Savannah Vilaubi may have been speaking on behalf of any number of people.
“Whew, I’m ready for a beer,” Vilaubi stated after finishing her seventh round of the LPGA Q-Series with a grin.
The 28-year-old UC Riverside product, along with the rest of the 74-player field for the circuit’s qualifying tournament’s second – and final – week, has just 18 holes left in what will be a 108-hole marathon. It’s been a battle of nerves and a test of patience so far, but no one did better on Saturday than Vilaubi, who posted a 5-under 67 to tie for the low round of the day and move three strokes above the cut line at Highland Oaks in Dothan, Alabama.
“Now that the round is over, I finally have some relief emotions,” Vilaubi said, “but you have stress while playing, of course, but I just keep telling myself like this isn’t foreign, this isn’t anything I haven’t experienced before, so I think today it was just about transcending the emotions I was feeling so I could focus on the shot.”
Vilaubi has one of the largest social-media footprints among female tour pros, with over 75,000 Instagram followers, despite the fact that she has yet to acquire her LPGA card for the first time. She’s spent three complete seasons on the Symetra Tour, the most recent of which was her most successful on the developing circuit. On May, she tied for second at the Mission Inn Resort and Club Championship, one of five top-15 finishes this year, and she ended 31st in the money list. In June, she also won the Colorado Women’s Open.
Her confidence has grown as a result of those performances, and she is now on the verge of a career-changing opportunity.
“Winning the Colorado State Open this year was significant for me in terms of mentally getting used to winning, playing from a lead, and keeping the lead,” Vilaubi said. “I mean, you always want to shoot well, whether it’s to make a realistic cut or to win a tournament, so I think the mentality is quite similar, and I felt extremely prepared.” I’m becoming more accustomed to being closer to the top.”
While Vilaubi isn’t in the lead this week – she’s 26 shots behind current leader Pauline Roussin-Bouchard of France — winning isn’t the only goal for the players on the course this week. After Sunday, the top 45 players and ties will gain LPGA status for the following year, though the higher a player finishes, the higher her priority for 2022 will be.
Roussin-Bouchard, a former top-ranked amateur who went pro last summer out of South Carolina, leads Na Rin An of South Korea by five strokes. On Saturday, Roussin-Bouchard matched Vilaubi’s 67, however his round included an ace on the 13th hole.
“We were joking around with my caddie, coach, and physio during the practice round that I hadn’t had a hole-in-one in the last 10 years, and I said, ‘Well, this is the perfect week to have one,'” Roussin-Bouchard said, signing the ball and giving it to her physio, Francois Teissedre-Dalou, with the message, “Por Francois.”
Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand is in third place at 23 under par, five strokes ahead of the nearest competitor, while amateurs Vivian Hou (-12), Yu-Sang Hou (-9), Brooke Matthews (-9) and Gina Kim (-9) are also in contention to earn their LPGA cards – and potentially leave their college teams in the middle of the season.
There are 34 players on or within three shots, above or below, of the predicted cut of 4 under further down the leaderboard. Hinako Shibuno, the defending champion, plummeted to 7 under after shooting a 79 in the seventh round. Inside the number are Agathe Laisne (-6), Kristen Gillman (-5), Linn Grant (-4), Meghan MacLaren (-4) and amateur Beatrice Wallin (-4). Anita Uwadia (-3), Caroline Inglis (-3), and Mariah Stackhouse (-2) will all start Sunday barely outside the cut line.
“I think for the first time, I really, honestly feel like I’m ready to compete out there,” MacLaren said. Since going pro out of Florida International in 2016, MacLaren has won five times, including once on Symetra (this year) and once on the Ladies European Tour. “However, like I previously stated, all you have to do now is maintain believing in yourself, and what is destined to happen will happen.”
