Erica Blasberg
by hound dog on May 11, 2010 4:22 AM PDT
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I didn't go online Monday afternoon or evening and didn't see much TV, so it was this morning that I learned of the death of Erica Blasberg. No specifics have been released even now - here is the press release from LPGA.com. Ryan at Waggle Room has a few more details - he learned about it from Maria Hjorth via Twitter. Blasberg would have turned 26 in July.
I can't tell you how shocked I am. Erica was one of those players who didn't have a lot of success on Tour, but had the looks and personality that would have made her a star with just a handful of Top 10 finishes. When I attended my first LPGA event at the 2006 Florida's Natural in Atlanta, Erica was the player I didn't know beforehand that I noticed and rooted for ever since - we all have a couple of those, don't we?
Her final event was the Tres Marias Championship, where she got in as a Monday qualifier. She made the cut and finished T44, which would have significantly bumped up her Priority Status next month. Obviously, she was still trying her best to make a living on Tour despite the few opportunities. While we wait to find out more about what happened to Erica, please keep her family, friends and extended Tour family in your thoughts.
UPDATE: More links, from Beth Ann Baldry at Golfweek and from GolfDigest.com.
UPDATE 2: If you never got to see her play, this link to the old HD blog contains a clip of Erica putting during Round Two of the 2008 Fields Open. I'll try to get it imbedded here later today.
UPDATE 3: Shane Bacon wrote a wonderful piece at Yahoo Sports, as did Patricia Hannigan at Golf Girl's Diary.
UPDATE 4: While looking up her stats at LPGA.com, I came across this clip of Erica at a "back to college" visit in Morelia just two weeks ago - prior to the Tres Marias Championship. In the clip she answers a question about whether golf is seen as an old person's game.
UPDATE 5: Chase Callahan (Erica's agent) said today that Blasberg had her bags packed and was scheduled to fly Sunday evening to Alabama where she would attempt to Monday qualify. Hopefully that news will put all suicide speculation to rest.
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Thank you for the Back to College link
I hadn’t seen that video. So numbing to look at it now, the smile and positive outlook, a girl in her mid 20s prime, or not even there, yet with two weeks to live.
I always rooted for Erica, and particularly after I learned she had relocated to the Las Vegas area, my adopted base. Here’s a link to a Las Vegas golf website, detailing Erica’s involvement in the local golf community:
http://www.golflasvegasnow.com/blasberg-passes-las-vegas-1328-3.php
I hope it wasn’t suicide but from personal experience you can’t tell by mood, even extremely recent. Last September my sister attempted suicide literally hours after an upbeat Sunday morning drive around town with my dad and I, visiting memorable places from our childhood. Everything seemed great then my dad got a distressed call hours later from my aunt. Luckily my sister had regrets and called my aunt soon after taking the 30 odd pills. We were able to rush paramedics to the house and she recovered after a couple of weeks in the hospital.
Here’s a new tidbit I found in a New York Times article, indicating Erica texted her caddie and said she wouldn’t be making the trip to Bell Micro:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/sports/golf/12lpga.html
“Cho’s caddie, Missy Pederson, was supposed to carry Blasberg’s bag on Monday. She said she retrieved a text message from Blasberg on Sunday morning saying that she was not coming.
The text was sent in the middle of the night, which worried Pederson, who sent Blasberg a text message saying she hoped everything was O.K. Pederson never received a reply."
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