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 hold your self in it,” they questioned, “understanding that when you hit within the tough or one thing like that, it may penalize you fairly closely?”
Right here was her response:
“I used to be extra targeted on attempting to hit the green. It’s undoubtedly not straightforward. You simply must hold the ball on the green, after which yeah, it’s quite a bit simpler, but additionally some second photographs are fairly robust. And yeah, I managed at present to beat this stuff.”
Friday, nonetheless, at a most unlucky time, Babnik didn’t.
Through the Olympics third spherical, on the 397-yard, par-4 fifteenth gap, she missed the green off the tee, had a “fairly robust” second swing — a shank, in reality — 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 remaining 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 ft. 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 precise on the dogleg proper along 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, overlaying 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 stated this: “Oh expensive. Oh, it’s a shank. The water makes these gamers do foolish issues. Wonderful, 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.
Notably, the week’s been good for the 20-year-old from Slovakia who’s gained twice on the Girls European Tour. She stated she’s starting to discover a groove with a reworked swing; beforehand “it was far and wide.” She stated she’s loved herself a lot that she may play in Video games-like atmospheres each week. She’s seen different athletes, too. One stood out.
“In all probability the very 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 and so they have been simply dancing, screaming and it was simply so enjoyable to observe.”
Can she bounce again? Can she medal? After all. She’s additionally 5 again of the group tied for third.
The thought will likely be to only discover the green. To simply navigate these second photographs.
Identical to she stated.
