Sep 30, 2017: Belen Mozo was hardly recognizable. Friday, the Spaniard wore a pair of oversized, black-rimmed glasses reminiscent of Clark Kent, who went incognito when he wasn’t saving the world as Superman.
But there was no concealing Mozo, whose super performance on Friday sent her soaring to the top of the leaderboard at the MCKAYSON New Zealand Women’s Open. She went out in 31 to take the outright lead and then pulled off one of golf’s most exciting feats with an ace at the par 3, 13th hole. She jarred a 7-iron from 150 yards and bubbled over with excitement when the ball found the hole. Mozo ran over and kissed the car on display and extended her lead to five. Unfortunately, the INFINITI is only up for grabs this weekend, but Mozo took the news in stride.
“It is karma,” Mozo joked with the media. “The last hole-in-one I found out someone had got one just before me so I missed the prize. This one the car is for the weekend. It is my fifth hole-in-one in competition.”
Mozo followed her ace with her seventh birdie of the day. Her only mistake came at the par three, 17th hole where she made double bogey, which cut her lead to four. But she bounced back with a birdie at the last to card an eight-under par, 64 to set a new personal best and post the low round of the Tournament. At 14-under par, Mozo leads by five-strokes ahead of rookies Madelene Sagstrom and Emily Tubert, and major champion Brooke Henderson.
“When you score like this, everything seems so easy. I got perfect weather but you still have to perform well,” Mozo said. “I played really easy golf and left myself very makeable putts. I struck the ball really well and overall I was in a very calm state of mind.”
Mozo is in unfamiliar territory as she looks to pick up her first win this weekend at Windross Farm. Since joining the Tour in 2011, Mozo has just four career top-10s and tonight will sleep on the lead for the first time on Tour. While she has yet to crack the top-20 in 2017, Mozo has an opportunity to transform not only her season, but also her career, with a win on Sunday.
India’s Aditi Ashok shot three-under-par 69 and tie at T48 after round three of Mckayson New Zealand Womens Open.
LPGA Tour Release
