Uribe Boosts South American Golf with HSBC Brasil Cup Win

With five years to go before Brazil hosts a golf's return to the Olympics, Colombia’s Mariajo Uribe gave the women’s game in South America a significant boost by winning the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup in Rio de Janeiro. Tim Maitland reports.

Mariajo Uribe, Winner of 2011 HSBC Brasil Cup



The twenty-one-year-old from Bucaramanga gained her first victory as a professional shooting a 9-under-par 135 for the US$720,000 two-round event at the Itanhanga Golf Club in the Barra de Tijuca district of Rio. Uribe, the 2007 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, won by a stroke from Australian Lindsey Wright who narrowly missed a seven-foot breaking putt to force a play-off.


“It’ll make a huge impact on South American golf, especially women’s golf. With the Olympics coming up we need a lot of representatives from South America, so I think it’s a big deal,” said Uribe, who enjoyed enormous local support during her six-under-par final round.


“That’s how Latin people are: It’s not only because I’m Colombian. If you play with passion and if you’re emotional on the course they support you, " Uribe confessed. "The Brazilian fans reacted to me as if I were one of their own.”


Uribe added that even though the tournament is not considered an official LPGA event win and the prize money doesn’t count on the tour’s money list, it is playing a significant role in a country that, despite its population of 200 million, only has 25,000 golfers.


“A lot of the kids I saw last year are training more because they met me and they have someone closer to relate with. I think my win is going to create a huge buzz,” Mariajo said.


The President of the South American Golf Federation (the Federacion Sudamericana de Golf) and of the Brazilian Golf Confederation (the Confederacao Brasileira de Golfe), Rachid Orra said Uribe’s victory was as significant to the region as Jhonattan Vegas’ victory at the Bob Hope Classic in January; even though Vegas’ win has single-handedly changed Venezuela president Hugo Chavez’s attitude to the sport.


“Symbolically it’s the same thing because it’s a girl that has beaten some of the best players in the world!” declared Orra.


“It’ll be all over the newspapers in Brazil that South America has one girl, and others, that can compete equally with some of the best players. It’s a great thing that one girl from South America has beaten some of the best players in the world. It’s very important for us. It’s an example for the young girls that want to play golf to see one girl from Colombia, a country like Brazil, can win a very important tournament. We are very happy. The coming of the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup was a very important step for us, taken three years ago. This is another one. Both are very, very, very important,” he explained.


Uribe’s victory is South America’s first at the LPGA level since Paraguay’s Julieta Granada scooped the million dollar jackpot at the ADT Championship in November 2006. The last Colombian win was Marisa Baena’s 2005 triumph as a complete outsider in the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship in 2005.


“Golf in Brazil and in the region is at such an embryonic stage that every step in the right direction, every little thing that gains attention and increases the interest to a broader audience, is of enormous importance,” said David Kotheimer, Deputy CEO and Vice Presidente of tournament sponsors HSBC Bank Brasil.


“The sport has been so energised here by its introduction to the Olympics and the prospect of its return in the 2016 Rio Games, but a ‘local’ win at the HSBC Brasil Cup will still play a substantial part in fanning those flames even more. This event really can be a catalyst, just as the WGC-HSBC Champions has been a catalyst for growth in China. That was the strategy behind investing here just as we have in Asia,” he added.


Relatively forgotten in the excitement was the performance of the thirty-one-year-old Wright, who was overjoyed at getting back into contention for a title for the first time since she finished runner-up at the LPGA Championship, one of the women’s Majors, in 2009.


“To finish second and to have a chance of winning was awesome; just for my confidence. I felt really pleased because I went for every shot. On the last hole I went for it, pulled off the shot and nearly holed the putt. I was happy to be in that position; really happy to get the nerves and that “Yeah! This is great!” feeling… and I haven’t had that feeling in a long time,” Wright said.


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HSBC LPGA Golf Stars Issue Olympic Rallying Call

Two of the world’s leading golfers landed in Rio for the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup with a simple message for the sport: “Next Stop: Olympics - Let’s grab this opportunity with both hands”, Tim Maitland reports.

World number two Suzann Pettersen and number four Cristie Kerr believe Rio 2016 represents a once in a lifetime chance for the sport to establish itself in a country where less than one in every eight thousand people currently play the game.

Less than a week after battling it out in the final of the Sybase Match Play Championship in New Jersey, Pettersen and Kerr sat on lounge chairs sipping glasses of fruit juice on Botafogo Beach, hoping it would be the last occasion they will have time to enjoy Rio de Janeiro’s sun-kissed sand.

“We’ve got five years before we return for the Olympics in Rio and the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup is the one foundation stone our sport has to build on,” said Pettersen, in the build up to this weekend’s two-day, limited-field event at the Itanhanga Golf Club.

“We can’t miss this opportunity!” declared the Norwegian, who was one of the team that successfully argued the case for golf’s return to the IOC two years ago.

“Sitting in the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain is spectacular and Rio is stunning, but if we’re going to grasp the Olympic opportunity we have to continue to grow here. We’ve got the best field of women’s golfers Brazil has ever seen, so this week is already a success but we need to keep getting bigger,” added Kerr, aware that golf needs a bigger base than the 25,000 players among the estimated 200 million people who make up the world’s fifth most populous country and a nation that boasts one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world.

Kerr and Pettersen also spent time swapping tips on bunker play with children from the R&A-funded Japeri Project, a community programme that is developing over 100 young golfers from one of the poorer areas of the city.

“Both Brazil and golf needs the kind of top-and-bottom approach that we have traditionally taken with our golf sponsorships in Asia and around the rest of the world. The sport needs growth in number of participants and it needs to spread demographically,” said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.

“At the top end, the sport needs to grow its profile and to build the profile of the top players. Improving the quality of the leading international tournament in Brazil is one step and the steps are only going to get bigger the closer golf gets to the 2016 Olympics, especially with the rate Brazil’s economy is growing.”

Note: Columbia's Mariajo Uribe won the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup, which took place the weekend of 28th and 29th May. The Brazil Cup, an unofficial two day event, offered prize money of US$720,000 and attracted four Major champions and twelve LPGA tournament winners in the thirty player field. Uribe won by a single stroke over Lindsey Wright.

Photo Credit: TheGlobeandMail.com


For more information: www.lpgabrasil.com.br

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Five reasons why Tiger Woods should opt-out of the U.S. Open

Although Tiger Woods expects to play golf in the U.S. Open, is it a smart career and personal decision or should he opt-out?

Tiger admirably wants to compete (and win majors) and has made year-long commitments to fans and sponsors, but that did not stop Woods from opting out of the 2010 season. Here are five reasons why, if Tiger Woods hobbles away now from the U.S. Open, and perhaps for the remainder of 2011, he just might rebound stronger in 2012.

1. Physical recuperation. Tiger Woods needs to heal his injuries, period. If he keeps playing golf, he will continue to withdraw from golf tournaments before the final round. There are two more major Championships he can compete in if he nurtures his wounds now.


2. Prioritize. Tiger Woods needs to get his life in order. A divorce debacle which has followed him around (of his own doing), swing coach catfights, loss of endorsements and possible IMG management changes continue to plague the former world's number-one golfer. Tiger Woods is going to have to sort out his priorities, take out the "trash" and get his mind back into the game if he wants to achieve peak performance.

3. Mental recuperation. As important as physical recuperation, Tiger Woods needs to come back strong emotionally. Questions of mental toughness and whether or not Woods will ever dominate the sport are the fodder of golf journalists. Do they have a point?

Steve Siebold, author of the international best-seller "177 Mental Toughness Secrets of The World Class", says not only will Woods be back, he will regain his number-one ranking in time.  One reason? "Champions like Woods are professional failures. They know that success is based on a series of comebacks, and that setbacks are set-ups for comebacks."

4. Tiger needs to regain the respect of his fans. Why did Woods insist upon an openly apologetic press conference after his divorce? Why has he been tweeting, signing autographs, basically showing the softer side of Tiger? He longs for the backing of his fan base, a throng of cheers from the many who once thought Woods could do no wrong. The silence is deafening...

5. Woods needs to regain the respect of his peers if he is ever going to make a strong comeback. In the old days, when Tiger Woods was in the field, he was respected and feared. Players in the top position of a tournament would see Woods coming from behind and would stumble a bit, worried that he was going to make a charge...and they were right.

His fellow playing partners are talking and they're no longer worried...the Tiger mystique is gone.

Stewart Cink summarized why Woods should opt-out now for a strong comeback.  "His personal struggles off the course, and the rough patch he’s still going through, it’s eaten away at his belief."

“Before this happened, he never believed he wasn’t going to win," Cink continued. "I guess it’s just hard to keep that up forever.”


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