Creamer aims for repeat performance after victory rehearsal
Thursday, 5 March 2015 02:10
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Reuters: Paula Creamer ended a four-year title drought when she drained a monster 75-foot eagle putt on the second playoff hole at the 2014 HSBC Women’s Champions event and the American was keen to recreate a little bit of history on her return to Singapore.
Back at the scene of one of her finest professional triumphs, Creamer was playing a practice round on the lush Serapong Course and could not resist dropping a few balls down on the 18th green to see if she still possessed the Midas touch.
“I played the back nine yesterday and I went and putted it a couple times to see,” Creamer told reporters on Tuesday, recalling the moment she claimed her first title since the 2010 U.S. Open when she edged Spain’s Azahara Munoz in that playoff.
“The golf course is in different shape than it was last year. The greens were a little bit faster and the fairways weren’t quite as wet as they are right now,” the 28-year-old added.
“I putted to about three, four feet and I’m thinking, I remember this last year, trying to hope that it would just stay on the green.
“It was neat to see the plaque on the 18th fairway, and go up there and kind of look at the green and just remembering the moment of that going in. Those are replays I will never tire of seeing.”
Creamer, who is working on improving her game after a recent change of equipment, admitted she would gladly take a “tap-in” to defend a title that she ranks as “up there with the US Open triumph” due to the drama that surrounded her victory.
“I hadn’t won for so long, and that drought and the fashion that it went down, just a playoff, and that long (putt), the reaction, everything that came about,” she added.
“It was definitely a moment that I will remember, more in a personal way. My U.S. Open was just great golf. There’s obviously every win that you have is a little bit different but this one was so big to overcome and the mental block, as well.”
Creamer tends to save some of her best golf for Singapore with her victory last year coming after a host of top-three finishes, a success she puts down to her love of visiting the country and a course that suits her game.
“I feel great, I really do. I’ve always played well at this golf course. I think it sets up really well. You’ve got to hit good golf shots and make some good putts,” she said.
“I’m really looking forward to Thursday. I think that it will be a good week but I’m not going to sit there and put tons of pressure on myself to go against my plan of what I want to do on the golf course.”
