Rosales takes last crack at majors

Jennifer Rosales never had a chance or has failed to put herself in contention in any of the LPGA majors this year but hopes to turn things around with an A-game and a right frame of mind in the Weetabix Women’s British Open unfolding Thursday (Friday in Manila) at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport in Merseyside, England.

The event, the fourth and last major championship lined up this year, actually is underway with two players — many-time major champion Karrie Webb and Liselotte Neumann pacing the elite field with two-under cards after 6 holes and fancied Annika Sorenstam just a stroke behind with a running one-under card after 8 holes.

"Jenny is OK. I just hope her putting will be great this week," Rosales’ swing guru Bong Lopez told The STAR in a text message. "Putting will be the key since she has no problem in ball striking or her swing."

Rosales, who won the season’s kickoff leg in Hawaii but has struggled the rest of the way, got a rather late tee-off time at 12:59 p.m. (England time) and is expected to have her hands full on the difficult links course, especially with the presence of the winds.

"OK naman, maganda naman daw ang palo niya," said Gerald Rosales, Jenny’s elder brother. "So I expect her to play good this week."

If one has to go through the proverbial law of averages, Rosales should come out strong this week.

She opened her bid in the majors with a so-so joint 35th place finish in the Kraft Nabisco, finished in a share of 16th place in the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, LPGA’s second major, and then settled for joint 23rd, in a big group that included Sorenstam, in the recent US Women’s Open.

She competed in the first women’s World Match Play the week after the Open and reached the last 16 before a taking a two-week break to prepare herself for the Evian Masters in France.

But the ace Filipina shotmaker started on the wrong foot at Evian, shooting herself in the foot with a 77 and spent the next three days groping for her putting form.

By this time, however, everybody back home hopes Rosales will be in fine shape despite the late tee-time and the many challenges awaiting her on the links course. — Dante Navarro