Leigh Chien does not want for role models in women’s golf. At a tournament put on by Stacy Lewis, Chien defended her title with Nelly Korda’s sweet swing in her head.
Chien, 14, won the KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior All-Star Invitational on Thursday by reaching 11 under for 54 holes at the notoriously difficult Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She won by nine shots. Blessings is the home course for the golf teams at Arkansas (Lewis is a former Razorback) and memorably hosted the 2019 NCAA Championships.
Chien was the only player either field, girls or boys, to break 70 all three days (69-69-67). That’s notable in a tournament with a unique format. Players played in twosomes each round, made up of one competitor from the boys division and one from the girls division. The idea is to promote equity, friendly competition, and reinforce the importance of ethics, integrity and leadership in junior golf. It is, in part, Lewis’ mark on her namesake event.
Scores: KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior All-Star Invitational
For her part, Chien enjoyed the experience. It’s a good format, she said, and the pace was fast.
Chien played with second-round leader Kush Arora on Thursday. Jack Usner from The Woodlands, Texas, ended up firing a final-round 67 to come from behind for the victory. He won by two shots at 4 under.
Before teeing it up in Fayetteville, Chien, who lives in Irvine, California, had studied Korda’s swing on YouTube. She liked the tempo. She also likes Korda’s strong short game.
At Blessings, Chien notes that you need to hit it straight off the tee – no problem there for her – and you need to be able to control slick and sloping greens. The putting surfaces are much different than anything she’s used to, but it’s the place where she’s most able to demonstrate her growth over the past year.
Chien won the 2019 Stacy Lewis event despite having eight three-putts throughout the week. This time, she only had two.
“I think all around, my game was pretty solid,” Chien said. “I only missed one fairway, which was the first hole of today, and my approach shots were also really on point. I got a lot of them inside 10 feet or so. I capitalized on a lot of them, which really helped me shoot low.”
If there’s a gauntlet at Blessings, for Chien it’s No. 14, a tight par 4. She picked her spot off the tee, kept driver in her hand and hit that spot in each round. She played the hole in even par for the week.
This time last year, the Stacy Lewis title represented Chien’s first win in an AJGA invitational.
“Being able to shoot under par on this course last year gave me a lot of confidence coming into this year,” she said.
The spoils are both tangible and career advancing. An invitational title comes with a new golf bag for the winner and the Stacy Lewis event in particular comes with an exemption into a Symetra Tour event.
Chien played her way into the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan, last year. She fired rounds of 76-75 and missed the cut. It was her first professional start. This year, she earned a start in the Founders Tribute at Longbow, to be played Aug. 14-16 in Mesa, Arizona.
“I definitely learned that I needed to hit it a lot longer,” she said of the learning experience that Firekeepers offered. “… I worked on my speed from there.”
The improvement, in all areas of Chien’s game, certainly shows.
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