The LPGA’s longest hitter is still trying to regain her speed following an emergency appendectomy.
Julia Lopez Ramirez, the 22-year-old Spanish rookie out of Mississippi State, thought she’d contracted food poisoning while competing in the Blue Bay LPGA in China in early March. She gutted out the pain for 36 holes before missing the cut and flying home. Upon landing, she couldn’t move her right leg, so she went to the doctor and was having surgery later that day.
Lopez Ramirez’s doctors gave her a four-week recovery timeline, though Lopez Ramirez had other plans, teeing it up in the Ford Championship in Arizona just two weeks after having her appendix removed. She finished 73rd.
“Obviously still having a bit abdominal pain, but I was like, I really wanted to play, especially being a rookie,” Lopez Ramirez said. “I feel like you just want to play everything.”
Lopez Ramirez’s second start post-surgery is this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship at El Caballero Country Club. She fired a 4-under 68 in Thursday’s first round, five shots back of leader Ashleigh Buhai.
She’s still not fully back.
Lopez Ramirez leads the LPGA in driving distance at 291.69, over 3 yards longer than fellow rookie Ingrid Lindblad. But on Thursday, she averaged 269 off the tee.
“I’ve been struggling with distance at the moment,” Lopez Ramirez said. “I probably lost like 10 to 15 [yards] because I couldn’t go work out until last week. I lost a lot of weight because it was just all rehab, exercising. It was all abdominal pain, so anything related to that I couldn’t do. … I am starting to do things now.”