Ara refocuses for Super Netball tilt
GETTY IMAGES best position. I was training really well and I was playing really well. At the end of the day it wasn’t to be.
‘‘I was in a really good place then to come back and be with the Swifts and come back and support [England shooter] Helen [Housby] as well. I turned up and I told the girls that I wasn’t selected and they were really great about it.’’
Hadley didn’t have too much time to dwell on the disappointment of missing the Commonwealth Games, where Australia went on to lose the final against England.
The day after Alexander culled her from the squad, Swifts coach Briony Akle unleashed one of the hardest days of pre-season training upon her team: a leisurely cycle out at Olympic Park that turned into a brutal running session at the aptly named Hill Road. ‘‘I turned up and I thought if this can’t break me than nothing can,’’ Hadley said. ‘‘Briony was really great. She’s like, ‘you’ve done everything you can, you’ve trained hard you’ve had a good preseason’. For me, it was then a switch on to Swifts, to win this season. I really want to win a title. I’ve been in that grand final twice and then missing out on finals last year, I want to be back there, I want to be at my best and playing in finals series.’’
The Swifts opened up with a nail-biting win over the Queensland Firebirds and hope to make it two from two today against the Vixens. The Sun-Herald GETTY IMAGES holes, respectively. Shin collected her only LPGA Tour victory two years ago at the tournament’s previous home, Las Colinas Country Club in Irving.
Half the players did not start their first rounds.
Celine Boutier of France shot a one-under 70, the best score among the dozen players who finished the first round on Friday. She took a three-hour nap after her 7am tee time was pushed back to 3.30pm.
Boutier called the playing conditions ‘‘pretty perfect, actually’’.
‘‘I was really surprised,’’ she said. ‘‘We had barely any wind, and I feel like the course drained really well. There was no casual water except for maybe a couple of holes.’’
The first round was postponed from Thursday after only 34 golfers completed one or two holes because of morning rain and afternoon wind.
This will be the LPGA Tour’s first 36-hole event since the Bahamas-LPGA Classic in May 2013, which encountered flooding.
Rules official Marty Robinson said the decisions to halt Thursday’s play after just over an hour and then to reduce the tournament to two rounds were ‘‘tough choices.’’
‘‘You do what you have to do to get an official golf tournament,’’ Robinson said. – AP/Stuff