Tag: Beth Ann Nichols

The Big Pickle: Ice water in her veins, Lauren Coughlin leaves hockey-crazy Calgary a champion

We hadn’t believed Lauren Coughlin was certain to win an LPGA title prior to this year.

We hadn’t believed Lauren Coughlin was certain to win an LPGA title prior to this year, but the thought started creeping into our minds this season, as she ramped up her play.

Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols tell the wild story about Coughlin, a late bloomer who nearly quit professional golf not long after she started, and how she picked a fine time to have a breakout year, winning the CPKC Women’s Open in her 101st start.

With the Solheim Cup only an hour from her Virginia home, she’s now a lock to make the team. An exceptional ball-striker who found something in her putting earlier this spring with a new weapon, Coughlin notched two birdies in her last four holes to defeat last year’s Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year, Haeran Ryu, who was leaking oil throughout the back nine, and hold off a charging Mao Saigo.

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The Big Pickle: Why it’s important to support an event that represents the heart and soul of the LPGA

Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols tell the wild story behind Chanettee Wannasaen’s second win.

Was it the best victory nobody saw?

Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols tell the wild story about Chanettee Wannasaen’s second LPGA victory, this one at the Dana Open.

Her first victory came in Portland as she Monday qualified for the event, and now her second came on the day when President Biden stepped down from his candidacy, meaning the TV coverage of the LPGA event was banished to streaming.

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Angela Stanford, who will retire at the end of this season, joins the podcast to preview her final major start at Evian

It’s the event that made her a major champion in 2018, and it’s where she’ll say goodbye to major championship golf.

Angela Stanford remembers the phone call like it was yesterday. She was in bed asleep when the LPGA rang to say that she was in the field for what was then known as the Evian Masters.

Did she want to play?

That was 2001. Stanford said yes and then cried down the runway in Dallas because the small-town girl in her didn’t want to travel the globe for a living.

Fast forward to 2024. Stanford, 46, hasn’t missed an Evian since that phone call. It’s the event that made her a major champion in 2018, and it’s where she’ll say goodbye to major championship golf at some point later this week, depending on how it goes.

From her room in the Hotel Royal, where past champions stay at the Amundi Evian Championship, Stanford caught up with our Beth Ann Nichols and NBC Sports’ Grant Boone to talk about the evolution of the Evian and what it feels like to wind down a career that spans decades and includes seven LPGA victories as well as a record 98 consecutive major championship starts. It’s safe to assume that no one will ever get close to Stanford’s mark of 98 straight, a streak that ended with this year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

She’ll begin her final major championship start on Thursday off the 10th tee at picturesque Evian alongside Atthaya Thitikul and Linn Grant, two world-beaters still very much on the front nine of their careers.

For Stanford, this season will be her last on tour.

“You go through these stages of grief,” said Stanford of coming to terms with walking away.

“I haven’t been shy about telling people that I’ve been in counseling for a long time, and a lot of it was for (the death of) my mother. But I did not know that the end of my career would kind of parallel that. And they’re two really difficult things to go through at the same time. The thing that he kind of made clear to me was, look, you’re going to grieve over this too. I think it has taken me a while to get through some of those stages to where I’m so grateful now that I’m in this position, I’ve said this is it, and I can be grateful for it.”

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Who might be poised to give Nelly Korda a run? We weigh in on this week’s podcast

After Korda’s historic run earlier this year, who might be ready to start challenging her supremacy?

Nelly Korda was scheduled to compete in the LET’s Aramco Team Series event at the Centurion Club in London, a tournament she won last year by four strokes. But Korda was forced to the sideline by a dog bite and her status is uncertain as we approach the LPGA’s fourth major of the season, the Amundi Evian Championship, which will be held in France from July 11-14.

After Korda’s historic run earlier this year, who might be ready to start challenging her supremacy?

Our Beth Ann Nichols and NBC Sports’ Grant Boone have some ideas during this week’s “Big Pickle” podcast.

Listen to the episode here:

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Big Pickle podcast: Who wins the KPMG Women’s PGA? 7-time major champ Juli Inkster joins us to discuss

Juli Inkster joins our dynamic duo of Beth Ann Nichols and Grant Boone to discuss this week’s major.

We’re deep in the heart of major season now and this week marks the third of the women’s golf season as the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship starts Thursday at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington.

Brooke Henderson won here in 2016 and Ruoning Yin is the defending champion, after she was victorious last year at Baltusrol.

On this episode of “The Big Pickle,” Juli Inkster joins our dynamic duo of Beth Ann Nichols and Grant Boone to discuss the big event. Inkster, who won seven majors in total, won consecutive Women’s PGA titles in 1999 and 2000, both at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware.

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Big Pickle podcast: Nelly Korda’s monster 2024 continues with sixth LPGA title in eight starts

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols and Grant Boone of NBC Sports have plenty to say about Korda’s accomplishments

Sure, LPGA purses are getting a little bigger so it makes sense that Nelly Korda would be posting a huge season in terms of earnings.

But this big?

With her sixth win in eight starts, Korda, who became the fastest player to reach $2 million in single-season earnings earlier this year, has now earned $2,943,708 in 2024 and $11,880,981 in her career.

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols and Grant Boone of NBC Sports and the Golf Channel have plenty to say about Korda’s accomplishments in this week’s edition of the Big Pickle.

Click here to listen to this week’s audio-only episode:

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The Big Pickle: Rose Zhang joins the show as she looks to make it a double in Jersey

Zhang talked with both Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols about the win and her defense of the Mizuho Americas Cup.

Nelly Korda didn’t finish off her six-pack while Rose Zhang scored a huge victory at the Cognizant Founders Cup.

Zhang, who turns 21 later this month, closed with a 66 at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey, winning her second career title by two over Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom.

She talked with both Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols about the win as well as her defense of the Mizuho Americas Cup. Watch the entire show here or listen below.

Subscribe, comment and tell a friend. As the women’s game continues to gain momentum, “The Big Pickle” will be sure to keep you informed, enlightened and entertained on everything LPGA.

The Big Pickle: Can Nelly Korda really make it an even half-dozen? We discuss

Boone and Nichols put some historical perspective on the potential feat.

In this week’s episode of “The Big Pickle”, Golf Channel’s Grant Boone and Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols preview Nelly Korda’s quest to make history at the Cognizant Founders Cup. A victory in New Jersey would make Korda, 25, the first player in tour history to win six consecutive starts.

Boone and Nichols put some historical perspective on the potential feat and discuss the buzz that surrounds it, including TV coverage.

They also take a look at some early U.S. Women’s Open qualifying results – who’s in and who’s out.

Click here to listen to this week’s audio-only episode:

‘The Big Pickle’ LPGA podcast hosted by Beth Ann Nichols and Grant Boone debuts with guest Judy Rankin

Boone and Nichols have chatted inside LPGA media centers for years. Here’s what they’ve been saying.

For years, Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols have chatted inside LPGA media centers, sharing insider tidbits about the top tier of women’s professional golf.

Boone, who has been on-air for more than two decades and now handles LPGA play-by-play for NBC Sports and Golf Channel, has come to trust Nichols as a confidante, knowing he could bounce ideas off his friend when needed.

And Nichols, the first female president of the Golf Writers Association of America and a longtime Golfweek senior writer who is the only full-time independent LPGA beat writer, has done the same.

So, why not get two of the most important voices on the LPGA beat together?

That was the thought behind Golfweek’s newest venture, “The Big Pickle,” which will run on our YouTube channel as well as all podcast platforms.

Once a month, Boone and Nichols will dig deep into the women’s game, welcoming some of the top names to speak their minds about the direction of the LPGA and the season’s finest moments. For the podcast’s debut, World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin hopped on with the duo, discussing this week’s first major of the year, the Chevron Championship, as well as Nelly Korda’s incredible run.

Aside from the monthly deep dive, on other weeks Grant and Beth Ann will drop an audio-only “Emergency Nine,” a 9-minute recap of the weekend’s events, to keep listeners up on what’s shaking inside the LPGA ropes and everything in women’s golf.

As for the name? Grant and Beth Ann will have to divulge that info.

Subscribe, comment and tell a friend. As the women’s game continues to gain momentum, “The Big Pickle” will be sure to keep you informed, enlightened and entertained on everything LPGA.

How to listen