After living through hurricane, Maria Torres takes lead at Evian Championship
Puerto Rico native Maria Torres lived through Hurricane Maria last September. Now almost a year to the day, she co-leads the Evian Championship after the first round.
LPGA rookie Maria Torres displayed the poise of a veteran Thursday at the Evian Championship. After all, competing for her first major championship is nothing compared to where she was last September.
Torres began play at the Evian Resort in France on Thursday with a first round score of six-under 65, tying Spain’s Carlota Ciganda for the lead. Just one-under thru her first 12 holes, on the 13th she started a stretch of two straight birdies, then holed out for eagle from just off the green at the 15th. Torres hit a close approach to the 18th from the fairway rough to set up a closing birdie to take a share of the lead.
It’s a far cry from where she was last year. Almost a year to the day, Torres was home with family in her native Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Forced to share a room with seven family members, she had to practice for LPGA Q-School at a local park because her local golf course was ruined.
The University of Florida graduate just made it to qualifying school, where she earned the final LPGA card in a three-way playoff in December. That made her the first Puerto Rican to play full-time on the LPGA Tour.
Torres says her family is still recovering from the damage wrought by the hurricane, but that life on the island is finally getting back to where it was.
“We are kind of almost to normal,” she said on Thursday. “We have so many stuff to repair, but I think we’re moving in a good direction and hoping that hurricane season doesn’t do anything to us.”
Torres teamed up with fellow Puerto Rican golfer Rafael Campos in March to hold a pro-am that raised more than $600,000 for recovery efforts.
Given what she had to endure to get on tour, it’s no surprise that Torres’ rookie year did not get off to a great start. In one stretch this season she missed seven cuts in a row. Her game is coming around in the past two months, however. She cracked the top 10 for the first time at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic in July, then finished eighth at the CP Women’s Open last month. The Evian Championship is just the second career start in a major for the 184th-ranked player in the world.
Torres admits she didn’t change anything making her way to the 13th tee, where she began her great stretch of three holes. “I was just hitting shot by shot and just playing, and, I don’t know, it went in,” she said. She’s going to keep that mentality going forward, knowing that there is still a lot of golf to play this week.
“We still have three more rounds to play. So just have to hit every shot and looking forward.”
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American Austin Ernst is a shot behind Torres and Ciganda at five-under. Brooke Henderson, winner in her native Canada three weeks ago, is two back in a tie for fourth, while Women’s British Open champion Georgia Hall is part of a large group tied for seventh.
Torres begins her second round at 7:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. EST) on Friday.