Brittany Lincicome took a share of the lead during the first round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Fifteen-month-old Emery Reign ran around a golf course for the first time last Saturday. Lincicome missed the cut at the ShopRite LPGA Classic and drove 80 miles northwest to Aronimink Golf Club for an early practice round.
“She found it so fascinating to put the ball in the hole,” gushed her mother, Brittany Lincicome.
Emery Reign went home after that perfect round. She’s back in Florida with her father Dewald Gouws. Brittany FaceTimed with Emery on the way to the course. She was napping by the time Lincicome teed off.
Good vibes from that precious practice round continued into Thursday, where Lincicome opened with a 3-under 67 to take a share of the lead with Malaysia’s Kelly Tan.
Lydia Ko of New Zealand plays a shot from a bunker on the 13th hole during the first round of the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club (Photo by Andy Lyons/PGA of America via Getty Images)
Only a dozen players broke par on a cool and windy day. Inbee Park, who shot even par, predicted it would be the easiest day of the week. Lydia Ko, Danielle Kang, Carlota Ciganda and Gaby Lopez are among the six players who shot 2 under.
Lexi Thompson, Georgia Hall, Charley Hull and Hinako Shibuno are among those who are three shots back. Only one group was left on the course when play was suspended at 6:59 p.m. ET due to darkness.
Tan, opened the ANA Inspiration with a 68 and tied for 18th last week at the ShopRite, is still searching for her first victory on the LPGA. The 26-year-old, ranked 189th in the world, takes inspiration from recent first-time winners Sophia Popov and Mel Reid.
“Winning golf tournaments out here is life-changing,” said Tan. “Yeah, it’s very emotional even when I watched them win.”
Brittany Lincicome and daughter Brittany pose on the 17th hole at Aronimink (Photo courtesy of Brittany Lincicome)
For Lincicome, something clicked on Friday on the Jersey Shore. She got out of her own way on on Friday and went on a birdie barrage, playing more aggressively. She missed the cut by one but felt like she’d rediscovered a mindset she first learned with Vision54.
“Each week it’s just kind of been let’s make the cut, let’s make the cut,” said Lincicome, “and that’s not a way an eight-time winner should play golf.”
Lincicome, 35, was diagnosed with “Mommy Thumb” early in the season but now she’s not really sure what’s going on. She has seen a number of doctors throughout the course of the year and considered surgery until she tried a brace that keeps her left thumb from bending back too far.
“I hit some balls recently and it actually didn’t hurt too bad,” she said, “but I could feel if I had to play 18 holes without it, it would be like on fire by the end of the round, so we’re just going to wear it.”
On her last hole of the day, the par-5 ninth, Lincicome switched to a cross-handed grip and watched her ball drop after circling ’round the cup.
Lincicome never considered walking away from the game after giving birth to Emery last July. That being said, winning a tournament as a mom would be the “icing” on her career.
Stacy Lewis won for the first time as a mom in August at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open. Chesnee was home with her dad, Gerrod Chadwell, watching “Peppa Pig” on her iPad during most of mom’s round. They had a nice celebration when she returned.
Lincicome said her husband the TV on Thursday afternoon and showed Emery her mom in action.
Weekend tee times will look a bit different at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Pushing a major championship to October presents a number of challenges. Particularly given that the officials wanted to keep the field at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship to 132 players. Given the limited number of playing opportunities in 2020, it was an especially crucial call.
But with roughly three fewer hours of daylight this time of year and a difficult test in Aronimink Golf Club, Kerry Haigh said he wouldn’t be surprised if Thursday’s opening round spilled into Friday.
“We’re actually going to tee off, I believe it’s three minutes after sunrise on Thursday and Friday,” said Haigh, Chief Championships Officer of the PGA of America, “and we will be finishing well after sunset.”
In addition, weekend tee times will look a bit different as well.
NBC will air the championship on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. ET and on Sunday from Noon to 2 p.m., ahead of NASCAR. To make that work, the leaders won’t be teeing off last on Sunday. And if play from Friday pushes to Saturday morning, the same will hold true for the third round as well.
“We feel it’s important that everyone watching the telecast will see the leaders,” said Haigh, “see the leaders play all 18 holes, and we think that is important. And although it’s a little different and out of the box, we as partners with the LPGA and KPMG are prepared to make those changes for what we think will be a greater and a better championship for everyone to observe.”
Karen Stupples, who was moderating the afternoon presser with Haigh and several other championship officials, said she remembers a “reverse horseshoe” happening previously on the LPGA.
“I remember teeing off in like one of my first years on tour with the lead and being the first group off in the afternoon to make that time,” she said. “As a player, it didn’t really make any difference to me. It was perfectly fine. Just as exciting to be in the lead and at the top of that leaderboard as it was if you were teeing off a couple of hours later.”
With a major this week, it was a relatively low-key celebration with her partner and Desveaux. She’ll have a proper party at some point down the road.
This week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club gives players a second consecutive week of play on a Donald Ross design. Reid, who tied for third last year at the KPMG at Hazeltine, went out for nine holes on Tuesday afternoon feeling a bit different.
“I just feel like my mindset has now shifted,” she said, “like OK, what do we need to do to win this week?”
In previous weeks, a top 20 or 30 would have been considered a good result. Now that she’s a winner on the LPGA, however, that’s not enough to satisfy the 33-year-old Brit.
Statistically speaking, Reid said, players don’t often fare well after a big win. She’s doing what she can to recover as quickly as possible from the hype and drain of realizing a dream.
Reid’s instructor, Jorge Parada, has plenty of experience at Aronimink and believes that the big track sets up nicely for Reid. It’s a ball-strikers’ course, and their goal has long been for Reid to rank inside the top 15 on tour in greens in regulation. She’s currently 22nd.
“What we always talk about is I don’t want you to be a player who only wins once,” said Parada. “I want you to be a player who wins, finishes top 10 on a decent week and top 25 on a bad week.”
While Reid is a six-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, getting it done on American soil brought a huge sense of relief.
“Get little bit of a chip off my shoulders,” she said. “People (can) stop asking me when I’m going to win.
“For people who didn’t think I could do it, it’s nice to kind of stick my finger up at them. I enjoy that a lot as well.”
This longstanding LPGA event has become a fall classic in 2020, an ideal run-up to next week’s major outside of Philadelphia.
Given the strict restrictions in place in New Jersey and canceled pro-am rounds (yes, rounds), there was reason to be concerned that this year’s ShopRite LPGA Classic might not happen.
To the delight of fans and players alike, the longstanding LPGA event at the Bay Course at Seaview Golf Club has become a fall classic in 2020, an ideal run-up to next week’s major at Aronimink Golf Club outside of Philadelphia.
But first, the skinny on this week.
This marks the 32nd playing of the ShopRite LPGA Classic on the Jersey Shore and the winner’s list reads like a who’s who in women’s golf.
The best of the best win here
Juli Inkster won the first showing back in 1986. Inkster ultimately won it twice, and Betsy King won it three times, as did Annika Sorenstam.
Cristie Kerr signs autographs for fans at the LPGA ShopRite Classic at Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club in Galloway Township, New Jersey.
Add in Nancy Lopez, Dottie Pepper, Se Ri Pak along with current players and major champions Stacy Lewis (2012, 2014), Brittany Lincicome (2011), Anna Nordqvist (2015, 2016), Cristie Kerr (2004) and Angela Stanford (2003) and all bets should point toward a marquee winner this week.
“It’s a thinking person’s golf course,” said Cristie Kerr. “You know, it’s a great short game and wedge playing golf course, so I think that’s why you see a lot of the great players that have won here have had very good careers. That’s where you make your money in golf, is chipping putting.”
Atlantic City can be seen in the background as Stacy Lewis walks along the 15th hole during the second round of the 2012 LPGA ShopRite Classic in Galloway Township, New Jersey.
New month, different course
The tournament has been held at Seaview since 1998 (in addition to the first two years of the event). Typically held in June, this year’s October dates will present a new challenge on an old-school track.
Stacy Lewis, who made a double-bogey every day in 2014 and still won by six, noted that the greens are actually better now than they are in the summer. It’s not playing as hard and fast as usual, which means length might be more of an advantage. The intricacies of the greens and the subtle breaks, however, remain the same.
“If you get on the wrong side of the hole putts can be really fast,” said Lewis. “This week especially it’s going to be dealing with spin and how much the ball is not releasing and controlling wedges.
“And the fescue is down, too, so who knows what that year is going to bring.”
Past champion Annie Park, who grew up 80 miles from the Seaview, described the wind on Wednesday as monstrous, telling Megan Khang it felt like they were back in Scotland.
“I love fall in New York and New Jersey,” said Park. “I love sweater weather.”
There’s an extra round
For the first time since 1990, and only the second time in event history, the ShopRite will be a 72-hole hole competition. Christa Johnson won 30 years ago at Greate Bay Country Club, finishing 5 under for the event.
The ShopRite typically hosts pro-ams on Wednesday and Thursday but due to COVID-19, both were canceled. Players have gotten used to not having fans at tournaments, but the lack of pro-ams and early-week bustle takes getting used to as well.
The mentality of needing to floor the gas pedal changes a bit too at a 72-hole event. Lincicome welcomes the change.
“If I’m going to win an LPGA event,” said Lincicome, “I always want it to be a four-day event against the top players in the world, hardest fields, just so when you win it’s kind of justified. You played four rounds against the best players.”
Players walk up the fairway on the sixth hole and past the skyline of Atlantic City during the second round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer on the Bay Course at the Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club in Galloway, New Jersey. Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images
One group, five wins
One of Thursday afternoon’s must-see groups goes off at 1:06 p.m. ET, just in time for Golf Channel’s three-hour broadcast (1-4 p.m. ET).
Past champions Stacy Lewis, Anna Nordqvist and Lexi Thompson, who have five titles at ShopRite between them, will try to feed off each other’s good vibes during the first two rounds.
“What’ll be interesting is that you’ll see three different ways probably of playing the golf course,” said Lewis. “You’ll have Lexi who will bomb it; Anna and I are probably going to hit it pretty straight and hit it good.
So it’ll be three different ways you can win, and be fun playing with people that are obviously comfortable on the golf course. Hopefully see a lot of the putts go in.”
Hinako Shibuno lines up a putt during the 2019 AIG Women’s British Open near Milton Keynes, England. Photo: Tim Ireland/Associated Press
Special invitations
Four players received sponsor invites into this week’s field: Natalie Gulbis, Hinako Shibuno, Brynn Walker and Megha Ganne.
Walker, a senior at North Carolina, has competed in ShopRite’s Monday qualifier six times dating back to her senior year at Radnor High School outside of Philadelphia, advancing twice.
Ganne, the reigning New Jersey Junior Girls champion, competed in the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship and the 2019 Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National.
While Gulbis has been a staple at Seaview for two decades, Shibuno is new to American golf. The 2019 AIG Women’s British Open champion turned down LPGA membership last season but now hopes to play her way onto the tour. Shibuno had hoped to participate in LPGA Q-School this season, but it was canceled due to the pandemic. She plans to try next year if she doesn’t play her way onto the tour before that.
“When I played with So Yeon Ryu and Nasa Hataoka at Japan Women’s Open Championship last October, I realized that they were on totally different levels with me,” she said with the help of an interpreter. “That incident made me want to go to the U.S. and compete in more high-level tournaments.”
