[PHOTOS: Pierre-Philippe Marcou]
On the scorecard, it looks like there’s a mammoth 10-shot difference between a front-nine 28 and a back-nine 38. For Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux, the relatively unknown early second-round leader at the Olympics women’s golf competition, the difference was what could only be described as ho-hum. A couple of bounces and a couple of swings, you move on.
“The swing didn’t quite feel as good on the back nine, and obviously, if you’re just slightly off, it just gets really tricky out here,” she said after posting her second-round, six-under 66. “The rough is really thick, and the greens are firm. So it’s not that I’ve played much worse. It’s just one or two shots. There’s not that big of a difference, but the score just changes quite quickly.”
Even with that indifferent finish that saw her bogey two of the final four treacherous holes at Le Golf National after hitting approach shots in the water, the 27-year-old pro found herself with a two-shot lead and an Albatros course record-low score for the first nine holes at the home of French golf. Her 28 featured eight 3s (including two eagles) and 81 feet of made putts, bettering the 29 Eduardo Romero shot on the front nine in 2005, when he established the course record of 62.
Metraux, the 137th-ranked player in the world who at one point this year was ranked as high as 206th, may not have come into Le Golf National with any kind of starpower on her résumé or even on a mild tear. She’s missed two cuts in her past five events and her best finish otherwise was a T-47 at the LPGA Tour’s Dana Open. But she felt like her game was in the right place for the demands of the Le Golf National’s brutish layout, which played to a stroke average of 74 in the first round, and while playing about two strokes easier in the second round, was still averaging over par. Metraux hadn’t even seen the course before Monday, but she likes the way it is specific and relentless in its demands, like a drill sergeant or a dance mum.
“This is all very new for me,” she said. “But it’s very simple in a way in that you just have to hit the fairways and the greens here. If you don’t, it’s going to be difficult. I like it because it’s just in such good conditions and it’s just a great course. If you hit the good shots, you’re going to be rewarded, and vice versa.”
She also thinks her game is better than the recent results have shown, which of course it would have to be after you shoot eight-under for nine holes. Metraux, who at one point earlier this year missed five cuts in a row on the LPGA Tour, said she couldn’t really remember shooting a 28 before but recalled she did shoot an 11-under-par round at the Swiss Open one year. Of course, comparing the second round in the Olympics to the 2018 Lipperswil Swiss Golf Pro-Am is like comparing the Herz Milch from Confiserie Brändli in Basel to a Tootsie Roll found on the floor of a bodega in Bed Stuy. Indeed, while she did finish fifth in the LPGA ShopRite LPGA Classic in June, her next best finish on the LPGA Tour this year was a T-41. She also had a win on the Ladies European Tour in May at the Jabra Ladies Open, where she pipped the 293rd-ranked player in the world.
Like trading in a minivan for a Maserati, she’s staring at a different assignment this week. Her second-round 66 gave her a two-shot lead heading into the closing 36, where she’ll be staring at a pack of chasers that includes a two-time Olympic medallist in Lydia Ko, who fashioned a 65 that easily could have been a 63, and Ruoning Yin, who won the 2023 LPGA Championship.
“I’ve worked well in the last week and prior to that,” she said. “I was feeling good about what I was doing. I just didn’t realise it was going to be that good. You know, it’s just constant work, isn’t it?”
Metraux, who played her college golf at Florida State University where she won three times and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Business Management, talks with that glorious unremarkableness from someone who’s played enough golf to realise that the good rounds and the bad rounds happen. The right work will produce results. You just have to learn to stay out of your own way.
“I knew my game was in a good spot,” she said. “The difference between today and yesterday was that the putts fell. The conditions here are so good that you know if you make a good roll they are going to go in.
“It was actually surprising. I was very calm standing around. It was nice to see your name on the leaderboard. It’s always fun to see Swiss flags and people shouting my name. When I make a birdie, they make a lot of noise. It’s fun to know there’s so many people supporting me. I don’t take it as pressure. I’m just happy I can perform in front of them. It’s really fun.”
Metraux missed out on the Tokyo Olympics after earning a spot in the field for the Amundi Evian Championship in 2021 while also trying to earn an LPGA card on the Epson Tour. She reasoned she couldn’t afford to miss that many events, including the Evian played near her home in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, one she had always dreamed of playing. As practical and efficient as a Swiss watch, she ended up earning her LPGA card that year, while giving her Olympics spot to her sister, Kim, who currently plays full time on the LET in Europe. She said her sister came back from Tokyo with stars in her eyes, stars she herself is seeing this week. She’s trying to stay on an even keel, even though she might be in the midst of a much bigger dream scenario. Even the bogey finish after her approach barely found the water didn’t sway her mood.
“It is what it is,” she said. “It’s fine. I only got a bogey out of it. I wish I didn’t, but it’s fine. I’m still in a great position.
“We’re just going just do the same tomorrow. Stick to the process. Same routines. See how it goes.”
In short, ho hum.
