The Ford Championship purse just got bigger. The Thunderbirds, host of the wildly popular WM Phoenix Open, have partnered with the LPGA for the first time, and their $250,000 contribution brings the total purse to $2.25 million.
It’s not just about the purse, of course. The Thunderbirds also bring a unique expertise in raising money for charity and getting fans in the stands.
The 2024 Ford Championship presented by KCC will be held March 28-31 at Seville Golf and Country Club. Last year, Celine Boutier won the 2023 Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club. The LPGA has played in Arizona more than 70 times since its inception in 1950.
“We’re extremely proud to be a founding partner of the Ford Championship presented by KCC and to be a part of the historic tradition of LPGA events in the Valley of the Sun,” said Pat Williams, Big Chief of The Thunderbirds, in a statement. “We are equally excited to partner with the LPGA in an effort to continue growing the game of golf and giving back to the community. We look forward to seeing the world’s best golfers tee it up at Seville Golf and Country Club later this month.”
Lydia Ko is expected to return to the LPGA at Seville. The Kiwi is one point away from entering the LPGA Hall of Fame and has had several close calls so far since winning the season-opening Tournament of Champions.
View photos of Celine Boutier throughout her career.
Celine Boutier has won at every level.
With double-digit professional wins under her belt, Boutier built upon a successful amateur career that featured wins at the 2012 European Ladies Amateur Championship and the 2015 British Ladies Championship.
During her collegiate career at Duke, the Frenchwoman won four events as an individual and helped her team win the NCAA national championship in 2014. That same year, Boutier was awarded the Women’s Golf Coaches Association Player of the Year.
Turning pro upon graduating from Duke in 2016, Boutier earned her LPGA through the now-Epson Tour following a two-win season in 2017.
As an LPGA rookie in 2018, Boutier earned more than $300,000, making 16 of 25 cuts and finishing 61st on the money list. In 2019, she earned her first LPGA Tour victory at the ISPS Handa Vic Open.
Lewis closed with a 5-under 67 at Superstition Mountain to vault into a share of seventh.
Stacy Lewis’s fine play at the LPGA Drive On Championship isn’t enough yet, she said, to start a serious conversation about being a playing captain at the Solheim Cup in Spain.
Lewis closed with a 5-under 67 at Superstition Mountain to vault into a share of seventh. Her only wish was that the tour was headed next to Mission Hills Country Club, a favorite stop and site of her first major victory. But with the Chevron Championship headed to Texas next month, Lewis and the tour will move on to Palos Verdes Golf Club for the DIO Implant LA Open, where the 13-time winner hopes her good momentum continues.
“I wouldn’t say it’s not possible,” she said of playing and captaining at the Solheim Cup in Spain. “I think it’s possible, but I hope there are 12 playing better than me, and our team is going to be in a really good spot if that’s the case.”
Lewis started feeling better about her putting toward the end of last season. After the Asian swing, she took advantage of a couple weeks off to put new shafts in her irons and is pleased with her ball-striking.
“The combination of getting some new irons, longer irons getting up in the air, easier to hit, and things working on with my golf swing starting to come together,” she said of what’s clicking.
Stacy Lewis holds the trophy the closing ceremony of 2015 Solheim Cup in Germany. (Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
Lewis wears multiple hats every week she’s on tour, trying to get to know the rookies who might be on her team in September as well as she can.
“Just the time you can be around them,” she said, “seeing them in player dining, talking to them warming up, just that a little bit of interaction goes a long way with them feeling more comfortable for that week so everything is not so new, right?
“Solheim Cup is a crazy week, and if you throw a brand new face in front of them telling them what to do, that’s really hard. So just trying to be around them as much as I can and be there when they have questions and just making sure they’re always thinking about it.”
Potential Solheim Cup rookie Lilia Vu, already a winner this season, finished T-7 and hasn’t placed outside the top 15 this season.
Lucy Li, another player Lewis has her eye one, made her debut as a LPGA member this week and struggled mightily, shooting 76-76 to miss the cut.
The 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship came down to a playoff between a pair of Solheim Cup teammates.
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — The 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship came down to a playoff between a pair of Solheim Cup teammates.
France’s Celine Boutier got up-and-down for a must-have tying birdie on the par-5 18th hole Sunday to get to 20 under to knot things up with England’s Georgia Hall, who also birdied the closing hole about an hour earlier.
They replayed the 18th, playing 469 yards Sunday, with Boutier hitting a similar second shot right of the green. Hall then hit her approach into the back bunker. Boutier chipped up to about four feet, setting up a birdie try. Hall, meanwhile, faced a dicey sand shot and ended up about 20 feet past the hole.
After Hall’s birdie putt missed to the left, the stage was set for Boutier to close it out, which she did, making birdie on 18 for the second time Sunday to clinch the victory, her first playoff win.
Following her round Saturday, which gave her a one-shot, 54-hole lead, Boutier said “I think I just realized that my game is good enough.” She sounds even more confident Sunday after earning the win.
“I think it’s definitely not easy to win. I feel like my game was good enough for the past couple years for sure. I just wasn’t able to win. I feel like it’s something you need to learn,” she said. “I definitely had a bunch of opportunities last year and wasn’t able to do it, so to be able to do it this early in the season this year is definitely very satisfying.”
Celine Boutier holds the trophy after winning the 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club in Arizona. (Photo: : Alex Gould/The Republic)
She proved it Sunday by winning for the second time in five tries when holding the third-round lead. She also becomes the winningest player from France in LPGA history, surpassing Anne Marie Palli, who lives in Scottsdale and followed Boutier’s group Sunday.
“It’s wonderful for her to win, and what’s so fun, and I just made her aware, she won in Australia, she won in Atlantic City and here, and Atlantic City and here are the two tournaments I won as well, on tour,” said Palli. “She’s a hard worker. She’s a great player. Yeah, and she’s very nice. I’m very excited for her.”
Hall last won just over a year ago at the 2022 Aramco Saudi Ladies International. The 2018 Women’s British Open champ also has the 2020 Cambia Portland Classic on her resume.
“Obviously fantastic to get to the position I was in. I knew I had to shoot low today, and obviously gutted about the playoff.”
Boutier’s 268 total (69-66-65-68) sets the 72-hole scoring mark. The tournament was 54-holes a year ago and while the LPGA has staged the Drive On event since 2020, the 2022 version is considered the first official event.
Japan’s Ayaka Furue finished solo third. Korea’s Narin An finished solo fourth. Defending champion Leona Maguire finished tied for 23rd.
Chip shots
Gina Kim recorded the first hole-in-one of the 2023 LPGA season when she aced the par-3 eighth hole early in Sunday’s round. “At first I was scared because I was like, ‘Oh, crap. It probably hit the pin and went down the hill or something like that.’ Then I heard my mom screaming and everyone screaming and then that’s when I realized, holy cow,” Kim said. She had a final-round 66 and tied for 66th.
Lydia Ko will remain No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings after skipping the Drive On. World No. 2 Nelly Korda, who finished tied for 57 after closing with a 1-over 73, and No. 3 Jin Young Ko, who finished tied for fifth, each came up short of supplanting Lydia Ko. Among the scenarios for Korda was a win or a solo second. For Jin Young Ko, she needed to win and have Korda finish solo third or worse.
Golfers from four different countries have won the four LPGA events so far: Boutier (France), Brooke Henderson (Canada), Jin Young Ko (Korea) and Lilia Vu (U.S.).
Tournament director Scott Wood says ticket sales, despite the tournament only having been announced in November and no title sponsor to drive promotion, reached close to 35,000 for the week.
Up next: The DIO Implant LA Open starts Thursday at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, California.
There was an albatross before there was an ace on the LPGA in 2023.
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — There was an albatross before there was an ace on the LPGA in 2023.
During Friday’s second round, Yuka Saso posted a 2 on the par-5 second hole, the first albatross in three years on tour.
On Sunday, Gina Kim recorded the first hole-in-one of the season. It happened on the par-3 eighth hole when she holed out to spark her final-round 66.
“It’s a little still chilly in the morning,” she said. “Wind was kind of going left to right, and I said, ‘Hey, you know, you thinking that 8-iron would be good?’ Because we were trying to play like a 146 shot and my caddie, Jorge said ‘I don’t want you to be muscling this. I think that 7-iron, just a nice grip-down easy 7-iron should be good.’
“And so I aimed left of it and let the wind take the ball, and it looked like it was going great, and suddenly we heard this loud bang and turns out it didn’t even just hop into the hole it just dunked straight into the hole. No damage to the hole. Just sank right to the bottom of the cup.”
🚨 ACE ALERT 🚨@gina_kim0504 aced the 137-yard, 8th hole using her 7 iron!
As (bad) luck would have it, there was no video captured of the shot.
“At first I was scared because I was like, oh, crap. It probably hit the pin and went down the hill or something like that,” Kim said. “Then I heard my mom screaming and everyone screaming and then that’s when I realized, ‘Holy cow.'”
The LPGA is “going to be well-supported no matter what we do here.”
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — The 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship – the first LPGA event in Arizona since 2019 and the first at Superstition Mountain since 2008 – is just about in the books.
Six of the top 10 ranked players in the world made the trek to compete in the first full-field event on the LPGA’s 2023 schedule and the second U.S. tournament in two months.
Temperatures gradually warmed as the week went and fans were treated to low scores, the first ace of the season and the tour’s first albatross in three years.
Scott Wood, the 2023 tournament director, sat down with Golfweek for a Sunday Q&A about week.
Golfweek: Initial thoughts on the week?
Scott Wood: It’s been a fantastic week, to be honest with you, it’s exceeded all of our expectations. Ticket sales have just been fantastic. The community involvement has been great. So, to us, this has been a plus it’s been a home run.
GW: Is there anything you’d have done differently?
SW: We tried some things. … and so I think there’s a lot for us to build upon. The only thing that I always ask for is more time to plan. I think now that we’ve got one under our belt here, and worked with everybody, to be honest with you, as long as we have time we can we can really take this to the next level.
GW: Have you gotten much feedback from players?
SW: Feedback has just been completely positive about their experience at the clubhouse. Obviously, dining is very important to our players and caddies and so that’s been that’s been well-received. The golf course has been truly phenomenal. I honestly anticipated scores probably a little bit lower, so I think it’s a really good fair test. And the players have been nothing but complimentary to the to the team here about just from tee to green.
GW: It seems like the course has been a good test.
SW: It is, you know, I was watching, like everybody else, the middle of the pack really shot up [on Saturday]. … with 30 players within four shots [after 54 holes], that’s the kind of competition that you want. So I think we got it dialed in.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen tees off from the 17th during the second round of the 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club in Arizona. (Photo: Patrick Breen/The Arizona Republic)
GW: Has the tour provided any feedback?
SW: Everything’s been well received. That’s why I think when we say this just exceeded our expectations. I think that’s it’s collectively, from our staff from players, from the few sponsors that did, you know, jump in last-minute with us. Everybody is just super excited about where this could go in the future. and there’s been a lot of conversations had on-site this week of, okay, this is really great. How can we make it better?
GW: We don’t know if it’s coming back [in 2024 and beyond] for sure, but do you feel like this was a big step towards that?
SW: I do. I do. I’ll be honest with you, as I’ve been telling some others this week, for us to move Founders Cup out of Phoenix [after 2019], it was a business decision and this [Drive On] gave us this opportunity to come and bring one of our marquee events that the Tour owns and operates, for us to be able to get it back into the market. To see after four years how well it was received by the fans and by our players and by really everybody in town. That’s gonna be the catapult that just sends us into like, you know, I think having really strong conversations with a lot of good people that can really help to facilitate a long-term deal.
Danielle Kang tees off on the third hole as golf fans gather around the tee box during the first round of the 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club in Arizona. (Photo: Parick Breen/The Arizona Republic)
GW: Can you share ticket sales?
SW: What I can say right now is is the way that we saw ticket sales, pre-tournament, and then ticket sales during tournament week online and then walk-up ticket sales, we’re in that 30- to 35- [thousand] range right now [for the week].
It just proves the point that the LPGA belongs in Phoenix and that it’s going to be well-supported no matter what we do here.
The weather has improved steadily each day and so has the scoring.
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — The weather has improved steadily each day and so has the scoring at the 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship.
On Saturday during the third round, Korea’s Amy Yang shot the best score of the week, a 9-under 63. She had 10 birdies, five on each side, and just one bogey. Her 63 ties the tournament’s low round in its official two-year history.
“I hit it so solid out there, especially my second shot going into the green was really solid,” she said. “My putting worked really well today. I could see the break. Just over the ball I could see the break and the speed, just one of those days you just got the good feeling about your playing. So I just enjoyed it out there.”
Yang opened 70-70 to get to 4 under through 36 holes. She made the cut by a shot and started her Saturday round at 9 a.m.
She seemed to like the course conditions early in the day.
“I think it helped the ball wasn’t release so much like yesterday afternoon. I think that really helped.”
Yang, 33, turned pro in 2008 and has four LPGA victories, three of them in the Honda LPGA Thailand. A win in Arizona on Sunday would be her first in the U.S.
A few hours later, Norway’s Celine Borge matched Yang’s 63. Playing in her first LPGA event since 2019, Borge opened with four straight birdies, then closed out her round birdie-eagle for a back-nine 31.
Not to be outdone, Ariya Jutanugarn shot a third-round 63, riding nine birdies without a bogey to claim a share of the clubhouse lead. Jutanugarn, who said she missed some short putts which could’ve made her score even lower, had five birdies in a row on Nos. 6-10. She then closed with three straight birdies on Nos. 16, 17 and 18.
Near albatross
Mina Harigae, one of the nearly dozen LPGA players with special membership status at Superstition Mountain, had her second shot on 18 lip out during Saturday’s third round.
Yep, she was oh-so-close to recording an albatross. It would’ve been the second in as many days.
A week after getting hitched here at Superstition Mountain, Mina Harigae just left an albatross at the altar — lipping out her 2nd shot on the Par 5 18th from 203. She’s never made one. Hubby Travis did once. “That’s the only thing I have on her. #LPGADriveOnpic.twitter.com/IZx0SSaJUh
The near-miss comes one week after she got married at the course to Travis Kreiter.
Yuka Saso recorded one Friday on the par-5 second hole, the first one on the LPGA in three years.
Boutier holds solo lead
Celine Boutier shot a third-round 65 to get to 16 under. When Moriya Jutanugarn hit her second shot into the lake on the 18th hole en route to a closing bogey, Boutier claimed the solo 54-hole lead.
Boutier eagled the par-5 second hole and sprinkled in six birdies, including one at the last. She had just one bogey on her card.
“I feel like I had a lot of birdie opportunities today,” she said. “I didn’t even make all of them, but I feel like because I was playing really steady and focusing on hitting good shots and having the birdie chances.
“It was definitely very solid round all around.”
Jutanugarn had bogeys on her last two holes, as well as her first hole. Her second-round 69 dropped her into a tie for second with Alison Lee and LPGA rookie Hae Ran Ryu, who eagled the 18th to shoot a 64.
Go low on 18
The par-5 18th hole, measuring just over 500 yards this week, is playing as the easiest hole during the first two rounds. The scoring average through 36 holes was 4.594 and players racked up 82 birdies in the first round and, despite a back-left pin location that was guarded by the lake that runs down the left side of the hole, another 57 in the second. There were also three eagles on 18 in the first round and another in the second.
The final hole is likely to provide scoring opportunities all week and could set the stage for some final-round theatrics from the contenders.
“I feel like you need to take advantage of all the par-5s out here,” said Nelly Korda, the second-ranked player in the women’s game. “I think whenever you par a par 5 you definitely lose one on the field because they’re all pretty reachable.”
About that tournament history
The two 2020 Drive On events as well as the 2021 tournament were at the time staged as one-offs as the LPGA was seeking to create playing opportunities for its players during the COVID pandemic.
The event didn’t become an official, regular LPGA tournament until last year. Also, when Leona Maguire won it a year ago, it was a 54-hole event. Whoever wins it this year will establish the tournament’s 72-hole scoring record.
The future status of the Drive On is unclear. The 2024 schedule has not been finalized, nor has Superstition Mountain been named as a future host of the event.
Korda, Ko can each reclaim the No. 1 spot in the rankings this week.
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — The top two ranked players in the field at the 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship bounced back from so-so rounds Thursday to zoom up the leaderboard Friday.
Nelly Korda, No. 2 in the Rolex Rankings, and Jin Young Ko, who checks in at No. 3, each birdied the par-5 18th hole to close their first rounds late in the day to finish with 2-over 70s.
Those birdies may have jump-started their early-wave second rounds, as Ko shot a 65 and Korda a 66 on Friday playing in the morning wave.
Those two plus Brooke Henderson formed easily the most popular threesome over the first two days. Korda, who was a bit under the weather Friday, opened with two birdies, made the turn in 33, and had three more birdies in a row on her back nine before closing with a birdie on the easiest hole on the course, the par-5 18th.
Her birdies came in bunches, as she went back-to-back on Nos. 1 and 2, as well as Nos. 6 and 7 before posting three in a row on Nos. 13 through 15.
“They were short holes so I could use my length to my advantage,” she said. “Hit some solid wedge shots in. Pretty sure my first bounce-back was a reachable par-5. Then it was a short par-4 after. Yeah, they’re just shorter holes so I can take advantage of it.”
Nelly Korda plays her shot from the 11th tee during the second round of the 2023 LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club in Arizona. (Photo: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Course conditions were a bit different Friday, as well.
“I played in colder weather today but fresher greens,” she said. “Towards the end in the afternoon, you could definitely tell the greens were really bumpy. They were rolling solid this morning.”
Ko, meanwhile, did Korda one better Friday, posting a bogey-free 65 which included four birdies on her last eight holes. She played the front nine last and closed with a birdie on No. 9 but also admitted that she wasn’t feeling 100 percent.
“My goal this week was to make the cut because truthfully my condition isn’t good. My voice being gone and my game are separate things, but it’s tough not being able to speak much, but I still did my best,” she said. “I couldn’t talk much with my caddie Dave today. I wish we could have talked more especially when selecting clubs.”
Ko is tied for seventh, three shots back, and Korda tied for 15th four back.
World No. 1 Lydia Ko skipped the Drive On, and she’s not guaranteed to stay atop the rankings with the second- and third-ranked players close behind.
Korda can return to No. 1 with:
a win
a solo second
two-way tie for second
a three-way tie for second
a solo third and if Jin Young Ko doesn’t win
Jin Young Ko can return to No. 1 with:
a win and a Korda solo third or worse
Three-way tie for lead
Jenny Shin, one of three tied for the lead after the first round at 7 under, is one of three tied for the lead at 12 under after 36 holes. She opened with a bogey on No. 10 on Friday but strung together five straight birdies to close out her front nine en route to a 67.
Shin has one LPGA win and it came seven years ago. “I’m happy to be where I am. I haven’t been here in a while, so especially solo lead. So I’m very excited,” she said.
Shin has a fill-in caddie for the week, Joe Shildmyer.
“‘There is this guy I know and he’s great company,'” Shin said of Gemma Dryburgh’s recommendation. “Hey, that’s all I can ask for. Met him on Monday and he really is great company out there.”
Late in the day, Moriya Jutanugarn posted a bogey-free 65 that included five birdies and an eagle to get to 12 under and tie Shin atop the leaderboard. Jutanugarn’s last win came five years ago. Then, beating the setting sun, Maddie Szeryk had three birdies over her last five holes to shoot a 65 and also tie for the lead.
Albatross for Saso
The shot of the day came off the 19-degree hybrid of 2021 U.S. Open champ Yuka Saso. On the par-5 second hole, her 11th of the day, Saso holed out from 217 yards for an albatross. It’s the first one on the LPGA since 2020.
“We all know how hard it is to get one,” she said, admitting as she was approaching the green she didn’t realize her ball was in the cup. “They say you’re lucky if you ever get one in your golf career. I guess I was very lucky to have it.”
The top 65 and ties make the cut. Saturday’s third-round tee times start at 11:10 a.m. ET (8:10 a.m. local time) with the leaders going off at 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. local). Golf Channel’s live coverage is from 7 to 9 p.m. ET.
The LPGA’s first full-field event of 2023 has produced the first albatross on the tour in three years.
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — The LPGA’s first full-field event of 2023 has produced the first albatross on the tour in three years.
In the second round of the LPGA Drive On Championship, Yuka Saso, who played the back nine first, was 217 yards out after her tee shot on the par-5 second hole.
Using a 19-degee hybrid, Saso, the 2021 U.S. Open champ, holed out for an albatross.
“We didn’t really know where it landed,” she said. “So we were just walking to the green and everyone started clapping. But my ball wasn’t on the green so I was like, ‘Why are they clapping? Is it over? Why is everyone clapping if it’s not on the green?’ Then Sei Young [Kim] was walking around also and she looked down and she said it’s in, the ball was in, so that’s how I found out,” Saso said, noting that this was her first albatross.
It’s also the first one on the LPGA since Lyndsey Weaver-Wright recorded one in 2020.
Saso shot a 66 on Friday to get to 8 under and a tie for 12th when she signed her scorecard.
“We all now how hard it is to get one,” she said. “They say you’re lucky if you ever get one in your golf career. I guess I was very lucky to have it.”
Kang posted on Instagram about a “visit to the ER for respiratory infection and severe nausea.”
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — Danielle Kang, 13th in the Rolex Rankings and playing in her third LPGA event of 2023, withdrew during the first round of the LPGA Drive On Championship on Thursday.
The LPGA reported it was due to illness.
Kang later posted a message on Instagram stating she took a “visit to the ER for respiratory infection and severe nausea.”
She went on to say she was taking medication and planned to play through it but “now I see that it was a bit too ambitious,” she wrote, with a photo of an IV in her arm underneath the text of her Instagram message.
Kang, who tied for third at the 2023 HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore and and tied for 38th at the Honda LPGA Thailand, birdied the 10th hole to get back to even par Thursday at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club on Thursday. She then had bogeys on Nos. 12 and 14 before calling it a day.
Her playing partners, In Gee Chun and Jennifer Kupcho, finished the day without her, and Kang acknowledged them in her post for “being patient with me on the course as well.”
Kang finished her message stating “hopefully the nausea will subside and will be back to playing some golf again.”
