Lang admits all she lacks is the confidence to close

When Brittany Lang strode off the green to close out an impressive opening round and stand one shot back of the lead at the LPGA Lotte Championship on Wednesday, she did not stare up at the leaderboard.

She did not revel in a 3-under par 69 that was a considerable accomplishment in the wind farm that was gusty Ko Olina.

And she maintained she did not wonder if this could finally be the start of that overdue breakthrough LPGA Tour victory that has escaped her for going on seven years now.

Well, maybe, just a little?

“Yeah, I mean, of course you’re going to think that,” Lang acknowledged. “But, I’m really not. I’m just … I’m really not thinking about that right now.”

“That” being a bedeviling string of 163 LPGA events without a victory.

Plenty of golfers in this week’s field of 144 have yet to win on the tour, including first-round leader Beth Bader, who was four shots under par and has never finished higher than fourth place. Many never will. But it is hard to find someone as consistently excellent and for whom victory has been as close or as elusive as Lang.

Six runner-up performances attest to her ability to contend. Thirty-three top-10 finishes underline her long-haul virtuosity. More than $3 million in winnings speak of her talent. Two Solheim Cup appearances are testament to the regard in which she is held.

But that absence of a single victory hints at her enduring frustration.

“That’s a lot of tournaments,” Lang said. “This is my seventh year on tour, so I should have won by now.”

Of that the 26-year-old Lang is regularly reminded. “My friends and my family, we don’t talk a whole lot of golf, but I hear it all the time when I come to tournaments — from pro-am people or (others) — which is natural,” Lang said. “You know, a good player who hasn’t won … it is natural to talk about it.”

Especially on days like this one when she turned in such a workman-like five-birdie round under trying conditions. What she would term, “just basic, good iron shots, good putts, no long putts or anything like that. Just good golf. A good, solid swing.”

The kind of an effort that makes you scratch your head and wonder how it is that victory has thus far escaped her grasp?

Technique hasn’t been her problem. Conditioning, either, for someone who is a self-confessed fitness buff. Instead it comes down to strength of another kind. “I’m not that strong mentally,” Lang said. “I need to get strong mentally and I need to build my confidence. I have a lot of good physical talent, but I was never groomed mentally (while) growing up. (But) I’ve done a lot of work on it and I just think I have a little ways to go to be good under pressure. Some people are just good under pressure. That’s not how I was, so I’m working hard to get there. It’ll happen. It is just going to take time.”

In the meantime, she’ll work at trying to craft more efforts like Wednesday’s that will propel her into contention and then try to finally close the deal.

“You know, I keep telling myself that it’ll happen,” Lang said. “I’ve almost stopped thinking about it and I’m just trying to have fun and work on my game. I work so hard and I just beat myself up when I don’t get that win, so I’m trying to enjoy it a little bit more.”

Wednesday there would be enjoyment in playing well. And, purportedly in trying to keep it firmly in perspective with 54 more holes to go.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.