MELBOURNE, Fla. – Pauline Roussin-Bouchard birdied her first five holes to open the Moon Golf Invitational on Sunday. Live scoring didn’t immediately reflect that, but word travels fast at a college-golf tournament. Roussin-Bouchard’s name seemed to carry with the wind that whipped around the flat Florida layout, wreaking havoc on many other scorecards.
Given the kind of efficiency with which the South Carolina sophomore executed a 9-under 63 at Duran Golf Club – the lowest 18-hole score in program history – it would seem she knew where to play every shot, land every green, line up every putt. Turns out Roussin-Bouchard had only played five holes in a Saturday practice round that was eventually washed out.
South Carolina saw several holes only by golf cart.
“We still had a practice round, we didn’t play the practice round,” Roussin-Bouchard said by way of explanation. “We imagined the practice round.”
Scores: Moon Golf Invitational
Roussin-Bouchard is capable of reaching every par 5 in two at Duran, and she birdied all of them on Sunday. She missed only three greens – including one at the par-5 ninth, where she bombed her second shot over the green. The Frenchwoman, who is ranked No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, averages 275 yards off the tee.
“Without a practice round, I just told myself just get birdies on the par 5s, and then green and two-putt on par 4s,” she said. “Get your par and then next. I actually holed a couple putts.”
Roussin-Bouchard, who once fired off seven consecutive birdies to start a round, continually gave herself birdie looks on Sunday. If this act looks familiar, it’s because it got quite a bit of play in the opening round of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, when she fired a 2-under 70 at Champions Golf Club’s Cypress Creek course in Houston and landed in a tie for 12th.
With South Carolina coach Kalen Anderson on the bag that week, Roussin-Bouchard made the cut and finished T-46.
The beauty of Roussin-Bouchard’s game is in its layers. On Sunday, Anderson was waiting for the sophomore on the tee box of Duran’s par-3 seventh – a third consecutive hole that played dead into a south wind. Roussin-Bouchard pulled a 4-iron – a lot of club for the 172-yard hole.
“It was too much if she hit it full,” Anderson said, but Roussin-Bouchard’s plan was to take some off and spin it.
“She’s that calculated that she is able to know what the spin is doing and the wind and those kind of things,” Anderson said. “It’s a total different level of a player out here.”
South Carolina huddles after Round 1 at the Moon Golf Invitational.
At South Carolina, Anderson and assistant coach Kevin Williams have helped Roussin-Bouchard with short game and also with how to handle emotions on the golf course. Anderson says Roussin-Bouchard isn’t just a hard worker, but an efficient one. She often plans out her own practice.
Sometimes, the challenge in coaching Roussin-Bouchard is in focusing her – preventing her from practicing too much, or from leaving a round and fitting in a workout back at the hotel.
“I’ve never, in my whole career, I’ve never seen anybody work like she does with her organization and the way she wants to prepare,” Anderson said.
Roussin-Bouchard’s 9-under 63 went a long way toward South Carolina’s 8-under total on Sunday, one that put the team two shots ahead of UCF in second. Florida State, LSU and Virginia are all tied for third at 3 under.
It took five qualifying rounds back in Columbia, South Carolina, to set the five-player Moon Golf lineup out of the eight-woman Gamecock roster. On Sunday, Anderson also got a 2-under 70 out of Lois Kaye Go and a 1-under 71 from Ana Pelaez.
Combine the experience Roussin-Bouchard brings from the French National Team with that of fifth-year seniors Pelaez, Go and Pimnipa Panthong (a transfer from Kent State), and South Carolina looks awfully deep – and with a family-like team culture to boot.
During a global pandemic, players from all corners of the world have had to lean on each other more than ever. If there was an advantage to playing three tournaments in the fall – something few teams the SEC and Big 12 were allowed to do – it was being able to travel together and build a bond. Anderson recognized that early.
“We have a lot of depth, which is great,” Anderson said. “And it’s young depth, which is also fun.”
from Golfweek https://ift.tt/3rTNa7Y