Tag: ANA Inspiration

Danielle Kang sizzles in the desert to share early ANA Inspiration lead

Danielle Kang is the co-leader after the first round at the LPGA’s ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, California.

The hottest thing at the ANA Inspiration wasn’t the temperature Thursday, much to the delight of the players and caddies in the LPGA major.

Instead, it was Danielle Kang who continued to sizzle. A two-time winner on the women’s tour since it restarted from a five-month COVID-19 shutdown, Kang navigated the heat, the Bermuda grass and deep rough on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills for a 4-under 68. That gave Kang a share of the lead midway through the opening round of the event.

“It’s just been consistently hot every day, but it’s been pretty bearable so far,” Kang said. “I’m from Vegas, it’s 120 out there, so I kind of like the heat. But besides that, I think it’s a major championship. Every day there’s new difficulties. Even the simplest shot is not as simple as we think. So I’ve just got to stay focused, and I think that’s my main goal.”

LEADERBOARD: ANA Inspiration

Kang was joined by Canada’s Brooke Henderson, China’s Yu Liu and Malaysia’s Kelly Tan also shot 4 under playing in the morning wave of tee times on a day that saw temperatures stay well below the numbers from earlier in the week.

Kang was just 1-under par for the day after a bogey on the first hole, her 10th hole of the day. But she birdied three of the last eight holes, including a six-footer on the par-5 ninth hole, to reach 4 under. The round could have been better, Kang said, since she made seven birdies on the day. But Kang also had three three-putt bogeys, though she said the three-putts were a technical issue rather than issues with the Bermuda grass on the greens.

Danielle Kang lines up a putt on the 11th green during the 2020 ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Golf Club. (Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)

“I three-putted three times. I three-putted on 14, 16 and 10. That’s three three-putts in six holes,” Kang said. “It just bugged me a little bit. But there’s always a reason why I’m three-putting. There’s always a reason why I missed a two-and-a-half-footer. Actually the miss on 10 kind of made me realize why did I miss a two-and-a-half-footer, and then I started thinking about it and then I rolled the ball better coming down the stretch.”

Henderson, who was celebrating her 23rd birthday Thursday, has been popular among snowbirds in the desert for years. She was another player to make a late move to the top of the leader board among the morning starters.

“I made a lot of pars on the front nine. Solid start, and I felt like I was really close to making a lot of birdies, so I was happy when they started to fall a little bit more on the back nine,” Henderson said. “I’m happy with 4 under, it’s definitely a solid start, nice way to spend your birthday, and hopefully I can just keep making some birdies and climb the leader board.”

Brooke Henderson on the 16th hole during the first round of the ANA Inspiration at the Dinah Shore at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Tan, the first player from Malaysia to hold a share of the lead in the ANA Inspiration, followed the time-honored desert adage of playing early in the summer by shooting her 68 from the first tee time of the day. But the heat was never truly a problem for anyone Thursday, though the players understand that the temperatures are expected to rise in the coming days.

“Definitely very hot (on Friday) and very different from today. It was kind of nice in the morning, things were a little bit softer, it was a little bit cooler,” Henderson said. “Felt like it was definitely scoring conditions.

“Tomorrow afternoon, I think we’ll just have to play really smart, play our way around the golf course, hitting to specific spots and just being careful of run-outs on the fairways and on the greens.”

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at Sun. @Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.

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50th anniversary of ANA Inspiration will be sweeter due to COVID-19 restrictions this year

COVID-19 testing, masks and new safety rules are making the ANA Inspiration a bit of a challenge, but it won’t disrupt the event’s history.

Perhaps Mike Whan put it best during a Zoom call with the media earlier this week.

“It’s not an enjoyable life on tour,” said Whan, the LPGA commissioner, about sports during the coronavirus pandemic.

The social joy of the tour, while perhaps not gone completely, has certainly been throttled back by COVID-19. That’s true in pretty much every aspect of life, of course, but it is on display in plain view at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage this week.

COVID-19 testing, masks for players, caddies, volunteers and LPGA staff and rules that seem to change a bit daily are a challenge. On Tuesday, you could walk in and out of one door at the clubhouse at Mission Hills. By Wednesday, the door was an entrance-only door. Rules, you know.

LEADERBOARD: ANA Inspiration

The time and effort being put in by staff of the LPGA and International Management Group, operators of the tournament, is to be applauded, even if there are those who wonder if all the effort and hassle is worth it just to hold a golf tournament, even an LPGA major championship.

But Whan was right about something else, too. The commissioner said that the ANA Inspiration holds a special place on the LPGA because it links generations of players on the tour, and it is one of the few – and some would say the only – LPGA tournaments to have significant history and tradition.

That’s important in 2020 because of what the tournament will celebrate in 2021. That’s when the event will be played for the 50th time, every one of those years on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills.

The 50th anniversary will be about more than just jumping into Poppie’s Pond, the celebration created on the spur of the moment in 1988 by Amy Alcott. The jump into that lake is one of the few times the LPGA can be certain of getting on SportsCenter and other highlight shows, and maybe that’s the only thing a non-golf fan knows about women’s golf.

A big celebration coming

But the 50th anniversary will be about more than the champion’s leap. It will be about one of the greatest rosters of winners in golf, ranging from Mickey Wright to Annika Sorenstam to Inbee Park. It will be about the memorable shots, all of which can be remembered because the event has been played on the same course for five decades. Every brilliant iron or long putt or holed bunker shot can be re-lived by standing in the exact spot on the course the player stood.

Brittany Lincicome putts on the seventh hole during round one of the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho, Mirage, Calif., on September 10, 2020. (Tara Gray/The Desert Sun)

And it should be about the great names who helped the tournament reach 50 years, from founder David Foster of Colgate-Palmolive to Ross Johnson of RJR Nabisco and, of course, to Dinah Shore, whose presence was so important she was put into the LPGA Hall of Fame, the only non-player so honored.

That 50th anniversary is just seven months away, by the way. Officials of the tournament say that IMG, ANA and Mission Hills are already deep into planning the 50th playing of the event, which started in 1972 as perhaps the most important and at the time the richest event in women’s golf.

Certainly everyone connected with the tournament this year is hoping that April of 2021 looks more normal, with fans in the grandstands and most COVID-19 restrictions gone. That’s the hope, even if there is no way to know for sure just how the search for a vaccine and the economic recovery will look in California or across the country in seven months.

If all returns to normal, the tournament could even boast having two defending champions, 2019 winner Jin Young Ko, who is not in the field this week because of travel restrictions from the pandemic, and whoever wins the title this week. That would be a nice twosome for the first two rounds next year.

In all, the 2021 ANA Inspiration will be a celebration of the greatest event in LPGA history. And a celebration is just what the LPGA and golf fans will need in seven months to recover from 2020 and the pandemic ANA Inspiration.

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at Sun.@Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.

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Red-hot Danielle Kang wants to claim California major win at ANA Inspiration

RANCHO MIRAGE, California – Danielle Kang is a major championship winner and a Californian born and raised. Winning a major in California might be the next step in Kang’s LPGA career, a career that already is on the fast track to stardom. “It’s a …

RANCHO MIRAGE, California — Danielle Kang is a major championship winner and a Californian born and raised. Winning a major in California might be the next step in Kang’s LPGA career, a career that already is on the fast track to stardom.

“It’s a major you definitely want to win, especially in California,” Kang said as she prepared for this week’s ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. “I’m from California, so I think it would be really awesome to be able to win in this state. Last year, I came close. It wasn’t the final round that I wanted, but I think having another opportunity this year is going to be really interesting.”

Kang’s sixth-place finish in the 2019 ANA Inspiration, where she finished six shots behind winner Jin Young Ko, was her best performance in eight starts at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. Three of those starts have ended with missed cuts on a course that Kang says she is still learning about from one start to the next.

“Year in and year out, you come here and you expect it to be the way it is, and it actually even exceeds your expectations when you come,” Kang said. “I get surprised every time I come up here.”

ANA Inspiration: TV info, Skins match details

These days, it is LPGA fans who are excited to see Kang show up at the golf course. Since the LPGA restarted its tour in July, Kang has dominated play. She won the first two events of the restart in Ohio and finished fifth at the Ladies Scottish Open.

Not only is Kang now the leading money winner on the tour with $643,933, but she is also No. 1 in the Race to the CME Globe year-long chase. She has moved to a career-high second on the Rolex Women’s World Rankings behind Jin Young Ko, the defending champion who is not at the ANA Inspiration this week because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Kang’s hot streak in the restart gives her five career LPGA wins, including a major at the 2017 KMPG Women’s PGA Championship. That might sound like Kang is firmly established as the favorite at Mission Hills this week. But rather than thinking about winning, Kang is thinking about the same things she thinks about every week she shows up at a tournament.

“What I normally do when I get to a tournament, kind of figuring out the green speed, the conditions around the greens and how it’s going to play is the most important,” Kang said. “I played nine holes earlier this (week), and they tightened up the fairways even more than they normally do, I’ve noticed, and around the greens, if the ball just rolls over the green or just short, it gets into a little bit of a funky lie.”

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That kind of pre-tournament work is particularly important for Kang this week at Mission Hills, which is playing different than during the event’s traditional April dates. Kang and the rest of the field must adjust to playing on Bermuda grass with thick, heavy rough rather than the rye grass of a spring visit to the desert.

“It’s playing way different than I expected,” Kang said. “I didn’t know that the golf course could change from April to September that differently, but I’m really excited to see what kind of golf course and what kind of game is going to be shown this entire week.”

Kang admits it will be strange playing a California tournament without her legion of family and friends who have followed her from her days on the Southern California PGA junior tour to Pepperdine University for two years to her consecutive wins in the U.S. Women’s Amateur. But with COVID-19 restrictions meaning no spectators at Mission Hills this week, Kang said she and the rest of the players have no choice but to focus on the game and not the atmosphere.

“I can just do the best I can and play for them, and I’m really excited to play in California for the first time this year and just be able to perform for them whether they’re at home watching or not,” Kang said. “(I’m) really excited to just kind of have the opportunity to play well and give myself the best opportunity.”

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer, part of the USA today network. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at Sun.@Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.

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ANA Inspiration battle the elements as wildfire smoke, extreme heat blanket Mission Hills

The heat isn’t the only concern at this week’s ANA Inspiration. Smoke from California wildfires could put players in carts too.

Austin Ernst and her brother Drew aim to take full advantage of the LPGA’s new cart rule at the ANA Inspiration. With 100-plus degree temperatures forecasted in Rancho Mirage, California, throughout the week, Ernst plans to pack a cooler with snacks and Gatorade for the back of the cart. She’ll also keep a wet towel around her neck and walk with a sun umbrella. If Austin wants to talk to her brother, she’ll tell him to drive slowly down the fairway beside her.

With the LPGA major shifting from the spring to September due to COVID-19, the tour decided to allow caddies to use electric carts or push carts at Mission Hills Country Club’s Dinah Shore Tournament Course for safety reasons.

“I just thought, there’s really no reason not to take advantage of it,” said Austin, recent winner of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

The heat isn’t the only concern. Smoke from California wildfires could put players in carts too.

“We’re continuing to monitor both the AQI (Air Qualify Index) and the temperature very closely,” said Chief Tour Operations Officer Heather Daly-Donofrio. “While we’re not out there yet, if it becomes clear from our medical team, and we’re also going to be working with the medical team at Eisenhower Medical, who’s a partner this week at the ANA Inspiration, if the high temperatures and the AQI converge to a point where we feel that’s unhealthy for walking … we have not ruled out carts for players on tournament days.”

Burning eyes and a scratchy throat impacted past champion Stacy Lewis early week at Mission Hills.

“For me, the smoke itself has been more of an issue than the heat,” she said.

Right now, Thursday’s forecasted high is the lowest of the four rounds at 100 degrees. Saturday and Sunday temps are expected to reach 110 and 113 degrees, respectively.

Danielle Kang, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 2, said that her caddie will not take a cart. Several longtime caddies told Golfweek the same, saying that it disrupted their routine and created more hassle than it was worth.

On Monday, the hottest day of the week in Rancho, Mirage, Anne van Dam tweeted out a TrackMan update: Her iPad overheated after two minutes, and her iPhone lasted eight minutes.

Lydia Ko calls Orlando, Florida, home when she’s not on the road and likens summers there to a complimentary sauna. The dry heat of the desert is different, of course, and she found the initial forecast “kind of frightening.”

“It’s (so) hot that you touch like the door handle of your car,” said Ko, “and it’s kind of on the slight sizzling point.”

Now that she has spent a few days in the desert heat, Ko said that she actually prefers the extreme temps to what she left in Orlando. Nelly Korda, a Florida native, said the same, a mentality that should serve both players well.

It does take work to beat the heat though, and Korda credited a massive headache on Monday to dehydration.

“I actually have a really hard time drinking,” said Korda. “Like I do not drink on the golf course. That’s something that I’ve always done, and I told (my caddie) yesterday on the first hole, I was like, you need to remind me to drink a lot.”

Pernilla Lindberg, winner of the 2018 ANA, gave her husband/caddie a carry bag for the week to lighten his load. She’ll rely on the water coolers on each tee box and take a pass on the cart.

After spending most of the off week resting in Utah, Lindberg headed to Rancho Mirage on Saturday afternoon when it was 120 degrees. Shorter practice days, more electrolytes and a bottle of water by her bed to start the day are keys to the week.

The San Jacinto Mountains typically provide a stunning backdrop for Mission Hills. It was a weird feeling on Tuesday, Lindberg said, when they disappeared behind thick clouds of smoke. Blue skies returned the next day, however, bringing hope for better days ahead.

“We’re watching the levels very closely,” said Daly-Donofrio, “but with the AQI you really can’t forecast out too far.”

 

How to watch: ANA Inspiration TV times and charity skins match details

Golf Channel will carry 20 hours of live tournament coverage of the LPGA’s second major of 2020, the ANA Inspiration.

The ANA Inspiration kicks off early with a charity skins match airing live on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. The event, which benefits Eisenhower Health, will feature four LPGA player in the field. Katherine Kirk and Amy Olson will team up against Christina Kim and Angela Stanford in nine-hole match.

Golf Channel will carry 20 hours of live tournament coverage of the year’s second major, headlined by No. 2 Danielle, Nelly Korda, Inbee Park, Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko. While defending champion Jin Young Ko is not in the field, two-time major winner Sung Hyun Park makes her 2020 LPGA debut at Mission Hills.

TV Times: ANA Inspiration

Dates: Sept. 10-13

Course: Mission Hills Country Club (Dinah Shore Tournament Course), Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Golf Channel Channel (ET):

Thursday: Noon-4 p.m. / 7-9 p.m. (Live)

Friday: Noon-4 p.m. / 7-9 p.m. (Live)

Saturday: 2-6 p.m. (Live)

Sunday: 2-6 p.m. (Live)

Broadcast Team:

Play by Play: Terry Gannon / Grant Boone

Analyst: Judy Rankin / Karen Stupples

Tower: Tom Abbott

On-Course: Jerry Foltz / Jim Gallagher Jr. / Karen Stupples

Reporter: Lisa Cornwell

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Charley Hull withdraws from ANA Inspiration after testing positive for COVID

Charley Hull has tested positive for COVID-19 at the ANA Inspiration and has withdrawn from the event.

Charley Hull has tested positive for COVID-19 at the ANA Inspiration. Only one player and one caddie are still awaiting results in the 105-player field. Hull has withdrawn from the event and is working with tour and health officials on contact tracing.

“As part of the LPGA TOUR’s COVID-19 testing process, I was informed this morning that I tested positive for COVID-19 and I have withdrawn from the ANA Inspiration,” Hull said in a statement. “I didn’t feel great yesterday but I put it down to jet lag, the heat and my asthma playing up. I now realize I have some mild symptoms which feel similar to having a cold and I am self-isolating and working with Tour on contact tracing. I am very disappointed to have to withdraw from what is one of my favorite events of the year but wish everyone the best of luck at this week’s tournament and look forward to when I can return to playing on Tour.”

Hull will be quarantined for 10 days. She’ll then be reevaluated by the LPGA’s medical team to determine if she’s cleared to return to competition.

The 24-year-old Englishwoman has a strong career at the ANA that dates back to her amateur days. In seven showing at the event, her worst finish was T-38 back in 2012. She has three top 10s, including a tie for second in 2016.

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Opinion: Baffling rules and inflexibility kept Sophia Popov, golf’s Story of the Year, out of this week’s ANA Inspiration

Sophia Popov is the Story of the Year so far in all of golf. Incredibly, she’s not in the 105-player field at this week’s ANA Inspiration.

When Sophia Popov came up the 18th hole at her home club last Friday, members of FireRock Country Club in Fountain Hills, Arizona, had gathered around the green. They wanted to give Popov the applause she didn’t receive at Royal Troon. The party was capped at 50 people due to COVID-19.

Popov is a friendly pro, the kind of player who will stop what she’s doing and engage in conversation. Sometimes give a mini lesson. It’s no wonder that members had tears in their eyes when they came up to congratulate the most improbable winner of the AIG Women’s British Open. Heck, they were proud of those three Cactus Tour wins too.

“We realized that the cup could’ve been made by Yeti,” said Popov. “We put ice cold beer in there, and it stayed ice cold the entire time.”

Golf fans around the world became enthralled with the story of Sophia Popov, the 304th-ranked player who became the first major winner of 2020.

It’s the Story of the Year so far in all of golf. And yet, incredibly, she’s not in the 105-player field at this week’s ANA Inspiration.

It’s a complete whiff by the tour. Popov will be the most talked-about player who isn’t at the blistering Dinah Shore Tournament Course, and that includes the defending champion and No. 1-ranked Jin Young Ko.

Why?

Because Ko hasn’t played all year on the LPGA. She’s not top of mind for most fans. Popov, on the other hand, is the new LPGA darling, the Cinderella who catapulted from Symetra Tour status to major champion in the span of seven days. In the weeks following her victory, Popov averaged five to six media interviews per day. She was in demand, and rightly so.

Interest grew even more after a Golf.com story reported that Popov wasn’t eligible for the tour’s five-year exemption as she was a non-member at the time of her victory. Instead, Popov is exempt for the remainder of 2020 and all of 2021. Her first eligible start is next week’s Cambia Portland Classic.

Popov, a four-time All-American at USC, isn’t in this week’s field because the criteria for the ANA Inspiration (originally scheduled for April) was set before the LPGA took a 166-day break due to the coronavirus. The winner’s five-year exemption into the ANA was slated to start in 2021.

LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said that there was no changing it.

The simplest answer to this would have been to let Popov start her five-year exemption into the ANA in 2020. She wouldn’t get more years than anyone else. She’d simply be able to start the clock now. That would’ve given Popov and the LPGA the chance to capitalize on the momentum of the moment.

There was plenty of room for Popov in the field. Plenty of players chose to skip this year’s ANA due to COVID-19, including former major winners So Yeon Ryu, Jeong Eun Lee6, Hyo Joo Kim, Shanshan Feng and Ko.

The world needs more Popov stories in these uncertain times. A bigger picture perspective would’ve served the tour well here.

Popov kept waiting for the LPGA to offer her a seat on the charter flight and a spot in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. There was a spot reserved in the Arkansas field for the winner at Royal Troon if needed, but Popov didn’t qualify for that either because she wasn’t a member when she won. (And her winnings from the AIG don’t count toward the money list either because she wasn’t a member.)

No one was more shocked by this than the player who benefited from that bewildering rule, first alternate Kristy McPherson, who made the most of the start by finishing in the top 10.

While the criteria was set for the ANA last spring, there was still a way to play in through the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. The top 20 players and ties on the money list, not otherwise qualified, through the end of the Walmart event made the field, provided those players were within the top 80 on the money list.

Dani Holmqvist was the last player in through that category with $48,127. She’s 80th on the money list.

Popov first earned LPGA membership in 2015 and lost her card last year by one stroke. She has competed in 34 LPGA tournaments in her career and played three times on the Symetra Tour this season.

Several male pros, including Ian Poulter and Tommy Fleetwood, took to Twitter to express their disdain for the LPGA’s exemption rule for non-members.

Whan said he would look into the rule in the offseason but wouldn’t change it midseason, pointing out other non-members who have won previous majors – last year’s Women’s British winner, Hinako Shibuno, for starters. Shibuno didn’t take up LPGA membership.

Shibuno differs from Popov in that she hadn’t spent any time on the LPGA in previous years, nor had she competed on the LPGA’s developmental tour. She came directly from the Japan LPGA.

“I think everybody in their right mind thinks (Popov) should get a five-year exemption,” said McPherson, “but that’s how it’s written.”

It’s time for the LPGA to loosen up its non-member rules and reward exceptional play.

Anyone who wins a major – regardless of what tour they came from – deserves a five-year exemption.

Anyone who wins a tournament deserves a spot in the next week’s field.

The LPGA should also take this time to strongly consider adopting a top-10 rule that allows non-members and members alike the chance to play their way into the next event with a top-10 finish.

Growing the tour should always be the main goal.

“I truly believe that a major champion is a major champion,” said Popov, “regardless of what status you came into the tournament with. It should be rewarded the same.”

Popov isn’t exempt into this year’s U.S. Women’s Open either but has a strong chance to get into the field by way of her Rolex Ranking, which vaulted to 24th after the British.

“It was imperative to us as we built the exemption categories for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open that the final field most closely resemble a traditional championship, which includes rewarding players for solid play leading up to the event,” said Shannon Rouillard, Senior Director, Championships.

“In addition to several play-in events this fall, we also created a category for LPGA money list high performers not otherwise exempt, as well as made the decision for the remainder of the field to be filled using the Rolex Rankings, to ensure those playing well would find themselves in the championship.”

As of now, the final 11 spots will be awarded off the Rolex Rankings and Popov tops that list.

Popov has taken the high road throughout the controversy, saying that she doesn’t want to dwell on it too much ahead of Portland. She also made sure to note that the LPGA staff has been overwhelmed in general with COVID-19 protocols and that she appreciates what they’ve done to get tournaments running again.

This is a player with great perspective. A player who has overcome health battles with Lyme Disease and Q-School heartbreak, battling back from obscurity to give the LPGA a storyline that reverberated throughout the sports world.

Baffling rules and inflexibility robbed Popov from making her debut in the ANA Inspiration. That robbed the rest of us too.

It didn’t have to be this way.

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Lexi Thompson launches new brand at ANA Inspiration

The 25-year-old Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA, is unveiling her new brand this week at ANA Inspiration.

Lexi Thompson took to social media to announce the launch of her own brand. She’ll have her new “LEXI” logo on her visor and golf bag during this week’s ANA Inspiration.

In the promo video, Thompson teases new projects that are in the works, including “LEXI Golf,” “LEXI Fitness” and “LEXI Skin.”

The 25-year-old Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA, turned professional in 2010 and has competed on the LPGA since 2012. Earlier this year she signed with a new agency GSE Worldwide, Inc., parting with Blue Giraffe Sports, the agency she signed with a decade ago.

Brett Falkoff, Senior Vice President of Golf at GSE, told Golfweek back in June that they planned to market Thompson as a global athlete while also exploring Thompson’s other passions – like health and fitness – that she might want to pursue after golf.

 

“We want to be able to set her up for a position of success for whenever that might be,” he said.

Thompson comes into this week’s ANA after a missed cut in the AIG Women’s British Open and a rules controversy in which she was ultimately cleared from the R&A.

Her best finish in 2020 is a tie for seventh at the season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions. Thompson won the 2014 ANA Inspiration and lost in a playoff in 2017 after receiving a four-stroke penalty mid-round on Sunday.

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As LPGA preps for ANA Inspiration, how hot is too hot?

The ANA Inspiration’s five-month move on the calendar makes heat one of the top storylines at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

The ANA Inspiration is often referred to as the Masters of the LPGA because it returns to the same course each year and is heaped with tradition, such as the winner’s leap into Poppie’s Pond on Sunday. In a normal year, the ANA is the first major on the LPGA calendar – it is played in April as the golf season is just starting up.

The ANA’s five-month move to September raises the temperature on the event, literally. Heat is one of the top storylines this week at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. More on that below, plus a few other things to note:

The heat

The Palm Springs area just saw a weekend where the thermometer hit a record-breaking 122 on Saturday and 120 on Sunday. How hot will it be this week should be a topic of conversation for everyone during the ANA Inspiration. The weather forecast calls for it to be a little cooler. Desert residents might handle 105 degrees, but we probably aren’t walking 18 holes of golf in that kind of heat, either. Some players will react well, others might struggle. Hopefully, the temperatures will stay under 110 degrees on the weekend.

No defending champion

This is no one’s fault, of course, unless you blame the coronavirus. Jin Young Ko didn’t make it to Mission Hills to defend her title because of travel restrictions and an abundance of caution. That means she can’t join Sandra Post and Annika Sorenstam as winners of the ANA Inspiration in consecutive years.

Jin Young Ko
Jin Young Ko poses with the ANA Inspiration championship trophy in 2019. (Photo: Kelvin Kuo/USA TODAY Sports)

Changes to the golf course

Some long-time players might be stunned that more than 100 trees have been taken out of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, giving the course a more open look in the rough. Members seem pleased with the trees being removed, but the trees were part of the landscape of the tournament over the last 30 years or so. Every course at some time has to deal with aging trees, and that’s what has happened at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course this year.

An American winner?

The last player from the United States to win the ANA Inspiration was Brittany Lincicome in 2015. Lincicome is one of three Americans to win the tournament in the decade of the 2010s. With players like Danielle Kang, Nelly Korda, Lincicome, Stacy Lewis and other Americans looking for a win, and a handful of top Koreans out of the field, could the decade of the 2020s start with an American victory?

No fans

Maybe having no fans on the golf course won’t mean much to players who are playing the fifth hole on a Thursday afternoon. But the players who make the cut for the weekend will certainly miss the atmosphere of supportive desert fans on the first and 10th tees as they begin their rounds and on the 18th green Sunday. The tournament is doing lots of things to create some atmosphere for the players, but there is no substitute for high-fives with fans as the winner walks up the 18th green before crossing Poppie’s Pond.

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ANA Inspiration forges on without fans, but there is still so much at stake

Whoever jumps into Poppie’s Pond at the 49th edition of the ANA will relish the chance in the oppressive desert heat.

Sometimes when Brittany Lincicome makes her way down the Walk of Champions at the ANA Inspiration, she’ll glance down at the plaques below. Her name is listed twice there (2009, 2015). Sometimes she’ll look over at the 18th green and strategize her next shot. Sometimes she’ll look up and high-five the fans who are leaning over the railing. 

The walk will be eerily quiet this year with no spectators on property. Lincicome joked that she might high-five the air on her walk by Poppie’s Pond. 

“With fans there’s so much more adrenaline,” said Lincicome, “and you just feed off of their energy and smiles and support.”

The LPGA will have staged five tournaments, including a major, without fans before the tour gets to the Coachella Valley. But silence at the ANA, often referred to as the Masters of the LPGA because of its history on the same course and longstanding tradition, will be the strangest feeling yet.

Three years ago, the excitement at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course was palpable after Lexi Thompson received a four-stroke penalty on the back nine of the final round. Fans willed her around the course, chanting “Le-xi! Le-xi!” as she came to the final hole needing eagle to win the championship. 

The atmosphere was even more spine-tingling in the playoff. And when it was over, as a defeated Thompson collapsed in her mother’s arms, a crowd of kids lined up outside the autograph tent to meet America’s best player.

None of that will happen this year. High-octane drama isn’t the same without people there to share it.

But in this COVID-19 era, the next-best things are often better than expected, certainly more appreciated. 

Whoever jumps into Poppie’s Pond at the 49th edition of the ANA will relish the chance and happily slip on that white robe in the oppressive desert heat, because by today’s standards, it’s somewhat of a miracle that it’s happening at all.

Jin Young Ko jumps into Poppie’s Pond after winning the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. (Photo: Kelvin Kuo/USA TODAY Sports)

“It would still be sweet,” said Stacy Lewis, the 2011 champion, “doesn’t matter how many people are there.”

Lewis played the ANA as an amateur in 2007, finishing tied for fifth, and came back that summer to play in LPGA Q-School and described it as a totally different course.

Mission Hills also put in $3 million worth of changes over the summer. For starters, they’ve pulled out 100 large eucalyptus trees and trimmed all the remaining trees.

“Aesthetically the course is going to appear to be much more open to them than what it has in the past,” said Mission Hills general manager Michael Walker. 

But while recovery shots might look more appealing, pulling them off might be a different story. The additional sunlight pouring through means the rough will be much thicker and deeper than in the past. And it will grow fast in the summer heat.

The club also has expanded some of the runoff areas in key locations: two par 3s (14th and 17th) and the par-5 18th. Balls that miss those greens are now more susceptible to rolling off into trouble.

Plus, the warm-weather Bermuda grass will present a completely different feel than the over-seeded rye that players see in the spring. 

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“I think it’s really going to start to favor the pickers verses the gougers,” Walker said. 

Every bunker on the course has had work done, and five fairway bunkers were added.

And then there’s the heat. Temperatures in mid-September range somewhere between 90 and 105 degrees. Caddies will not be wearing the traditional white jumpsuits but instead have bibs.

The quiet will be noticeable with the lack of bodies. Players are allowed two preregistered guests on property, and surely there will be residents who live along the course watching from their patios. There are usually around 600 volunteers during tournament week, but with no pro-am and no spectators, that number is down to 150 this year. 

While there won’t be any seats around the first tee or the 17th or 18th greens, there will be scaffolding and signage. That’s of particular interest for those who like to go for the green in two on the closing hole: There will still be something there to stop the ball. 

As for scoreboards, there will be an electronic one on 18.

With so many events on the LPGA’s schedule falling off in 2020, the major championships became more paramount than ever. The added cost of COVID-19 protocols combined with a loss of revenue in ticket sales, pro-ams and corporate hospitality created an impossible situation for many. 

“It was never a doubt that we were going to play this event,” said ANA executive director Teo Sodeman. 

A warm water dip awaits.

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