Many players want to forget what happened when they tried to fly back home.
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol in Springfield, New Jersey, was a fantastic event. Several stars made Sunday charges, including Rose Zhang and Yuka Saso, but it was 20-year-old Ruoning Yin who held the hardware when it was all said and done.
Although the week was a memorable one, many players want to forget all about what happened to them when they tried to fly back home.
More than 1,600 U.S. flights have been canceled and over 5,400 more have been delayed as of Tuesday evening, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
United Airlines flights were impacted most heavily, with 471 flights scrapped – 16 percent of its schedule – and more than 1,000 delayed. Newark Liberty International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York saw the most cancellations and delays.
The disruptions came as severe weather rolled through the East Coast and Central Plains. Strong weather that moved through the Northeast, especially around New York, was behind many of the cancellations and delays.
This wreaked havoc, forcing several players to ditch their plane tickets for car keys.
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Here’s what several LPGA players faced this week after competing at the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship:
The most staggering feat of Ruoning Yin’s historic victory at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship was the 37 consecutive greens she hit to close the championship. It’s the longest streak by any player on the LPGA in 2023. That it came on the weekend of a major championship on a brute of a test like Baltusrol’s Lower Course makes it all the more impressive.
Yin, 20, came into the week leading the LPGA in Strokes Gained: Approach per round in the KPMG Performance Insights, a data platform that is now available to fans and media. At the KPMG, she also led the field in that category, gaining 2.39 strokes per round for the championship. Yin was the only player in the field to gain at least 1.5 strokes gained approach in all four rounds.
“I think, more mature,” said Yin of how she’s grown since joining the tour in 2022. “Like before, I just go straight at the flag every shot, and right now I think I play smart, more smart right now.”
Yin, now the second Chinese player to win a major after Shanshan Feng (2012 Wegmans), closed with a bogey-free 67 on Sunday and notched only six bogeys on the weekend, tied for the fewest of any player in the field along with Stephanie Meadow, who finished third.
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Yin hit 66 of 72 greens for the week, or 92 percent. She hit 44 of 48 greens when hitting her approach from the fairway and ranked fourth off the tee in strokes gained driving for the week.
“For the last couple days, my ball-striking was perfect,” said Yin after clinching the title with a dramatic 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole.
Yin won her first LPGA title in March at the DIO Implant LA Open. She practices out of Tranquilo Golf Course in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, former site of the LPGA’s season-opening Tournament of Champions, and works with swing coach Holton Freeman.
“I could tell immediately when I met her a year and a half ago that she had some special intangibles that are difficult to teach if a person/player doesn’t already have them,” Freeman wrote on Instagram after her first victory.
“Trust and self-belief, executing under pressure, refusing to give in when she is faced with chaos and adversity, etc. Those were all on display yesterday when she made three bogeys in a row to lose the lead, followed by four consecutive birdies to reclaim the lead. A great example and lesson for younger players to learn from.”
Yin’s caddie, Jon Lehman, called his new boss wise beyond her years, saying she plays more like a 35-year-old under pressure. Yin called Lehman in to help her on the greens this week, and after losing more than six strokes to the field putting in rounds two and three, she gained 0.41 putting on Sunday. She mostly struggled with speed control.
Yin rose to No. 5 in the world after becoming only the second woman to win on the Lower Course, joining 1961 U.S. Women’s Open winner Mickey Wright. She heads next to Pebble Beach Golf Links, where she’ll make her second USWO appearance.
Leona Maguire’s Irish village threw a parade when she helped win a Solheim Cup. Imagine what they’d do if she won a major.
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey — Leona Maguire’s Irish village threw a parade in her honor when she led Europe to a Solheim Cup victory two years ago. The highlight, she said, was that her 96-year-old grandmother, Kathleen, got to ride in the passenger seat beside her, soaking in the scene of well-wishers cheering them on after a prolonged period of strict lockdown.
Imagine what they’d do if she became the first Irish woman to win a major.
Maguire, hot off her second career victory at last week’s Meijer LPGA Classic, leads a major championship for the first time in her career at the KPMG Women’s PGA. The former Duke star shot 3-under 68 on another rainy day in Jersey to pace the field at 5-under 137. Her 2021 Solheim Cup partner at Inverness, Mel Reid, shot 67 to pull into a share of second with rookie Celine Borge of Norway and China’s Xiyu Lin.
Two-time major winner Minjee Lee sits two back at 3 under with Lee-Anne Pace, a 42-year-old who got into the ShopRite LPGA Classic two weeks ago and played her way into this event with a T-30 finish there.
Maguire, who last Sunday credited Padraig Harrington’s help with her short game last summer in helping her win the Meijer, became the first Irishwoman to win on the LPGA last season.
“I think Ireland as a country punches well above our weight when it comes to golf,” said Maguire, “and it’s nice to have the guys looking out for me, Padraig, Paul (McGinley), Shane (Lowry). All of the guys have been very good to me, and very appreciative of all of that.”
She celebrated that victory with her team on Monday at Ruth’s Chris, where she had steak and her favorite side dish, sweet potato casserole. Maguire and her caddie reminisced about that dinner during the worse-than-usual wait times between shots.
“I think the big thing today was staying really patient,” said Maguire, “given that we were in a two, jam-packed in a field that wasn’t really moving. Did a good job at sort of staying — concentrating and sort of warm when I needed to. It kind of kept the momentum going.”
Maguire played in a twosome with Hinako Shibuno on Friday after their third, Austin Ernst, withdrew after the first round. Ernst recently announced her retirement from the LPGA due to a lingering neck injury.
Leona Maguire putts on the 18th green during the second round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports
A total of 79 players made the cut. Nelly Korda, No. 2, was the biggest name to miss the weekend after rounds of 76-77. Atthaya Thitikul, Jennifer Kupcho and Lilia Vu also went home early. Lexi Thompson birdied four of the last five holes to avoid a similar fate.
Reid told her wife Carly last September that she was going to take a job in the media and quit golf. She’d been dealing with an overuse injury to her right wrist and thought it might be time to walk away. Time with her mental coach Duncan McCarthy, however, helped her hit the restart button after taking a medical leave from the tour.
“I think I had six events to play well to get reshuffled after Founders,” said Reid. “I think I birdied the last at Founders to make the cut on the number, and it’s funny, that was huge for me. Then I finished 27th or 25th or something, which kind of reshuffled me back into stuff, which kind of took a little bit of pressure off.”
Reid and her wife are expecting their first child later this year. That has also increased her hunger to succeed.
The game can, at times, feel like an obsession to the fiery English player. Being constantly switched on, in analyzing mode, left her feeling drained.
“So we’ve done a really good job, not perfect, but kind of when I’m at the golf course, I’m Mel the golfer, very professional, get my work done, very present,” she said. “When I’m at home, I’m present with my friends, with Carly, whatever it is I’m doing, and we’re just trying to separate that.”
“I’m like, I just need to fire at pins,” said Thompson. “Trust me, I was trying to do it the whole time.”
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey – Lexi Thompson came alive late on Friday at the KPMG Women’s PGA, pouring in four birdies over her last five holes to vault inside the cutline at Baltusrol’s Lower Course.
“I’m like, I just need to fire at pins,” said Thompson. “Trust me, I was trying to do it the whole time. Kind of just all clicked coming in. Made some really good putts and really stuck to my game plan coming in.”
Thompson, 28, curled in a 25-footer for birdie on the eighth hole (her 17th) to put an exclamation point on a day that looked headed for the gutter as she was 8 over for the championship through 31 holes.
Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA who last triumphed in 2019, hit only five fairways and 10 greens in her first 18 holes and took 32 putts. She opened with a 76 playing alongside the LPGA’s newest sensation, Rose Zhang, and two-time major winner Minjee Lee.
— KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 23, 2023
Friday’s birdie flurry, however, gave Thompson a 1-under 70 in the second round, moving her to 4 over for the tournament, nine shots back of leader Leona Maguire.
Currently No. 9 in the world, Thompson opened the season with a share of third at the Saudi Ladies International. The KPMG is only her fifth LPGA start of the season. She missed the cut in three of those, including last week’s Meijer LPGA Classic.
“Like I said, it’s been a struggle this whole kind of year except for my first event of the year,” said Thompson.
“But I’ve been working probably harder than ever in my whole life on the golf course and when I’m home practicing. Just to be able to come through towards the end and make those birdies, it’s nice to see hard work pay off, even though I’m still at 4 over. I’m taking it. I’m taking the little, small win right now and building it.”
Some of the biggest names in the women’s game headed home early at Baltusrol.
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey — Some of the biggest names in the women’s game headed home early at Baltusrol. Nelly Korda and Atthaya Thitikul missed the cut by a mile in the first women’s major held over the Lower Course since 1961.
“You hit it a little sideways off the tee and that’s what happens on a golf course like this,” said Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis, who will play the weekend.
“It’s that chipping out and having to constantly be getting up and down from 100 yards, it’s exhausting.”
Lexi Thompson looked poised to miss the weekend as she was outside the top 100 early on Friday, but then came roaring back with four consecutive birdies near the end of her round to sneak in at 4 over. Given how little both Thompson and Korda have played this season, Lewis said she wouldn’t have put any money on them.
Korda took a month off with an injury, and Thompson has played in only five previous LPGA events this season, including the Hanwha International Crown.
“That’s going to be my encouraging words that come later this fall,” said Lewis, “that they play some more tournaments heading into Solheim.”
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Linn Grant’s debut at the KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol surely felt like a long time coming for the up-and-coming Swedish star. This week marks Grant’s first major championship on American soil since the December 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, and she’s squarely in the mix heading into the weekend.
Vaccination travel restrictions kept Grant from playing in the United States after she earned her LPGA card in 2021. Remarkably, she managed to keep her card by competing in events only held outside the U.S., recording four top-eight finishes in the span of six events.
Back-to-back rounds of even par on a soggy Lower Course in Springfield, New Jersey, have Grant four strokes back of leader Xiyu Lin.
“I feel like my game is getting better for each day,” said Grant. “That’s usually how I work.”
Now a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, Grant said she wouldn’t have the same level of confidence in her game that she now possesses were it not for the experiences she had playing in Europe. She topped the season-long Race to Costa del Sol in 2022 and won the Jabra Ladies Open earlier this year in France.
“I try to see it as a positive,” said Grant, who made history when she beat the men at the Scandinavian Mixed last year. “That’s pretty much all I can do.”
Now No. 22 in the world, Grant missed the first major of the season in Texas as well as the chance to represent Sweden at the Hanwha International Crown due to travel restrictions.
With the national public health emergency expiring in May, the former Arizona State player was permitted to compete in the LET event in West Palm Beach, Florida. In her first LPGA start in the U.S., she advanced to the semifinals of the Bank of Hope Match-Play at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
While the vaccination topic is deeply controversial, Grant said she reads all the comments on her Instagram feed and said most of them have been positive.
“I think a lot of people think that they’re negative,” she said, “but at least on my Instagram they’re all positive.
“The few negative I get, I just brush them off. They don’t know me. They don’t know my reasons.”
Golfweek‘s Beth Ann Nichols, who is on the ground this week for the women’s second major of the year, had to call an audible last night. The weather in Springfield, New Jersey, has been dreadful and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club heads to the weekend.
So, a trip to the store for rain pants was needed.
Scattered thunderstorms are expected to hit the area this afternoon, while both days over the weekend are forecasted to receive rain.
Here’s a look at the complete forecast for the next few days at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey – Xiyi Lin first met a teenage Ruoning Yin at the 2019 Buick LPGA Shanghai. Yin asked Lin for advice on what would be the proper way to get to the LPGA.
“At that time, I was like, ‘Wow, like this kid, she really wants something,” said Lin.
Fast forward four years to the KPMG Women’s PGA, where Lin and Yin were briefly tied atop the leaderboard at 4 under with two-time major winner Brooke Henderson before South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace birdied the 18th get to 5 under. The two Orlando-based friends from China put together bogey-free rounds at Baltustrol’s Lower course on a day when big numbers were plentiful.
Lin, 27, who goes by “Janet” on tour and Yin, 20, who goes by “Ronnie,” play together every couple of weeks when they’re both in town but have talked more regularly of late about plumbing issues. Yin now rents Lin’s old house.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been dealing with some draining problems,” said Lin, “so when I see her, I always feel so sorry. Not with the golf, but it’s like the toilet is clogged or something. We finally fixed it like three weeks ago.”
Yin considers Lin to be a mentor, but she’s also technically her landlord.
Ruoning Yin plays a shot from the fairway on the 18th hole during the first round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports
“Yeah, I know,” said Lin. “After she win, I’m like, ‘I need to raise the rent. It was way too low for you now.’ ”
Lin laughed, taking great delight in the success of her friend. Yin won the DIO Implant Open earlier this spring, becoming the second Chinese winner in LPGA history after former No. 1 and 10-time LPGA winner Shanshan Feng, who is now retired and working as China’s national coach. Feng won this event in 2012 when it was known as the LPGA Championship.
“Shanshan, I think, is my goal,” said Yin. “All the Chinese players’ goal.”
There are nine Chinese players currently competing on the LPGA and 10 Chinese players have earned a check on the Epson Tour this season. There are also 30 Chinese players playing college golf in the U.S.
“I think there’s more to come,” said Yin.
Lin, currently No. 14 in the world and seeking her first tour title, finished tied for third last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic. She smiled brightly in the aftermath despite another close call. Lin finished second three times in 2022 and lost in a playoff to former KPMG champ Hannah Green earlier this year at the JM Eagle LPGA Championship.
“I compliment myself a lot more than before,” said Lin. “I feel like I get to a point that I know what’s going to happen. I’m experienced enough. I’m still going to miss a cut here and there, still going to feel hurt, still going to feel bad from a bad round, but I’m old enough to be able to deal with them. I feel like I work hard and I balance my life.”
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship purse doubled last year from $4.5 million to $9 million. One year later, the purse has jumped to $10 million. Last year’s U.S. Women’s Open of $10 million marked the first time a woman’s purse reached eight figures.
The winner of this week’s event will earn $1,500,000 while the second-place check comes in at $889,964. Players who finish in the top 23 this week earn six figures. This field will be cut to the top 70 and ties after 36 holes. Those who don’t play the weekend will receive $4,000 to help cover the expenses this week in New Jersey. All players in the field were also given a courtesy Cadillac for the week.
This week marks the first time a women’s major has been contested at Baltusrol’s Lower Course since Mickey Wright won the 1961 U.S. Women’s Open.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Stacy Lewis didn’t want to pile on to the craziness that followed Rose Zhang’s breakout victory earlier this month, but the U.S. Solheim Cup captain had one request for the rookie this week: She needed her to try on clothes.
Lewis was eyeing Zhang for the 2024 Solheim Cup team, knowing that she’d need to win on the LPGA to be eligible for this year’s event in Spain. Needless to say, she’s following Zhang a little more closely now.
“I’d love for her to make it on her own,” said Lewis, “and take the decision out of my hands.”
Zhang, 20, makes her major debut as a professional at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and comes to Baltusrol hot off a slate of final exams at Stanford. The computer science class that’s been giving her fits all quarter was the toughest.
“Once I came back, I just felt all the – I don’t know, I was stressed about it, but at the same time, I wasn’t stressed because I honestly couldn’t care at that point about what my grades were,” Zhang told a packed press conference area on the eve of the championship.
“As long as I passed the class, as long as I completed what I needed to, I was pretty much done with sophomore year.”
Rose Zhang of the United States walks with her caddie up the 18th hole during a practice round prior to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club on June 21, 2023, in Springfield, New Jersey. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Zhang won the Mizuho Americas Open earlier this month in her professional debut, becoming the first player to win an LPGA event in her pro start since Beverly Hanson in 1951. It’s been a whirlwind since, with Zhang embarking on a media tour in New York City before heading back to Palo Alto where her non-golf friends helped keep life in perspective.
“Once I got back on campus, all my friends were like, ‘Yo, congrats,’ ” said Zhang. “After that, we spent time just talking about random things and how they have been surviving campus life.”
The first time Lewis captained Zhang was a couple years ago at the Spirit International in Texas. Zhang shot 10 under that week to win the individual title.
“And if you had watched her play,” said Lewis, “you’d probably say she played bad. It was very impressive with her demeanor and the way she carries herself.”
After Zhang met with media in the flash area, she headed over to Golf Channel’s onsite set where she humbly declared that her goal this week was to make the cut. She said something similar at Mizuho. Before leaving the set, she made sure to compliment analysts Amanda Blumenherst and Paige Mackenzie on their playing careers.
In the days leading up to the KPMG, Zhang spent time at home playing with her 2 ½-year-old niece, who has no idea, of course, that her aunt now has a grown-up job and is a rising star in women’s sport.
The biggest adjustment, so far, she said would be that she hasn’t been able to work on her game as much as she did as an amateur. Zhang’s daily grind at Stanford was legendary.
“I feel like as an amateur, you take it for granted,” she said, “where you can just be out on the range, no one is talking to you. You can hit balls for like four hours. You can chip, putt, do whatever you need to.
“But I can’t really do that anymore.”
Few in the game know what it’s like to play under the microscope at a young age more than Lydia Ko, though the Kiwi’s path to the LPGA was decidedly different, winning on the tour as an amateur at the age of 15 and turning professional at 16 – by then a two-time winner on the LPGA.
“I think you guys like to talk about first this, last this, this-this,” Ko told the media. “There’s always titles.”
The 26-year-old 19-time LPGA winner noted that she and Zhang are really not that far apart in age – six years – though she wonders if people think she’s 35 by now.
“She’s a very special player,” said Ko. “I don’t think you need me to say she’s special … her accolades and everything speak for itself.”
