In her 103rd career major start, Angela Stanford kept her emotions under wraps down the stretch in the Amundi Evian Championship until crossing the bridge on the 18th hole. Then the tears started flowing as it started to sink in that Stanford's 24-year career in major championships was coming to an end.
"Took a lot of work to get here, but, yeah, then I couldn't control it and I got shaky," Stanford said. "You know, you don't want to bogey, but I'm never going to remember that."
Stanford had amassed an LPGA record of 98 consecutive major starts, which ended when she did not qualify for this year's U.S. Women's Open. The 46-year-old Texas native won one major title, which came here at the 2018 Evian Championship when she was 40.
She felt her late mother Nam's presence all week and had a throwback performance. During the second round, Stanford went eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie to charge into T-4 at eight under before play was suspended due to a lightning system.
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With the restart early Saturday morning, Stanford would play the rest of the championship in three-over to end T-26, her best major finish since a T-14 in the 2020 AIG Women's Open. She shot 68-69-71-71 to finish at five under par. Stanford has won seven times on the LPGA over 24 years, most recently in her home state at the 2020 Volunteers of America Classic. She will not play this year’s AIG Women’s Open.
Stanford exited the stage with Evian tournament director Jacques Bungert handing her a bouquet of flowers. Her peers approached her, with Gaby Lopez telling Stanford what the American meant to her and Brooke Henderson, 2022 Evian Championship winner, asking for a photo before she left.
"So I'm so grateful for everybody that has been along for the ride and always cheered, even it was just, we're actually here to watch somebody else but we're cheering for you too," Stanford said. "Hopefully I won some people over."