Tag: 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

If LIV Golf comes for LPGA stars, Karrie Webb worries some don’t appreciate history enough to stay – ‘I would hold that against them’

The seven-time major champion has some advice for LPGA players who may consider LIV down the line.

BETHESDA, Md. – Karrie Webb walked a lot of holes at Congressional Country Club this week but didn’t hit a shot. She’s here with Kirsten Rudgeley and Caitlin Pierce, two Australian amateurs who, as Webb’s scholarship winners, received a week at the KPMG Women’s PGA with the LPGA Hall of Famer. The trio played golf together and practiced in the Washington, D.C. area all week and followed the likes of Minjee Lee and Hannah Green during competition. A truly priceless experience.

Both Lee and Green are previous scholarship winners and stayed the week with Webb when she was competing in the U.S. Women’s Open.

“What she does in women’s golf and for us amateurs,” said Rudgeley, “it’s pretty cool. Not many golfers give back.”

Webb’s scholarship and mentorship program is a grow-the-game initiative that dates back to 2008. The roots of the idea stretch back to 1986, when Webb watched her hero, Greg Norman, compete in the 1986 Queensland Open. That’s when she told her parents that she wanted to play professionally. She even stayed at Norman’s Florida estate as a bonus for being the overall girls champion in his junior golf foundation.

Now, the 47-year-old seven-time major winner is concerned that Norman, as CEO of LIV Golf, might threaten the very tour that so greatly shaped her life. With Golf Saudi already so heavily entrenched in the Ladies European Tour, and Norman having made public statements about a desire to get further involved in the women’s game, Webb is worried that what’s happening in men’s golf could make its way over to the LPGA.

The two Aussie legends haven’t talked about it.

“I know that he’s had this vendetta against the PGA Tour as long as I’ve known him,” said Webb. “So I don’t think there would be any changing him. I would just ask him that in his ambition to succeed, that he doesn’t ruin women’s golf in the process.”

At the peak of her career, Webb said she turned down money to compete in South Korean events because the timing conflicted with her preparation for majors. Webb says she’s now “like a rookie on the LPGA” when it comes to course design, and while there could be a take-projects-where-you-can-get-them mentality, she has turned down opportunities to work in Saudi Arabia.

What if piles of life-changing cash had been offered in her prime?

“I think it would be tempting if it’s life-changing for sure,” she said. “Everyone has to think about that. … I guess what I’ve learned, the fact that I have made a lot of money in my life, is it does make you comfortable; it doesn’t make you happy.

“You’ve got to live with whatever decision you make.”

The first time Green, the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA champion, ever attended a professional event was as the guest of Webb at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She enjoyed it so much that in 2017, she went on her own to stay with Webb at the Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, while competing on the Epson Tour.

Webb has hosted a couple dozen young Aussie stars over the years, helping to nurture and cultivate future champions who will inspire the next generation.

LPGA founder Louise Suggs was a great friend of Webb’s, and she worries some current players don’t appreciate the tour’s history enough.

“If the LPGA were to suffer because a group of players went and started playing on a tour similar to (LIV) and the LPGA would suffer,” said Webb, “I would hold that against them. I think they really need to think about that.”

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Lydia Ko, fresh off her 100th top 10 on the LPGA, hopes to play freely at KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

Expect to see a committed Lyda Ko this week at Congressional.

BETHESDA, Md. – Last week, Lydia Ko notched her 100th top-10 finish on the LPGA. The 25-year-old has made 210 starts on the LPGA dating back to 2014. She has missed the cut only a dozen times in her career.

The former No. 1 is teeing it up for a fourth consecutive week at the KPMG Women’s PGA and said she was unaware of the milestone.

“When I’m out there playing, I don’t really think much of it,” she said. “Top 10, obviously, is a great result and something that I try to shoot for a lot of the weeks. It was more of, yeah, I played really solid last week and gave myself a run at it rather than, whoo-hoo, my 100th top 10.”

Ko, a two-time major winner, won the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in January for her 17th LPGA title. She has finished in the top five in each of her last three starts, including a fifth-place at the U.S. Women’s Open. She currently tops the tour in putting average and sand saves.

Ko said instructor Sean Foley called her every morning during the Women’s Open at Pine Needles. Most of the time they aren’t “super technical.”

“It’s kind of going to be the same as the U.S. Women’s Open of having tentative lines, but being super aggressive to those kind of lines and being super committed to it,” she said.

“I think that is when I am able to play most freely. That’s all I can do at the end of the day, and I don’t want to be out there trying to control it, and just put my 100 percent and see what I get back.”

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