Pia Babnik on Friday on the fifteenth gap at Le Golf Nationwide.
Golf Channel
Pia Babnik had simply made Le Golf Nationwide as simple to digest as a croissant, and a reporter was curious Thursday after her Olympics second-round 66. “How have you ever been capable of mentally maintain your self in it,” they questioned, “understanding that in case 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 making an attempt to hit the golf green. It’s undoubtedly not simple. You simply should maintain the ball on the golf green, after which yeah, it’s lots simpler, but additionally some second photographs are fairly robust. And yeah, I managed at the moment to beat this stuff.”
Friday, nevertheless, at a most unlucky time, Babnik didn’t.
Through the Olympics third spherical, on the 397-yard, par-4 fifteenth gap, she missed the golf green off the tee, had a “fairly robust” second swing — a shank, actually — and was penalized “fairly closely.” Babnik began the outlet 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 proper 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 in need of the inexperienced. Babnik murmured. She walked again to her caddie, masking 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. Superb, 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
Notably, the week’s been good for the 20-year-old from Slovakia who’s gained twice on the Women European Tour. She stated she’s starting to discover a groove with a reworked swing; beforehand “it was everywhere.” 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.
“Most likely one of the 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 look at.”
Can she bounce again? Can she medal? In fact. She’s additionally 5 again of the group tied for third.
The thought will likely be to simply discover the golf green. To simply navigate these second photographs.
Similar to she stated.
