“It was my third hole-in-one, but first hole-in-one during (a) tournament,” Lee6 said.
If there’s no video evidence, was it really an ace?
Well, we’re just going to have to trust the scorecards this time around. Three players made aces during the third round of the LPGA’s JTBC Classic Saturday, including major champion Jeongeun Lee6.
The par-3 third at Aviara Golf Club was set up for action, measuring in at a mere 97 yards. And boy, oh boy, did the field take advantage.
Lee6 was part of the first group off this morning and, like the other two players to make aces there, used a 50-degree wedge.
“It was my third hole-in-one, but first hole-in-one during (a) tournament,” she said.
Lee6 went on to shoot a 6-under 66.
Lilia Vu made the next one. On top of the ace, Vu made six birdies and signed for a third-round 7-under 65.
Then, last but not least, Kelly Tan cashed in. She had a wild day in Carlsbad, California on Saturday. She made an ace, an eagle, five birdies, five bogeys, and a double. All-in-all, Tan signed for a 2-under 70.
Have the world’s first coed match-play tournament. Invite the top 32 ranked male and female golfers.
Tom Kite pretty much hated the idea.
Ty Votaw thought it might actually work.
Billy Horschel mulled it over and thinks it could be fun.
Even I think it’s harebrained crazy, but it’s a crazy world. How else does one explain the Kardashians?
Again, I’m not considering adding a shark’s mouth or a loop-de-loop prop to some holes on the PGA Tour, so go easy.
So here’s my brainstorm. Or brain lapse, depending on your viewpoint.
Given the runaway success of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play tournament at Austin Country Club for the past seven years, how about staging a similar event using the same round-robin format but open up the competition?
Have the world’s first coed match-play tournament. Invite the top 32 ranked male and female golfers in the world to play intermingled in the same 64-player field just as the PGA Tour folks have now for the PGA’s Dell tourney.
So the Austin Country Club, Dell folks and PGA Tour don’t freak out, I’d recommend we keep the Dell tourney as it is and let’s get busy creating a similar event on the schedule that we’ll call, say, the Kirk Bohls-Michael Dell Coed Match Play tournament somewhere else on the calendar. Heck, I’ll even give Michael top billing. Or Elon Musk, are you a golf fan?
Imagine Lydia Ko squaring off against Jon Rahm. Jin Young Ko facing down Bryson DeChambeau. Or Nelly Korda (or anyone named Korda) versus Xander Schauffele in a battle of Olympic gold medalists from the Tokyo Games.
Hey, we seem to get these made-for-TV exhibitions every other month, whether it’s Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning beating Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady on a live broadcast on four networks drawing an average of 2.8 million viewers or you name it.
Heck, some people even watched — through squinted eyes — Charles Barkley team with Phil to beat Manning and Steph Curry. We’ve had Phil vs. Tiger and Brooks vs. Bryson, and there may be no end.
I assume NBC probably already tried to line up Brady again for another such showcase until he decided he’s still got some football left in his tank.
If we can be subjected to those silly events, why not a serious one in a true mano a mano Battle of the Sexes. For big dough.
Votaw, who is a former commissioner of the LPGA and a current PGA Tour adviser when he isn’t promoting his new bourbon brand Blue Run, was on hand for the third round of the Dell Match Play tournament on a calm, cloudless Friday. We chatted as he was in the grandstand at the first tee and took in a few of the golfers starting their third-round matches.
I wouldn’t say he fully embraced the scheme, but he far from rejected it.
So what do you think, Ty?
Collin Morikawa, left, and Sergio Garcia shake hands at the 18th green after tying during the second round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play golf tournament. (Photo: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports)
“Against each other?” asked the 60-year-old, who will retire from his job as the PGA’s chief marketing officer in July but remain as an adviser to PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan. Monahan could not be reached for comment about how nuts I am, and who can blame him? Or he’s already on the phone to the networks.
But his office released a statement from him that reads, “In March of 2016, the PGA Tour formalized its relationship with the LPGA with a strategic alliance agreement designed to further promote the growth of golf, and this included the potential development of joint events.”
I’m going to take that as a yes. Glad to have you on board, Jay. We’re all in favor of joint events.
But why not such a tournament? Got to think out of the box in 2022, right? The world ain’t flat, no matter what Kyrie Irving says. Think big.
Votaw seemed intrigued by the concept even though he was much more focused on Friday night’s North Carolina basketball matchup with UCLA in the Sweet 16. And is the UNC Law School grad openly rooting against Duke?
“Uh, yes,” he said. “But it’d be nice if they meet again in the Final Four. Some people would watch that, I think.”
As they would the inaugural WGC-Dell Technologies Coed Match Play event. I’m only asking for a 5% cut.
“We’re constantly trying to think of ways do (events like) that,” Votaw told me. “We’ve had a lot of conversations, and we do have a strategic alliance with the LPGA Tour. Down the road, both parties would have to be interested. It’d have to be the right format and the right date.”
There are inherent problems. We get it.
Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda at the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. (Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Fitting in an event like that in an already crowded schedule could be nightmarish. The two tours normally play on opposite coasts at the same time. When the men are on the West Coast, the women are on the East.
Votaw did say the two tours have had conversations about staging separate but equal golf tournaments concurrently at the same site, a place with 36 holes to accommodate each event. Likewise, they have discussed mixed team concepts.
Horschel, the defending champion who tied his Dell match with Thomas Pieters on Friday to become the first to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals, endorsed the idea.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” Horschel said. “It’s not a bad idea at all. I watch the ladies play golf all the time, and several of the girls are really, really good.”
He’s never played on an LPGA golf course set up for tournament play, and he thinks his male counterparts would probably have an advantage because he said the LPGA greens are “usually softer” than on the PGA Tour.
He avidly follows the Korda sisters, Nelly and Jessica, and says many of those on the LPGA Tour are “pretty unbelievable.”
I would imagine Monahan and new LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan will tackle this idea soon. Samaan didn’t get where she is by taking the well-traveled path from her days as athletic director at Princeton, where she was an All-Ivy ice hockey player. Yeah, she’s a get-it-done gal.
But Kite, a Hall of Famer who won 19 times, including a U.S. Open, during his brilliant career, wasn’t buying it.
“Years and years ago, they tried mixed events in the ’70s and ’80s, and it died,” Kite said during a break from watching Scottie Scheffler bury Matt Fitzpatrick 5 and 4 Friday. “I don’t think it would work. You wouldn’t get the top players.”
You would if the purse were big enough. The Tiger-Phil match purse was $9 million, although maybe that was in crypto coins.
This Coed Match Play event would have twice the appeal of a Billy Jean King-Bobby Riggs sham. King was in her prime, Riggs moved around like the Statue of Liberty in an awful performance at age 55, and the staged event in the Astrodome scored huge points for the feminist movement. Good for her and the movement.
And it did draw 90 million eyeballs — I guess actually that’d be 180 million eyeballs, give or take — worldwide, and BJK walked away with 100 large.
Hey, I still daydream about the day Serena Williams takes on Novak Djokovic in a best-of-three tennis match. I’d sure watch. And I’ll be happy to watch Candace Parker take on Steph Curry in a game of H-O-R-S-E.
So let’s put on this unique format and watch Jin Young Ko battle Jon Rahm in a matchup of No. 1 seeds on their respective tours. I’m guessing that draw would get boffo ratings in Korea and Spain.
For that matter, Koreans might steal the whole show with three top-10 LPGA golfers in the world from there as well as six in the top 20 in the world.
I don’t see how it could not be a big hit.
For now, I’ll leave the details to Jay and Mollie. You got my number. You can thank me later.
Kirk Bohls is a columnist for the Austin American-Stateman, part of the USA Today Network.
Jin Young Ko saw the end of two amazing scoring streaks Friday.
The streaks had to end eventually.
Jin Young Ko had posted an LPGA record 16 consecutive rounds in the 60s. She also had a streak going of 31 straight rounds under par.
Both amazing runs came to an end Friday in the second round of the JTBC Classic at the Aviara Country Club in Carlsbad, California.
Ko shot a 1-under 71 after opening the week with a 65. She found herself 2 over after three holes Friday and posted three more birdies on the day.
But winning is the ultimate goal and Ko is just three shots back heading into the weekend.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen is the leader after 36 holes. It was less than two weeks ago that she became the first LPGA golfer from Denmark to win on the tour, doing so at the Honda LPGA Thailand.
Koerstz Madsen, whose fiancé Nicki Hansen caddies for her, has posted scores of 66-67 and is at 11 under, two shots ahead of Hye-Jin Choi and Lydia Ko.
Jin Young Ko is tied for fourth with Na Rin An and Maude-Aimee Leblanc at 8 under. Pajaree Anannarukan is in seventh place at 7 under.
The JTBC is Ko’s first tournament in the U.S. since she won last November’s CME Group Tour Championship. She has six wins in her last 10 starts on the LPGA.
Jin Young Ko has been under par on the LPGA for 31 straight rounds.
Jin Young Ko knows exactly where she stands statistically. Her streak of rounds under par has extended to 31, and she now has a tour record 16 consecutive rounds in the 60s after a flawless opening 7-under 65 to lead the JTBC Classic.
Ko was asked on Thursday if she takes time to reflect on her record-breaking streaks.
“I would say yes,” said the World No. 1. “And also, it’s great, feels great to record like one step at a time.”
This mark’s Ko’s first time competing in the U.S. since last November’s CME Group Tour Championship, which she won. Ko’s parents are in San Diego with her for the first time, and her mom likes the area so much she’s ready to buy a house.
“I said, ‘Do you know how much the house in here?’ ” said Ko, laughing.
Her parents will be with her on the road in the states through the U.S. Women’s Open in June. Ko said she can hear her mom cooking and washing dishes from her room and has mixed feelings about the situation. On the one hand, it feels like home. On the other hand, she doesn’t want to see mom work too hard.
“I feel little sad,” said Ko, “because my mom is not too young right now, but not old, but I’m only child, so she wants to make me play better all season, so she wasted the energy for me, to me.
“So it’s a little sad, so that’s a little bit of motivated to me. So I really want to play well front of my parents.”
Ko has won six of her last 10 starts on the LPGA and currently leads by two over Gemma Dryburgh and Hye-Jin Choi at Aviara Golf Club. Lydia Ko is three strokes back along with Canada’s Maude-Aimee Leblanc, who posted eight birdies and two bogeys in her first 10 holes. She finished with a 4-under 68.
Leblanc last competed on tour at the LPGA Drive On in early February and said she spent three weeks of the break in Canada practicing on simulators.
“Funny enough, in the simulators they had Aviara Country Club,” said Leblanc, “so I played it like 10 times when I was up there. I felt pretty comfortable out there.”
As Ko looks to go two-for-two to start her 2022 season, she says this isn’t yet the best golf of her career.
“I’m doing well, but mostly many people say 2019 was your career high; it is,” said Ko, who won two majors that year.
“But I thought, no, not yet. It’s not coming yet. … It’s coming soon, maybe.”
This year’s Chevron field includes amateurs Natasha Andrea Oon, Brooke Seay, Bohyun Park, and Gurleen Kaur.
Four amateurs will take part in the historic last major at Mission Hills Country Club. Amateurs have long held an important presence in the year’s first major, though less so after the Chevron Championship started going up against the Augusta National Women’s Amateur three years ago.
This year’s Chevron field includes amateurs Natasha Andrea Oon, Brooke Seay, Bohyun Park, and Gurleen Kaur.
Malaysia’s Oon, ranked 10th by Golfweek and 17th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is a senior at San Jose State. In seven events this season, the Spartans have finished outside the top two just once and have twice toppled top-ranked Stanford.
Park, a freshman at Texas, is ranked 39th by WAGR. Born in South Korea, Park has lived in the U.S. since age 13 and was a three-time Texas 4A individual state champion.
Brooke Seay plays a bunker shot on the sixth hole during the quarterfinals at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York. on Friday, August 6, 2021. (Darren Carroll/USGA)
Stanford’s Seay, a junior from San Diego, is a human biology major in Palo Alto. Seay has three top-five finishes in her last three starts for the Cardinal and is ranked 11th by Golfweek.
Kaur, a senior at Baylor, is a three-time All-American. Coached by major champion Hal Sutton, Kaur made the cut at last year’s U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club. The Houston resident is ranked 81st by WAGR.
Michelle Wie and Caroline Keggi boast the record for lowest finish by an amateur, placing fourth in 2004 and 1988, respectively. Rose Zhang holds the record for the lowest 72-hole score by an amateur at 8-under 280, set in 2020. The Stanford star will compete in Augusta next week.
The 2023 Chevron Championship will move to May and be held in Texas. The venue has not yet been announced.
Morgan Pressel is a six-time Solheim Cup team member and a major champion.
Stacy Lewis has selected Morgan Pressel as an assistant captain for the 2023 U.S. Solheim Cup team. Pressel, a six-time member of Team USA and major winner, will try to help the Americans win back the cup next September at Finca Cortesin in Spain.
“When I started thinking about assistant captains, I knew that I wanted people with a true love for the Solheim Cup,” said Lewis. “Morgan was immediately at the top of my list. Her passion for the Solheim Cup and her competitive energy will be great assets to Team USA. I’ve known her for years as a competitor and friend, and I’m happy to have her with me as we spend the next year building a great team.”
Pressel, 33, was part of winning Solheim Cup teams in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2019. She secured the winning point in 2009 with a 3-and-2 victory over Anna Nordqvist. Pressel’s overall Solheim record is 11–8–3.
Pressel became the youngest major winner in history at age 18 when she won the 2007 Chevron Championship. She also won the 2008 Kapalua LPGA Classic and has 66 career top-10 finishes. She recently put away her clubs for most of the season as she embarked on a career in television, covering the LPGA for Golf Channel.
“The Solheim Cup is the greatest exhibition in our sport, bringing unrivaled passion and energy, and it has always been one of my favorite events,” said Pressel. “I am honored and excited for the opportunity to support Stacy in her journey as captain of Team USA! We have been on many teams together, and now to help her and Team USA in Spain as an assistant captain will be a tremendous highlight in my career.”
Korda announced on social media on March 13 that she’d been diagnosed with a blood clot.
Nelly Korda will not compete in the year’s first major. The field for the Chevron Championship closed on Tuesday at 5 p.m., and a tournament official confirmed that the No. 2-ranked player had not filed an entry.
Originally scheduled to compete in the JTBC after taking off the Asian swing, Korda last teed it up on the LPGA in early February at the LPGA Drive On Championship. She has finished T-15, T-20, and T-4 in three starts this season.
Korda, who has yet to win the title, lost to Mirim Lee in a playoff in 2020 and tied for third last year. She broke through with her first major title at the 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Korda won four times on the LPGA in 2021 as well as Olympic gold in Tokyo and was named Female Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America.
The JTBC Classic at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, California, marks the debut of World No. 1 Jin Young Ko on U.S. soil this year. She competed once, at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, which she won.
Epson has a new five-year agreement to be the title sponsor of the LPGA’s official qualifying tour.
Three years ago, Epson partnered with Shaquille O’Neal to help save the world from the hassle of constantly changing printer ink cartridges. O’Neal became the face of the game-changing EcoTank, cartridge-free printers with supersized ink tanks.
That’s how a supersized O’Neal eventually found himself in Atlanta taping a video with the petite Rachel Rohanna to help announce Epson’s new five-year agreement as title sponsor of the LPGA’s official qualifying tour.
“I was a good 2 feet shorter,” said Rohanna. “I’m kind of used to looking up to people, but he held my golf club and it looked like a toothpick in his hand.”
The online commercial will be released on Wednesday across Shaq’s social channels. The former NBA superstar and TV regular has 24 million followers on Instagram, 15.6 million on twitter and 9.2 million on Facebook as well as his own reality show called “Shaq Life.”
Rachel Rohanna hangs out with husband Ethan Virgili and daughter Gemelia at an Epson Tour event. (Courtesy photo)
So far everything about the Epson Tour’s relationship with the LPGA has been next-level – from the little things like lowering the cost of entry fees by 10 percent ($50), to bigger things like guaranteed purses of at least $200,000 and $10,000 sponsorship opportunities for tour graduates. And, of course, Shaq.
Celebrities aren’t often associated with qualifying tours.
“I’ve been thinking about how we could get involved in golf for a long time,” said Keith Kratzberg, CEO, Epson America, Inc.
“There’s a lot involved with the various aspects of sponsorship. The charity aspect is a really important aspect of professional golf. … As a qualifying tour, we asked ourselves the question: What’s really important here?”
Players certainly appreciate the extra mile.
“I thought it was incredible that a global brand like Epson was kind of putting the money into the tour,” said Epson graduate Fatima Fernandez Cano, “and not only just saying, here’s some money, now you’re on the tour, go on with your life.
Rachel Rohanna and NBA star Shaquille O’Neal (courtesy of Epson)
Rohanna, the first mother to graduate from the Epson Tour, said it was intimidating to test out her acting skills for the first time in front of Shaq, but that he made their hour together “chill.”
“It always blows my mind that people have never heard of the Epson Tour,” said Rohanna, “formally the Symetra Tour. To have someone like Shaq … he’s a great guy in general, to have this many followers, and announce it and actually be enthusiastic about it, I think it’s great for everyone.
“It’s going to be huge.”
Rohanna invited Shaq to a pro-am and to visit the family farm in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
“The way I’m thinking about it,” said Kevin Garton, Epson’s Head of Brand Strategy and Marketing, “is it’s just the beginning.”
The World No. 2 last teed it up in early February at the LPGA Drive On Championship.
Nelly Korda is not in the field for this year’s JTBC Classic, the LPGA has confirmed. The World No. 2 announced on social media on March 13 that she’d been diagnosed with a blood clot in her arm and that she was at home resting.
“I am currently at home getting treatment to eliminate further risks,” Korda wrote.
Originally scheduled to compete in the JTBC after taking off the Asian swing, Korda last teed it up on the LPGA in early February at the LPGA Drive On Championship.
The deadline to sign up for the Chevron Championship, the year’s first major is late Tuesday afternoon. Korda has finished in the top three of the event the past two seasons. This year marks the final time the event will be held at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.
Korda won four times on the LPGA in 2021 as well as Olympic gold in Tokyo and was named Female Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America.
The JTBC Classic at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, California, marks the debut of World No. 1 Jin Young Ko on U.S. soil this year. She competed once, at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore and won, before the taking the next two weeks off.
Last year’s wire-to-wire champion at Aviara, Inbee Park, returns to Carlsbad as does Lydia Ko, Minjee Lee, Danielle Kang, Sei Young Kim, Lexi Thompson and Leona Maguire.
Kuehn will join a 144-player field headlined by seven of the top-10 players in the world.
Rachel Kuehn’s victory at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge came with a bonus for the Wake Forest junior: a sponsor exemption into the LPGA’s JTBC Championship at Palos Verdes.
The Northrop Grumman celebrated its 26th anniversary at Palos Verdes Golf Club in California with Oregon winning the team title by seven shots over Wake Forest. Kuehn’s 10-under 203 total broke the tournament record of 7 under set by Lorena Ochoa in 2002. This victory marks Kuehn’s second of the season and fourth of her career.
“This week has been incredible,” said Kuehn in a release, “and I feel fortunate to have won on such an amazing course. To receive a sponsor’s exemption into the LPGA tournament here in a couple weeks is a dream come true.”
Kuehn will join a 144-player field April 28-May 1, televised live on Golf Channel. World No. 2 Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko (3), Minjee Lee (4), Danielle Kang (5), Inbee Park (6), Sei Young Kim (7) and Nasa Hataoka (8) headline the early commitments.
“Palos Verdes Golf Club is thrilled by the opportunity to incorporate our 2022 Northrop Grumman Challenge Collegiate champion into the field at the JTBC Championship at Palos Verdes,” said David Klein, Club President of Palos Verdes Golf Club. “The organic integration between the two events makes perfect sense and also highlights our club’s support of golf at the highest level.”
This year marks the first time in tour history that the LPGA schedule will feature back-to-back weeks in the Los Angeles area. The JTBC LA Open will take place at Wilshire Country Club the week prior, April 20-24.
To make it easy to follow, fans will be able to purchase an “LA LPGA Dual Ticket,” a weekly grounds pass for both events.
