LPGA: Creamer ready for Major

As all the attention is focussed on the relentless excellence of Lorena Oochoa and the final swansong of Annika Sorenstam, another player has quietly been putting together a rather impressive season.

Incredibly, it’s now nearly three years since Paula Creamer stunned ladies’ golf with a virtuoso performance to secure victory for Nancy Lopez’s revitalised American side in the Solheim Cup at Crooked Stick.

And if anyone who witnessed her destruction of European totem Laura Davies in the singles had been told then that come August 2008 Creamer who still be waiting for her first Major title, they would have been astonished.

The American looked the complete package during that week in Indiana.
She hit the ball miles, was cute with her wedges and holed everything she looked at.
Golf isn’t always that easy though.

The years since then have been ones of gradual progression for the Florida resident and her results this year suggest she is ready to make the significant mark on the game which has looked inevitable since September 2005.

Creamer has landed two titles this season already, the first being a crucial end to her barren run.
When the 20-year-old won the SBS Open in Hawaii it was her first victory since the Evian Masters in her outstanding rookie year of 2005.

The field she defeated was also important, with Karrie Webb and Lorena Ochoa in the top five. Creamer proved she was able to close out a victory under extreme pressure.

Three top-10 finishes followed before a second victory arrived in the SemGroup Championship.
In addition, she he has yet to miss a cut in a wonderfully consistent season.

It is results such as these that give observers and the player herself the confidence to expect her Major duck to be broken very soon.

Morgan Pressel, with whom she enjoyed many battles during their amateur days, beat her to it in the Kraft Nabisco of last year.

That is sure to have touched a nerve with Creamer, who had 18 months’ head start in tour terms on her compatriot.
You get the impression she is eager to do some catching up.
“I really feel that I’ve matured a lot over the last couple years being out on tour,” she explained on the eve of the Women’s British Open.

“I know what the word patience means and I think that’s the biggest part of going into a Major and just knowing that 20-under par might not win; it’s going to be 10 or so, if the golf course is playing as difficult as it should be.

“But I really do feel that it’s coming around.
It’s just a matter of time of when it’s going to happen, and I don’t think you can go into an event thinking you’re not going to win.

I really do feel that it’s going to happen sooner or later.”
Creamer also believes the focus on Sorenstam and Ochoa might work to her benefit – although her suggestion that she has never been firmly in the spotlight is either youthful naivety or incredible modesty.

“I think I’ve always kind of been under the radar, so it’s kind of one of those things where I’m able to go out and play,” she insisted.
“Annika has always been the No 1 in the world and now Lorena is.

“To me, they are who I’m trying to beat, and they are who is on top right now. Lorena has played some great golf. Her confidence is through the roof and it’s Annika‘s last year so she’s going to give it her all.

“I just have to play my own game and not really worry what they are doing until Sunday, because there are so many other players out here.”

Creamer believes helping her improved patience has been watching Sorenstam plot her way round championship courses.
She is also grateful for the experience her caddie brings to the party – and will rely on him if she is in the mix at Sunningdale come Sunday afternoon.

“I’ve always thought I could win a Major. There was never any doubt in my mind. There’s no reason why I can’t.
The patience is just kind of learning, not going for pins when you can’t and just learning and experience,” she revealed.

“Watching other players and reasoning out why Annika has won so many Majors; it’s because she’s so methodical in what she does.
“My preparation is the same in all of the events that I’ve won, but in a Major you have to be able to make pars and you have to be able to manage yourself when you’re in trouble, instead of being quite as aggressive as I normally would be.

“Luckily, my caddie, Colin, has won Majors with other players and I think that that has a lot to do with trusting him out here and knowing that he’s going to stop me if he needs to, and I believe that.”