LPGA Protile Tenacity on Coursse Advantage For Paula Creamer

Coursse Advantage For Paula Creamer

Visiting with family, signing autographs, doing interviews, catching up with old friends.
There’s no question Paula Creamer has a lot of demands on her time whenever she returns to her native East Bay for the newly renamed CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge, which begins Thursday at Blackhawk Country Club in Danville, Calif.
But the challenge for Creamer, who lived in Pleasanton until she was 14, has always been balancing her off-course commitments with her focus on the tournament. Creamer has finished in the top 20 in all three years the event has been held at Blackhawk but has never been in contention during the final round.
There’s no home-field advantage in golf.
In fact, you can make the argument that it’s one of the few sports where playing at home is a disadvantage.
Ask Tiger Woods. Yeah, he does pretty well in Orlando and San Diego, but he’s 0 for Riviera Country Club, the Los Angeles PGA Tour stop closest to the Cypress, Calif., home where he grew up. He has failed to win in 11 tries at Riviera.
That brings us to Paula Creamer, who’s back at home this week for the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge at Blackhawk Country Club in Danville, Calif., near her hometown in Pleasanton. She once said trying to win this event is like trying to win a major championship. She wants to win it that badly.
The program worked: She added more than 10 pounds of muscle before the season-opening event in February. She stretched her tee shots by about 25 yards, addressing the most glaring shortcoming in her game.
Fast forward to late September, as Creamer returns to the Bay Area for this week's LPGA event in Danville. She's still searching for her first victory, conspicuously absent from the wide-open race for Player of the Year - and strangely satisfied with how she has played.
Creamer posted a 76 in the third round at Blackhawk Country Club last year and ended up tying for 19th.
She opened with a 77 there two years ago and tied for 11th.
She tied for 16th in her first start there three years ago.
Tour pros are creatures of routine. There are more distractions at home, more folks players want to see and please. There are more obligations. That messes up routine and makes for more pressure at home. Of course, there's typically greater joy in playing well at home.
“It’s always great to come back to a place where you can see your friends and your family, and, just, where you grew up,” Creamer said in her pre-tournament meeting with media this week. “I have a lot of memories here. I don’t get to come back here as much as I would like, so this is always a treat.”