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Saginaw's new LPGA star 'still kind of in disbelief' after Sunday's milestone win
How did Saginaw resident Angela Stanford celebrate her recent climb into the top 10 in the women’s world golf rankings and first $1 million season as an LPGA Tour participant?
By having lunch with her parents and her brother during a 2 1/2-hour layover Monday between flights at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.
After that, the former TCU and Saginaw Boswell standout completed the second leg of her journey from Guadalajara, Mexico — where she won Sunday’s inaugural Lorena Ochoa Invitational — to West Palm Beach, Fla., where she will compete in this week’s ADT Championship, the final event on the 2008 LPGA Tour.
During a Tuesday phone interview, Stanford said she is “still kind of in disbelief” that Sunday’s one-stroke victory over Annika Sorenstam, an LPGA Hall of Famer, vaulted Stanford to the $1,117,003 mark in season earnings — clinching her first $1 million season in eight years as an LPGA Tour participant — and bumped her to No. 9 in the latest women’s world golf rankings.
“I never expected all of that to come in the same week,” said Stanford, who has won two tournaments in her last five starts, boosting her career total to three. “To be honest, last week was an unexpected surprise. It all happened so fast, and with all of the traveling, everything is just starting to sink in. When you think about where we are in our sport, you couldn’t ask for anything more ... than to win a tournament named for Lorena, the No. 1 player in the world, and do it by beating Annika on the 72nd green. That was pretty cool.”
Below are a few of Stanford’s thoughts as she heads into Thursday’s opening round of the ADT Championship:
“I guess the confidence for me is that I was able to hold my own nerves together coming down the stretch with her. I was able to control my emotions and stay within my game, which is different from the past. Other times, I’ve been thinking too much about other players’ games and stuff I shouldn’t be thinking about (in crunch time).”
“I’ve never played well at this course … I don’t know if I’ve ever broken par here. So I really don’t feel any pressure, and that makes it easy to play this week. I don’t think anybody’s expecting anything from me, so I’ll just go out relaxed and see what happens. What drives me is I want to hit the best shots possible and see where that takes me.”
“To know that she’s an even better person than she is a player makes it special. To be the first champion at her event means a lot to me.”
“I feel very lucky right now. As much as I love to win, I love competing. I feel like I’m putting great. My true love right now is hitting the golf ball. I’m excited, and I don’t feel any added pressure this week.”
“They were really excited, and it was a lot of fun for me. Initially, I was just going to meet my brother for lunch. Then, after the win, it also included Mom and Dad. You go week to week (on the LPGA Tour), and there’s got to be some closure to one week before you move on to the next. For me, that was a really neat way to bring closure to that week. It help me to enjoy it as much as I could.”
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