In 2013, she went to LPGA Q-School and got her card on her first attempt. Nine years later, she’s a winner on the tour.

In part, she has a lost bag to thank for her Canadian breakthrough.

The stories of lost golf clubs this season are many, Reto is just one of so many players to have arrived at their destination without their clubs. She lost hers in Ireland and it took a full week to get them back.

“I was home and I was trying to practise, so I actually brought out an older putter that I had,” Reto said. “This putter is a little bit more upright so my eyes are a bit more over the ball, and I did a couple changes where my eyes are a bit more over the ball. I think that just makes a difference. I was able to see my lines a bit better because my eyesight was a bit off. Yeah, that forced me to use that putter, which I’m really happy I did. Maybe there is a reason for the lost bags.”

All smiles after her win, Reto joins Sally Little (15 wins), Ashleigh Buhai (one) and Lee-Anne Pace (one) as women from South Africa to win on the LPGA.

“I’m really so excited,” Reto said. “I know I’m going to celebrate and everything will kick in, but I’m really happy and it’s been such a long time. I was like, I hope one day I’ll win. But it came true.”

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WATCH: Highlights of the LPGA CP Women’s Open

Matt Smith — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 06:05:59 +0000

By Matt Smith
South African Paula Reto had a day to remember as she set a number of records during the the first round of the CP Women’s Open. The 32-year-old shot a bogey-free 9-under 62 at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club to lead South Korea’s Narin An by two strokes.

Her course-record bested the 63 by Brooke Henderson in 2017. The 62, the low round of her LPGA Tour career by two strokes, ties the low round overall of the 2022 LPGA Tour season and ties the lowest round in CP Women’s Open history.

Watch the highlights here:

[parone_video_player campaign=”423″ defaultlang=”en” feed=”51-all-videos”/]

“Usually when I make two, three birdies I feel like it’s going to be a good day whether I make a few more or not. Usually under par is always good. But to go low is always fun. And to have no bogeys,” said Reto, who has represented South Africa at the Olympics. “I saved two really good par saves, which was nice. So that kind of kept the momentum going for a low round.”

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