Meet SA’s golf ace Pace
Golf star says she is playing better than ever and hopes to break her title duck soon.
Lee-Anne Pace is South Africa’s most successful women’s golfer since the legendary Sally Little in the 1980s, but despite hitting the ball better than ever, she is without an overseas professional win since October 2014.
It all points to how massively competitive women’s golf has become, especially since Pace moved to the LPGA Tour in the US, having pretty much conquered the Ladies European Tour with nine titles and two Player-of-the-Year crowns.
Which is not to suggest Pace is struggling. She is still chugging along on the LPGA Tour, inside the top-100 on the Order of Merit, as she finished last year, following top-50 positions in 2015 and 2016.
“It hasn’t been a particularly good year, but I’ve been up there a few times and I just haven’t finished the job. I feel my golf is getting better and better though, and I’m confident it will turn around. The tour has become super-competitive and it gets more difficult to win every year.
“In America, most of the time you’re pitching straight towards the pin, it’s more like target golf and then it all comes down to putting.
“I’m hitting the ball probably the best I ever have, so I’m not sure where the problem is. But in golf sometimes just a little bit of adjustment can make a massive difference,” Pace says.
She moved from the European Tour to the United States in 2014 and, even though she won as a rookie, claiming the Blue Bay title (the tournament being held in China), she says it was still quite an adjustment to make, even for someone who had enjoyed a successful amateur collegiate career at the Murray State and Tulsa universities.
“The first few years were all about adapting and you have to be longer off the tee here. But I managed to win one in my first year and I’ve had seven top-10 finishes as well. I’ve been getting better, making gradual moves upwards,” Pace says.
The psychology graduate is aiming to win a Major before her career is over and playing this weekend in the Scottish Open at Gullane Golf Club, where fellow South African Brandon Stone shot a final-round 60 to win the equivalent men’s event earlier in the month, is going to be great preparation for qualifying next week for the British Women’s Open. Given her strong start in the tournament, however, Pace might not need to play in the qualifier at St Anne’s.
“The top three this weekend also get into the British Open so this is like a mini-qualifier. But I’m always eyeing the win, I had good early tee-times the first two days, so I had fresh greens and not too much wind. But with half the 156 golfers coming from the LPGA and half from the LET, it’s a really good, very strong field.
“Links golf can be quite a beast, all the holes are different and you have to decide whether to be aggressive or lay back. I probably tend to go for the pins more, I like to shape the ball into the flag, but over the next couple of weeks I’ll have to think really carefully about where you land the ball. I love links golf,” Pace says.
A constant smile masks a tigerish competitor, but Pace embodies the true spirit of the game. Her previous Major appearance, at the PGA Championship in Chicago, ended in her disqualifying herself.
In her frustration she bashed her wedge against a hazard stake, not realising at the time that she had damaged the hosel of the club. A few holes later, she spotted the damage and, even though rules officials encouraged her to continue playing pending a review, she knew the rule about changing the condition of a club during play and it’s penalty – which is disqualification.
Unlike Phil Mickelson a couple of weeks earlier, Pace did the right thing and disqualified herself, saving a lot of time and effort.
Maybe her reward will be a change in fortunes in Britain over the next fortnight.