As a student-athlete at UCLA, Vu played Wilshire Country Club every Wednesday morning with her team.
After weather pushed back tee times for the final round of the Chevron Championship, Lilia Vu thought she might as well go to the Taylor Swift concert in Houston that night after missing her 8 p.m. flight.
But then she became the first player to win an LPGA major championship coming from outside the top 10 since Sherri Turner won the LPGA Championship in 1988. Swift would have to wait.
After landing in Los Angeles at 3 p.m. Monday, Vu and her parents went straight to their favorite restaurant – Thanh My in Westminster – and then packed for another three-week stretch.
Vu opened the JM Eagle LA Championship with 2-under 69 in her first round as a major champion. As a student-athlete at UCLA, Vu played Wilshire Country Club every Wednesday morning with her team.
“It’s nostalgia,” said Vu of coming back to the LA club, “and there’s really no golf course quite like Wilshire. I don’t think you can really compare it to anything in my opinion because they’re just so different from the typical surrounding LA courses around here. It’s not easy. Putting is going to be difficult. I think it’s going to be difficult for everybody”
𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔.
Head Coach Carrie Forsyth has announced her retirement following the conclusion of the 2022-23 season.
In her 24 years leading the program, @CoachCForsyth won two NCAA titles and turned UCLA into a perennial national power.
In 24 years as head coach at UCLA, Forsyth led the Bruins to two NCAA titles, nine NCAA Regional Championships and 74 tournament victories.
After the NCAA postseason, Forsyth will take on a newly-created role as a special assistant to The Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond.
Here’s a closer look at the six UCLA players in this week’s field:
Things really heated up when Lilia Vu and Angel Yin went to a playoff, with an impressive number of peak viewers.
The Chevron Championship’s move from California to Texas might not have been popular with LPGA players, but the tour’s first major of the year was a bona fide success in terms of its television audience, according to numbers that were unveiled early this week.
The final round of coverage from The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands averaged 941,000 viewers across all platforms, including NBC Sports, the NBC Sports app and Peacock, which is up considerably from the 349,000 average viewers when the event was on Golf Channel last year.
But things really heated up when champ Lilia Vu and Angel Yin went to a playoff, with a peak of 1.54 million viewers or a 1.0 rating between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m. ET. Yin went in the water as the two played 18 again in the playoff, and Vu dropped a birdie putt to capture her first major title.
The tournament’s numbers were clearly aided by a schedule move away from the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and into a better timeslot against the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic.
Other important stats:
This year’s event was the most-watched since 2010 and was the best for NBC Sports
The Chevron was the top-rated sports program on NBC for the week
It was also in the top 20 sports programs for the week across all broadcast networks
Even though it falls in the heart of a busy week that included NBA and NHL playoffs, Major League Baseball games and the PGA Tour’s Zurich, Sunday’s broadcast of the Chevron was among the top 10 sports broadcasts for the day
“We’ve already got plans to make this so much bigger and better.”
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — As the sun magnificently lit up The Club at Carlton Woods for Saturday’s third round of the LPGA’s Chevron Championship, adding a hue of green that previously hadn’t been seen by TV audiences, the biggest concern tournament organizers faced was an overload of patrons waiting for the shuttle bus at a nearby park-and-ride.
Too many fans. That was the biggest takeaway after the first few rounds of play after the event moved from sacred ground in California to its new Texas home.
Steve Salzman, the general manager and chief operating officer of the club, knew many were sensitive and sentimental about the move away from Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage after 51 years. So he knew to give players a reason to keep circling the date, tournament organizers would need to dig deep into a bag of Texas hospitality.
The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Stipends of $5,000 were added for players who missed the cut, marking the first time in the tournament’s history that was offered. Players received courtesy cars for the week, with returning champs rolling around town in Bentleys and Rolls-Royces.
Patty Tavatanakit picks up her ball after finishing the 18th hole during the second round of the 2023 Chevron Championship. (Photo: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
And those are just some of the perks the new partnership between Carlton Woods and Chevron has cooked up. LPGA players often aren’t given an option when it comes to practice balls, meaning they often have a different feel on the range. Salzman and his staff reached out to ball manufacturers and while some did provide extra balls for the range, a few did not.
“That didn’t sit really well with us,” he said. “So we contacted all the ball manufacturers to get balls. Most of the big ones came through, but there were a few that didn’t, so we dug into our own stock and made sure that was the case, so that they can practice with the balls that they play with. And I think that’s the first time that’s ever been done. The gals are walking up there and seeing their balls in boxes and they’re really happy.”
Players noticed
Many said the LPGA pros were excited about the new roots the event put down, even though it was painful to move away from the Coachella Valley. Brittany Lincicome, for example, was impressed with the treatment the players received.
“It’s been spectacular. From when we got here, picked up at the airport on Sunday, the Past Champions Dinner on Monday was spectacular, getting my Bentley on Tuesday, just the golf course even, too,” said Lincicome, who won the event twice, in 2009 and again in 2015. “You walk up to the range where the practice facility I’d probably practice more if I had that practice facility. I’m so jealous.
“But the golf course is perfect. It’s so beautiful. … it’s a long-hitter’s course. It’s narrow. There’s a lot of water and trouble. You really kind of have to work your way around the course, don’t short-side yourself. That’s where you’re going to be in big trouble.”
In terms of the practice range, Salzman said the organizers of the Chevron wanted to borrow ideas from perhaps the world’s most well-respected tournament, the Masters, even using the same technology on the range as those seen at Augusta National.
“This is the first time Toptracer Range has ever been at an LPGA event,” Salzman explained. “That package here was at the Masters and as soon as the Masters was done, we got it on a semi and they brought it here to set it up. First time in the history of the LPGA that arranged product has been available.”
Korda: ‘Crowds were amazing’
So most everything went well during the initial move, aside from some lengthy lines at the shuttle bus stop. Even the historic jump into the lake off 18 for winner Lilia Vu went off without a hitch. Fans were treated to a captivating playoff as Vu edged Angel Yin on the first hole. Nelly Korda was third after she buried a long eagle putt on the 18th hole to get within a shot of the playoff.
“The crowds were amazing. The crowds that we have gotten and followed my group were really great. They’re treating us really well. I like the golf course, too,” Korda said. “It’s challenging. I think the difference between Palm Springs that we played for so long and this golf course is that there’s just more water. It’s a little bit more wide open, let’s say, off the tee, but there are a lot of trees, so you kind of have to play within. The greens are pretty tough, as well. I would say Palm Springs is a little tighter off the tee, but they’re both really great golf courses, and I’ve heard, I’m not sure if this is true, that they’re going to be redoing the greens for next year, so we’ll see.”
“Chevron put together a player advisory group, just they wanted to know what was important to us to make the championship special,” said Stacy Lewis, who is a product of The Woodlands. “There’s obviously a lot of traditions with this event, and what was the traditions that were most important to us. They asked current players, they asked retired players, they asked everybody.
Lilia Vu holds the trophy after winning the 2023 Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. (Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
“Chevron crushed it. You see it with the trophy. Dinah’s Place on 18. Everything was about Dinah this week, and that’s what we tried to tell them over and over again is what was important.”
Fans also got an enhanced experience as just behind the ninth green sat an impressive structure named the Inspiration Dome, half of which housed a virtual reality experience sponsored by Accenture tapping into the life of an LPGA pro.
Among those who took part in the exhibit was LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan engages herself in the Putt Like A Lady virtual reality experience during the final round of The Chevron Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports
It was all part of a plan to make a splash in the first year of the event. Salzman understood the tradition the tournament built and wanted to stay true to the roots, but he said organizers were also shooting to make this an even larger spectacle, and insisted the plans for the future are to go even bigger.
“If the players need something, they get it. If they want it, they get it,” he said. “There are so many things about an event like this that I’ve heard, ‘Well, they don’t expect this or they typically don’t get that.’ But I ask, but they’d like it, right? Then let’s get it. I’ve already heard this is incomparable to anything they’ve experienced and I’m thinking, ‘Oh boy, then I’m really going to blow them away next year.’
“We’ve already got plans to make this so much bigger and better.”
Check out the best photos of the first pond jump in Texas.
The jump into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills was a special tradition for the first women’s major championship of the year dating back to 1988.
Now named the Chevron Championship, the event moved from the course in Rancho Mirage, California, to The Club at Carlton Woods in the Woodlands, Texas, outside Houston, and with the change of venue came the natural question: will the winner jump? With snakes and gators present in the area, it wasn’t an easy question to answer.
Vu and her caddie walked by the 18th green during the practice round and discussed if she would make the leap.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I would jump. If I won here, of course I would jump,'” said Vu after the win. “(Saturday) or the day before we saw a snake on 17 pond, so I was kind of thinking about that today, but I think the emotions were high and just adrenaline, got to jump into that pond.”
And jump she did.
Check out the best photos of the traditional pond jump, the championship’s first in Texas.
View photos of 2023 Chevron Championship winner Lilia Vu throughout her career from top college player to major champion.
It’s been quite the ride for 2023 Chevron Championship winner Lilia Vu.
As an amateur, Vu was a premiere player, ranked No. 1 in the world for 31 weeks and representing the United States a handful of times before and during her stint at UCLA.
As a Bruin, Vu earned numerous awards including 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and 2018 WGCA Player of the Year and three first-team All-American nods.
Vu earned her LPGA card straight out of college via Q-School, but lost her status after being unable to secure a high enough spot on the money list.
Winning three times during the 2021 Epson Tour season, Vu earned Player of the Year honors and secured full status for the 2022 LPGA season.
It didn’t take long for Vu to get back to her winning ways as she took home the Honda LPGA Thailand in February of 2023. The win helped propel her inside the top 20 in the world.
Now with a major championship under her belt, the Hawaii native should jump inside the top 10 and will likely be there to stay as major season continues to roll on.
Here are the prize money payouts for each LPGA player at 2023 Chevron Championship.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Lilia Vu made one cut in nine starts and earned $3,830 in her first season on the LPGA in 2019. Now, the Chevron Championship winner has more than $2 million in career earnings after claiming her second LPGA title of the season and a first-place prize of $765,000. The total prize fund this year was $5.1 million.
Angel Yin, who lost to Vu in a playoff, earned $479,680. Prior to this week, she’d made $3,256 in 2023.
This year, for the first time, players who missed the cut were given $5,000 in unofficial money to help cover expenses at the Chevron. Additionally, the cut was reduced to top 65 and ties this year, down from 70 and ties.
Here are the prize money payouts for each LPGA player at 2023 Chevron Championship.
A change in outlook freed up Vu to unlock her potential.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Lilia Vu felt an unusual amount of anger bubbling up inside this week over little things. Upset by the way she handled that anger, there were times during the final round of the 2023 Chevron Championship that Vu thought about her grandpa, Dinh Du, and how disappointed he’d be if she didn’t get her act together.
Standing at the podium soaked in champagne and cloaked in a white robe and slippers, the shiny Dinah Shore trophy by her side, Vu told the story of how her grandfather built a boat to help his family escape a war-torn Vietnam. How he’d go off in the countryside for months at a time, trying to literally build a better life for their family with his bare hands.
Vu’s mom, Yvonne, and her siblings ran through the forest the day in 1982 her father told them it was time to go. The boat was meant to hold no more than 54 people, but as others swam out to meet them, the number swelled to 82.
“He took them all,” said Yvonne.
After two days, the boat sprang a leak. They shot off a flare and were. soon rescued by the USS Brewton, a Naval ship that was decommissioned in 1992.
“My grandpa is the reason why I’m here,” said Vu, who birdied the last two holes on the Nicklaus Course at the Club at Carlton Woods to make her way into a playoff against fellow American Angel Yin.
After finishing the tournament knotted at 10 under, the pair headed down the par-5 18th once again, where Vu hit a drive so long she had 7-iron in on a hole she hit hybrid not long before in regulation.
After Yin’s approach found the water, Vu’s second shot went long over the green. Vu opted to putt through the long grass for her eagle attempt and left it 14 feet short of the hole.
Vu didn’t lose her turn, and after she stoically converted the birdie putt broke down in a heap of sobs as friends showered her with champagne.
For the win! 🏆
Lilia Vu birdies the first playoff hole to win the 2023 Chevron Championship! pic.twitter.com/bn0iPR0VLe
“One of the things I noticed early on when I started caddying for her was that she rises to the occasion pretty well,” said Cole Pensanti, who also looped for Danielle Kang when she won the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA.
Yin, who has yet to win on the LPGA, was emotional after the round not because she lost, but because she wondered if she’d ever have a chance to contend like this again after battling injuries.
“I think I’ve just come a long way,” said Yin. “I’m just really happy with who I am, where I am, and what I’m doing right now. Just a lot to appreciate.”
During her first year on the LPGA in 2019, Vu made one cut in nine starts and earned $3,830. The winningest player in UCLA history, with eight titles, considered hanging it up and going to law school.
Vu’s mom, however, convinced her to stay the course.
As Vu prepared to head down to Florida for an Epson Tour event during the 2020 pandemic, her grandfather was in the hospital battling a heart condition.
Lilia Vu jumps in the lake after winning the 2023 Chevron Championship. (Photo: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
“The last thing he told me was to play my best,” said Vu. “He’s in the hospital, thinking of me and my tournament.”
It wasn’t long after they returned to California that her grandfather died.
It was then Vu began to realize that she’d been treating every shot like it was life or death, comparing her success to that of the peers she’d grown up competing against.
A change in outlook freed up Vu to unlock her potential and, in 2021, she finished first on the Epson Tour money list to earn back her LPGA card.
After finishing in the top 3 on three different occasions last year and not hoisting a trophy, a frustrated Vu once again changed her mental approach. She decided she’d been putting too much pressure on herself. Vu determined that she was bound to win one day and needed to just let it happen.
Vu won in her second start of the season at the Honda LPGA Thailand and has yet to finish outside the top 15 in 2023. A $765,000 winner’s check at the Chevron gives her $2,036,647 in career earnings.
Team Vu! Lilia with her parents. Dad taught her the game. Mom convinced her not to quit. pic.twitter.com/KzlAYKe77j
At this time last year, Vu was ranked 127th in the world. She came into the Chevron ranked 12th, and while Nelly Korda is projected to rise to No. 1 once again after her third-place finish in Texas, Vu is undoubtedly the hottest American player in the world right now.
Sunday at the Chevron was a windy, chilly and, early on, rainy affair. There certainly were no guarantees that this year’s winner would have any interest in stepping foot on the shiny new dock next to the 18th green. Even Vu wasn’t sure if she’d leap into the murky water after spotting a snake near the pond on the 17th earlier in the week.
But the emotions were running high as the crowd chanted “Jump! Jump!” and, well, this is the major the kid from southern California was most familiar with – and this was her chance.
Vu took off her shoes and socks, grabbed the hand of her trainer and as her caddie belly-flopped off to the left, Vu carried on the most storied tradition in women’s golf.
What would her grandfather think?
“I think he’d say that all my struggles were worth it,” she said.
“I think there might be snakes in the water here, so might be a little interesting.”
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Will the winner jump?
With the LPGA’s first major of the season moving from the California desert to Texas, many have wondered if one of the few traditions in the women’s game would carry on at The Club at Carlton Woods. The pond that’s next to the 18th green at the Nicklaus Course is anything but pool water. It’s murky and natural, a stark contrast to the pristine waters at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
Nelly Korda said she’d jump if she wins. Defending champion Jennifer Kupcho, however, wasn’t so sure, although she didn’t have a chance to decide as she failed to make the cut.
“I think there might be snakes in the water here,” said Kupcho, “so might be a little interesting.”
Stephen Salzman, the club’s general manager and chief operating officer, said the pond is now safe for players. He said the club’s engineering team and director of agronomy went through a number of possible scenarios in the months leading up to the championship. The club originally intended to dredge the entire area to deepen the pond. The Nicklaus design team, however, was afraid the green could potentially slough, so they changed course.
“We ended up building a dock,” said Salzman. “We ended up dredging from the end of the dock to about the rock wall border there. At the end of the dock, it’s 5 feet and progresses down to close to 10 feet.”
They sent divers down to check for rocks and concrete blocks beneath the surface. And for peace of mind, they installed a gator net to protect the area.
When asked if the net kept out snakes, Salzman said, no, but that snakes aren’t super prevalent in this pond. Neither are gators, but one can’t be too safe.
World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who won what was then known as the ANA Inspiration in 2016, didn’t realize that the dock on the 18th was for jumping.
“Are you meant to jump?” Ko asked during her pre-tournament press conference. “I’ve seen people hit shots on to the green, so I wasn’t sure if it was like a hitting bay or you’re a little bored to jump. I thought it was a little deck to jump, but my caddie Dave and my mom was like, surely not, because it’s too small to fit everyone. But if that happens, it’s definitely a good worry to see if you all can fit on the deck.”
Here’s what it looks like on 18 at the Nicklaus Course for @Chevron_Golf. There’s a dock if someone wants to jump. Won’t be staged but a robe will be available. pic.twitter.com/zERHbLUg3v
Ko, who also didn’t make the cut, went on to say that she appreciates that Chevron has given players the opportunity to carry on the tradition. The champion’s leap won’t be organized, but there will be a robe and slippers on standby. It’s best to jump straight out from the dock, however, and not from the sides. Perhaps one person at a time, too.
The build-out around the 18th seats roughly 1,000 fans, Salzman said. His best-guest estimate for spectator turnout on Sunday is 5,000-7,000.
“Houston is a sports town, and The Woodlands is a golf-centric community,” he said, “and I really think they’re going to support this event.”
There are eight 18-hole golf courses in The Woodlands and The Club at Carlton Woods has 768 memberships.
On May 1, the Nicklaus Course will undergo a full restoration and modernization, including greens, bunkers and tee boxes. A new irrigation system will be put in and there will be a lake bank restoration. The cost will be just north of $10 million, Salzman said, and it’s scheduled to be finished in late October.
Georgia Hall said she thinks the Nicklaus Course is a better golf course than the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
“I think just the way it makes you think,” said Hall, when pressed for more.
“You have to think a little bit more around this golf course. You can’t really relax on any hole because there’s always something about a hole that’s very different, just mostly on the greens. In Palm Springs I thought it was quite simple to read the greens, no grain at all, but now we have the grain. I heard it’s going to be a little bit windy, as well, and a lot of factors come into play.”
The new dock that’s in place at the Chevron Championship for a potential Sunday jump. (Golfweek photo)
Hall, who also isn’t sure if the winner will jump, said the 525-yard par-5 18th won’t be reachable by most from the back tee unless its downwind. Salzman said he heard the plan is to move the tee up for the weekend to bring in the risk/reward element.
“I love a par-5 finishing hole,” said Ko. “I think it can really put everybody that’s only like a couple shots away coming down the stretch, put them all in play.”
Amy Alcott was the first player to jump into the lake at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course in 1988, a celebration she calls an “unplanned” and “organic,” which is the opposite of what it developed into in recent years.
“When I jumped in there I had no idea what was in there,” said Alcott of that first leap at the Dinah. “There was a lot of duck doo and wiring. I could’ve really hurt myself and broke my leg.”
But the LPGA Hall of Famer came through unscathed and kickstarted a decades-long tradition.
The pond at the Nicklaus Course doesn’t have a name. Alcott said she still gets 15 to 20 letters a year from fans asking who Poppie is and why didn’t they name the pond after her. (“Poppie” is longtime tournament director Terry Wilcox, and that’s what his grandkids call him.)
Perhaps the pond on the 18th at the Nicklaus Course will one day be named after Alcott, regardless of whether or not the jump lives on.
Salzman said there’s a 10-year contract in place to keep the Chevron here with a five-year clause designed to make sure everyone is still happy. Defending champions this week were given a Bentley to drive. Salzman and his team want this to be every player’s favorite stop on tour.
“I’d like to think they’re here for the next 51 years,” he said.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Angel Yin remembers vividly a practice round she had with Cristie Kerr several years ago at an LPGA Drive On event in Georgia.
“She was walking after she hit a tee shot off a practice round, and she was like, ‘I’m four days away from people knowing I’m back,'” said Yin.
“That’s the confidence. Every day I tell myself that: ‘Just channel your Cristie Kerr.'”
Yin hasn’t yet won on the LPGA and co-leads the 2023 Chevron Championship with Allisen Corpuz, another American player looking for her first LPGA victory at the year’s first major. The third-round leaderboard at the Club at Carlton Woods is littered with players looking for a break-through week – whether that’s a first-time LPGA victory or a maiden major win.
Only a trio in a share of sixth know what it’s like to win a major – Nelly Korda, Hyo Joo Kim and A Lim Kim, who won her first major down the road in Houston at the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open at Champion Golf Club.
Young told Golfweek he consistently breaks 90 at a number of courses in the Houston area.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — For an LPGA major trying to forge its identity deep in the heart of Texas, Saturday’s third round of the Chevron Championship brought a huge golf fanatic and a Texas icon — former Longhorns great Vince Young.
And then he told Golfweek he has been playing regularly for the past few years and consistently breaks 90 at a number of courses in the Houston area.
“I play a lot out here,” Young said of the Jack Nicklaus Signature design, one of two courses on the property. “I also play the Fazio (also at Carlton Woods). I play Wildcat (which is south of Houston) a lot, too. But I haven’t joined anywhere yet. I’m still looking.”
Young, whose legendary fourth-down touchdown run in the 2006 Rose Bowl was the decisive play as the Longhorns downed a talent-laden USC team and captured the national championship, said he was in awe of the LPGA players at the Chevron on Saturday.
“Since I’ve been here, I saw a sand shot go right in the hole and heard there was a hole-in-one,” Young said. “For the first year in Houston, I’d say that’s pretty good. And with weather like this, it’s great.”
Young, who grew up in Houston and played high school football at Madison High School where he led his team to the state title game, said he played sporadically when he was younger, but got into the game more during his pro career. Young played for the Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles and was also signed by the Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns.
“I started playing in like my fifth or sixth year in the pros, and then I really picked it up three years ago during the pandemic,” he said. “I can’t get enough. You know, I’m in the 80s. Any time I’m in the 80s is a good day.”
