Ron Kroichick: Creamer looking to restart career
As she stood alongside the 16th green Thursday, waiting for her fellow competitors to complete the hole, Paula Creamer pulled the collar of her jacket over most of her face. She was trying to shield herself from a cold, biting wind at Lake Merced.
Nope, this isn’t Florida anymore.
Creamer still can cope with a chilly day by the bay. She went six months without playing a competitive round of golf, stretching from midSeptember to mid-March — wondering how her surgically repaired left wrist would respond, occasionally fearing the injury might become career-ending.
So this latest Bay Area homecoming carried special satisfaction. Not because she played especially well — she shot even-par 72 in the opening round of the LPGA Mediheal Championship — but simply because she’s back on the course, doing her thing, savoring good health.
Creamer even sparked nice applause from her small, spirited group of family and friends from Pleasanton, where she lived until moving to Florida at age 14. Those folks responded enthusiastically when Creamer plopped her bunker shot near the hole on No. 15, setting up a short birdie putt (which she made).
That offered a welcome contrast to the dark thoughts bouncing around Creamer’s head after her October surgery. She wore a cast for six
weeks, hit one-handed practice shots and restlessly waited — through November, December and most of January — for her wrist to heal.
This was the first time Creamer, 31, could remember spending six months without teeing it up. She knew wrist injuries can shorten a tour pro’s career; just look at Arron Oberholser, another player with Bay Area roots.
“It was awful,” Creamer said. “I thought my thumb surgery (in 2010) was tough, and this was way worse. I just had so much pain. … I was itching to get a club in my hand. I literally would hit 10 balls a day. That was difficult.”
Creamer’s mom, Karen, offered encouragement while privately fretting about the impact on her daughter’s career. Karen recalled Paula panicking a bit when the wrist didn’t initially respond to treatment.
Even mom couldn’t help but fear the injury might curtail Paula’s career.
“I worried about that — to myself,” Karen Creamer said. “You’re just an injury away.”
Finally, in early February, the wrist began to feel better. Creamer resumed working with her new coach, Kevin Craggs, as they sought to rebuild her swing — trying to reduce pressure on her wrist and forearm while also adding power.
This newfound distance was on display at times Thursday. Creamer smacked her tee shot 280 yards on No. 16, about 50 yards past the shots of Amy Olson and Pornanong Phatlum.
Any added power would help — Creamer historically is a short-to-medium hitter — but she has a more fundamental objective with her reshaped swing.
“Being in no pain is the greatest thing of all time,” she said.
Creamer’s comeback unfolds in the context of a frustrating stretch. She collected eight LPGA wins before turning 23, becoming immensely popular with young fans in part because of her signature pink attire.
But Creamer has won only twice in the past eight-plus years: the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open and a February 2014 event in Singapore. She has plunged to No. 156 in the world ranking, drifting off the radar as a wave of young players raced past her.
Now she’s trying to find Paula 2.0, and it will take some time. She missed two cuts, tied for 64th and tied for 51st in her first four starts this year. Creamer remains undeterred, insisting she can win again by the end of 2018.
Either way, she’s grateful for the chance to compete. She watched several putts slide past the edge Thursday, preventing a solid round from becoming a good round, and she shivered a bit in the chilly weather — but she also didn’t seem to mind. Not at all.