Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Creamer, Miyazato, Pettersen fighting effects of car crash

Feb 27 (The Sports Xchange) - Paula Creamer, Ai Miyazato and Suzann Pettersen are battling the effects of a five-car crash late on Sunday in Bangkok, where they were driving to the airport to catch a flight to Singapore for this week's Women's HSBC Champions tournament.

Creamer strained a muscle in her neck and sustained whiplash, but participated in a photo shoot on Tuesday with fellow LPGA Tour players Pettersen, Angela Stanford and world number one Yani Tseng to promote the event.

Paula Creamer of U.S. waits to putt on the second hole during the third round at the Canadian Women's Open golf tournament in Mirabel, Quebec August 27, 2011. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

"I've felt better, that's for sure," Creamer said. "Those things happen all the time and you can't control something like that.

"I had pretty bad whiplash from hitting the headrest but I took it easy and hope that I can tee it up on Thursday. ... It's pretty amazing, like I said, how we walked away, but things happen."

Miyazato, who also is dealing with whiplash, hit about 20 golf balls on the range on Tuesday, but her neck was hurting so she decided not to push herself.

The Japanese has not made a decision yet on whether she will be able to play when the tournament tees off on Thursday.

"Even though my neck hurts, I still want to play so bad," said Miyazato, who won in Singapore in 2010. "I just want to play this tournament so bad. It's just a really sad feeling right now. Hopefully, really hopefully, I can play this weekend."

Pettersen escaped the worst of the crash as her vehicle was at the end of the convoy and avoided smashing into the other vehicles, but she was still shaken by the incident.

"We're just lucky enough that we all got away with no major injury." Pettersen said.

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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