‘ JUST FEELS LIKE HOME ’
History at Kingsmill Resort in Willamsburg Pure Silk Championship
21 7 14 3
LPGA SEASON
CAREER WINS
TIME TESTED TEXAN In fact , the Texan can barely believe she is in her 21st LPGA season and calls her 2001 rookie season “ a lifetime ago .” She will make her 14th appearance this May at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg at the Pure Silk Championship — an event where she finished third in 2017 .
And with a rebuilt short game , she is hoping to improve on that tournament-best showing in Virginia this spring at what she calls one of her “ favorite events on the LPGA ’ s schedule .”
“ I fell in love with that tournament from Day 1 because they roll out the red carpet and make us feel like they ’ re excited to have us there ,” she said . “ The course is always in immaculate shape and the volunteers are off the charts . I don ’ t know
APPEARANCE
PLACE FINISH IN 2017
if we ’ ll have fans this year , but the whole place just feels like home .”
Part of Stanford ’ s prep for Kingsmill , as well as for the final “ third ” of her career , has been a complete overhaul of her short game . That came with a hard realization that even with seven career wins , including one major at the 2018 Evian Championship , six U . S . Solheim Cup appearances and nearly $ 12 million in career earnings , nothing was a given .
In recent years , she has watched plenty of players in their teens and early 20s sail shots well past hers and win . Stanford knew that 10 to 15 more yards was not going to miraculously appear in her game and that her saving grace would have to come from an improved short game .
“ For the first time in my career , I can finally see that this distance thing is becoming a divide ,” she admitted . “ I might be hitting two clubs different than some others , so I have to hit it straighter and I have to be able to get up and down from off the green .”
It wasn ’ t until she began working with swing coach Todd Kolb in August 2017 that Stanford took a hard look at her fundamentals . That came after the coach watched her flub a couple of chip shots during an LPGA tournament .
“ My ball striking has always carried me , but I ’ ve known deep down that my short game wasn ’ t what it should be and that my mechanics weren ’ t great ,” Stanford added . “ I just wasn ’ t willing to dive deeper to work on it until I met Todd and realized that my ball striking is not going to keep me on the tour for five more years .”
The two went to work on lag putts , bunker play , chipping , pitching and those high , soft chip shots that bump-and-runprone Texans don ’ t always possess in their windy state .
“ Not a lot of players at this particular stage of their career would do this , but Angela has taken it head on and has really embraced it over the last 2½ years ,” said Kolb , director of instruction at Sanford Golf Academy in Sioux Falls , S . D ., and in Irvine , Calif .
Stanford at the 2020 U . S . Women ’ s Open .
USGA
20 V IRGINIA G OLFER | M AY / J UNE 2021
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