Tag Archives: Pettersen

Suzann Pettersen: Norwegian Star Takes A Look At Golf And Life In 2011

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Thanksgiving is the time of year when everyone looks back and finds reasons to be thankful. The same is true for many of the players on the LPGA Tour and the Symetra Tour (formerly known as the LPGA Futures Tour). So as we all gather together this Thanksgiving, the LPGA is taking time to explore why we are thankful this holiday season. Today is part three of our five-part series and next we feature Suzann Pettersen

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Suzann Pettersen will remember many moments from her 2011 season on the LPGA Tour. Yes, there were two LPGA wins and 11 top-10 finishes. There was the No. 2 Rolex World Golf Ranking right behind pacesetter Yani Tseng.

There was also a tour-leading top ranking in greens hit in regulation (75 percent), a sixth-best tour scoring average (70.97), a No. 5 ranking in season earnings (more than $1.3 million) and even a win abroad at the AIB Ladies Irish Open on the Ladies European Tour as a tune-up for the 2011 Solheim Cup in Ireland.

But what Pettersen may remember the most was her emerging role as a leader on the European Solheim Cup team. Pettersen showed her mettle when it mattered most, winning her crucial singles match 2 up down the stretch in dramatic fashion over Michelle Wie, while also having a heavy influence on her European teammates.

With Europe and the U.S. team locked in a tight battle late in the Sunday singles, and Europe trailing after a second weather delay, Pettersen’s shining moment came in a golf cart with rookie teammates Azahara Munoz of Spain and Caroline Hedwall of Sweden.

“Right before we went back out, we were all in a golf cart and Suzann said, ‘The three of us need to win our points. If we all win our points, we can win the Solheim Cup,’” said Munoz. “Just to see how confident she was gave me confidence. After the round, I realized she was so right because all of us won our points and our team won the Solheim Cup. Suzann has such a good vibe and she was huge for our team.”

“She had a couple of pep talks earlier in the week and when I played the four-ball event with her, she was so encouraging,” said Hedwall, also making her first appearance in the Solheim Cup. “I think she’s a great leader.”

Azahara Munoz and Suzann Pettersen

While Pettersen is fiery, intense and sometimes even glowering on the golf course, the Norwegian is more introspective, engaging, funny and humble off the course. When asked by media at the recent CME Group Titleholders how it felt to be the new leader of the European Solheim Cup team, she downplayed her role, saying, “When I’m on the European team, I’m always a junior. Laura Davies is the senior and she takes that role.”

When asked how it felt to play so well in 2011, but to not be able to catch frontrunner Yani Tseng, Pettersen saluted Tseng, saying, “You can’t do anything but applaud what she’s done. It makes me work even harder. I’ve been around Annika [Sorenstam] at her peak … and then Lorena [Ochoa], and now Yani. It just shows that it’s possible.”

Always the perfectionist in pursuit of her own optimal performance, here is what Pettersen had to say in a recent interview about her 2011 LPGA season:

How do you feel about your 2011 season?
It’s been a good year, but I’ve always been a slow starter

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Pettersen Voted Academy’s August Female Athlete of the Month

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DAPHNE, Ala.— Suzann Pettersen of Norway won the United States Sports Academy’s August Female Athlete of the Month after her comeback from nine shots down to win the Safeway Classic.

Pettersen became the No. 2 ranked women’s golfer behind Taiwan’s Yani Tseng by winning the Safeway Classic. She came from nine strokes down in the final round to defeat Na Yeon Choi in a one-hole sudden-death playoff. Pettersen shot the lowest round of the week, a 7-under 64, in the final round to finish at 6-under-par 207 overall at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club’s Ghost Creek Golf Course in North Plains, Ore. The victory was Pettersen’s second LPGA Tour title of the year and the eighth of her career.

The public is invited to participate in the worldwide Athlete of the Month nomination and ballot voting processes. Visit the Academy website at www.ussa.edu to submit your nominations each month, and then return to the website between the first and second Tuesdays of each month to vote on the Athlete of the Month. The votes along with the Academy’s selection committee choose the winners and they are announced on the Academy’s website and in the online edition of The Sport Update.

The winners will be considered as a candidate for the 2011 Athlete of the Year ballot. In December 2011, the Academy will name the Male and Female Athlete of the Year for the 27th consecutive year. The recipients of these prestigious awards are selected annually through worldwide balloting hosted by the Academy in conjunction with USA Today and NBC Sports.

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Prudential Up to the Challenge: Suzann Pettersen

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Suzann Pettersen was Up to the Challenge Presented by Prudential at the Safeway Classic.

 

Suzann Pettersen rallied from nine shots back on Sunday to win the 2011 Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola, recording a par on the 18th hole to defeat Rolex Rankings No. 5 Na Yeon Choi on the first hole of a playoff. Pettersen fired the lowest round of the week, a 7-under 64, on the Ghost Creek Course at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club and finished her round nearly two hours before Choi bogeyed the 18th hole to force the playoff.

In the playoff, Choi’s second shot on the par-4 18th went into the water to the right of the green, and she missed a putt for bogey before Pettersen, who had lost in a playoff to M.J. Hur at the 2009 Safeway Classic, sank her winning par putt.

Pettersen, who is a native of Norway, entered Sunday at 1-over-par, trailing second-round leader Choi by nine shots, but a strong day with her putter helped her to stake the impressive comeback. Pettersen had five birdies and one eagle on No. 10, which was nearly an albatross as Pettersen joked she had to sink just a two-inch putt, en route to putting herself at the top of the leaderboard.

This is Pettersen’s second LPGA Tour title of the year and the eighth of her career. She also won the 2011 Sybase Match Play Championship back in May. Petterson, who recently captured the Ladies European Tour’s Ladies Irish Open at Killeen Castle on Aug. 7, will now move up to No. 2 in the Rolex Rankings behind World No. 1 Yani Tseng.

"I definitely didn’t think I was going to sit here when I started the day warming up," Pettersen said after her victory. "It was nice to have a back-to-back win, Ireland and here, and my full-time caddie on the bag this week. So now this is really a bonus coming off a five-day vacation back home. I did not anticipate this, but I’ll take it."

 

There were a couple of rookies making some noise at the Safeway Classic on Saturday including Ryann O’Toole who fired a 2-under 69 to move into a tie for fifth, six shots behind the leader Choi. O’Toole is currently second in the race for the 2011 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year with 144 points. She trails Hee Kyung Seo, who holds a significant lead in the race with 449 points. Seo found herself on the leaderboard for part of the day Saturday before finishing with back-

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Reid, Davies, Pettersen and Boeljon qualify for European Solheim Cup Team

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Reid, Davies, Pettersen and Boeljon qualify for European Solheim Cup Team
By Ladies European Tour, More >>

Laura Davies

Melissa Reid, Laura Davies, Suzann Pettersen and Christel Boeljon have booked their places at this year’s Solheim Cup, thanks to their positions on the European points’ standings following the Ladies Irish Open, supported by Fáilte Ireland.

No-one can now catch fourth placed Boeljon, with one qualifying event left to play on the Ladies European Tour, at the Aberdeen Ladies Scottish Open presented by EventScotland taking from August 18-20 at Archerfield Links in East Lothian.

With 30 Cup points’ available for a victory, Virginie Lagoutte-Clement, the next best placed player, would not be able to qualify even if she were to successfully defend her Scottish title which means Boeljon will become the first ever Dutch representative on the European team.

However, the next four players, who are due to qualify from the Rolex Women’s World Rankings on Monday 29th August, could still change.

Those spots are currently occupied by world no.16 Maria Hjorth, no. 28 Anna Nordqvist and Catriona Matthew and Sophie Gustafson, ranked 36th and 37th in the world respectively. Matthew and Reid will head the field in Scotland.

Azahara Munoz is the next potential player on the list, ranked 41st in the world and closely followed by Sandra Gal in 42nd position.

Yet with two events to play on the LPGA Tour before the qualifying deadline, there could still be some drama before the 29th August and European captain Alison Nicholas will have time to consider her four wild card picks.

World number three, Suzann Pettersen, set Killeen Castle alight with her six stroke victory at theLadies Irish Open, supported by Fáilte Ireland and she said: “It’s been a great week for all the Europeans so hopefully our captain has got a few answers that she was questioning herself. Hopefully we’ll get a good solid team of 12 good girls together and we’ll be back strong.”

A host of Europe’s top Solheim Cup candidates performed well in what proved to be a very productive week at Killeen Castle for Nicholas. Top ranked Europeans Melissa Reid, Laura Davies, Maria Hjorth, Anna Nordqvist, Sophie Gustafson and Catriona Matthew all had top 15 finishes while a number of potential picks will have impressed Nicholas, none more so than Spain’s Azahara Munoz who finished second with 12 under. Nicholas commented: “With less than 50 days to go to the big event it has been a tremendous week for European golf. The course is shaping up extremely well and the players have gained some more valuable experience with some incredible scores including Suzann’s 63 on Saturday. It’s a big confidence boost for the team ahead of the event.”

Stacy Lewis finished best of the American Solheim contingents on four under while crowd favourite Christina Kim had a disappointin

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Prudential Rock Solid Performer: Pettersen wins Sybase Match Play Championship

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Suzann Pettersen was named the Prudential Rock Solid Performer of the week after her win at the Sybase Match Play Championship.

Rolex Rankings No. 3 Suzann Pettersen held off No. 4 Cristie Kerr to take a 1 UP victory in the final match of the 2011 Sybase Match Play Championship. Pettersen sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to seal the match against Kerr and clinch her first victory of the 2011 season. Pettersen’s last win came at the 2009 CN Canadian Women’s Open.

Despite feeling under the weather for the majority of the week, Pettersen managed to win six straight matches to capture the title and the $375,000 first-place winner’s check. It was a week full of close matches for Pettersen, who saw four of her six matches go down to the 18th hole. Pettersen’s largest victory of the week came in the second round when she defeated Amy Hung, 5 and 3. Coming into this week, Pettersen had recorded three top-10 finishes this season. Those were a tie for 8th at the season-opening Honda LPGA Thailand, a tie for 10th at the Kia Classic and a tie for 3rd at the Avnet LPGA Classic.

The final match was a tightly contested battle between Pettersen and Kerr, and it had a Solheim Cup feel to it. Pettersen, a five-time member of the European. Solheim Cup team, took a 2 UP lead through four holes with birdies on the 2nd and the 4th, but Kerr, who has made five U.S. Solheim Cup appearances, brought the match back to all square with two birdies of her own (No. 5 and No. 8). A birdie on the par-4 9th by Pettersen gave her a 1 UP lead at the turn. Things remained close as two halved the next five holes on the back nine before Pettersen won the 15th hole to take a 2 UP lead. But ever the competitor, Kerr birdied the 17th to force the match to the final hole.

The road to Pettersen’s match-play title:
Suzann Pettersen (5) defeated Natalie Gulbis (49), Amy Hung (45), Stacy Lewis (21), Yani Tseng (4), Na Yeon Choi (1) and Cristie Kerr (3).

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