Ariya Jutanugarn beats her golfing demons

FROM GOLF.COM
There are golf demons; they’re just memories posing as something more sinister.
They’re bad memories.

They’re echoes of failure that sit on a player’s shoulder whispering destructive reminders.
That’s what made Ariya Jutanugarn’s victory Sunday at the Yokohama Tire Classic such a special triumph. She didn’t just hold off Stacy Lewis, Morgan Pressel and Amy Yang coming home on the back nine of the Senator Course in Prattville, Alabama
With all due respect to those formidable competitors, Jutanugarn beat a tougher pair of foes. She beat the memories of two epic collapses.
And Jutanugarn, 20, didn’t just beat those golf demons. She beat all the doubts that followed her after she tore the labrum in her right shoulder three years ago, an injury that robbed her of the strength and confidence many thought would take her to the top of the game.
Jutanugarn triumphed over all of that Sunday in Alabama.
“It’s great because she was really struggling with her confidence,” Gary Gilchrist, her new swing coach, told GolfChannel.com. “It’s great how she’s turned her game around.”

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A little more than a month ago, Jutanugarn was two shots ahead with three holes to go at the ANA Inspiration, the year’s first major championship. She blew the lead bogeying all three of those holes and lost to Lydia Ko. The championship ended with Jutanugarn snap hooking her final drive into the water.
“The last three holes, I really get nervous,” Jutanugarn said.
The collapse added to the weight on Jutanugarn’s shoulders, because three years before that she blew a chance to win her first LPGA title at the Honda LPGA Thailand in equally heartbreaking fashion. She took a two-shot lead to the final hole there, looking to become the first player from Thailand to win an LPGA event, but she watched her homeland wince and groan, instead. She made triple bogey and lost to Inbee Park.
Yes, Jutanugarn was only 17 when she lost to Park, but when she collapsed at the ANA, people wondered if the dots were connected.
Was this once immensely gifted player lacking something internal necessary to close out?
Jutanugarn answered on Sunday with strength of heart and mind.
After a bogey at the 17th reopened a door of doubt, she slammed it shut getting up and down for par at the end.
“Last putt, my hands shake, my legs shake,” Jutanugarn said. “I not have it this bad before, my putter shaking.”
This time Jutanugarn beat those nerves and became the first Thai to win an LPGA title. She did so on Mother’s Day, with her mother, Narumon, and her sister, Moriya, watching greenside.
“Good thing in my life, my mom and my sister always trust in me,” Ariya said.
When Jutanugarn turned pro three years ago, she looked as if she were on the fast track to stardom. She looked ready to challenge Ko and Lexi Thompson as the best young players in the game. She won a Ladies European Tour event in one of her first starts as a rookie on that tour and didn’t finish worse than a tie for fourth in five starts playing LPGA events via sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifying. Still 17, she rocketed to No. 15 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings.
And then Jutanugarn hurt herself.
In a practice round at the 2013 LPGA Championship, Jutanugarn playfully chased her sister off a tee box and stumbled down a steep slope. That’s how she tore up her shoulder. She underwent corrective surgery and was out for eight months. But when Jutanugarn returned in 2014, she still wasn’t right. Her shoulder still hurt, forcing her to change her swing to a more over-the-top move. It nearly robbed her of the strength of her game – her power.
“When you go through an injury as an athlete, and you aren’t playing, your mind takes over, and your mind takes you in all different directions,” Gilchrist said.
Jutanugarn made it through LPGA Q School at the end of 2014, and she showed a few flashes of her former self last year, but she had plummeted to No. 124 in the world. She also missed 10 consecutive cuts. Ariya and Moriya sought out Gilchrist together at the start of this year, and they’ve been working together ever since. Ariya came to Gilchrist with no confidence in her driver, the best weapon in her bag when she was at her best. She was hitting it all over the place.
“I think Ariya started losing trust in what she was doing,” Gilchrist said.
Gilchrist went to work on improving both Ariya’s and Moriya’s transition, on their move into the ball and impact position. Gilchrist also said they worked on changing their focus to what was working instead of what wasn’t working.
Slowly, confidence began to return.
“At one point, Ariya told me, `I’m going to win this year,’” Gilchrist said.
That was before the ANA collapse, but Gilchrist said Jutanugarn was more emboldened than discouraged finishing solo fourth at the ANA Inspiration.
“She walked away saying `I can do this, I can win,’” Gilchrist said. “If she didn’t believe she had what it takes to win, she wouldn’t have won this one.”

FINAL TOTALS
 Par 288 (4x72)

1	Ariya Jutanugarn	70	69	63	72			274	$195,000
T2	Amy Yang	71	68	69	67			275	$91,733
T2	Stacy Lewis	71	68	68	68			275	$91,733
T2	Morgan Pressel	69	68	70	68			275	$91,733
5	Caroline Hedwall	75	65	68	68			276	$54,362
T6	Candie Kung	69	72	70	66			277	$35,912
T6	Hee Young Park	71	70	69	67			277	$35,912
T6	Minjee Lee	67	70	68	72			277	$35,912
T6	Ryann O'Toole	70	67	68	72			277	$35,912
T10	Brittany Lang	71	70	70	67			278	$24,819
T10	Gerina Piller	71	68	69	70			278	$24,819
T10	So Yeon Ryu	70	65	71	72			278	$24,819
T13	Carlota Ciganda	74	72	68	65			279	$20,953
T13	Pornanong Phatlum	75	65	70	69			279	$20,953
T15	Sarah Jane Smith	70	70	70	70			280	$17,659
T15	Cydney Clanton	71	71	68	70			280	$17,659
T15	Jing Yan	73	68	69	70			280	$17,659
T15	Laetitia Beck	65	73	70	72			280	$17,659
T19	Lindy Duncan	75	69	70	67			281	$15,155
T19	Anna Nordqvist	75	66	71	69			281	$15,155
T19	Jodi Ewart Shadoff	73	69	70	69			281	$15,155
T22	Min Lee	72	72	68	71			283	$12,614
T22	Alena Sharp	73	67	71	72			283	$12,614
T22	Haru Nomura	72	71	68	72			283	$12,614
T22	Mi Hyang Lee	75	68	73	67			283	$12,614
T22	Brittany Lincicome	72	67	71	73			283	$12,614
T22	Caroline Masson	70	68	71	74			283	$12,614
T22	Brittany Altomare	73	69	66	75			283	$12,614
T29	Jennifer Johnson	71	71	71	71			284	$10,147
T29	Paula Reto	71	68	74	71			284	$10,147
T29	Brooke Henderson	72	73	68	71			284	$10,147
T29	Vicky Hurst	69	73	73	69			284	$10,147
T33	Q Baek	71	74	69	71			285	$7,805
T33	Simin Feng	72	70	72	71			285	$7,805
T33	Tiffany Joh	73	69	71	72			285	$7,805
T33	Marina Alex	75	70	70	70			285	$7,805
T33	Nontaya Srisawang	74	72	69	70			285	$7,805
T33	Ayako Uehara	72	69	71	73			285	$7,805
T33	Sandra Gal	71	73	68	73			285	$7,805
T33	Gaby Lopez	73	72	70	70			285	$7,805
T33	Hyo Joo Kim	71	68	71	75			285	$7,805
T42	Annie Park	67	71	75	73			286	$6,062
T42	Michelle Wie	71	72	70	73			286	$6,062
T42	Haeji Kang	76	69	68	73			286	$6,062
T45	Rachel Rohanna	74	69	71	73			287	$4,777
T45	Ashleigh Simon	73	69	72	73			287	$4,777
T45	Alejandra Llaneza	68	73	73	73			287	$4,777
T45	Samantha Richdale	72	73	70	72			287	$4,777
T45	Austin Ernst	73	69	73	72			287	$4,777
T45	Su-Hyun Oh	77	67	68	75			287	$4,777
T45	Christina Kim	70	73	73	71			287	$4,777
T45	Ai Miyazato	70	74	72	71			287	$4,777
T45	Perrine Delacour	70	70	76	71			287	$4,777
T45	Lee-Anne Pace	71	74	73	69			287	$4,777
T55	Cheyenne Woods	70	75	72	71			288	$3,887
T55	Chella Choi	70	74	74	70			288	$3,887
T57	Alison Walshe	74	71	70	74			289	$3,558
T57	Beatriz Recari	71	71	74	73			289	$3,558
T57	Karrie Webb	72	73	73	71			289	$3,558
T60	Heather Bowie Young	73	68	74	75			290	$3,229
T60	Sakura Yokomine	73	73	70	74			290	$3,229
T60	Katie Burnett	79	67	72	72			290	$3,229
T63	Moriya Jutanugarn	72	74	70	75			291	$2,998
T63	Joanna Klatten	71	73	73	74			291	$2,998
T63	Jessica Korda	73	71	74	73			291	$2,998
T63	Jane Rah	78	67	75	71			291	$2,998
67	Cyna Marie Rodriguez	73	73	72	74			292	$2,834
68	Asako Fujimoto	73	71	71	78			293	$2,767
T69	Dewi Claire Schreefel	75	71	71	77			294	$2,669
T69	Christel Boeljon	71	74	75	74			294	$2,669
71	Christine Song	71	72	75	79			297	$2,603