Kupcho, Fassi Navigate Known Unknowns

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA | She has the polish and, at least from early indications, the game. Maria Fassi, the fiery athlete from Pachuca, Mexico, fresh off her NCAA individual championship title last week in Arkansas, spent her second day as a professional golfer prepping like a veteran for the U.S. Women’s Open. On Tuesday, Fassi played nine holes early (Monday was an 18-hole day) and then went to the short-game area at the Country Club of Charleston, where she spent 45 minutes hitting chips, pitches and bunker shots – shots she will need to compete, not just this week but every time she tees it up in the coming months.

She was poised and focused, with just a hint of swagger in her carriage. If you didn’t know she was a golfer, you would look at Fassi’s athletic build and assume she was a competitive swimmer or one of those freakish athletes on American Ninja Warrior. Wearing the aviator sunglasses that introduced her to the world at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where she was the runner-up, Fassi walked like a player w...