The Telegraph
Regulations official breathes sigh of relief as Annika Sorenstam will make slash
It is reasonable to say no person was happier than Dan Maselli at Lake Nona that Annika Sorenstam made the slash in her initially specialist get started in 13 many years. Maybe not even the outstanding Swede, herself. Maselli, a Tour procedures official, endured a nervous few of hrs on Friday as the Gainbridge LPGA event waited to see if Sorenstam, 50, experienced performed adequate with a two-over total to qualify for the weekend. Tiger Woods concluded a single of the best comebacks — can he do it once more? Sooner or later, it was confirmed that the 10-time important-winner experienced scraped in by a shot. And Maselli exhaled a hefty sigh of reduction. If she had missed out so narrowly, Maselli would have entered golf’s folklore as the referee whose faulty choice had stopped heritage. On Thursday, Maselli – who doubles up as a teaching qualified – informed Sorenstam on the fifth that she could not open up an unlocked gate to play her future shot. Rather, he claimed that she experienced to acquire a penalty drop, two club lengths away, which Sorenstam did on the way to a double-bogey seven. Even so, unbeknown to Maselli, the rule had transformed in 2019 – she could have opened the gate and would have experienced a stance to participate in devoid of a penalty. Maselli was knowledgeable of his slip-up on Friday morning and was distraught, significantly when his fellow officers confirmed they could not choose the penalty shot off Sorenstam’s score. “The choice to rescind the penalty is not available underneath the Policies of Golf,” a Ladies Experienced Golfing Affiliation assertion examine. “The formal satisfied the player right away subsequent her 2nd round to reveal the oversight and apologise.” Following her excellent next-spherical 71, Sorenstam discovered quite how strenuously Maselli did apologise. “He told me, ‘This is heading to harm me – this is ingesting me inside of,’, Sorenstam recounted. “I mentioned, ‘Please, remember to really don’t really feel that way’. He replied, ‘I take pleasure in it and I will not make that slip-up again’. And then, I said, ‘Well, I will not strike there again’. You know, individuals points come about. The policies have altered. That is the way it goes.” Nicely, it of course should not go that way when it is a paid regulations formal and Maselli was fortunate that Sorenstam took the weird circumstance in her stride. As she did, the actuality that she had left 45 of the greatest players in her wake – together with the likes of environment No 2 Danielle Kang and England’s Melissa Reid – in her to start with competitive party since retiring in 2008. It had been a hiatus of 4,479 days. “I was setting up on getting Ava to volleyball tomorrow, but any individual else will have to consider her,” Sorenstam explained. “No, kidding aside, it’s just a reward. It truly is. It’s been a good deal of electricity set into these two days, so with any luck , get a fantastic night’s relaxation and see what transpires in the 3rd spherical.” Sorenstam’s laid-back persona was her being true to her emphatic declaration right before the event began that “this is not a comeback”. Sorenstam entered purely for the reason that she lives at Lake Nona and is contemplating of actively playing in the US Senior Women’s Open up at the conclude of July. But no matter of her extended-expression intentions, Sorenstam has, at the pretty the very least, offered a joyous vacation down memory fairway, with her quite a few admirers lapping up 1 stat in distinct. This extended her official cuts designed streak to 50 and that is the longest active lower streak on the LPGA Tour. Sorenstam missed only 10 cuts in her 308 career begins. The most the latest was in May well 2006 when she was ranked No 1. Current earth No 1 Jin Younger Ko is following in the consecutive-cuts-created charts with 35. Only Tiger Woods from this era can compete with Sorenstam in the all-time stats and as a close mate of the 45-year-aged, she will be content with the news produced on Friday night time. Woods was transferred from Harbor-UCLA Clinical Middle to Cedars-Sinai Health care Center for “continuing orthopaedic treatment and recovery”, clinic officers reported. A night submit on Woods’s Twitter account explained: “Tiger acquired follow-up techniques on his accidents this morning. The methods ended up productive, and he is now recovering and in very good spirits.” Woods shattered the tibia and fibula bones of his reduce proper leg in a number of places soon after crashing his vehicle in LA on Tuesday. It is believed that it will be a further week right up until he can return to his Florida household.