Gaby Lopez birdied the last three holes to finish the Dana Open in a fiery flourish. The 28-year-old Mexican got up and down from a greenside bunker with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to close with a 63 and earn her third career LPGA title.
Actually, she had rehearsed for this very moment the night before while emptying the dishwasher at the home of her host family. There was a vase on the rack that looked similar to this week’s trophy, and after someone suggested that she practice, Lopez hoisted it high.
“That’s when the mind gets really, really interesting,” said Lopez. “When you see yourself a little bit where you want to be and you see yourself ahead, it doesn’t come as a surprise as much probably.
“So, yeah, the power of mind is pretty much everything in this game.”
Lopez, who last won on the LPGA in 2020, was bogey-free on a damp Sunday at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, to finish at 18 under for the tournament and hold off a host of hungry players including 19-year-old Lucy Li, Megan Khang and defending champion Nasa Hataoka. Lopez birdied the last three holes on Saturday, too, to shoot 66 and head into the final round four strokes back.
Lopez has battled two injuries this season and hadn’t cracked the top 10 since the first tournament of the year when she finished solo third at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
“Honestly, I was very surprised how the year has been,” she said, “because I have hit it the best I’ve ever hit it in my life through this year, but I just couldn’t connect it.
“I was struggling sometimes on my driver and sometimes on my putting and sometimes on my iron shots, but I felt that I was hitting it really, really close the last couple months, and I was very, very frustrated that I couldn’t connect it.”
Lopez has worked with Steven Yellin and the Fluid Motion Factor for eight years, and said Yellin came to Sylvania for three days this week. Together they worked to reset the mind. The goal, she said, was to create more quiet space during the round and “get rid of all the drama.”
Yellin often talks to Lopez about “staying on the couch,” and she explained the meaning of the mantra after the win.
“Well, he has to tell you better than I can tell you,” she said, “but basically if you stay on the couch and you don’t get ahead of yourself, then everything comes to you and you don’t have to chase anything.
“So it’s pretty much…
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