Tag: Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play

2023 Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play prize money payouts for each LPGA player

Check out the prize money payouts at the 2023 Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play.

Pajaree Anannarukarn poured in 12 birdies in 34 holes Sunday to survive a grueling stretch at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play event at Shadow Creek. Anannarukarn defeated Ayaka Furue in the championship match and Linn Grant in the semifinals.

The Thai player claimed her second LPGA title just two days before her 24th birthday. She earned $225,000 for the victory, brining her 2023 earnings to $330,385. She has amassed $1,966,317 in her LPGA career.

A total of 64 players were divided into 16 groups of four at the start of the week. After three days of round-robin matches, competition moved to a 16-player, single-elimination bracket.

There was no consolation match this year. Instead, NFL players Davante Adams, Mark Ingram, Terry McLaurin and Austin Ekeler played in a nine-hole, two-man scramble concurrently with the championship match for charity. A check for $40,000 was presented to the Play Like a Girl organization.

Here’s a full purse breakdown for the week:

Pos Player Money
1 Pajaree Anannarukarn $225,000
2 Ayaka Furue $141,906
T-3 Leona Maguire $91,288
T-3 Linn Grant $91,288
T-5 Celine Boutier $49,723
T-5 Carlota Ciganda $49,723
T-5 Albane Valenzuela $49,723
T-5 Lindsey Weaver-Wright $49,723
T-9 Maja Stark $26,949
T-9 Cheyenne Knight $26,949
T-9 Anna Nordqvist $26,949
T-9 Alison Lee $26,949
T-9 Sophia Schubert $26,949
T-9 Daniela Darquea $26,949
T-9 Angel Yin $26,949
T-9 Perrine Delacour $26,949
T-17 Brooke Henderson $17,023
T-17 Ally Ewing $17,023
T-17 Marina Alex $17,023
T-17 Lilia Vu $17,023
T-17 Jenny Shin $17,023
T-17 Hae Ran Ryu $17,023
T-17 Pei-Yun Chien $17,023
T-17 Yu Liu $17,023
T-17 Lauren Coughlin $17,023
T-17 Karis Davidson $17,023
T-27 Min Lee $10,705
T-27 Muni He $10,705
T-27 Maddie Szeryk $10,705
T-27 Esther Henseleit $10,705
T-27 Jennifer Kupcho $10,705
T-27 Paula Reto $10,705
T-27 Andrea Lee $10,705
T-27 Allisen Corpuz $10,705
T-27 Sei Young Kim $10,705
T-27 Amanda Doherty $10,705
T-27 Jeongeun Lee $10,705
T-27 Mina Harigae $10,705
T-27 Maria Fassi $10,705
T-27 Aditi Ashok $10,705
T-41 Eun-Hee Ji $6,312
T-41 Caroline Inglis $6,312
T-41 Celine Borge $6,312
T-41 Gemma Dryburgh $6,312
T-41 Danielle Kang $6,312
T-41 Frida Kinhult $6,312
T-41 Stacy Lewis $6,312
T-41 Emma Talley $6,312
T-41 Nanna Koerstz Madsen $6,312
T-41 Pornanong Phatlum $6,312
T-41 Na Rin An $6,312
T-41 Matilda Castren $6,312
T-53 Gaby Lopez $4,817
T-53 Xiyu Lin $4,817
T-53 A Lim Kim $4,817
T-56 Jodi Ewart Shadoff $3,971
T-56 Yae Eun Hong $3,971
T-56 Sarah Schmelzel $3,971
T-56 Linnea Strom $3,971
T-56 Sarah Kemp $3,971
T-56 Lauren Hartlage $3,971
T-56 Lucy Li $3,971
T-56 Elizabeth Szokol $3,971
T-56 Jaravee Boonchant $3,971

 

Eun-Hee Ji wins LPGA Match Play in Las Vegas, clinches final spot in 2022 U.S. Women’s Open field

Eun-Hee Ji now has a shot at the $1.8 million first-place prize at Pine Needles.

Eun-Hee Ji won on the LPGA for the first time in three years.

Her timing couldn’t have been better.

Ji outlasted the 64-player field at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play at Shadow Creek in Vegas and by winning, she clinched the final spot in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Ji was one of 19 hopefuls in Vegas who were not yet in the field at Pine Needles. She becomes the first player since Katherine Kirk in 2017 to win the LPGA tournament prior to the U.S. Women’s Open and thereby clinch the final spot. Ji, 36, is the oldest Korean winner on the LPGA.

The win was the sixth of her career and first since claiming the 2019 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Ji defeated Andrea Lee 4 and 3 in the semifinals before claiming a 3-and-2 win Ayaka Furue in the final at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

Now, Ji will be playing for big bucks in North Carolina. The 77th U.S. Women’s Open has a $10 million purse, with $1.8 million going to the winner.

Benefits of a purse that size extend throughout the whole field, however, even to those who don’t play the weekend. This year, professionals who miss the cut will receive $8,000, double what was given last year at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The men who missed the U.S. Open cut at Torrey Pines last year received $10,000.

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols contributed to this article.

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LPGA Match Play: Eun-Hee Ji takes care of Solheim Cupper Madelene Sagstrom 7&6 to advance to semifinals

Two more matches will decide the winner in Vegas.

After Hye-Jin Choi squared up their round of 16 match on the 15th hole, Eun-Hee Ji won Nos. 16 and 17 to win 2 and 1 to advance to the quarterfinals at Shadow Creek for the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play in Las Vegas.

Her second match was, let’s just say, less stressful.

Ji drew Madelene Sagstrom, the 29th-ranked player in the world and a Solheim Cup veteran, and took care of business. She started the match 1-up after winning the first hole, then won three of the next five holes to take a commanding lead. After halving Nos. 7 and 8, Ji won the next three holes to close out the match 7 and 6.

Almost Stephen Ames territory.

Jodi Ewart Shadoff currently leads Ayaka Furue 2-up thru 14 holes. Lilia Vu leads hometown girl Jenny Shin 1-up through 14, while the last match out Saturday, Gemma Dryburgh versus Andrea Lee, is all square thru 13 holes.

The semifinal matches will be Sunday morning, followed by the championship match and third-place match.

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LPGA: Las Vegas resident Jenny Shin takes down two major champions on her way to advancing to Sweet 16

It’s win or go home time in Vegas.

It was a busy day in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the best women golfers in the world. Many are going home early, but 16 will advance to the knock-out round of the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play.

One of the ladies to advance was Jenny Shin, who lives in Las Vegas and is hoping to thrive off that home cooking this weekend.

During her Wednesday match against 2020 AIG Women’s Open winner Sophia Popov, she was able to win 2 and 1. And the next day, she took care of 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner Hannah Green handily, 5 and 3. On Friday, she didn’t win. But she also didn’t lose.

Shin halved her match with Haeji Kang, but her 2-0-1 record was good enough to win group six.

So far, four ladies have completed the group stage with a perfect record: Tiffany Chan (group two), Paula Reto (group seven), Lilia Vu (group 14), and Jodi Ewart Shadoff (group 15). While some of the biggest names in the sport failed to advance including Danielle Kang, Megan Khang, Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, and Jeongeun Lee6.

“I’m just doing everything I can off the golf course to get me through the days and to get back to where I was, and it’s going to take some time,” Kang said on Thursday regarding her health. “It’s going to take some patience and time for everybody. I just need to thank my team for getting me here. It’s a little win that I have to take right now.”

As of now, Kang is in the field for next week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles. Another star teeing it up in North Carolina is Nelly Korda, who’s making her first start since February due to surgery on her left arm to address a blood clot.

Click here to see all the results from day three.

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‘I’m not ready to play’: Danielle Kang still struggling at home course at LPGA Match Play

The Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play is being played at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

It’s been a tough start for Danielle Kang on her home course at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play. One day after losing 7 and 5 to two-time Olympian Kelly Tan, Kang fell to Eun-Hee Ji in the second day of round-robin matches at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

Ji now moves to 2-0 in the tournament. The 2009 U.S. Women’s Open winner needs to win this week to play her way into the 2022 Women’s Open field at Pine Needles.

The field of 64 has been divided into 16 groups of four, and after three days of round-robin matches, the competition will move to a 16-player, single-elimination bracket.

Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play: Leaderboard

Kang, who withdrew from the Lotte Championship as well as the new Palos Verdes event with back pain, took several weeks off from competition to rest and rebab.

“I don’t really know how to answer these questions right now,” Kang said after the first round when asked about her health. “I’m not ready to play.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc9D9auPEsP/

Kang, who is currently No. 11 in the world, lives in Las Vegas and counts MGM as a sponsor, two factors that were key to her teeing it up this week. A healthy Kang, a two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and Solheim Cup stalwart, would’ve been on the short list of favorites this week.

“I’m just doing everything I can off the golf course to get me through the days and to get back to where I was, and it’s going to take some time,” said Kang. “It’s going to take some patience and time for everybody. I just need to thank my team for getting me here. It’s a little win that I have to take right now.”

Kang will face Pajaree Anannarukarn in Friday’s round.

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There is one spot remaining in 2022 U.S. Women’s Open field. These 19 players at LPGA Match Play have one last chance to qualify.

The 64-player field in Las Vegas features 19 seeking to qualify for the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open.

The 64-player field at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas for the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play features six of the 11 winners this season on the LPGA: Danielle Kang, Hyo Joo Kim, Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Jennifer Kupcho, Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul.

Also in the field: 19 U.S. Women’s Open hopefuls.

The match-play event is the final LPGA tournament before the second women’s major of 2022.

The 156-player USWO field has 155 players locked in, and there is one open spot remaining in the field.

There 19 players in Las Vegas who have yet to qualify but can secure their spot with a win Sunday: Albane Valenzuela, Emma Talley, Kelly Tan, Esther Henseleit, Ashleigh Buhai, Chella Choi, Youngin Chun, Wei-Ling Hsu, Lauren Stephenson, Aditi Ashok, Su Oh, Elizabeth Szokol, Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Sarah Schmelzel, Haeji Kang, Perrine Delacour, Jenny Shin, Jasmine Suwannapura and former USWO champ Eun-Hee Ji.

The 77th U.S. Women’s Open begins next Thursday at Pine Needles in Southern Pines, North Carolina.

Jennifer Kupcho won the LPGA’s first major of the year at the Chevron Championship. No player has won twice this year.

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Annie Park, who ‘considered stepping away’ from golf, finds her smile again in Chevron Championship

“I just overall started having fun on the golf course again last week, and been enjoying it this week as well.”

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — In the world where golf and karma intersect, it made sense that Annie Park had a positive experience at the Chevron Championship on Friday morning.

Playing by herself and the first one out on the course, Park breezed around the Dinah Shore Tournament Course for a 5-under 67 to move to 8 under for the tournament and up among the leaders.

A smile beamed as she addressed the media after the round, part of her best 36-hole effort ever at a major.

“Just having fun out there. I think that’s kind of the biggest key, and it’s been a while that I’ve had a great time on the golf course,” she said.

Flashback to 2019 and Park wasn’t smiling. On Wednesday night before the tournament then known as the ANA Inspiration started that year, Park’s car was broken into in the parking lot of her Palm Desert hotel. She learned her golf clubs were stolen when she woke up Thursday morning about two and a half hours before she was scheduled to tee off.

She cobbled together a set of clubs using the only long putter they had in the clubhouse, her caddie’s irons and some hastily put together woods and was able to play. She didn’t play poorly considering the circumstances, but she did miss the cut.

Annie Park lines up her tee shot on the 9th hole during the second round of the Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, March 30, 2022.

“No one ever found my clubs,” she said Friday, as the police report she had to file back then didn’t lead to anything. “Yeah, that was stressful, but it was a lesson learned. And I’ve got a great set now, so everything’s good.”

That’s an understatement. Park used those clubs to string together six birdies and one bogey on Friday, including a three-birdie stretch on holes 18, one, and two. To be in contention at a major is a big step for Park. This is her 23rd major tournament, and she’s never finished inside the top 15.

She admitted that she considered calling it a career or at least taking a break from golf as her performance was lagging and the toll of playing pro golf during the pandemic sapped some of the enjoyment out of the game.

“Yeah, it feels good to be back (in contention),” she said. “You know, I think for a while I thought about stepping away from the game. I mean, COVID really was long. Last year I took the two-month break just needing some time to myself. Yeah, I think last week was the first time I started to enjoy it again. Just not with golf, but just in general, like being able to see the spectators again and just having this newfound passion for golf.”

On Thursday and Friday, Park was in the unusual situation of playing by herself. The tournament plays in twosomes and there were 115 golfers in the field, so that meant someone has to play by themselves and Park was the last player to make the field.

But is playing as a single an advantage or a disadvantage? Even after playing two great rounds, she wasn’t 100 percent sure if being by herself helped her.

“Yesterday, I was just chilling, taking my time. Then I realized the group behind me started to catch up, and I’m like, I’m going to get a warning at this rate by myself,” she said. “Playing by myself was kind of weird yesterday, but today I kind of got used to it.

Annie Park lines up a putt on the 8th hole during the second round of the Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, March 30, 2022.

“When I made the turn and started waiting on players in the group in front of me, kind of just starts to feel like a normal golf all over again,” she said. “It could be an advantage that you do have a little bit more time to yourself, but also overthinking is not always great.”

The one clear disadvantage? Without a playing partner, she had to rely heavily on her caddie Scott Leonard’s sense of humor.

“I mean, I am by myself out there, so there is a lot of talking to myself and I’ve been stuck with my caddie’s dad jokes,” she said with a laugh.

Park went to USC, but is a New Yorker through and through as evidenced by the white Yankees cap she wore during her round Friday. Even giving her a mulligan for the 2019 tournament, she has not had much success on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.

She’s played here four other times, missing the cut twice along with finishes of 56th and 57th.

She’s been tinkering successfully with the entire package that is her golf game in recent weeks and it’s paying off. She’s worked on the mental aspect, her swing, and even her equipment, adding a Scotty Cameron putter and a TSi3 driver to her bag.

“I’ve been studying my own swing, and it’s been kind of helping me guide my DNA and base foundation out there,” she said. “I actually changed to a new putter and it’s been helping out a lot. I’ve added new iron shafts, new driver. But, yeah, I just overall started having fun on the golf course again last week, and been enjoying it this week as well.”

Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.

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Carlota Ciganda dinged with slow-play penalty, loses match at Shadow Creek

This isn’t the first slow-play stunner of the LPGA season.

Carlota Ciganda and Sarah Schmelzel were all square coming into the 18th hole of the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play event on Wednesday. Ciganda won the hole but lost the match due to a slow-play penalty that resulted in loss of hole. Schmelzel won, 1 up.

The LPGA released the following statement:

“On the 18th hole of her Day One match, Carlota Ciganda was assessed a loss-of-hole penalty for a breach of the LPGA’s Match Play Pace of Play Policy. Per the policy, a player is subject to penalty if she exceeds the allotted time for her total strokes taken on a hole by more than 10 seconds, averaging 30 seconds per shot. Ciganda exceeded the allotted time for the number of strokes taken on the 18th hole.”

Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play: Leaderboard

Ciganda did not comment after the round.

This isn’t the first slow-play stunner of the LPGA season. Yealimi Noh tied for 61st at the Kia Classic and took home a $4,247 paycheck. But she actually lost money on the week after a $10,000 slow-play fine.

Noh said a rules official showed up mid-way through the front nine and hung around for nine holes. The rookie received bad times on Nos. 10 and 12.

This week’s event at Shadow Creek is the first match play tournament on the LPGA schedule since 2017. Nine years ago at the Sybase Match Play Championship, Morgan Pressel was hit with a slow-play penalty in a semifinal match against Azahara Munoz that cut her lead from 3 holes to 1 hole with six to play.

The semifinal round took an even more awkward twist when Pressel accused Munoz of touching the line of her putt with her putter on the 15th hole. Rules officials determined that the video footage was inconclusive and, after a lengthy delay, Munoz rolled in her birdie putt to win the hole and square the match,

Pressel maintained that Munoz, who went on to win Sybase title, was the one who put them on the clock.

“I think that what bothers me the most is that we were given sufficient warning, and she really didn’t do anything to speed up,” Pressel said at the time. “And then I was penalized for it.”