Jennifer Kupcho will tee it off with the men at Green Valley Ranch in Denver, a place she’s won before, on July 23-26.
Jennifer Kupcho will tee it up in her first men’s professional tournament alongside a familiar face: her brother, Steven.
After winning her first professional title at the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open at Green Valley Ranch in Denver last June, Jennifer received an invitation to compete against the men July 23-26 on the same course.
“I’m not really setting any expectations,” Jennifer told Golfweek in a text, “but definitely plan to play my best and am feeling very motivated by the challenge of playing against such a great field. Regardless of the outcome, I’m really just appreciative of the opportunity to raise the visibility of women in golf and am excited to get to play alongside the guys. I hope it opens some eyes, raises some questions and maybe even inspires others.”
Jennifer, of course, won the 2018 NCAA Championship while at Wake Forest and made history as the first woman to win a tournament at Augusta National last year. The 23-year-old turned professional after she graduated last spring and is 54th in the Rolex Rankings. She’ll be in the field next week in Toledo, Ohio, when the LPGA restarts its season at the new Drive On LPGA Championship at Inverness.
Jennifer Kupcho of the United States poses with the trophy on the No. 12 hole after winning the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, Saturday, April 6, 2019.
In June, Jennifer shattered the tournament scoring record by five strokes with rounds of 67-65-68 at Green Valley. The course will play considerably longer this week, around 900 yards longer, than it did for the women. Jennifer currently ranks fifth on the LPGA in driving distance at 276 yards.
Older brother, Steven, comes into the event on a hot streak after carding 63-62 to get into a playoff and win on the Dakotas Tour one week after tying the knot. Jennifer says she has always looked up to her brother and that her swing was influenced by trying to keep up with him off the tee at a young age. Steven played collegiate golf at Northern Colorado.
“We’re so close in age and we really learned the game of golf by playing together when we were growing up,” she wrote. “We’re both very competitive and like to push each other, so having that sort of sibling rivalry dynamic from the start absolutely played a role in my competitive nature.”
The first brother-sister duo to compete in the Colorado Open tee off at 2:35 ET time alongside defending champion Sam Saunders.
New mom Michelle Wie West has been named an assistant captain for the 2021 U.S. Solheim Cup team.
Michelle Wie West didn’t sit around waiting for a call. When she heard that Pat Hurst was going to be the 2021 Solheim Cup captain, Wie West texted her “Pod Mom” saying that she’d love to be an assistant captain.
Hurst didn’t give the nod right away, but Wie West got her wish.
“All the players love her,” said Hurst. “They respect her, and that’s what I need.”
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Wie West was a mystery to most. When she competed on her first Solheim Cup team in 2009, it marked the first time players got to know the former phenom away from an entourage. They discovered that the “kid” could hang. And her passion shone through in a rousing 3-0-1 Cup debut.
Juli Inkster was so impressed that she predicted a Wie West victory on the LPGA before the year was out. Wie West proved her correct in November at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
Morgan Pressel (left) and Michelle Wie share a laugh during a team photo shoot prior to the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club.
“I won my first LPGA tournament after I played in the Solheim,” said Wie West on a media conference call, “and I don’t know if I hadn’t had that experience if that was going to happen that year.”
Wie West, 30, gave birth to daughter Makenna on June 19 and has posted several pictures with her on the range in recent weeks. The five-time LPGA winner confirmed that she still wants to continue playing on the LPGA, even in 2020 if possible, but her return mostly comes down to safety.
“It just depends really on the state of the world more than the state of my game at this point, unfortunately,” she said.
A silver lining to the pandemic break is that husband Jonnie West, an executive with the Golden State Warriors, will be mostly be her side through the end of the year.
“One positive thing that happened, there was a scenario where if (the Warriors) went to Orlando in the bubble and I was home by myself,” said Wie West, “I was quarantined, my parents couldn’t come, I could have been a single mother for a couple months all by myself, and that was a scary thought.”
Her parents, Bo and B.J., are in town now and Wie West took full advantage, recently playing 18 holes for the first time in a long time.
“I had to pump after nine holes,” she said, laughing.
Practice time on the range looks a bit different too these days. Wie West said she hits two balls and then goes over to check on McKenna before returning to hit two more.
The dream of hoisting hoisting a trophy on the 18th along with Makenna fuels Wie West to keep competing. She wants what Tiger Woods enjoyed at Augusta National last year.
That being said, she’s now more impressed than ever by what LPGA moms who have come before her have accomplished, notably Suzann Pettersen at last year’s Solheim Cup in Scotland and Catriona Matthew winning the Women’s British Open 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter. Wie West marveled at the idea, noting that she’s barely hitting driver 220 yards now.
For two Solheim Cups, Wie West was in Hurst’s player pod and greatly benefited from her nurturing approach. Wie West hopes that she can help other players feel comfortable too, given that she’s likely experienced every emotion there is in her five Solheim Cup appearances.
Wie West joins Angela Stanford as an assistant on Hurst’s squad. The 2021 Solheim Cup will be contested Sept. 4-6 at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Next week the LPGA restarts its season at Inverness at the new Drive On Championship where prominent Americans Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang, Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda and Stanford are among those in the field. Hurst won’t be onsite for the competition, however, as it’s closed to spectators.
The Women’s British Open has a new name and sponsorship has been extended through 2025.
At a time when tournament schedules around the world keep shrinking and uncertainty rules the day, AIG has delivered some reassurance to the women’s golf world. The company announced on Wednesday its commitment to extend title sponsorship of the AIG Women’s Open by two years to 2025.
The R&A and AIG also announced a rebrand of the event’s name. It will now be known as the AIG Women’s Open, dropping “British” from the title to align with the men’s Open Championship. The event, now owned by the R&A, has been around since 1976 and was elevated to a major in 2001.
“I am so grateful that AIG has continued to support women’s golf, particularly in the face of a pandemic,” said 2018 champion Georgia Hall in a statement. “It shows their dedication and support of us as athletes which we greatly appreciate.”
Georgia Hall the 2018 champion of the AIG Women’s Open. (R&A)
The first LPGA major of the year will be played Aug. 20-23 at Royal Troon without spectators. It will be the fourth event played after the LPGA’s COVID-19 break. The tour is set to restart next week in Ohio at the Drive On LPGA Championship.
“AIG proudly stands as allies with these accomplished players, and with women in business and society,” said Peter Zaffino, President & Global Chief Operating Officer, AIG in a statement. “In the face of challenging global circumstances, we are pleased that our increased support of the AIG Women’s Open will enable these dedicated professionals to compete and break down barriers that will provide a lasting example for future generations.”
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said the new name reflects the championship’s growing stature and broadening international appeal.
LPGA rookies used their downtime wisely to finish up degrees from the Pac-12 school.
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When Andrea Lee and Albane Valenzuela tee it up next week at the Drive On LPGA Championship, they’ll probably feel a little lighter than usual. In many ways, the LPGA restart will feel like the first day of school for the two LPGA rookies. Except that school is in the rearview mirror for these two. Over the COVID-19 break, Lee and Valenzuela became Stanford graduates.
“My mom bought this (graduation) cap off Amazon for $20,” said Lee, from her home in Hermosa Beach, California.
It was always going to be a tall task – juggling the beginning of an LPGA career with college courses. Never mind that it’s Stanford.
Andrea Lee celebrates her Stanford degree at home in Hermosa Beach, California. (Photo courtesy Andrea Lee)
Now, however, they can return to their new jobs free from homework assignments and make-up tests.
“It was definitely bittersweet,” said Lee of the June 14 online graduation. Both players snapped photos at the beach. Lee in California and Valenzuela in the Bahamas, where her family now resides.
Lee, a record nine-time winner at Stanford who took the McCormack Medal last year as the world’s leading amateur, said a few family members came over the day before for Korean barbecue and a Stanford-themed cake. On graduation day, she and her parents watched a 30-minute virtual ceremony. It wasn’t anything like she had pictured four years ago.
“Graduation happened and I cried,” she said. “My four years are over. Probably some of the best years of my life, and it just had a sad ending to it.”
Both Lee and Valenzuela earned LPGA status at Q-Series last November and decided to forgo their final semester of college to turn professional. They couldn’t know then that a global pandemic would wipe out spring college golf too.
The lockdown in the Bahamas was so strict, Valenzuela said, that there were times she literally could not step foot on the golf course outside her house.
“You could risk a fine of $20,000,” she said, “or five years in jail.”
When things did open up Valenzuela, a two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur finalist, got to work on her game. She also enjoyed games of squash with her brother and a growing passion for yoga.
— Stanford Women's Golf (@StanfordWGolf) June 14, 2020
For now, it will be a reunion of sorts at the Inverness Club, where 135 LPGA pros, including 15 rookies, will gather together to compete for the first time since mid-February. Lee competed twice on the LPGA before coronavirus halted play, taking a share of 62nd at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. Valenzuela will make her fourth LPGA start of the year next Friday. Both players are in the Marathon Classic as well, which takes place down the road from Inverness the following week.
“There’s no reshuffle for the rest of the year,” said Lee. “The only way to improve your status is to win. That’s definitely a goal of mine.”
Ahead of the LPGA restart, Lexi Thompson finished second in a Minor League Golf Tour event.
Lexi Thompson’s preparation for the LPGA restart included two stops on the Minor League Golf Tour against men.
On Tuesday, Thompson went toe-to-toe with Sunny Kim at Plantation Preserve Golf Club. Kim pulled away with a birdie on the last hole to clip Thompson by one in the two-day event.
Kim finished at 7-under 135 to earn his 71st title on the Minor League Tour. Thompson, who played from a shorter set of tees, closed with a 66 to finish at 136. Thompson won $1,124 for her efforts.
Sunny Kim and Lexi Thompson are tied going up 18 on the Minor League Tour…Kim has won 70 times on the developmental tour. pic.twitter.com/ZY44RTnSM7
The 11-time LPGA winner actually won a Minor League Golf Tour event in 2011 at age 16 on the course she grew up on, Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, Florida. She played her first MLGT event in 2009.
Last week, Thompson finished tied for seventh at The Falls Club, carding a 69. Kim won that one too, posting a 63.
The LPGA will host a tournament for the first time since mid-February next week at the Drive On Championship at Inverness Club. Thompson is among the headliners of the event, along with Nelly Korda, Jessica Korda and Danielle Kang.
Thompson last competed on the LPGA at the new Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio where she tied for 15th.
The Women’s World Golf Rankings Board of Directors announced points and divisors will only change and age on weeks when an athlete competes.
The Rolex Rankings are back – with a significant modification.
While the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, the Women’s World Golf Rankings Board of Directors announced on Monday in a release that points and divisors will only change and age on weeks when an athlete competes.
On weeks when a player does not compete, her individual points, average points and divisors will not change or age, though her ranking could still shift based on the performance of other athletes who are competing.
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This allows for unusual breaks in tournament schedules, travel restrictions and players who aren’t yet comfortable competing, or only want to compete in certain areas of the world.
“The WWGR Board was keen to find a solution that was as fair as possible for the majority of athletes whether competing or not during this unprecedented time,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, executive director of the board. “As a level of uncertainty around member tours’ tournament schedules continues, focusing on the individual athlete and the weeks she competes made the most sense. While the Board understands there is no perfect solution in these challenging times, we believe we landed on an approach that is reasonable for athletes and also protects the integrity of the ranking system.”
The rankings were put on pause the week of March 16 and no affiliated tours competed for two months as COVID-19 spread. Since May 11, the Korean LPGA has staged seven tournaments and the Japan LPGA has put on one.
The new system begins retroactively with the week of May 11, when the KLPGA restarted. The rankings will continue to be computed on a 104-week rolling period, but the period will differ based on when an athlete chooses to compete.
This board said this is a temporary modification.
Jin Young Ko remains the No. 1 player in the world. She has yet to compete on the LPGA this season.
The LPGA is set to resume next week at the Drive On Championship in Toledo, Ohio.
The field list is out for the LPGA’s first event since February and it’s, well, short. The new LPGA Drive On Championship was slated to have 144 players. There are 135 players signed up to compete July 31-Aug. 2 for a $1 million purse at the …
The field list is out for the LPGA’s first event since February and it’s, well, short. The new LPGA Drive On Championship was slated to have 144 players. There are 135 players signed up to compete July 31-Aug. 2 for a $1 million purse at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
That’s due in part to the large number of international players who are choosing to skip the back-to-back events in Toledo. Some might fly (or drive) directly to Scotland for the Aberdeen Scottish Investments Ladies Scottish Open and AIG Women’s British Open. And some might skip those too.
Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Danielle Kang and Minjee Lee are the only top-10 players in the field at Inverness. World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, Sung Hyun Park (No. 3), Nasa Hataoka (4), Sei Young Kim (6), Brooke Henderson (7) and Jeong Eun Lee6 (10) are all missing from the list.
There are 20 players in the top 50 of the Rolex Rankings in the field at Inverness. While it’s not a top-heavy field, it is chock full of players who are looking for a return to glory or a break-out moment, including 15 rookies.
Patty Tavatanakit, Albane Valenzuela, Haley Moore and Andrea Lee are among the rookies in the field, as well as Yui Kawamoto, who flew over from Japan last week and is in the midst of a two-week quarantine.
It looks like former Duke standout Leona Maguire has chosen to stay back in Ireland. Yealimi Noh, a hotshot rookie who has competed on the Korean LPGA, isn’t coming over to Ohio either.
But Natalie Gulbis, Laura Diaz and Kris Tschetter are playing under the tournament winners category. Gulbis announced earlier this year that this would be her final season on the LPGA.
LPGA players had too much time to think during the tour’s long break due to the coronavirus.
One of the most common complaints Shawnee Harle’s athletes have voiced over the years is they don’t have enough time.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, that complaint was often replaced with: “I’m bored.” “I can’t find any motivation.” “This isn’t fair.”
Suddenly time was all they had.
The mental toughness coach, who worked as an assistant for the Canadian women’s basketball team at two Olympic Games, challenged her students across all different sports to WAIT. That is to say, three times a day set an alarm and ask themselves, “What am I thinking?”
“We have around 60,000 thoughts a day,” said Harle, who notes that roughly 85 percent of those thoughts are negative and 90 percent are repetitive. “Pay attention and then shift,” she continued. “You get to choose what you think. I think that is so empowering. Be the boss of your thoughts. Catch yourself in the negative thoughts that are taking you away from your goals.”
Shawnee Harle.
The coronavirus break has impacted the LPGA more than most golf tours, with it having shut down in mid-February and not scheduled to return until the last week in July at the LPGA Drive On Championship in Ohio. Such a unique time highlights the disparities between the men’s and women’s game – earnings, resources, opportunities – even more.
Some players will come out of this with a refreshed and renewed spirit. Some might quit the game. Some will be mentally handicapped by a dwindling savings account. Others might play more freely than ever knowing their status is secured for 2021. (A player’s current LPGA status will roll over into next year.)
“We’re all dying to make money,” said Kim Kaufman. But at the same time, she continued, when will most players ever have a chance to play in 10 or more events where no matter the results, they get to come back next year?
It’s the bright side of a dark time, and being able to flip a tough situation on its head might mean the difference between success and trunk-slamming these next few months.
Kaufman began working with Harle last spring at the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open. Harle was the first person to tell Kaufman to stare down the hazards or bunkers she feared, acknowledge them and then shift to the plan.
“You can’t ignore those thoughts,” said Kaufman, “you can’t run from them.”
There will be a lot of that in the coming weeks as players tee it up for their first paycheck in months.
Angela Stanford believes veteran players will have an advantage. The 42-year-old Texan knows what it’s like to put the clubs down for eight weeks and say see you next year. She also knows what it’s like to work straight through an offseason.
Angela Stanford during the first round of the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio on January 23, 2020 in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
On weekends in Fort Worth, Texas, Stanford plays in a standing game with Shady Oaks members, and when the pressure mounts, she’s admittedly out there acting like it’s a major championship. She still thrives off of competition, but it’s always been the travel that gets to her.
The newly named assistant Solheim Cup captain has asked herself some tough questions during the extended time off.
“For someone like me to take a step back and say, how much do I still want to do this? How much is that sacrifice of traveling?” said Stanford. “If I’m asking myself those questions, I have to believe that every player is asking themselves these questions, too.”
Vision54 coaches Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott say every player is faced with an opportunity to reframe the situation. Nilsson recalled that when Annika Sorenstam first earned her tour card, she had only conditional status and had to play in Monday qualifiers.
Sorenstam had to reframe her plan: Either she makes it on Monday and has an opportunity to compete, or she gets a full week of practice to get better for the future. And besides, Nilsson said, she needed to get better at getting off to a fast start in the first round. Monday qualifiers presented an opportunity to improve on that.
When Ariya Jutanugarn won the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, her clubs didn’t show up until Wednesday’s practice round. She only saw the back nine of Shoal Creek before the tournament started.
“You stay stuck on lost, you’re going to be lost,” said Marriott, “whether it’s lost luggage or a lost opportunity.”
For some players, this coronavirus break might be the longest stretch they’ve gone without a touching a club or traveling since early childhood – something that never would have happened otherwise without injury or retirement.
The Vision54 coaches suggest players use timelines to project 10 years from now what they might have learned from this time. The Jutanugarn sisters – Ariya and Moriya are two of their clients – recently returned from a meditation retreat in northern Thailand. It’s obvious from social media posts that health and fitness have been a priority during the break.
LPGA rookie Albane Valenzuela used the extra time to finish her degree at Stanford, taking three classes while at home in the Bahamas. Knowing she won’t have to go back to LPGA Q-School this year or study during tournaments has provided a tremendous sense of relief.
Albane Valenzuela on the 17th hole during round 7 of the LPGA Q-Series at Pinehurst No. 9 on November 01, 2019. (Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
Valenzuela’s decision to forgo her final semester at Stanford was a “big leap of faith” for the Swiss star. She never could’ve dreamed that college golf would be cut short before the postseason and that Q-School would be canceled for 2020. So many college seniors are now faced with the reality that their LPGA dreams – even the Symetra Tour – has been delayed at least one year.
“It really just showed me that sometimes you have an opportunity in life,” said Valenzuela, “and you just have to jump, be a little risk-taking with your decision. I can’t imagine what it’s like to finish college and you don’t have Q-School. That’s so heart-breaking.”
When Harle gets a new client, she often asks: What are you afraid of? What are you protecting? What are you avoiding?
There’s nothing wrong with negative thoughts, she says. We’re hard-wired to protect ourselves against danger. “Mental toughness,” she said, “is what are you going to do with those thoughts?” Because in today’s uncertain times, they certainly aren’t going away.
Lydia Ko is the latest LPGA player to tell her story for the tour’s Drive On campaign.
Lydia Ko takes to heart the good advice she’s gotten from Stacy Lewis over the years.
“You can’t try to be someone that you were,” Ko said in reciting a line delivered from a former World No. 1 to Ko, who had come to occupy the position for the first time as a 17-year-old.
“I think that really resonated with me, and that made me realize, you know what, I can’t try and be somebody who I was before, and I’ve just got to be the best possible person of me today.”
Ko is the latest LPGA player to tell her story for the tour’s Drive On campaign. She has arrived at a beyond-her-years wisdom when it comes to pleasing others and trying to recreate the magic of the early, teenage years of her golf career.
“One thing I’ve learned throughout the journey these last few years,” she says in a short video, “is that you can’t make everyone like you. All you can do is make the best decisions you think at the time for yourself.”
"If we can make a little bit of a good difference in other people's lives, it makes the whole thing worth it."
In a corresponding letter the now 23-year-old Ko wrote to her 15-year-old self, Ko reveals an interaction between herself and Lewis at the CP Canadian Women’s Open, which Ko won as an amateur. It was her first of 15 LPGA titles and one of two she would win as an amateur, both in Canada.
Ko recounts Lewis walking beside her at that event telling her, “You’ve got this. You’re playing well. Now, finish strong.”
She encourages her former self to soak up that moment and to remember, “you’re a kid.” The moment will take your breath away, Ko tells her younger self.
These past few years, Ko has felt more than ever that she has the ability to take a step back and see the bigger picture. The tough moments – the ones that have forced her to grow – have also created a turning point.
“Your golf swing may come and go, but your family and friends, the people who care about you, will love you no matter what you shoot,” Ko wrote farther down in the letter. “Trophies are symbols of what you’ve accomplished in the past. Your family and friends represent who and what you can be in the future. Their hugs, their presence, their laughter is life’s greatest victory.”
At 15, Ko also won the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and even now names that as a career highlight. Asked at what point she began to soak in her many accomplishments as an adult, rather than a kid, Ko pointed to a recent coming-of-age moment: getting her driver’s license. Ko took the test just last week, in fact, in Orlando, where she lives.
Drive On thus has taken on a different meaning lately. Ko spent the down time forced by a global pandemic taking driving lessons. The test itself brought a familiar kind of pressure.
“I was very nervous,” she said. “I was like sweating, getting really sweaty in my hands. It kind of felt like what it feels like on the 18th hole when you’re coming in with like a one‑shot lead.”
Otherwise, Ko’s social media during the LPGA’s long break has featured plenty of sports content, if not always golf content. She’s kept herself occupied with other hobbies, like tennis. Rock climbing has always been a way to stay active while offering fitness benefits for upper-body and grip strength.
Filling her platforms with the good things in life has become a way she feels like she can make a difference. Her Drive On campaign spot furthers that effort.
Suddenly, it’s not just time spent atop the Rolex Rankings that puts her in the same category as players like Lewis.
“I want to be the next Se Ri Pak or the next Annika Sorenstam, the next Brooke Henderson,” Ko said. “But at the end of the day all you can do is really, like I said earlier, be the best version of you.”
To help professional women golfers track their fitness and monitor potential COVID-19 risks, the LPGA Tour is partnering with Whoop.
The LPGA tour announced on Friday that several partners are assisting the tour with its plans to restart professional women’s golf in the United States. Cambia Health Solutions is providing masks to players, caddies and staff members, and Global Rescue is providing medical advisory support to players who are competing in tournaments. Among the other brands mentioned is a new partner, Whoop, a Boston-based company that has become a major presence in the world of golf over the past year.
Whoop is providing LPGA and Symetra Tour players, caddies and staffers with Whoop 3.0 straps. The PGA Tour partnered with Whoop in June to get straps for its players, caddies and staff members, as well as individuals on the Korn Ferry Tour.
I’m proud to support @lpga and the best women’s golfers in the world. If you can help the men, help the women! 🏌️🏌🏼♀️
Whoop’s 3.0 strap can be worn on a person’s wrist or biceps and it holds a small electronic sensor. The waterproof sensor measures your heart rate over 100 times per second and the amount of strain that your body endures throughout the day. It also measures the quality of your sleep, and over time, Whoop’s algorithms reveal how efficiently your heart and body are working using a free smartphone app. It also measures how much rest you need to recover from the previous day and more.
After studying user-submitted data during the COVID-19 pandemic, Whoop researchers learned that a person’s respiratory rate (how often they breathe as they sleep) often spikes if they become infected with the virus.
Nick Watney saw his Whoop indicated an elevated respiratory rate on the Friday morning of the RBC Heritage and while he felt only mild symptoms, seeing that number encouraged him to get tested before the tournament’s second round. Watney tested positive and withdrew from the event.
On the LPGA tour, Jessica Korda, Nelly Korda and Christina Kim are among the players who already wear a Whoop strap. On the men’s side, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Billy Horschel and Rickie Fowler were among the players who wore a Whoop strap before the company partnered with the PGA Tour.
Wearing a Whoop 3.0 strap will not stop someone from contracting COVID-19. But, if it can alert golfers and other people who are asymptomatic but still carrying the virus, golf’s governing bodies want athletes and the people around them to wear the device.
