“I’m like, I just need to fire at pins,” said Thompson. “Trust me, I was trying to do it the whole time.”
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey – Lexi Thompson came alive late on Friday at the KPMG Women’s PGA, pouring in four birdies over her last five holes to vault inside the cutline at Baltusrol’s Lower Course.
“I’m like, I just need to fire at pins,” said Thompson. “Trust me, I was trying to do it the whole time. Kind of just all clicked coming in. Made some really good putts and really stuck to my game plan coming in.”
Thompson, 28, curled in a 25-footer for birdie on the eighth hole (her 17th) to put an exclamation point on a day that looked headed for the gutter as she was 8 over for the championship through 31 holes.
Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA who last triumphed in 2019, hit only five fairways and 10 greens in her first 18 holes and took 32 putts. She opened with a 76 playing alongside the LPGA’s newest sensation, Rose Zhang, and two-time major winner Minjee Lee.
— KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 23, 2023
Friday’s birdie flurry, however, gave Thompson a 1-under 70 in the second round, moving her to 4 over for the tournament, nine shots back of leader Leona Maguire.
Currently No. 9 in the world, Thompson opened the season with a share of third at the Saudi Ladies International. The KPMG is only her fifth LPGA start of the season. She missed the cut in three of those, including last week’s Meijer LPGA Classic.
“Like I said, it’s been a struggle this whole kind of year except for my first event of the year,” said Thompson.
“But I’ve been working probably harder than ever in my whole life on the golf course and when I’m home practicing. Just to be able to come through towards the end and make those birdies, it’s nice to see hard work pay off, even though I’m still at 4 over. I’m taking it. I’m taking the little, small win right now and building it.”
Some of the biggest names in the women’s game headed home early at Baltusrol.
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey — Some of the biggest names in the women’s game headed home early at Baltusrol. Nelly Korda and Atthaya Thitikul missed the cut by a mile in the first women’s major held over the Lower Course since 1961.
“You hit it a little sideways off the tee and that’s what happens on a golf course like this,” said Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis, who will play the weekend.
“It’s that chipping out and having to constantly be getting up and down from 100 yards, it’s exhausting.”
Lexi Thompson looked poised to miss the weekend as she was outside the top 100 early on Friday, but then came roaring back with four consecutive birdies near the end of her round to sneak in at 4 over. Given how little both Thompson and Korda have played this season, Lewis said she wouldn’t have put any money on them.
Korda took a month off with an injury, and Thompson has played in only five previous LPGA events this season, including the Hanwha International Crown.
“That’s going to be my encouraging words that come later this fall,” said Lewis, “that they play some more tournaments heading into Solheim.”
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Linn Grant’s debut at the KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol surely felt like a long time coming for the up-and-coming Swedish star. This week marks Grant’s first major championship on American soil since the December 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, and she’s squarely in the mix heading into the weekend.
Vaccination travel restrictions kept Grant from playing in the United States after she earned her LPGA card in 2021. Remarkably, she managed to keep her card by competing in events only held outside the U.S., recording four top-eight finishes in the span of six events.
Back-to-back rounds of even par on a soggy Lower Course in Springfield, New Jersey, have Grant four strokes back of leader Xiyu Lin.
“I feel like my game is getting better for each day,” said Grant. “That’s usually how I work.”
Now a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, Grant said she wouldn’t have the same level of confidence in her game that she now possesses were it not for the experiences she had playing in Europe. She topped the season-long Race to Costa del Sol in 2022 and won the Jabra Ladies Open earlier this year in France.
“I try to see it as a positive,” said Grant, who made history when she beat the men at the Scandinavian Mixed last year. “That’s pretty much all I can do.”
Now No. 22 in the world, Grant missed the first major of the season in Texas as well as the chance to represent Sweden at the Hanwha International Crown due to travel restrictions.
With the national public health emergency expiring in May, the former Arizona State player was permitted to compete in the LET event in West Palm Beach, Florida. In her first LPGA start in the U.S., she advanced to the semifinals of the Bank of Hope Match-Play at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
While the vaccination topic is deeply controversial, Grant said she reads all the comments on her Instagram feed and said most of them have been positive.
“I think a lot of people think that they’re negative,” she said, “but at least on my Instagram they’re all positive.
“The few negative I get, I just brush them off. They don’t know me. They don’t know my reasons.”
Golfweek‘s Beth Ann Nichols, who is on the ground this week for the women’s second major of the year, had to call an audible last night. The weather in Springfield, New Jersey, has been dreadful and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club heads to the weekend.
So, a trip to the store for rain pants was needed.
Scattered thunderstorms are expected to hit the area this afternoon, while both days over the weekend are forecasted to receive rain.
Here’s a look at the complete forecast for the next few days at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey – Xiyi Lin first met a teenage Ruoning Yin at the 2019 Buick LPGA Shanghai. Yin asked Lin for advice on what would be the proper way to get to the LPGA.
“At that time, I was like, ‘Wow, like this kid, she really wants something,” said Lin.
Fast forward four years to the KPMG Women’s PGA, where Lin and Yin were briefly tied atop the leaderboard at 4 under with two-time major winner Brooke Henderson before South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace birdied the 18th get to 5 under. The two Orlando-based friends from China put together bogey-free rounds at Baltustrol’s Lower course on a day when big numbers were plentiful.
Lin, 27, who goes by “Janet” on tour and Yin, 20, who goes by “Ronnie,” play together every couple of weeks when they’re both in town but have talked more regularly of late about plumbing issues. Yin now rents Lin’s old house.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been dealing with some draining problems,” said Lin, “so when I see her, I always feel so sorry. Not with the golf, but it’s like the toilet is clogged or something. We finally fixed it like three weeks ago.”
Yin considers Lin to be a mentor, but she’s also technically her landlord.
Ruoning Yin plays a shot from the fairway on the 18th hole during the first round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports
“Yeah, I know,” said Lin. “After she win, I’m like, ‘I need to raise the rent. It was way too low for you now.’ ”
Lin laughed, taking great delight in the success of her friend. Yin won the DIO Implant Open earlier this spring, becoming the second Chinese winner in LPGA history after former No. 1 and 10-time LPGA winner Shanshan Feng, who is now retired and working as China’s national coach. Feng won this event in 2012 when it was known as the LPGA Championship.
“Shanshan, I think, is my goal,” said Yin. “All the Chinese players’ goal.”
There are nine Chinese players currently competing on the LPGA and 10 Chinese players have earned a check on the Epson Tour this season. There are also 30 Chinese players playing college golf in the U.S.
“I think there’s more to come,” said Yin.
Lin, currently No. 14 in the world and seeking her first tour title, finished tied for third last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic. She smiled brightly in the aftermath despite another close call. Lin finished second three times in 2022 and lost in a playoff to former KPMG champ Hannah Green earlier this year at the JM Eagle LPGA Championship.
“I compliment myself a lot more than before,” said Lin. “I feel like I get to a point that I know what’s going to happen. I’m experienced enough. I’m still going to miss a cut here and there, still going to feel hurt, still going to feel bad from a bad round, but I’m old enough to be able to deal with them. I feel like I work hard and I balance my life.”
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Rose Zhang, already a history-making player at the tender age of 20, hit a 1-iron for the first time last year during a team-building exercise at Merion with the Curtis Cup team. She did not get closest to the hole. Didn’t even reach the green, in fact. One of the few times she’s lost at anything in the past year.
From the Ben Hogan plaque on the 18th at Merion to the one celebrating Jack Nicklaus’ famous 1-iron here at Baltusrol’s Lower Course, Zhang finds herself immersed in big moments these days.
Zhang struck her best drive of the day up the 18th at the Lower Course in the opening round of the KPMG Women’s PGA, and though she was far from the Nicklaus plaque, nestled a 3-wood up to 8 feet for eagle on the closing par 5. The ensuing putt was a touch short on pace.
Every birdie at the Lower Course on a drizzly and gusty Thursday was a solid one, as only six players broke par in the morning wave. Zhang’s 1-under 70 put her one back of a trio of players with the clubhouse lead early on, though by day’s end she trailed leader Lee-Anne Pace by four.
Leona Maguire, winner of last week’s Meijer LPGA Classic, made a birdie of her own on the 18th to finish at 2 under in a share of sixth. The steely Irishwoman hit every green and missed one fairway in an opening 69.
“It’s a completely different test,” said Maguire of last week to this week. “I think you had to drive the ball equally well last week I would say, but you were going gung-ho at a lot of pins. Today you had to be really disciplined.”
Not long before Zhang turned professional, she broke Maguire’s record of 135 consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Maguire, 28, was a prodigy in her own right own right long before she arrived at Duke.
“We knew even before she went to college, she started winning everything,” said Boutier, a former Blue Devil teammate, “so it was kind of obvious that she would make it.”
Maguire, who took off a year of high school to concentrate on golf as a junior, won 10 times as a Blue Devil and worked her way to the LPGA via the Epson Tour. She became the first player from Ireland to win on the LPGA last year and now seeks to become the first female from Ireland to win a major.
Maguire’s swing coach since age 10, Shane O’Grady, was at Baltusrol earlier in the week. Coming straight off her second win, however, there admittedly wasn’t much to work on.
“It was nice for him,” said Maguire. “He hadn’t been at a major in quite a few years I would say, so nice for him to sort of see how the golf course is set up, the shots that we need.”
Zhang, who like Maguire was a two-time national player of the year in college, won a dozen times at Stanford, including her second NCAA title, and then clinched her first LPGA title in her pro debut at the Mizuho Americas Open.
She went back to Palo Alto after that remarkable victory and a New York media tour to finish her final exams. After two weeks away from the tour, she’s back in the spotlight at Baltusrol, the most sought-after player in the field.
Zhang started grinding early on Thursday with bogeys on two of the first four holes, an especially taxing stretch on the newly renovated A.W. Tillinghast design. She held on to play the last 12 holes in 3 under, putting herself in fine position at the first women’s major on the Lower Course in more than 50 years.
“There’s so many obligations as a professional,” said Zhang, “but I’m really taking it in my stride. I feel very thankful to be in this position.”
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Celine Borge carried her own bag on the Epson Tour last season, where she finished sixth on the money list to qualify for the LPGA. Even now, midway through her rookie year on the LPGA, Borge isn’t comfortable letting someone else carry her bag. She’s used a local caddie every week this season, even here at the KPMG Women’s PGA, where a Baltusrol looper helped her take a share of the clubhouse lead after a 2-under 69 over the famed Lower Course. She did not ask him for help on the greens.
“I just try to do what I’ve always been doing,” said Borge, “just play my own game and just (need) someone to carry the bag.”
Borge, currently No. 228 in the Rolex Rankings, has made 10 starts so far on the LPGA with three top-20 finishes. The Norwegian player makes her second career major start this week after missing the cut at the Chevron Championship.
The 24-year old was bogey free on the day until she reached the par-3 ninth, where she recorded her only blemish.
“I tried to not think about it,” she said of having the solo lead in the early stages of a major, “just tried to do my best on the next shot and see how it goes.”
Borge’s 11th caddie of the season, Corey Birch, grew up about 20 minutes from the Springfield club and had started out with an inside job. After he played well in a caddie tournament, the club’s caddie master asked why he wasn’t looping.
Birch, 27, has worked at Baltusrol for a decade now and is one of a handful of local caddies picked for a job this week. He typically does about 10 loops per week around the club’s Upper and Lower courses.
“We’re a very busy club,” said Birch, “and I’m fortunate the be here. I guess lot of people call it a golf factory, I guess you could say. We never sleep.”
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship purse doubled last year from $4.5 million to $9 million. One year later, the purse has jumped to $10 million. Last year’s U.S. Women’s Open of $10 million marked the first time a woman’s purse reached eight figures.
The winner of this week’s event will earn $1,500,000 while the second-place check comes in at $889,964. Players who finish in the top 23 this week earn six figures. This field will be cut to the top 70 and ties after 36 holes. Those who don’t play the weekend will receive $4,000 to help cover the expenses this week in New Jersey. All players in the field were also given a courtesy Cadillac for the week.
This week marks the first time a women’s major has been contested at Baltusrol’s Lower Course since Mickey Wright won the 1961 U.S. Women’s Open.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Stacy Lewis didn’t want to pile on to the craziness that followed Rose Zhang’s breakout victory earlier this month, but the U.S. Solheim Cup captain had one request for the rookie this week: She needed her to try on clothes.
Lewis was eyeing Zhang for the 2024 Solheim Cup team, knowing that she’d need to win on the LPGA to be eligible for this year’s event in Spain. Needless to say, she’s following Zhang a little more closely now.
“I’d love for her to make it on her own,” said Lewis, “and take the decision out of my hands.”
Zhang, 20, makes her major debut as a professional at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and comes to Baltusrol hot off a slate of final exams at Stanford. The computer science class that’s been giving her fits all quarter was the toughest.
“Once I came back, I just felt all the – I don’t know, I was stressed about it, but at the same time, I wasn’t stressed because I honestly couldn’t care at that point about what my grades were,” Zhang told a packed press conference area on the eve of the championship.
“As long as I passed the class, as long as I completed what I needed to, I was pretty much done with sophomore year.”
Rose Zhang of the United States walks with her caddie up the 18th hole during a practice round prior to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club on June 21, 2023, in Springfield, New Jersey. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Zhang won the Mizuho Americas Open earlier this month in her professional debut, becoming the first player to win an LPGA event in her pro start since Beverly Hanson in 1951. It’s been a whirlwind since, with Zhang embarking on a media tour in New York City before heading back to Palo Alto where her non-golf friends helped keep life in perspective.
“Once I got back on campus, all my friends were like, ‘Yo, congrats,’ ” said Zhang. “After that, we spent time just talking about random things and how they have been surviving campus life.”
The first time Lewis captained Zhang was a couple years ago at the Spirit International in Texas. Zhang shot 10 under that week to win the individual title.
“And if you had watched her play,” said Lewis, “you’d probably say she played bad. It was very impressive with her demeanor and the way she carries herself.”
After Zhang met with media in the flash area, she headed over to Golf Channel’s onsite set where she humbly declared that her goal this week was to make the cut. She said something similar at Mizuho. Before leaving the set, she made sure to compliment analysts Amanda Blumenherst and Paige Mackenzie on their playing careers.
In the days leading up to the KPMG, Zhang spent time at home playing with her 2 ½-year-old niece, who has no idea, of course, that her aunt now has a grown-up job and is a rising star in women’s sport.
The biggest adjustment, so far, she said would be that she hasn’t been able to work on her game as much as she did as an amateur. Zhang’s daily grind at Stanford was legendary.
“I feel like as an amateur, you take it for granted,” she said, “where you can just be out on the range, no one is talking to you. You can hit balls for like four hours. You can chip, putt, do whatever you need to.
“But I can’t really do that anymore.”
Few in the game know what it’s like to play under the microscope at a young age more than Lydia Ko, though the Kiwi’s path to the LPGA was decidedly different, winning on the tour as an amateur at the age of 15 and turning professional at 16 – by then a two-time winner on the LPGA.
“I think you guys like to talk about first this, last this, this-this,” Ko told the media. “There’s always titles.”
The 26-year-old 19-time LPGA winner noted that she and Zhang are really not that far apart in age – six years – though she wonders if people think she’s 35 by now.
“She’s a very special player,” said Ko. “I don’t think you need me to say she’s special … her accolades and everything speak for itself.”
This week marks the first time Baltusrol’s Lower Course will host a women’s major since 1961.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — This week marks the first time Baltusrol’s Lower Course will host a women’s major since 1961. No one in the field at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA was born when Mickey Wright won her third U.S. Women’s Open title that year.
This week presents a history lesson for the best female players in the world as they tackle a course that saw Jack Nicklaus win two U.S. Open titles and Phil Mickelson win a PGA Championship. The first USGA championship ever held at Baltusrol was the U.S. Women’s Amateur back in 1901.
This week marks another chapter in the storied club that in 2014 became a national historic landmark.
“The course is in immaculate shape,” said former KPMG champ Brooke Henderson. “I’ve never seen a golf course in such great shape, I don’t think.”
Unfortunately, bad weather looms on the horizon, with anywhere from a 60 to 80 percent chance of rain expected every day though Sunday. New drainage and a SubAir system will help, but players will experience a vastly different test from they’ve seen in the practice rounds.
Here’s what some of the best in the world had to say about what’s to come:
