Her first victory came in Portland as she Monday qualified for the event, and now her second came on the day when President Biden stepped down from his candidacy, meaning the TV coverage of the LPGA event was banished to streaming.
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The $1,750,000 purse is one of the smallest on tour.
Chanettee Wannasaen crossed the $1 million mark in career earnings with her gutsy victory at the Dana Open. The Thai player earned $262,500 for her one-stroke victory over South Korea’s Haeran Ryu. The 20-year-old Wannasaen now has $1,068,283 in career earnings.
Last year, Wannasaen became just the third player in tour history to Monday qualify and then win the same week on the LPGA at the Portland Classic, joining Laurel Kean (2000 State Farm LPGA Classic) and Brooke Henderson (2015 Portland Classic).
Xiyu Lin, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 17, took a share of fifth. Lexi Thompson closed with a 67 to vault up the board to T-19.
Take a look at the complete breakdown of the $1,750,000 purse, one of the smallest on tour:
Grant earned her first LPGA victory at the 2023 Dana Open.
A year ago, Linn Grant earned her first LPGA victory at the Dana Open.
After 36 holes, she’s in position to win the event for a second time in a row at Highland Meadows Golf Club, a golf course that features back-to-back par 5s on Nos. 17 and 18.
Grant followed up her first-round 67 with a Friday 65 to get to 10 under and walk off the course a shot off the lead of Chanettee Wannasaen after the morning wave. Grant so far has carded three bogeys against 13 birdies, with eight of them coming in the second round. She’s birdied the 17th two days in a row.
Grant says having her brother on the bag this week is helping her with the mental side of things.
“It’s nice to have him here,” she said Friday. “It’s nice to kind of show him the place that I’ve been to before. Obviously, like, it’s nice to have someone that you can chat about different things rather than just having yourself to talk to or just your own thoughts about golf.”
Grant has two top-10s this season, including last month’s KPMG Women’s PGA. But the LPGA schedule has several more big events left with the Olympics (where she’ll represent Sweden alongside Maja Stark, Aug. 7-10) the AIG Women’s British Open (Aug. 22-25), and the Solheim Cup (where she’s currently second in the points standings, Aug. 13-15).
“There is a lot of golf left, a lot of important, big events. I mean, looking at that I feel like I’m still very much a rookie on tour. I want to try to play as much as possible to know the schedule for future years.
“So I was going to play next week but I’m taking next week off to just relax and prepare myself for Olympics and the last major coming up.”
With the men’s British Open at Royal Troon this week, Popov DVR’d the action.
Four years ago, Sophia Popov tied for ninth at the Dana Open (then the Marathon LPGA Classic) and kickstarted a chain of events that changed her life. The top-10 finish in Sylvania, Ohio, qualified her for the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon, where she shocked the world by becoming the first woman to hoist a major championship trophy at the historic club.
Popov, who didn’t even have LPGA status at the time, was ranked 304th in the world when she took the title in the midst of a global pandemic.
With the men’s British Open back at Royal Troon, Popov DVR’d the action and looked forward to watching what she missed Thursday afternoon with her feet up in Ohio.
“When I had my membership induction and they gave me my locker, it was all pretty real at that point,” said Popov of making history at Troon. “Just to see that I’m the only woman in the lockerroom, it’s very, very cool. I think that’s why that place will always have a special place in my heart. No one can ever take that away.”
Sophia Popov holds up the trophy after winning the 2020 AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon. (R&A via Getty Images)
With no grandstands and no fans to wave to as Popov came up the 18th fairway at Royal Troon with a three-shot lead, she turned to her caddie, then boyfriend now husband Maximilian Mehles, and told him that the calming seaside views reminded her of a scene from “Lord of the Rings.”
The fact that Popov got into the event at all was the longest of long shots. In July 2020, the former USC player traveled to Toledo to caddie for good friend Anne van Dam at the Inverness Club in the tour’s first event back after the pandemic started.
Popov got into the next week’s field, the Marathon, because the tour filled out the field with Symetra Tour players after COVID-19 kept many international players from coming over. She and van Dam shared a pull cart that week because caddies weren’t mandatory.
“I kind of felt like back in the junior days or a college event,” she recalled. “I enjoyed it so much. I honestly didn’t even know it was a qualifier at the time.”
The winner of this week’s Dana Open will qualify for the AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews, Aug. 22-25. In addition, the top 25 players not already exempt from the 2024 LPGA Race to CME Globe Points List as of Monday will get into the field.
As a past champion, Popov will be able to compete in the British Open until the age of 60.
When Lexi Thompson tees off on Friday at 1:02 p.m. local time in Sylvania, Ohio, a pair of F-16s from the Ohio Air National Guard will fly over Highland Meadows Golf Club to celebrate the 29-year-old’s LPGA career. Friday has been designated Lexi Thompson Day at the Dana Open, in honor of her last full-time season on the LPGA.
While Thompson has never won the event, she finished runner-up to Sei Young Kim in 2018.
In addition to the flyovers, the tournament will be handing out a limited number of pink “Lexi” hats as well as “Thank you, Lexi” buttons.
The popular American, an 11-time winner on the LPGA, heads into the event more fresh than most given that she skipped last week’s major in France. She’s also on a run of three top-10 finishes that includes a playoff loss at the Meijer LPGA Classic. She’s put herself in prime position for a place on Stacy Lewis’ Solheim Cup team in September.
Lexi Thompson of the United States looks on while playing the 14th hole during the second round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club on June 21, 2024 in Sammamish, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The 40th anniversary of the Dana Open kicks off Thursday with a purse of $1,750,000. While Amundi Evian winner Ayaka Furue is not in the field this week, runner-up Stephanie Kyriacou is after a career-best finish on the shores of Lake Geneva.
There are are number of notable names playing out of the tournament winners category, which includes members who won an official tournament while a member within the previous 21 seasons. Those players include LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Karrie Webb, who is gearing up for the AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews next month, Natalie Gulbis, Meaghan Francella and Heather Bowie Young, a former Dana Open winner who now serves as head coach of the women’s team at Florida Atlantic University.
Young is one of four past champions in the field, including 2023 winner Linn Grant, Gaby Lopez (2022) and Jasmine Suwannapura (2018).
