This week, the LPGA Tour is teeing it up in Mexico for the first time since 2017, and one player who is particularly excited to be in the Mexico Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba field is 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur runner-up Maria Fassi.
“Very happy to be playing at home this week,” she said ahead of the tournament’s start. “First time in Mexico as a professional, so it’s a very, very special week for me.”
Fassi said she expected a number of family members and friends to be onsite to watch her play this week — several of whom will be watching her compete for the first time. But after a first-round 75 on Thursday, Fassi’s prospects of making the weekend seemed in doubt.
But on Friday, with the cut looming, Fassi remained steady, balancing her bogeys with birdies to arrive at the 17th tee at even par for the day, three over overall, and one shot ahead of the cutline. Then — some bad luck. Fassi’s tee shot found a divot, resulting in an ill-timed bogey. Fassi dropped to four over overall — right on the cutline — with only the par-5 18th hole remaining. Fassi found the green in regulation, and had two putts to stay on the right side of the cut.
Maria Fassi explains each step of her green-reading strategy
It was then that Fassi said she channeled some putting advice she had solicited the week before from a quartet of LPGA legends. After missing a must-make putt on the final hole of her U.S. Women’s Open qualifier last week to miss a guaranteed spot in the major, Fassi reached out to Annika Sorenstam, Stacy Lewis, Lorena Ochoa and Angela Stanford via text, asking, “You’ve had to make a lot of putts in your lifetime. What do you do differently?”
Fassi received responses from each player, and while she didn’t disclose the specifics of what they said, Fassi drained her birdie putt on 18 at El Camaleon on Friday, beating the cut by by one and punching her ticket to the weekend of play, making her the only Mexican player of the eight in the field to do so.
“Closing with that birdie in front of the crowds, it was, yeah, very emotional and special for me,” Fassi said. “At the Open qualifier last week I had a similar one on the last hole; missed it,” she said. “So I had texted Annika, Angela Stanford and Lorena and Stacy Lewis, I asked them, hey, you guys have had to make a lot of putts in your lifetime. What do you do differently?
“They each gave me their opinion and perspective on things. I feel like I just put all their pieces of advice in a blender and executed properly on 18, so I’m very happy that I have all four of them in my corner. I respect them as people, as golfers obviously. Yeah, I just knew I had to take a couple extra deep breaths and just trust my putter was going to take care of it.”
