THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Lindy Duncan has dreamed of playing in the final pairing on a Sunday, and here she is in the Chevron Championship doing just that. Carlota Ciganda has been there and done that in contending for majors, and it’s why she’s still playing professional golf. And there you have a duo of 34-year-old veterans who are still playing the game they love and trying to fill a void on their careers.
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They each have an opportunity to do that on Sunday, trailing co-leaders Haeran Ryu and Mao Saigo. Duncan, who shot a bogey-free 70 in the third round, is one shot back, and Ciganda (70) stands three behind heading into the final round of the LPGA season’s first major at The Club at Carlton Woods.
Ryu, 24, a two-time LPGA winner from South Korea, and Maio, 23, the LPGA 2024 rookie of the year who is seeking her first tour victory, shot 68 and 69, respectively, and stand at nine under.
For Ciganda, winning a major would mean so much, not only to the 13-year-veteran, but the entire country of Spain. No Spanish woman has ever captured one of the LPGA’s five biggest prizes.
“That’s why I play golf. I would love to win that major, not only for me but for Spain, for my country. It would be amazing,” Ciganda said. “That’s why I wake up every morning, to keep working hard, to practice. I love playing golf, but especially majors. I really love it.”
Duncan played college golf at Duke, where she won six times and was a four-time All American. Her career path—in which she’s still searching for her first tour victory—has been filled with highs, lows and challenges. She nearly quit the game.
“There’s been a lot of tough moments, for sure,” Duncan said. “I lost my card in ’21, and it was tough to get it back. That’s a two-year process, and I had to do a lot of work on and off the course. I’m really grateful for it now because I think it’s showing up in my game and also the way I can handle myself out there.”
While she worked to get her fulltime status back, Duncan played on both the LPGA and Epson tours, but she stuck it out. Last season, the Florida native notched one top-10 in 20 starts and kept her full card by finishing 90th among the top 100 players in CME points. This year, she’s already notched two top-12s, including a solo fifth in the Ford Championship, and has climbed to 40th in points.
“It’s so cool,” Duncan said with a smile. “I’m living my dream right now.”
The savvy veterans hope their experiences and maturity will be an advantage in the final round of a major. Ciganda will try to be patient. Duncan’s motto will be to trust her instincts.
“I think it’s important to be patient out there,” said Ciganda, whose two tour wins came in the same 2016 season. “I think I have birdies in me, so I think just play smart golf, play a good strategy like these [last three] days, and hopefully I can play the par 5s and make a few birdies to be up there.”
The disadvantage of being a veteran could be the aches and pains that come with decades of swinging clubs, as Ciganda felt all too well recently. Ciganda pinched a nerve in her left arm at the T-Mobile Match Play Championship. She took a couple of weeks off, but she shows no ill effects here in Texas.
Asked what caused it, Ciganda said: “I think 30 years of playing golf and hitting balls and practicing.”
Ciganda has a plethora of experience for what she’ll encounter Sunday, given she has 11 top-10 finishes in majors. She just hasn’t been able to close it out.
For Duncan, she doesn’t have a tour victory to draw on, so winning would be all new to her. She played in 29 majors, with a pair of top-15 finishes, but she’s missed the cut 13 times.
“I think no matter what happens, this is a huge moment for me in my golf career to play in the final group of a major and to play bogey-free [Saturday] on a tough day,” Duncan said. “I’ll remember that for a long time. [Sunday], there’s so many things out of my control, and if I can play my game, maybe I’ll have a chance.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
