An unfortunate turn of events may have contributed to Anne Van Dam’s demise at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
An unfortunate turn of events may have contributed to Anne van Dam’s demise at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, which wrapped up on Sunday.
While heading to the first playoff hole via cart, van Dam and a Ladies European Tour official tried to get under a rope, but it caught her driver and snapped it immediately as the bag was forced to the ground. And van Dam was set to square off with Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Soenderby and Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson in the playoff after all three finished at 16 under for the tournament.
Unfortunately, this was van Dam’s backup driver as her main driver was damaged during a flight to Ireland.
Since she couldn’t get a replacement, van Dam hit 3-wood on the first playoff hole, and although she got home in two on the par-5, she missed an eagle putt. Meanwhile, Soenderby knocked her approach to 12 feet and dropped her putt to take her first title.
Although van Dam has five wins on the LET, but hasn’t found the winner’s circle since the Spanish Women’s Open in 2019.
Maria Fassi topped the list last year at 279 yards.
Maria Fassi topped the LPGA’s driving distance category last year with an average of nearly 280 yards. The year prior, Anne van Dam clocked in at 291 yards, a full six yards ahead of her nearest competitor.
As the women’s game gets longer, stronger and deeper with each passing year, it’s interesting to note that some of the most powerful players in the game also often happen to be ranked No. 1.
Conversely, there are a handful of names on this list that might be new to casual fans.
The LPGA tracks driving distance on two holes each week, and there are times when the holes selected are designed in such a way that promotes the longest players on tour to hit a fairway metal or hybrid. In other words, the numbers below could’ve been even higher.
Here’s a look at the biggest hitters on the LPGA over the past 20 years:
Next week’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International features a stellar field and a $5 million purse, now the highest prize fund in women’s golf outside of the majors and the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. Up from $1 million last season, the women’s purse now matches that of the men’s Saudi International, won last week by Abraham Ancer.
Many of the best players in the women’s game will make their 2023 season debut next week, including World No. 1 Lydia Ko, Lexi Thompson, Atthaya Thitikul and In Gee Chun. In all, 13 major winners have entered.
The 120-player field will feature 60 Ladies European Tour players, 50 from the top 300 in the Rolex Rankings and 10 sponsor invites. The event, which is presented by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, takes place Feb. 16-19 at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club. The winner will receive $750,000.
Other notable players who have committed include Danielle Kang, Nasa Hataoka, Yuka Saso, Maria Fassi, Hyo-Joo Kim, Hannah Green and Andrea Lee.
The LET’s Saudi-backed events remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
The 13 major winners in the Saudi Ladies International field boast 18 major titles between them.
While the purse is significant for every player in the field, it’s especially impactful for those with only LET status as well as those who have limited starts before the LPGA’s first full-field event of the season in late March.
The LPGA is in the midst of a month-long break before staging back-to-back limited-field events in Thailand and Singapore.
Here’s a closer look at the 10 players who received sponsor invitations and are entered into the field, which includes a wide mix of veterans and up-and-comers:
Anne van Dam is hoping to finish a half ironman race in less than six hours
Last week, Anne van Dam placed 10th in the LET’s season-ending Andalucia Open de Espana. This week: She’s hoping to finish a half Ironman race in less than six hours.
Players last week in Spain told her she’s crazy. The triathlon’s total distance is 70.3 miles, and it begins with a 1.2-mile swim, followed by 56 miles of biking and a 13.1-mile run.
Players, however, also believe the inspiration behind van Dam’s decision is pretty amazing. She’s racing for Grace Godfrey, the 2-year-old daughter of LPGA player Jane Park and husband Pete, a long-time caddie on tour.
In the summer of 2021, during the Volunteers of America Classic in Dallas, Grace was hospitalized with seizures and brain swelling.
As van Dam noted in her social media post last month, Grace is still having seizures and undiagnosed epilepsy. Some of the needed equipment, hospital treatments, specialized therapies and accessibility features in the family’s home are not covered by insurance.
The Dutch player set a goal of raising $50,000 and many in the golf community have already stepped up to donate. Even players who aren’t in van Dam’s close circle have done what they can.
“That’s special,” she said.
A five-time winner on the LET and a member of the victorious 2019 European Solheim Cup team, 27-year-old van Dam first began competing on the LPGA in 2019. While she often runs during the season and takes long bike rides to clear her head, swimming, she said, messes up the feel that she needs for golf. She got back in the pool this week to train.
The race is slated for Dec. 4 in Indian Wells and La Quinta, California.
“So far this week I’ve done two 1,500 meter swims,” she said, “which were a little tougher than I expected.”
One of the longest players in women’s golf, the ultra-athletic van Dam said she got into racing triathlons when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the tour for several months in 2020. Nothing quite like this though.
Certainly nothing that carried so much meaning.
“She called me and told me her plans and, of course, I burst into tears,” Park told lpga.com. “I can’t imagine doing any of those things (in a triathlon) but to do them all in a row is just mind-boggling. And to do them in California when you played in a tournament in Spain last week, it’s insane. But we are so grateful. For her and for everyone.”
Michele Thomson bogeyed her first hole, eagled the second and birdied seven of her last 11 holes in her opening round.
Michele Thomson bogeyed her first hole, eagled the second and birdied seven of her last 11 holes to post a 65 and take the first-round lead at the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open.
“Probably had a little bit of a nervous start I would say. Obviously being at the Scottish Open, it’s my fourth one now but obviously still got the nerves off the first tee and hit a bit of a ropey drive,” said Thomson. “Stood up on the second tee and just restarted, hit a great drive down the middle and had 240 and just thought, ‘I’ve got adrenaline here, just going to go for it’ and hit it on, made eagle and from there it snowballed.
“Hit a lot of good wedges into holes and drove well off the tee. The only shot really I missed all day was probably my drive at the first.”
Yuka Saso, who won the U.S. Women’s Open in June, is in close pursuit, two shots back. She’s tied for second with Anne van Dam and Jasmine Suwannapura.
Van Dam is seeking her first win. Two years ago, she posted her career-best finish, a tie for 6th, in the then-Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open. Suwannapura has two LPGA wins on her résumé.
Trust Golf, part of the Thai-based TCT Corporation, took over as title sponsor earlier this year.
The tournament also has a new venue, the new Dumbarnie Links in Fife, Scotland.
Anne van Dam’s putting had become such a point of frustration that she closed her eyes and hoped for the best. Seriously.
Anne van Dam’s putting had become such a point of frustration that she actually thought about taking a break from the LPGA. Something drastic needed to be done, so she closed her eyes and hoped for the best. Seriously.
“I just started hitting some putts with my eyes closed,” said van Dam, “and just felt way more comfortable.”
The 25-year-old Dutch player ran into Suzann Pettersen this week at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, and they talked about the unusual practice. Pettersen told van Dam about the time she closed her eyes and won six tournaments.
“At one point it just gets really mental,” said van Dam. “If you can’t see what you’re doing, you just trust your inner instincts.
This week van Dam has teamed up with longtime best friend Sophia Popov for the Dow team event. She had a handful of important putts in Wednesday’s opening alternate shot format and made them all dead center – eyes closed.
Known for having one of the most enviable swings in golf, van Dam ranked first on the LPGA in driving distance at 292 yards but 156th in putting average and 137th in putts per greens in regulation.
“I had multiple rounds in a row where I hardly missed a fairway or hardly missed a green and was three-putting from 10 to 15 feet,” said van Dam. “At one point you just kind of feel hopeless. You don’t really know where to go.”
She missed them in all sorts of ways – long, short, left, right. It wasn’t the yips, she said. More like a negative spiral of thoughts that began with venues earlier in the year that featured poa annua greens.
What started out as a drill blended into competition, and the fix came just in time for a run of big events. Van Dam will become the first Dutch golfer to compete in the Olympics next month. She actually qualified for the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil but was unable to compete because she wasn’t ranked inside the top 100 in the world at the time, which is an additional requirement from the Netherlands National Olympics Committee.
Van Dam, a five-time winner on the LPGA, thought the same might happen again this year after she dipped to No. 145 in the world. She was actually inside the top 100 for the original cutoff before the Tokyo Olympics was postponed to 2021.
The Netherlands made an exception for van Dam this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They’re only sending athletes that have a good chance of finishing in the top six,” she said.
That’s easier to determine in other sports, of course. Popov won the AIG Women’s British Open last year when she was ranked outside to the top 300 in the world.
“Obviously for golf,” said van Dam, “it’s a hard decision to say when do you have a good chance.”
A positive-sounding van Dam views this recent dip in her career as part of the process. If everything always came easy, she said, it could get a little boring. She looks at the downtimes of a Jordan Spieth or a Rickie Fowler missing out on majors and knows that struggles come to everyone.
“My game is way too good to play like that,” she said.
Watch Anne van Dam take her shoes off to hit a doozie of a shot from murky water at the CME Group Tour Championship.
NAPLES, Fla. – Anne van Dam thought she’d hit the perfect drive. A bomb that traveled about 310 yards but kicked left and into a hazard on the par-4 ninth at Tiburon Golf Club, host of the CME Group Tour Championship. Her caddie sized up the situation and told her straight away that it was time to wade in.
“I was so scared there was a snake or something in the water,” said van Dam, laughing. “I was such a little girl.”
The lie was good but muddy. It was a perfect pitching wedge from 139 yards, she said, but they didn’t know if it would come out chunky. Once she got over the ball, she felt confident about the wedge. The murky water came up over her ankles.
“I hit it pretty quickly,” she said. “I was not enjoying my time in there.”
It’s certainly the early favorite for shot of the week.
“This is just magnificent,” said Golf Channel’s Karen Stupples, as the ball settled 10 feet from the hole. “Talk about athletic, right.”
Van Dam ultimately left the birdie attempt short, the story of her last two weeks on tour, where she has struggled with pace on the greens. She carded a 1-under 71 but walked out of the scoring tent looking pretty deflated for a woman who’d just hit a doozie from the drink. (She started her round on No. 10.)
“My game is definitely good enough to shoot some scores,” she said.
Van Dam is staying with good friend Sophia Popov, who lives in here in Naples but didn’t qualify for the CME. It’s a bit awkward, she said, leaving for the course each day while Popov, a major winner in 2020, has to stay back.
“It’s the last week, she’s going to feel left out,” said van Dam. “She’s just focused on next year. It’s been a strange year no matter what. It sucks for sure, for both of us. But it is what it is.”
The three longest players on the LPGA are paired together at the 75th U.S. Women’s Open: Maria Fassi, Bianca Pagdanganan and Anne van Dam.
HOUSTON – The three longest players on the LPGA are paired together at the 75th U.S. Women’s Open, and Maria Fassi has already fired the first shot.
“I’m just gonna to have to hit a good one on the first three holes just to let them know who the boss is,” said Fassi, with a smile, “and then just try to hit fairways the rest of the round.”
It might be the first round of a major, but it won’t be void of a bit of trash talk.
Rookie Bianca Pagdanganan (284.655), Anne van Dam (281.849) and Fassi (280.352) tee off at 11:10 a.m. CST Thursday on the Jackrabbit Course.
Van Dam and Fassi, two players whose personalities are as big as their games, have been paired together several times this season and know each other’s games well. Van Dam said she enjoyed competing alongside players who attack a course in a similar way.
While none of these players plan to make Thursday a long-drive competition, van Dam said that she and Fassi have been known to give each other a look on the tee when it’s a wide open, green-light hole.
“We don’t have to say anything,” said van Dam. “You walk past it, if you outdrive her by 10 yards, and say ‘Nice drive, Maria,’ and get her fired up on the next hole.”
Pagdanganan has never been paired with van Dam on the LPGA. At the 2019 NCAA Championship in Arkansas, seniors Fassi and Pagdanganan were grouped together in the last round during the final round of the stroke-play competition. Arkansas’ Fassi won the NCAA title and Pagdanganan, who played for Arizona and helped the Wildcats win a team title in 2018, finished third.
During a rain delay, the pair discovered that both have a “Fearless” tattoo. Pagdanganan has the word inked on her left wrist while Fassi’s is hidden away on her foot.
“It’s just how I approach the game I guess,” Pagdanganan said of the tattoo.
Pagdanganan shows her “Fearless” tattoo. (Golfweek)
All three players are searching for their first win on the LPGA and Pagdanganan is making her U.S. Women’s Open debut. The Filipino tied for ninth in her first major championship – the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink.
Pagdanganan said she gets to rip driver pretty much everywhere on both the Cypress and Jackrabbit courses. The USGA was forced to use both of Champions’ courses to accommodate a field of 156 players with limited daylight hours. LPGA setups often force all three players to keep driver in the bag, so Champions Golf Club presents a real treat to the big-hitters.
The more low-key Pagdanganan said she won’t try to force anything when it comes to being the longest in the group.
“It’s just a label,” said Pagdanganan of being No. 1 in driving distance on tour. “It’s not everything, but it’s pretty cool.”
Pagdanganan can’t really explain where she gets her power, but driver is her favorite club in the bag. Her coach at Arizona, Laura Ianello, points to “insanely” fast hips and use of the ground as key to her power.
Ann van Dam is a seven-time winner on the Ladies European Tour and has what many consider to be one of the finest swings in all of golf. The 5-foot-11-inch Dutch player paired with Anna Nordqvist and Suzann Pettersen at last year’s Solheim Cup. Last year in Phoenix, Dame Laura Davies called van Dam the longest woman she’d ever played alongside.
“She has the fastest hip rotation speed that I’ve ever measured on a system,” said van Dam’s instructor David Dickmeiss.
The Bermuda rough isn’t exceptionally penal at Champions because it’s December. Texan Angela Stanford, who won last week in Dallas, said these are the tightest fairways she’s ever seen, and that hitting in the rough actually isn’t such a bad thing this week. Even if there’s grass behind the ball, she said, it’s not as thick and healthy. Her aim is to get it out there as far as possible on every hole.
Maria Fassi with her Wonder Woman golf bag.
“I don’t think I’ve ever hit this many drivers on a golf course as a pro,” said a fired-up Fassi, whose golf bag is emblazoned with a Wonder Woman logo this week. Fassi felt she connected with the inspirational female superhero during a quarantine spent watching movies.
Arkansas head coach Shauna Estes said Fassi’s swing speed can get up to 113 mph but she has the most control at 106 to 108 mph. At the SEC Championship, the explosive player once hit driver, 8-iron on the final hole, a 478-yard par 5. Estes has lost track of the number of 370-yard holes where Fassi was left with nothing more than a chip into the green.
Stories about this trio can go on for days.
“It’s going to be fun,” said a grinning van Dam. “Too bad people can’t come out and watch.”
Anne van Dam and Sophia Popov shared a pull cart at the Marathon LPGA Classic amid the coronavirus pandemic.
SYLVANIA, Ohio – From a distance, it looked like Anne van Dam was pulling a relic behind her at the Marathon LPGA Classic. There was no cooler on this trolley. No seat. No spot for her scorecard.
Ah, but this was no antique. It’s actually a TiCad pro, the Mercedes of pull carts. Handcrafted in Germany, the stream-lined TiCad trolleys are light-weight and easy to fold for travel. Van Dam pulled her staff bag around Highland Meadows with ease, raving about its performance. The titanium TiCad runs about 2,000 euros.
After carding an opening 2-under 69, van Dam was off to disinfect the pull cart before she gave it back to owner Sophia Popov for the afternoon wave. Popov caddied for van Dam last week at Inverness, carrying a staff bag. But now the former USC player is in the field too, and since they are in opposite waves, the pair decided to share Popov’s pull cart.
“Yeah, we’ve gotta fight,” said van Dam, breaking into a smile. “Whoever gets the lowest score.”
Local caddies aren’t being used for the rest of the year on the LPGA due to COVID-19 testing. Players have the option to go without a caddie for 2020, and with her caddie in the Netherlands, van Dam decided not to fly him over to self-quarantine for two weeks prior to the two events in Ohio.
Sophia Popov brought a TiCad pull cart to the Marathon LPGA Classic. (Photo: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports)
It’s the first time she’s gone without a caddie since she played a handful of events on the Symetra Tour in 2018. While she would’ve rather taken a caddie at the Marathon, she liked the fact that going solo forced her to fully commit to her own decision.
“Doesn’t talk back,” she said, looking down at the trolley. “I can hit it and it doesn’t hurt.”
Van Dam, 24, first met Popov, 27, in junior golf about a dozen years ago. While van Dam stayed in Florida during the COVID-19 break, practicing with Marathon co-leader Ko and Lindy Duncan at Lake Nona, Popov competed out west on the Cactus Tour during the pandemic and won three times. She used the TiCad most weeks in the desert and said the trolley is so light-weight that she can pick it up with one finger after it’s folded like a binder clip.
Popov credited last week’s stint on the bag at Inverness in helping her to shoot 5-under 66 on a picture-perfect day in Sylvania, Ohio, putting her two back of leaders Danielle Kang and Ko.
“Today I think strategically I was doing a way better job than I usually do,” said Popov. “I really picked my spots … played a lot smarter.”
It can be stressful sometimes out there without a caddie, Popov admitted, but she’s naturally a fast player and doesn’t worry about slowing anyone down. Plus the caddies in her group on Thursday were quick to help out.
“If we both make the cut, it’s my push cart,” said Popov, laughing. “It’s obviously going to me.”
The Ladies European Tour released its 2020 schedule Friday.
Talk about an instant turnaround. The Ladies European Tour schedule is out, and it’s a massive step in the right direction. There are seven new events on the docket for 2020, including 15 in Europe. Overall prize money is up $4.96 million (4.5 million euros) to $19.8 million (18 million euros).
Anne van Dam now serves as an ambassador for the new Dutch Ladies Open, played at her home course, Rosendealsche Golf Club, in Arnhem.
There are two new tournaments in Sweden, including the $1.65 million (€1.5 million) Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika and the Creekhouse Ladies Open. The tour also returns to Switzerland with the new VP Bank Ladies Swiss Open next September.
The previously announced Saudi Ladies Championship offers a $1 million purse.
The season ends with the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España Femenino in November, an event that doubled its prize fund to $661,917 (€600,000). It also marks the end of the Race to Costa del Sol, a season-long competition offering $275,798 (€275,000) between the top three finishers on the official ranking.
“It’s important to have an event in your country to help develop the game and inspire the next generation,” said van Dam, “just as I was inspired when I was able to watch and then play in the Dutch Ladies Open when I was young. The 2020 schedule is looking really strong and I’m so pleased to have an event in the Netherlands.”
Late last year, LET players voted almost unanimously to combine efforts with the LPGA. The new LPGA-LET Joint Venture board includes: includes six directors from the LET (Marta Figueras-Dotti, Eleanor Givens, Catriona Matthew, Liz Young, Justin Abbott and Alastair Ruxton), four Directors from the LPGA (Commissioner Mike Whan, Liz Moore, Kathy Milthorpe and Mike Nichols), one from The R&A (Chief Executive Martin Slumbers) and one from the European Tour (Chief Executive Keith Pelley).
Left to right: European Tour executive director Keith Pelley, LET chair Marta Figueras-Dotti, LET CEO Alexandra Armas, European Solheim Cup Captain Catriona Matthew and LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan at the LET’s headquarters at Buckinghamshire Golf Club in England. (Ladies European Tour)
“The LET and the LPGA only began working together in September 2019, but we’ve been blown away with the results in the first 90 days and the positive response from across the golf industry,” LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said in a statement. “With overall purse increases and seven new events, our athletes will have more opportunities for success. It’s exciting to think what we can accomplish after a full year of working with our new Board. We have a long way to go, but I’m so happy to say that this is the best position that European women’s professional golf has ever been in.”
Matthew, the 2019 and 2021 European Solheim Cup captain, has committed to compete on the LET this season. The LPGA veteran and Women’s British Open winner lives with her husband and two daughters in Scotland.
“This is a tour that existing players and those joining for the first time should be proud to be part of,” said Matthew. “I’ll be keeping an eye on some of the exciting young players coming through as we look ahead to retaining the Solheim Cup in Toledo next year.”
2020 LET Schedule
*subject to currency exchange rates
Date
Title/Location
Euro/USD prize fund
Feb. 20-23
Australian Ladies Classic Bonville, Bonville Golf Resort, Bonville, New South Wales, Australia
€240,000*/$264,766.80
Feb. 27 – March 1
Women’s New South Wales Open, Dubbo Golf Club, New South Wales, Australia
€210,000*/$231,670.95
March 12-14
Investec South African Women’s Open, Westlake Golf Club, Cape Town, South Africa
€200,000*/$220,639
March 19-22
The Saudi Ladies Championship, Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia
€901,000*/$1,000,000
May 7-9
Jabra Ladies Open, Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France
€200,000/$220,639
May 14-17
La Reserva de Sotogrande Invitational, La Reserva Club de Sotogrande, Sotogrande, Spain
€300,000/$330,958.50
May 29-31
The Mithra Belgian Ladies Open, Naxhelet, Wanxe, Belgium
€200,000/$220,639
June 4-7
Lalla Meryem Cup, Royal Golf Dar Es Salam (Blue Course), Rabat, Morocco
€450,000/$496,437.75
June 11-14
Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika, Bro Hoff Slott Golf Club (Stadium Course), Stockholm, Sweden
€1,500,000/$1,654,792.50
July 2-5
Dutch Ladies Open, Rosendealsche Golf Club, Arnhem, the Netherlands
€200,000/$220,639
July 16-19
Estrella Damm Mediterranean Ladies Open, Club de Golf Terramar, Sitges, Spain
€300,000/$330,958.50
July 23-26
Evian Championship, Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France
€3,700,000*/$4,100,000
Aug. 5-8
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Kasumigaseki Country Club (East Course), Saitama, Japan
N/A
Aug. 6-9
UK Event Confirmed
€991,500*/$1,100,000
Aug. 13-16
Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland
€1,352,000/$1,500,000
Aug. 20-23
AIG Women’s British Open, Royal Troon, Ayrshire, Scotland
