Stanford enjoying her late-career resurgence ahead of Orlando stop
On the heels of another emotional victory during her late-career resurgence, LPGA veteran Angela Stanford knew the time was right for a golf getaway.
To Stanford, unlike those of us dreaming of buddy trips and 36 holes a day, this means an escape to the snow-capped peaks of southern Colorado to ski.
“I’ve always said you can’t think about your golf swing going 30 miles an hour down a slope,” Stanford said last week from her vacation home in Pagosa Springs.
Opportunities to recharge and reset are critical for the 43-year-old.
Time away from the game has helped generate unbelievable staying power and unforeseen success for Stanford at an age when many of her contemporaries have called it quits.
Stanford enters Thursday’s first round of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Orlando as the oldest competitor among the 25-player field, holding an age gap of more than seven years on 35-yearold Stacey Lewis.
“The last couple of years have been more interesting than I thought they would be in my 40s,” Stanford said.
Interesting, and also endlessly gratifying given Stanford’s degree of dedication to her craft and love for the game.
“I feel like I’ve been blessed late because I cared so much,” she said. “I was playing with so much passion every day for 20 years, and I feel like it’s being rewarded late.”
Stanford’s Dec. 6 win at the Volunteers of America Classic in Texas was her seventh on the LPGA Tour, and second since the big 4-0. The victory also marked the first time her parents saw their daughter win on Tour in person — and it took place just down the road from their home in Saginaw, a suburb of Stanford’s native Fort Worth.
During the summer of 2018, a 40-year-old Stanford became the second-oldest player in LPGA Tour
history to win her first major. Fay Crocker won the 1955 U.S. Women’s Open just shy of her 41st birthday.
Stanford’s 20-year career arc is a fairway stroll down memory lane for fans of the LPGA, the game’s rich history and even equipment geeks.
Stanford joined the Tour in 2001 following a nine-win college career at TCU, one season on the Futures Tour (now the Symetra) and a fourth-place finish in Q-school.
When Stanford arrived, the generational rivalry among Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, Australia’s Karrie Webb and South Korea’s Se Ri Pak rivalry had seized center stage while advancing the LPGA’s global expansion.
Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa would emerge several years later as the next dominant No. 1 and international star. The presence of top U.S. players was a given, led by Hall of Famer talents like Beth Daniel, Meg Mallon, Cristie Kerr and Juli Inkster.
“It’s been really cool,” Stanford said. “I love that I got to play with those people. You get to compare
these people and their greatness.”
Stanford marvels at the high level of play and diversity of the field she encounters each time she tees it up.
The top 30 players in the world now represent nine different countries, with South Korea holding half those spots largely due to the impact of the pioneering Pak.
These players score lower and hit the ball farther than ever due to changes in technology, fitness and agronomy.
Stanford arrived on Tour averaging close to a longish 250 to 260 yards. Her driving distance average of 252.83 ranked 68th on Tour in 2020.
“I kind of went from one of the longest hitters then to I was kind of average and now I’m probably just below average,” she said. “That’s been kind of hard for me.”
The changes have been good for the women’s game as it aims to gain traction with golf fans enraptured by the power and personalities in the men’s game.
The LPGA Tour will stage 34 tournaments,
including two new events, for a record total purse of $76.45 million.
“I think we’re getting closer to bridging the gap,” Stanford said. “The schedule is one of the best we’ve had in 71 years now on the LPGA Tour. I’m not one of those people that talks about what we don’t have.
“I like to talk about how far we’ve come and where we can go.”
The Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions has been a revelation for the Tour, Stanford said.
A lineup of Hall of Fame athletes, comedians and musicians creates a casual vibe between the ropes and a chance to learn secrets of the trade from successes in their fields. Stanford kept in her travel bag the money clip from her 2019 appearance as extra incentive to win again.
“It’s the coolest tournament we play,” she said. “I grew up playing basketball, so I love basketball. I love watching football. Baseball is my favorite sport to see in person. And I love country music.
“Literally, it’s like walking into my dream world.”
Stanford now enters her third decade living the dream of playing professional golf. She is not finished yet either as she eyes another in her 40s, a vice-captaincy at the 2021 Solheim Cup and a close to her career that makes second acts seem passé.
“I think for me it would be like my third act,” she said.