ANWA champion Carla Bernat Escuder makes LPGA debut at Chevron, where she met her idol
ANWA champion Carla Bernat Escuder makes LPGA debut at Chevron, where she met her idol
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Carla Bernat Escuder makes her LPGA at this week's Chevron Championship two weeks after her victory at Augusta National. On Monday, she came out to the Club at Carlton Woods without her caddie, who was still en route, and felt slightly embarrassed carrying her tour-sized bag to the range.
There she found fellow Spaniard Carlota Ciganda working on her game with swing coach Jorge Parada.
"She was like, do you want to play? I was like, I don't have my caddie," said Bernat Escuder. "I don't have anyone to carry my bag. I don't think I can deal with this huge bag on my own."
No problem, said Ciganda, who gave the job to her fiancé.
"She's always there for whatever we need," said Bernat Escuder. "She makes Spanish young players become better just because she's approachable and so kind that, I don't know, it makes it normal all she has done. I don't know, it's cool."
Bernat Escuder, who is coming off a runner-up showing to her Kansas State teammate at the Big 12 Championship in Houston, has been blown away by the reaction she's received since winning the Augusta National Women's Amateur, from being recognized at the airport to hearing from Spanish superstars like Pau Gasol and Rafael Nadal.
"He's the symbol of competition and that motivation that every athlete in Spain has," she said of Nadal. "When I saw that, I was just like, whoa, yeah."
On Tuesday, she played in the pro-am alongside Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson as one of the amateurs in the group. Bernat Escuder said she was so nervous teeing off alongside Korda on the first hole that she couldn't even see the ball.
"I was telling my caddie yesterday, I don't think I'm going to be more nervous on Thursday No. 1," she said, "because playing with her, it's like – I mean, she's always been my idol, so playing with her is like a dream come true."
This week is the first of four LPGA major championship exemptions she received for winning ANWA. Bernat Escuder, a senior, apologized to her professors for all the school she's missed in recent weeks.
"I completely forgot the classes that I'm doing," she said. "I think this is the third week in a row without going to class. I went last Friday and I was like, I don't know what you're talking about.
"Yeah, it's been a little stressful, I need to say, but it's good stress if that makes sense. It's everything positive."
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