SYLVANIA, Ohio – Paula Creamer feels like a rookie all over again. Only this time, she’s a rookie mom, competing for the time on the LPGA this week since giving birth to daughter Hilton Rose in January. Creamer is one of two LPGA players coming back from maternity leave at the Dana Open as Spain’s Azahara Munoz returns with son Lucas, who was born in late February.
“I just feel very in control of my golf game, very motivated,” said Creamer. “It’s a different mindset than I think what I’ve had in the past, and I truly believe that is also because of Hilton. Just you feel stronger I think as a mom. I definitely want to play well for her, not only for myself.”
Creamer, a 10-time winner tour who last competed at the 2021 Amundi Evian, won the 2008 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club on the strength of an opening 60, the lowest round of her career.
The 36-year-old thought about coming back earlier to the tour, but decided it was too early for Hilton to travel – and she wasn’t going without her.
Creamer, who like Munoz had a C-section, said she got back to practicing a bit later than she had planned. She mostly stuck to walks around the neighborhood for several months until early March.
“Picking up the club was probably the easiest part of it,” said Creamer. “The mental side of it took me a little bit, but I was able to — we live so close to the driving range and practice area where I could bounce back home. It’s only 20 yards from where I live, so I was able to check in and out.
“At the same time, I had to tell myself, she’s safe, she’s good, she’s fine, go and do my job.”
Munoz didn’t miss a workout until the day she had Lucas, texting her trainer to let her know that she wasn’t feeling so great. Staying active until her son’s birth, she believes, helped her to bounce back quickly after taking off the initial six weeks.
Munoz’s husband Tim Vickers, a wealth advisor at FineMark, is in town this week and the couple is taking advantage of the LPGA’s Smuckers Child Development Center.
“Yesterday, walking in I was a bit – like you know when your heart is a bit tight,” said Munoz, “but as soon as I was there and they are so good, they grab the back and he’s mine. He’s good. I’m good.”
Munoz battled anxiety, fatigue and hair loss before being diagnosed several years ago with Hashimoto’s disease, a thyroid problem that robbed her of precious energy.
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