Maria Torres put Puerto Rico’s flag atop the leaderboard Thursday at the Evian Championship.
The LPGA rookie’s move was well timed, giving the U.S. commonwealth a boost of pride with the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s devastating landfall looming.
Torres was huddled with her family in San Juan when the hurricane hit on Sept. 20 of last year, thrashing their apartment with 155 mph winds. While the family emerged safely, they endured the aftermath, with no running water for two days and no air conditioning for a week.
It was the most devastating natural disaster on record in the island’s history.