‘He has walked in my shoes’: This former PGA Tour winner-turned-instructor is making quite an impact on the women’s game

This former PGA Tour winner turned instructor is making quite an impact on the women’s game.

The first time Grant Waite met with Jodi Ewart Shadoff, it rained. He filmed two swings, and they talked about her back pain. Ewart Shadoff, who had missed the cut in eight of her last 10 events, feared her career might be cut short. Waite offered a few swing change suggestions to ease the pain and said he’d see her soon at the LPGA stop in Arkansas.

The first hole at Pinnacle Country Club is on the shorter side, and Waite, a former winner on the PGA Tour, watched Ewart Shadoff knock it to 6 feet from about 70 yards. What happened next made a strong impression.

“She walked on the green she just kind of really stopped breathing,” said Waite. “I could tell by her body language how stressed she was. Not only the situation of where she stood the money list, but playing golf at the moment. I said I’ve never had more of an urge to walk on the green and give a player a hug and say everything is going to be OK; I can help you.”

Grant Waite makes a tee shot on the third hole during the second round of the Toshiba Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club on October 8, 2016 in Newport Beach, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Ewart Shadoff finished seventh the next week at ShopRite, helping to secure her status for 2022. And then, roughly one year after they started, the 34-year-old Englishwoman won in her 246th start on the LPGA.

“He has walked in my shoes,” said Ewart Shadoff of working with Waite. “He knows what it feels like. He knows what it feels like on the golf course. What’s cool about working with Grant is, he knows how I think. He knows the emotion that it takes to win.”

After competing on the PGA Tour for 13 years, Waite, the 1993 Kemper Open champion, switched gears to teaching. His roster of Tour clients included Charles Howell, Aaron Baddeley, Trevor Immelman and Mike Weir.

The Kiwi then stopped coaching to join the PGA Tour Champions, that is until two surgeries to repair a torn rotator cuff resumed his teaching career. In addition to several PGA Tour hopefuls, Waite’s current roster of LPGA clients represents a wide variety of players in various stages of their careers.

Patty Tavatanakit
Patty Tavatanakit talks with her caddie on the ninth tee during the first round of the Gainnbridge LPGA at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club on February 25, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

That list no longer includes Patty Tavatanakit, however, who recently told Waite that she wanted to go her own way. The pair went to work ahead of the 2021 season, and she broke through with the Chevron Championship title and Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Award. The pair have worked together on and off this season.

In addition to Ewart Shadoff, Waite’s list of clients includes promising players gearing up for Q-Series and a major champion back from maternity leave. Here’s how he’s helping each of them:

Minjee Lee, Atthaya Thitikul have one last chance to make their moves for Aon Risk Reward’s $1 million prize

Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul are dueling it out in the Aon Risk Reward Challenge. The winner of the season-long race earns $1 million.

Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul have much to play for as the LPGA season winds down, including a couple of seven-figure checks. In addition to the CME Group Tour Championship’s record-setting $2 million winner’s check, they currently top the standings in the Aon Risk Reward Challenge.

Both players are in the field at this week’s Toto Japan Classic, where the challenge hole is the par-5 13th at Seta Golf Course, set at 476 yards. The Aon insight says that from the fairway, 27 percent of the field is expected to successfully reach the green.

The winner of the season-long race earns $1 million. When Lee won the U.S. Women’s Open in June, she earned a first-place check of $1,800,000. So far this season, 22 players have crossed the $1 million mark in earnings.

Players take their best two scores from each Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole, with the winners having the best average score to par at the end of the regular season. Only two events remain before a winner will be decided. Neither Lee nor Thitikul will be competing in Pelican LPGA Championship, Nov. 10-13, which means this is their final event to make a move.

2021 Amundi Evian Championship
Atthaya Thitikul looks on on the 6th hole during day two of the 2021 Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Lee currently holds the lead with a season-long average score to par of -0.912. Thitikul, who just moved to No. 1 in the world, is at -0.891.

If Lee records two birdies this week, her season-long average would move to -0.917, requiring Thitikul to record an eagle and a birdie to tie her score.

If Lee makes a par and a birdie on the hole, her score will move down to -0.899.

Should Lee make a birdie and an eagle, she’d all but lock up the competition.

Thitikul could move into first place with a pair of eagles. A birdie and an eagle would move her to -0.917, which would tie Lee, should she record two birdies.

China’s Xiyu Lin is not in the field in Japan. She’ll need at least one eagle, possibly two, at the Pelican next week to have a chance.

Thitikul and Lee are tied for 12th on the LPGA in par-5 scoring at 4.62. Lin is second at 4.56 behind Jennifer Kupcho (4.54).

Previous winners of the Aon include Carlota Ciganda and Hannah Green. Scottie Scheffler won the Aon Risk Reward Challenge on the PGA Tour and the $1 million prize a year ago.

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Thai teen sensation Atthaya Thitikul ascends to No. 1 in the world, overtaking Jin Young Ko

Thitikul, 19, becomes the second teen to ascend to No. 1, following in the footsteps of Lydia Ko.

Atthaya Thitikul has officially supplanted Jin Young Ko as the No. 1 player in the world. Thitikul, 19, becomes the second teen to ascend to No. 1, following in the footsteps of Lydia Ko, who was 17 years, 9 months and 9 days when she reached the top spot in 2015.

Ko, who has held the top spot since Jan. 31, 2022, first became No. 1 in April 2019 and has spent 152 total weeks atop the rankings. Lorena Ochoa holds the record at 158 weeks.

Thitikul, a rookie who has two wins this season, also joins Ariya Jutanugarn as the only Thai players to reach No. 1. Thitikul joins Sung Hyun Park as the only rookies to reach no. 1. She currently leads the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year race and is in the mix for LPGA Player of the Year.

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“It means a lot for my team, my family, my supporters and myself. It is such an honor to have my name at the top amongst the biggest names of the game,” said Thitikul in a release. “It is very special to get to the top but it is much harder to retain it. I still have a lot to learn from all the legends and current players both on and off the course. I will continue to work hard for my family, my team, my fans and my country.”

Prior to joining the LPGA, Thitikul became the youngest player ever to win the Ladies European Tour’s Race to Costa del Sol in 2021 while also securing Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors. At 14 years, 4 months and 19 days, Thitikul also became the youngest golfer to ever win a professional golf tournament with her victory at the LET’s Thailand Championship in 2017.

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Lydia Ko, instructor Sean Foley part ways after successful two-year run

Lydia Ko noted that she and Sean Foley decided to go their own ways for “logistical reasons.”

Lydia Ko parted ways last month with instructor Sean Foley. The former world No. 1 took to Instagram to make the announcement, noting that they decided to go their own ways as a coach and player for “logistical reasons,” but that Foley will always remain a close friend and mentor.

“When I first met Sean, I was in a place where I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself and in my game,” Ko wrote. “Over the past two years he has helped me evolve as a better player and person. Our time together was full of so much learning, laughter.”

Ko, 25, recently won at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea for her 18th career title, calling this her most consistent year yet. A two-time winner this season, Ko leads the LPGA in scoring, and she leads the Rolex Player of the Year race with 11 top-5 finishes in 20 starts.

Currently No. 3 in the world, Ko was ranked outside the top 50 when she began working with Foley during the summer of 2020.

“I’ve been looking at lots of my videos or swing videos,” she said a month after starting with Foley. “Kind of weird to Google or YouTube yourself, but I’ve been doing that to just see my swing as an amateur.

“He’s, I think, gotten me not to think too much about the lines of everything. I’ve tried to change my mindset of not trying to take a video of my swing every single time I’m on the driving range.”

And then this kicker: “It doesn’t need to look like a perfect swing for me to just play golf.”

Foley urged Ko to look inward, reminding her that the ingredients that led her to be the youngest to ever reach No. 1 were still there.

She snapped a 1,084-day victory drought with an absolute dart show at the Lotte Championship in April 2021. There’s no question that Foley helped resurrect Ko’s confidence and changed the trajectory of her career. Ko won three times on the LPGA and once on the LET while working with Foley.

Now, with a chance to become No. 1 again for the first time since 2017, she continues a new chapter with only a handful of events left in the season. Ko’s sister and manager Sura told Golfweek that Ko has been casually working with instructor Ted Oh again, but nothing is yet full time. Ko first started working with Oh ahead of the 2018 season.

Ko worked with Jorge Parada prior to Foley. Her list of former instructors also includes David Whelan, Gary Gilchrist and David Leadbetter. As an amateur, she worked with New Zealand’s Guy Wilson.

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Who gets an LPGA card for 2023? Here’s how to read the CME points list and what’s at stake

In 2021, the LPGA switched from using the money list to CME points to determine player status.

With only three events left on the LPGA schedule, the stakes are high heading into the final stretch. Some players are fighting to get into the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship for a chance to earn mega-money. Some are fighting for the chance to keep their cards.

In 2021, the LPGA switched from using the money list to CME points to determine player status. The idea was to level out the finishes given that some purses are astronomically higher than others.

The cutoff to qualify for the CME Group Tour Championship will be the Pelican Women’s Championship, Nov. 10-13. That’s also when players will make their final push toward securing an LPGA card for 2023 without having to go to Q-Series.

Here’s a closer look at how the CME points list breaks down for 2023 status:

Meet the Division II golfer who won 12 times, put Tampa on the map and earned her LPGA card for 2023

“You can play professionally and play Division II,” her coach told her, noting the number of NFL players who make it.

There was a time when Kiira Riihijarvi thought she might need an upgrade from her Division II digs. Ultimately, she wanted one thing: a better place to practice. Head coach Missey Jones, who runs the program at the University of Tampa, delivered on that request and Riihijarvi wound up staying five years, winning 12 times and earning a master’s degree in entrepreneurship.

“You can play professionally and play Division II,” Jones told her, noting the number of NFL players who make it from small schools.

It didn’t take long for Riihijarvi, 25, to prove Jones’ point. In her first full season on the Epson Tour, the Finnish player finished fourth on the money list to earn her LPGA card for 2023. She won once and placed in the top five in each of her last three starts.

“I very much enjoyed my time in Division II,” Riihijarvi told Golfweek. “Whenever I started college, I wasn’t the best player. It gave me the space to compete and play and keep getting better. I think it’s a very good option that a lot of people don’t think about.”

World Golf Hall of Famers Hollis Stacy and Peggy Kirk Bell were early examples of Division II players making a mark as both hailed from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. More recent Division II players who have reached the LPGA include Sandra Changkija from Nova Southeastern and Florida Southern’s Jackie Stoelting.

“The grass is greener where you water it,” said Jones.

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There are two golf courses in Oulu, Finland, where Riihijarvi took up the game at a junior clinic at Virpiniemi Golf Club at age 9. Golf has exploded in Finland, she said, since the COVID-19 pandemic. Where Riihijarvi lives in the northern part of the country, the golf season lasts about five months.

The desire to play golf year-round led her to the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia. Riihijarvi’s brother, Paavo, went with her to Rome to play soccer. Jones had a player from Sweden who attended Darlington, and when she got word about Riihijarvi, Jones asked a friend who coached high school golf in Georgia to give her a scouting report.

Word came back: “Oh, she’s going to be a player.”

Riihijarvi, who averaged 78 at the time and was just learning to speak English, went down for a visit and liked what she saw.

Xiaowen Yin of China (from left), Gabriella Then of USA, Yan Liu of China, Kiira Riihijarvi of Finland, Linnea Strom of Sweden, Gina Kim of USA, Celine Borge of Norway, Grace Kim of Australia and Hyo Joon Jang of Republic of Korea celebrate receiving their LPGA cards during the card ceremony following the final round of the Epson Tour Championship at the Champions course at LPGA International on October 09, 2022, in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

Jones started the program from scratch at Tampa in 2010, and in 2017, Riihijarvi became the first player in Spartans history to earn a bid to the NCAA South Super Regional, which she won. Before she even left the parking lot at regionals, Riihijarvi vowed to come back with her team, which she did in 2019.

After the pandemic cut Tampa’s promising 2020 season short, Riihijarvi didn’t like the idea of her college career ending so abruptly. She decided to come back for a fifth season, with the goal of leading her team to its first NCAA Championship appearance.

With organized practices only held three times a week, Riihijarvi could set additional practices around her own specific goals. She came back sophomore year with a golf swing that could produce different ball-flights. There was a drive and a focus that bled into the rest of the team. Back home, she won multiple national amateur titles.

“There’s an inner something in her that’s different,” said Jones.

Riihijarvi led the Spartans to their first NCAA regional title in the spring of 2021, earning a spot in the national championship. Riihijarvi was named NCAA Division II National Player for a second consecutive year.

“I think I just kept getting better every year,” said Riihijarvi, who in four years cut nearly six strokes off her average. This weekend, Riihijarvi will work as an assistant coach for her alma mater at the Rollins Invitational.

Clockwise: Kiira Riihijarvi, Emily Montagnino, Emilie Bjorge, Sophia Cadavid, Heather Kipness, and head coach Missey Jones (courtesy photo)

Riihijarvi’s first LPGA event of the 2023 season won’t come until late March. She’s currently enjoying some well-earned time away from practice.

Jones talks a lot about the way the 5-foot-11-inch Riihijarvi walks – like a person who knows where she’s going. Assured, but never arrogant.

“People were going to buy into her work ethic, or they weren’t,” said Jones. Either way, it wasn’t going to impact Riihijarvi and her keen attention to detail.

Riihijarvi heads to the LPGA a prolific winner. She also has the added benefit of a player who has paved the way in Matilda Castren. Last year, Castren became the first player from Finland to win on the LPGA. She was also a key player in Europe’s 2021 Solheim Cup victory, going 3-1-0. A supportive Castren has already offered to help.

“I do think it’s a skill,” said Riihijarvi of winning. “It’s something you have to learn.”

Riihijarvi left Division II with an advanced degree in that, too.

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LPGA’s LA Open moves to Palos Verdes in 2023, with Los Angeles events now held one month apart

The DIO Implant LA Open is moving locations.

The DIO Implant LA Open is moving to Palos Verdes Golf Club in Los Angeles in 2023, the LPGA and Outlyr have announced. The event will be played March 30-April 2 and feature a field of 144 players and a purse of $1.75 million, up $250,000 from this year.

The LA Open was previously held at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles. Next year, Wilshire will host the new JM Eagle LA Championship April 27-30 with a $3 million purse, double last year’s winnings.

In April 2022, two Los Angeles events were held in back-to-back weeks for the first time in tour history. Next season, they’ll be held one month apart.

The LA Open made its return to the LPGA schedule in 2018, marking the tour’s first time back in the Los Angeles market in more than a decade. Nasa Hataoka won this year’s LA Open at Wilshire. Previous winners include Brooke Henderson (2021), Minjee Lee (2019) and Moriya Jutanugarn (2018).

Marina Alex won the first LPGA event held at Palos Verdes earlier this year. Plenty of tour players were familiar with the course, however, given that the Northrop Grumman (now the Therese Hession) Regional Challenge women’s collegiate championship has been held there for more than 20 years. Past individual winners include Carlota Ciganda, Natalie Gulbis, Brittany Lang, Bronte Law, Andrea Lee, Leona Maguire, Lorena Ochoa and Annie Park.

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With teen Atthaya Thitikul on the rise, here are the youngest players to reach No. 1 in the women’s game

The Rolex Rankings debuted in 2006 with Annika Sorenstam on top. Here’s a closer look at the youngest players to reach the game’s pinnacle.

Atthaya Thitikul had a chance to rise to No. 1 in the world last week at the BMW Ladies Championship with a fourth-place finish. The 19-year-old Thai teen held the lead heading into the final round in South Korea but struggled to a 74 in the final round, dropping her to solo sixth.

Thitikul, who will compete next week in Japan, remains No. 2 in the world and still has a chance to become only the second teenager to rise to No. 1.

Jin Young Ko, the current top-ranked player, withdrew from the BMW with a wrist injury and plans to return for the last two events of the year in Florida.

The Rolex Rankings debuted in February 2006 with Annika Sorenstam on top. Here’s a closer look at the youngest players to reach the game’s pinnacle:

How scoring on the LPGA has changed from top to bottom since Lydia Ko first won 10 years ago

There are 14 players with a sub-70 average with three events remaining. When Ko first won, zero players averaged below 70.

Lydia Ko calls this the most consistent golf of her career, which is saying something for the former World No. 1. Last week at the BMW Ladies Championship, Ko claimed her second title of the season. She has a whopping 11 top-5 finishes in 20 starts and leads the tour in top-10 percentages at 65 percent. She has 13 top-10 finishes.

Ko often speaks about how the depth of the tour has increased during her time on tour. Her 18th LPGA title came 10 years after she broke through to win for the first time as a 15-year-old amateur in 2012.

“I think every season is really hard to compare because not only am I trying to improve,” said Ko, “but every single player is, like, trying to improve, and I think that’s why you can see it by the score.

“At all of these championships, the score for the cut is getting lower, the score to win is getting lower, and that’s why I said earlier if you have one OK round, that puts you so much further back compared to maybe before where that could have been OK, and you could have still won.

“I think just the level of play and the level of women’s golf right now is so high that it’s just really, really difficult to win.”

Ko leads the Vare Trophy race for lowest scoring average, an award she also won last year. How much tougher is it out there? Here’s a closer look at how scoring on the LPGA has evolved over the past decade.

‘Accept, think, move on’: Injured Jin Young Ko hopes to return to LPGA next month after disastrous week in South Korea

Ko posted the highest round of her LPGA career, an opening 80, at the recent BMW Ladies Championship.

Jin Young Ko used four words and two emojis on Monday to caption a photograph on Instagram. Anyone looking for insight into the World No. 1’s frame of mind after last week’s withdrawal got the message loud and clear.

“Accept, think, move on,” Ko wrote, followed by a twister emoji.

The BMW Ladies Championship surely felt something like a raging storm for the World No. 1. Ko teed it up close to home in her first event in two months after taking time off to heal a nagging wrist injury.

The player who often wins tournaments after long breaks, instead posted the highest round of her LPGA career, an opening 80. Ko made a 10 on the closing par 5, whiffing a shot left-handed and mostly making a mess of the hole. She shot 79 on Friday and then withdrew.

Ko, 27, told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency after the first round that she didn’t want to use her wrist injury as an excuse. But after 36 holes, it was clear that something wasn’t right.

Ko’s manager told Golfweek on Monday that she hasn’t yet fully recovered from the left wrist injury and is currently receiving treatment. She will do her best to be able to compete in better condition next month in Florida.

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There are three events remaining on the LPGA schedule. Ko never planned to play in Japan but did have her sights set on the last two events. She won last year’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship while playing in so much pain she couldn’t properly warm up before each round.

Last week in South Korea, Ko came close to being overtaken as World No. 1 with rookie Atthaya Thitikul heading into the final round holding the lead. No. 2-ranked Thitikul could’ve risen to No. 1 with a solo fourth-place finish. A disappointing 74 on Sunday, however, dropped the young Thai star into sixth.

Ko has occupied the top spot for 38 consecutive weeks and 144 weeks total. She won in her first start of the season – the HSBC Women’s World Championship in March.

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