This former LPGA winner says she'd need 30 more yards to compete in today's junior ranks
EVANS, Ga. — When Julieta Granada told her student, Sofia Cherif Essakali, she played Augusta National back in 2010, Cherif Essakali informed her coach that she was born in 2009.
'I'm like ouch, OK, I'm old,' said Granada with a laugh.
Cherif Essakali, 15, had initially asked her coach to caddie for her at this week's Augusta National Women's Amateur, but 38-year-old Granada is pregnant with her second child and thought that might be too much.
Twenty years ago, an 18-year-old Granada turned professional after winning the 2004 U.S. Girls' Junior and AJGA Player of the Year title. The petite Paraguayan went toe-to-toe with the likes of Paula Creamer, Inbee Park, Morgan Pressel and Brittany Lincicome on a regular basis in the junior ranks. They all skipped college and joined the LPGA as teens, with Granada winning the $1 million first-place prize at the season-ending 2006 ADT Championship.
How has the junior landscape changed over the course of two decades?
'I think overall just power, right?' said Granada. 'Like these girls come out here and they play a different game. I think when I was a junior, it was more like par was a really good thing, you know, if you're sneaking a few birdies here and there, that was extra, whereas now the game for both juniors, amateurs, collegiate, pro, you know, the girls come out here with a lot more power and a lot more aggressiveness. They are not afraid. They go for everything, and they make a lot more eagles and birdies than we used to make.'
To compete now in the junior ranks at the level she did back then, Granada she'd likely need to add another 30 yards to her game.
Now retired from the LPGA and serving as director of instruction at the IJGA Academy, Granada has worked with Cherif Essakali for a little more than a year. The Moroccan native has made the cut on home soil in the Ladies European Tour's Lalla Meryem Open for three straight years and is an AJGA winner.
'She's got the it that you can't coach,' said Granada. 'You know, she's very competitive. She's smart. Overall, her game is very complete.'
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