We look back at Angela Stanford’s remarkable maiden Major victory at The 2018 Evian Championship, ahead of next week’s event in France.
Angela Stanford had waited her entire career for a Major. In fact, she had almost given up. After completing her final round in 2018, she thought she’d blown it, but now, her name will be forever written in the history books.
Starting the final round five strokes behind fellow American Amy Olson, she would need something special over the finishing holes at the Evian Resort. Little did she know, her mother was praying, back home in Texas.
Competing in her 76th major championship, at the age of 40, Stanford needed a piece of magic and it arrived as she hit her second shot into the par-5 15th: a 7-wood from 239 yards out.
“I made the eagle but I still thought I needed to make a couple more coming in,” she said. “Then as I was walking to 16, I saw the video board with my face on tee one and I think that’s when it hit me and what shook me so much. I just didn’t expect it.”
The tee shot on the short 16th hole became a completely different proposition. After 13 top 10s in major championships, a realistic chance to finally win was hers to grasp.
“Now you’re three holes from achieving the one thing you’ve been chasing for 18 years, so there was a lot going on, on that tee box. I honestly thought I’d pulled it together. I thought I’d got over it and was ready to make a swing, but I guess I wasn’t,” she said.
After hitting her worst shot of the week, short of the green, things didn’t get any easier. She then faced a delicate pitch from just outside the hazard into a tricky pin position. Just minutes after surrendering an eagle on 15, the course bit back, with a double bogey. Luckily, Stanford had 18 years of experience to draw on and was determined to give herself chances down the stretch.
“There’s just no way I could have made that double on 16 and then just lay down. I was going to do everything I could to give myself chances,” she said. “The putt on 17, I actually knew exactly what it was doing. I think I’ve had that putt in the past, so I just got over it, and I knew if I started it on line and I hit it exactly where I wanted to, I had a chance at birdie.”
After rolling in a solid 25 footer, she regained some positive momentum and was hoping for another birdie on 18, but it wasn’t to be.
Her left to right breaker from 15 feet ended fractionally above the hole and she said afterwards, “I did everything I could but I still couldn’t get it done and I felt like I had lost again.”
However, there was a final twist. Olson, who had either led or held a share of the lead all day, was leading by one coming to the last hole, but she hooked her tee shot into the rough and failed to escape with her second shot. She was left with a long putt for par to win, or two putts for a play-off, but rammed her first putt at least 10 feet past the hole and missed the returning putt.
Stanford admitted it was tough to watch, but she had put herself in position to take advantage and in a tearful post-round interview, she said: “I’m grateful. I’m just so happy for everybody at home, everybody that’s always cheered for me. They never gave up on me. This is… I mean, God’s funny. He catches you off guard, just when you think that maybe you’re done. This is amazing.”
As well as putting Stanford into the elite circle of major champions, the win also catapulted her firmly back into contention for The 2019 Solheim Cup in Scotland. A member of six United States teams, Stanford didn’t qualify for the 2017 match in Iowa, which didn’t sit well.
“I don’t like missing Solheim Cups and obviously playing sports forever, I love teams. I love being on teams and playing on teams and to get the sense that people felt that maybe 2015 was my last one. I want to have that say. I don’t want anyone else to have that say!” she added.
Perhaps the best thing about Stanford’s success, was the joy it would bring her parents and especially her mother, Nan, who fought off breast cancer in 2009, before the disease returned and spread to her bones. Stanford didn’t even want to play golf when the first diagnosis came 10 years ago, but her mother wasn’t having any of it, then, or now.
“I felt like, if she really wanted me to be playing, then I needed to be okay with it, so when all of this happened and she was diagnosed again, I had to handle it better mentally. Mom usually doesn’t watch much, mostly due to nerves, so I asked her if she saw it. She said, ‘No, I didn’t see it! Your dad saw it. I was praying!’ She gets nervous when she watches me and I get nervous when I see her, because I’m like, ‘What are you doing? You never watch!’ To finally win a major, I got to Facetime her afterwards and she told me she wants to come to France next year, so I think I’ll get her there.”
Of all the destinations to visit in France, the Evian Resort in Evian-les-Bains, has to be the best, especially on July 25-28, when the world’s best women golfers come to the town.
