The movie stars showed up for a junior golf clinic with 1,000 kids.
Australia’s Hannah Green certainly stole the show (again) on Sunday at the JM Eagle LA Championship, but a couple of Hollywood stars also took in the action at Wilshire Country Club. One famous A-lister, in fact, managed to mostly go unnoticed.
Kathryn Newton has been playing golf almost as long as she’s been acting, and when she told the hundreds of kids gathered for the Junior Golf Show on Saturday that she was Cassie Lang in “Ant-Man and Wasp” and Lucy Stevens in “Pokeman,” well, the kids lit up.
Newton co-hosted the clinic alongside Jill Painter Lopez (KCBS), LPGA players Emma Talley and Maria Fassi and golf influencer Karol Priscilla.
On Friday, Wilshire member Will Ferrell came out to catch the action wearing dark sunglasses and a hat. A tournament official said Ferrell managed to walk the grounds mostly unnoticed, though a staff photographer did snap some photos.
“The Big Pickle” will be sure to keep you informed, enlightened and entertained on everything LPGA.
In this week’s episode of The Big Pickle, Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols break down Hannah Green’s dominant run at the JM Eagle LA Championship.
The Aussie, now a five-time winner on the LPGA, shot 66 on Sunday to win by three at Wilshire Country Club, closing with a 66. Her record over the past four years at Wilshire is an astounding 1st-1st-2nd-T3.
Click here to listen to this week’s audio-only episode:
Subscribe, comment and tell a friend. As the women’s game continues to gain momentum, “The Big Pickle” will be sure to keep you informed, enlightened and entertained on everything LPGA.
Green’s fifth win on the LPGA was good for more than a half a million dollars.
Hannah Green’s fifth win on the LPGA was good for $562,500 at the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship in Los Angeles.
Green is now at $861,302 for the season and $5,375,243 for her official career earnings. She’s the 82nd golfer in LPGA history to surpass the $5 million mark.
Green shot 67-69-70 before saving her best – a 5-under 66 – for last to become the first LPGA golfer to win at at Wilshire Country Club multiple times. She joins Nelly Korda, who has five wins, have combined to win seven of the 10 LPGA stops in 2024.
Check out the full prize money list for the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship.
After 54 holes, there was an Aussie duo tied atop the leaderboard at the JM Eagle LA Championship in Los Angeles.
But while Grace Kim stumbled to a 76-77 weekend, defending champion Hannah Green was calm, cool and collected en route to a second straight victory at Wilshire Country Club.
Green shot a 5-under 66 on Sunday – a final round that was only bested by Madelene Sagstrom’s 65 – as she enjoyed a comfortable victory by three shots over Maja Stark.
“I felt like a couple times today almost got like a member bounce,” Green said. “I obviously really am fond of the golf club and joked that they didn’t approve it with me that they were making alterations. I love it here. Such a great atmosphere. Really good crowds this year.”
The Sunday crowd even delivered an “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” chant during the post-round celebration.
It’s Green’s fifth victory on the LPGA and she’s the first to defend on tour since Jin Young Ko did it in 2023.
Green’s up-and-down season continued this week on a high note. She won at the end of February at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, but then missed the cut in her next start. After a tie for 21st in Arizona, she missed the cut last week at the LPGA’s first major, the Chevron Championship.
“To obviously already win in Singapore and here this week, I hope that I can get closer to my goal of being Top 10 in the world and solidify my spot in the Olympics,” Green said.
For Stark, it’s a second straight solo second following her runner-up finish at last week’s Chevron. Haeran Ryu was solo third at 6 under, six shots back. Jin Young Ko tied for fourth with fellow Korean Jin Hee Im.
Kim has 11 birdies and an eagle with just one bogey through 36 holes.
Grace Kim tied the course record at Wilshire Country Club on Thursday with a 7-under 64. What would the Australian do for an encore in the shadows of the Hollywood Hills?
How about a second-round, 5-under 66, which staked her to a four-shot lead when she walked off the course late in the day Friday at the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship.
Kim, who won as a rookie in 2023, is in a good position after 36 holes to earn her second LPGA victory. She would also be the third Aussie – and second in a row – to win at Wilshire, following Hannah Green (2023) and Minjee Lee (2019).
“I’ve been mentally in the dumps up until last week, and I wasn’t in a good place,” she said to Golf Channel’s Karen Stupples after her round. “But I knew I was close and I knew my game was good enough. I just mentally had to be sharp enough on the course, and I think having low expectations entering the week helped a lot.”
Kim went bogey free in her opening round. On Friday, after she bogeyed the par-3 12th hole, she quickly responded with an eagle on the 13th. Over two days, she has carded 11 birdies.
In seven LPGA tournaments so far in 2024, Kim has three missed cuts, including last week at the Chevron Championship, and a high finish of T-25, which came two months ago at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.
Aces high
Auston Kim made a hole-in-one on the par-3 18th hole, her ninth hole of the day, on Friday.
Stark had a new and interesting goal at last week’s Chevron Championship.
Maja Stark had a new and interesting goal at last week’s Chevron Championship: No swearing. No outward displays of frustration.
The advice came from Peter Hanson, a former pro who works with fellow Swede Ludvig Aberg, a rising star on the PGA Tour. Instead of telling Aberg to have more patience, they work on saying “just keep playing.”
The shift takes a player out of thinking about what just happened, and instead points them to thinking about what’s ahead.
“I think that has been way better for me just both with staying calm with what I’m doing now,” said Stark at the Chevron, “but also being aggressive on the next shot.”
Stark, 24, finished runner-up to Nelly Korda last week in Texas, her best finish in a major. Last month, she tied for third at the Ford Championship. This week at JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club, Stark opened with a 6-under 65 and sits one shot behind leader Grace Kim.
Stark said some of the frustration she’s felt on the LPGA is due to the tour playing tougher courses than what she experienced on the Ladies European Tour, where she won six times.
“You know, when you’re used to having more made cuts and top 10s and everything you kind of expect it,” said Stark, “but then the competition is just so much harder out here than it was on my previous tour.”
“So, yeah, and I just tended to get stressed a lot when I messed up and then that leads to me making more and more mistakes.”
Stark left Houston with a confidence boost after a more patient mindset enabled her to get up-and-down from some “really bad places.” That’s carried on this week in Los Angeles, where Stark has worked to conserve energy after a draining major championship run.
“I feel like I’ve just been more patient,” said Stark. “Haven’t made any dumb mistakes. Just taking my medicine where I needed to.”
Hannah Green plays her shot from the fifth tee during the first round of the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club. (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)
Last year’s Wilshire winner, Hannah Green, opened with a 67. The Aussie has stayed with the same host family at the event since 2018 and enjoyed having Wilshire members out watching her play on Thursday. She’s a regular at the Great White Australian café that’s across the street when she has a late tee time. Wilshire is a comfortable place for the four-time winner.
“It’s nice to be able to switch off properly,” she said.
The quest for six straight victories will have to wait.
Nelly Korda’s quest for six straight victories will have to wait. The World No. 1 announced on social media that she has withdrawn from this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club. On Sunday, Korda became the third woman in LPGA history to win five consecutive starts on tour, making her fifth a major title at the Chevron Championship.
“It was not an easy decision,” Korda wrote. “After the unbelievable week at The Chevron and grinding through the mental and physical challenges of four events in the past five weeks, I am definitely feeling exhausted. With so much still to come throughout 2024, I feel I need to listen to my body and get some rest, so I can be ready for the remainder of the season.”
Korda became the first American woman to capture five or more wins in the same LPGA season since Juli Inkster in 1999. At age 25, she’s also the youngest American to win a second LPGA major since Juli Inkster in 1984.
The tour takes a week off after the LA Championship before starting a two-week swing in New Jersey with the Cognizant Founders Cup, May 9-12, at Upper Montclair Country Club.
No player in the history of the LPGA has won six consecutive starts.
The JM Eagle LA Championship now offers the highest purse on the LPGA outside the majors and the season-finale.
Over the course of its nearly 75-year history, the LPGA has had a handful of business titans champion the organization in extraordinary ways.
While it’s early days for Walter Wang and his wife Shirley, who only got into the business of sponsoring an LPGA event two years ago, the impact and the passion are already significant.
Last year, the JM Eagle LA Championship purse doubled from $1.5 million to $3 million. This year, the Wangs upped it again to $3.75 million, making it the highest purse on tour outside the majors and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. Walter, who is CEO of, JM Eagle signed on for a five-year commitment as title sponsor. Shirley Wang is CEO of Plastpro, which serves as the event’s presenting sponsor.
There are now 11 non-major tournaments with purses of $3 million or more in 2024, up from five last year. Total LPGA prize money is now more than $120 million this season.
“I thought, these ladies deserve more,” said Wang, when he realized the extent of the gap between PGA Tour and LPGA purses. “I spoke to my wife and said, ‘Let’s do this. And if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right.’ ”
Hannah Green poses with the trophy after winning the 2023 JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles. (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)
In addition to the purse, the tournament, scheduled for April 25-28, will also cover lodging costs for the 144 players in the field and provide complimentary shuttle access to Wilshire Country Club throughout tournament week. Early commitments include the top four players in the world: Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Celine Boutier and Ruoning Yin.
Lizette Salas, a California native and 12-year veteran of the LPGA, knows the kind of statement the Wangs are making in L.A.
“Yeah, it’s an incredible feeling just to witness the growth of the game, ” said Salas, “the involvement of the sponsors who really – just really value how hard we work and how much we love this game and really just want to – they pay attention to details like Shirley and Walter really just try to take some stress off of our plate for the week.”
Wang’s JM Eagle is the world’s largest manufacturer of plastic pipe, and when asked what supporting the LPGA does for his business, he very bluntly said “nothing.”
“I’m a plastic pipe producer,” he explained. “There’s almost no value to putting our name out there or advertising the brand name. That’s not us. We’re a very commodity-driven business.”
At the heart of Wang’s sponsorship is giving back to the community, which he considers the responsibility of all companies.
Wang’s father, Yung-ching Wang, a Taiwanese billionaire, expanded his plastics company to the U.S. in 1982. Walter started working for JM in 1990, growing the business five times over since then organically. What was a $200-plus million business grew to over $1 billion in 10 years.
Wang’s love of golf started in his early 20s back in Taiwan. He appreciates the life lessons the game provides and wants to introduce the sport to more young people, particularly in after-school programs for at-risk youth.
A devout Christian, Wang said a battle with a rare cancer that took him to Hong Kong for treatment nearly 20 years ago greatly shapes how he views life and his purpose.
“It was like a sabbatical with God,” he said.
While presidents and CEOs choose to get involved in sponsoring the tour for myriad reasons, Wang said reaping the long-term rewards is what’s truly precious.
“Inside your heart, it feels great,” said Wang. “You feel a lot of joy supporting the LPGA. You just do.”
