Both Spanish women have Olympic experience, but this will be a first for the men.
Spain is sending four golfers to Paris to the 2024 Olympics, and all four played for the same college: Arizona State.
Jon Rahm and David Puig, who both play on LIV Golf, are the Spanish duo in the 60-man field for the men’s competition. Rahm played for the Sun Devils from 2012 to 2016; Puig was there from 2019 to 2022.
“I’m really looking forward to sharing the week with David,” he said Sunday in London. “It’s going to be fantastic, and hopefully one of us can leave with the gold.”
It’ll be the first Olympics for each. Rahm was set to compete three years ago in Tokyo but a positive COVID test kept him on the sidelines.
“Hard to position myself on where the magnitude of something like that may be, but to be able to say that you have a gold medal or an Olympic medal for that matter is something that a very small group of people in all human history can say,” he said. “I don’t think it might have the recognition it could have yet, but in the future this may be one of those things that means a lot more than we’re aware of right now. Just to be able to add to a Spanish medal count would be absolutely amazing.”
Arizona State’s Jon Rahm at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (The Arizona Republic)
Carlota Ciganda and Azahara Munoz will represent Spain on the women’s side, which also has 60 players. Ciganda was at ASU from 2008 to 2011; Munoz was there from 2005 to 2008. She won the NCAA individual title in 2008. Ciganda helped ASU win the NCAA team title in 2009.
Munoz and Ciganda are heading to their third Olympics. Munoz finished 21st in the 2016 Games in Brazil and 50th in 2021. Ciganda finished 39th in 2016 and 29th in 2021.
ASU has five former women golfers in all heading to France. Joining Munoz and Ciganda will be Italy’s Alessandra Fanali, Germany’s Alexandra Forsterling and Sweden’s Linn Grant.
“It’s fantastic. We’re so excited (to see the five Sun Devils alums competing in the Olympics),” ASU women’s coach Missy Farr-Kaye told cronkitenews.com. “It’s amazing, and it really speaks to the level of our Olympic teams and how well (they do) across the board.”
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The men’s competition is Aug. 1-4, while the women will be Aug. 7-10 and Le Golf National, which hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup. The events will be 72 holes of stroke play, with the top three finishers winning gold, silver and bronze medals.
Live final round coverage will start on Peacock at 4:30 p.m. ET and Golf Channel will come on at 6 p.m. ET.
GILBERT, Ariz. â A variety of LPGA golfers with local ties have been making noise this week at the inaugural Ford Championship in this Phoenix suburb.
On a breezy Saturday, former Arizona State golfer Carlota Ciganda made her move up the leaderboard at Seville Golf and Country Club with a 6-under 66 a round that included two eagles and nearly a third, as her chip on the par-5 18th just missed.
“Very happy with the 6 under,” she said. “The wind is really strong. Lots of side winds, and it’s just, yeah, it’s just hard. I think if you can hit greens it’s good shots. There are some holes that are playing downhill and you can take advantage, as well as the par 5s.”
Sitting at 15 under, Ciganda already has a number in mind for Sunday, a day that is expected to be 20 degrees cooler than Saturday with a 60 percent chance of rain.
“I think you still need to get to probably 21-, 22-under to win,” she said. “Try to get to that number and hopefully that’s enough.”
Ciganda has two LPGA wins but none since 2016. Local product Sarah Schmelzel, meanwhile, is seeking her first LPGA win.
She opened with a 68, followed that up with 63 and is hanging around the top of the leaderboard after a Saturday 70. She had three back-nine birdies and just missed another on 18 that would’ve given her the solo 54-hole lead.
“Today was tough,” she told Golf Channel after her round. “It was almost like the weather was a like a bit of a distraction. It was tough out there. It was a grind to just shoot under par this afternoon.”
So far this season, Schmelzel has a T-8, a solo second and a T-8 in her last three starts. And as for making the Phoenix area this week the time and place for her first LPGA win?
“It’s definitely something I have thought about since I was a little kid,” she admitted. “It’s something that’s in the back of my mind, but I gotta stay in the present and if it works out, it works out.”
The third member of the three-way tie for the lead is Hyo Joo Kim, who birdied three of her first four holes but then stalled, stringing together 14 straight pars to shoot a 3-under 69. Kim has a major among her six wins. A win this week would give her a fourth straight season with a victory.
Two are tied for fourth, a shot back: Maja Stark, who had one of the day’s better rounds with a 6-under 66, and Yuka Saso, who overcame a four-putt double bogey on the 15th hole with birdies on Nos. 16 and 18 to get to 14 under.
On a day when the winds gusted up to 35 miles per hour, Mi Hyang Lee produced the best round, an 8-under 64, which put her into a 10-way tie for sixth at 13 under, two shots back. That huge cluster of golfers at 13 under includes Lexi Thompson, Sei Young Kim, Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko.
Hira Naveed shot 7-under 65, the second-best score on Saturday. She’s tied for 16th at 12 under with Ayaka Furue and Lilia Vu.
Despite the heavy wind, only 11 of the 75 golfers who made the cut posted over-par scores, including Peiyun Chien, who shot 65 on Friday and 76 on Saturday.
There are 34 golfers at double-digits under par through 54 holes.
In anticipation of weather Sunday, the LPGA announced that for the final round, golfers will go off split tees in groups of three. The first group will start at 9:08 a.m. local time (12:08 p.m. ET) and leaders will tee off at 11:20 a.m. local time (2:20 p.m. ET).
Live final round coverage will start on Peacock at 4:30 p.m. ET and Golf Channel will come on at 6 p.m. ET.
A handful of events ranging from the PGA Tour to the LPGA featured in the Tournament of the Year discussion.
As the month of December winds down and January approaches, itâs time to look back on 2023 and reward some of the best moments the game of golf provided fans over the last year.
The discussion among the Golfweek staff for âTournament of the Yearâ was a rather lively one, so much so that our group of reporters and editors could not come to a consensus pick for the best week of the year.
This year in golf was a busy one off the course, but the players stepped up and provided some memorable events all season long. From major championships to team events to late comebacks and stellar pro debuts, here are Golfweekâs best Tournaments of the Year in 2023.
There were almost too many on-course moments to chose from in golf over the last year.
As the month of December winds down and January approaches, itâs time to look back on 2023 and reward some of the best moments the game of golf provided fans over the last year.
The staff at Golfweek originally had plans for a âMoment of the Yearâ but there was too much that happened both on and off the course to pick just one, so weâve split the honor into two different awards.
From the Solheim Cup to the Masters to the PNC Championship and the World Wide Technology Championship, here are the Golfweek staff’s favorite on-course moments of the year in 2023.
Three players went unbeaten over the three days but only one earned 4 points over the five sessions.
CASARES, Spain â The 2023 Solheim Cup couldn’t have been closer.
The 18th edition of the biennial bash between the United States and Europe was all square at 8-8 entering Sunday singles, and after the final 12 matches â five won by the both teams and two ties â the competition ended in a 14-14 tie, and the Europeans retained the Cup.
In the event’s 23-year history, the Americans have taken home the trophy on 10 occasions, with the Europeans earning the other eight. Team Europe hasn’t lost since 2017 in Iowa.
Spain’s Carlota Ciganda was the only player to score four points this week (4-0-0) and was one of four players who went unbeaten, joining Gemma Dryburgh (0-0-2), Megan Khang (3-0-1) and Cheyenne Knight (2-0-1). Two players went winless for each team, but only one failed to earn a point.
Hereâs a breakdown of how each player fared this week by event at the 2023 Solheim Cup.
Carlota Ciganda carried the hopes of a home country on her back as she came down the stretch.
So much of the 18th Solheim Cup centered around the opposing styles of captains Stacy Lewis and Suzann Pettersen. Lewis, the cerebral accounting and finance major, came to Finca Cortesin with her stats man and her pages of notes and worked on her strategy right up until the last three holes of the final practice round, when she told Megan Khang and Lexi Thompson that they were playing together the next morning.
Suzann Pettersen picked a lineup Monday and stuck with her gut. While Lewis worked to keep everyone fresh after jumping out to an historic 4-0 start, Pettersen played catch-up by putting out her best every session. If she played five matches in her prime, Pettersen reasoned, no reason they couldnât, too.
In the end, no amount of planning and strategizing could stop destiny. Walking down the 16th hole, Pettersen turned to her longtime friend Carlota Ciganda and said, âIs this how you wanted it? Itâs all yours.â
The fiery Spaniard, who had just cold shanked a shot on the previous hole, dug deep and told herself that she was going to win it for Pettersen because she loved her and thought that she deserved it.
With the hopes of a nation on her back, Ciganda birdied the 16th and stuffed one inside an already close Nelly Korda on the par-3 17th to win the match and retain the Cup for Europe.
One of the most talented players on tour who has never closed tournaments as well as many expected, Ciganda seized the moment in front of King and country.
âOf course, it comes down to one match,â said Pettersen. âI think itâs just meant to be, that it came down to Carlota.â
Europe, winners of the past two Cups, needed only 14 points to retain. The matches finished in a tie at 14-14 for the first time in Solheim history after Lexi Thompson posted a final point for Team USA in the anchor position. The teams came into singles play tied at 8-8 for the fifth time, and the talent had never been more evenly matched
âI’m just so proud,â said Ciganda, who in the aftermath was carried around Finca Cortesin on the shoulders of her teammates. âI’m just so happy. Everyone here is a family.â
Pettersen declared in the closing ceremony that nobody in the family would sleep tonight.
Team Europe captain Suzann Pettersen celebrates with the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin Golf Club in Casares, Spain. (Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
Swedenâs Caroline Hedwall, the 121st-ranked player in the world who sat out the first three sessions, put together one of the most inspiring comebacks in Solheim history. Three down with six holes to play, Hedwall made four birdies and a conceded eagle on the final hole to defeated Ally Ewing and give Europe a chance to win three in a row for the first time.
âYou know, I never give up, and I showed that today,â said Hedwall, one of Pettersenâs four captainâs picks and her most controversial.
Irelandâs Leona Maguire, the 2021 Solheim Cup MVP, put the first point on the board for Europe on Sunday with a decisive 4-and-3 victory over rookie sensation Rose Zhang with six birdies in 15 holes. Maguire, who along with Linn Grant and Emily Pedersen, went all five sessions for Europe, now boasts an overall Solheim record of 7-2-1.
âI just don’t give up,â said Maguire of what makes her so tough in match play. âI think someone said Jessica Korda tweeted the other day that I was annoying at match play, and that was the goal this week, was to be as annoying as possible.
âMe and Suzann kind of had a running joke this week, do what Suzann would do, and I feel like that’s what she would have done today.â
Team USA got off to a rousing start Sunday, winning the first hole in the first three matches. It was a back-and-forth affair all afternoon in front of an electric crowd. Megan Khang went out first and set the tone for Team USA, taking the unflappable Linn Grant to the 18th before winning, 1 up.
Khang, while short in stature, carried a big presence on Lewisâ team with her boisterous personality. She was undefeated for the week, posting a 3-0-1 record.
Thompson looked like the U.S. teamâs biggest liability coming into the week, but her ball-striking looked so good in the practice rounds that Lewis gave her the ultimate vote of confidence by having her hit the eventâs opening tee shot on the dramatic drivable par-4 first at Finca Cortesin.
On Sunday, Thompson, the U.S. teamâs most experienced player, was put in the anchor position for the first time and held control of that match against Pedersen for most of the afternoon. She had a 2-up lead standing on the 17th tee when Ciganda sank her short birdie putt to retain the Cup.
When the celebrations finished and the green finally cleared, Thompson tidied up her singles victory to amass a 3-1-0 record for the week and look the best she has all season.
Angel Yin, Allisen Corpuz, Cheyenne Knight and Andrea Lee all put together strong performances at crucial times, and Danielle Kang declared that she played her best golf all year in Spain.
When it was over, Lewis gathered her young team together for an emotional talk in which she emphasized to her mostly reserved band of 12 that they didnât lose. And they only had 12 months to get another chance.
Team USA captain Stacy Lewis looks on during Day Three of The Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin Golf Club in Casares, Spain. (Photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
âI just told them how proud I was of them and just the fact that â I don’t want to sound like a sore loser,â said Lewis, âbut it was a tie, and I think that’s a lot for this team to build off of, especially coming over here, coming into this environment with five rookies, a very young and inexperienced team. I mean, this week was really, really good for them. â
Early in the week, Pettersen benched Ciganda in the opening session, which had to be difficult for a player who had waited a lifetime for this moment. Pettersen joked that she had to put Ciganda on a leash this week: âI mean, she would jump off and fly if she could.â
A drivable par-4 1st hole sets a unique tone for what fans should expect to see this week in Spain.
CASARES, Spain â Whenâs the last time you saw a drivable par 4 on the first hole of a golf course?
Fans who tune in to the 2023 Solheim Cup this week at Finca Cortesin on Spainâs southern coast will be treated to the rarity as the opening hole will provide a risk-reward option for players right from the jump.
A lot of the pre-match discussion this week from both players and captains has been about the unique test that this yearâs host course will provide. The course at Finca Cortesin offers wide fairways and will bless the good shots and penalize the poor ones. Not only that, the heat and hills will make the 18th matches between the United States and Europe an equal parts physical and mental test for players and their caddies.
Hereâs what the stars of the week had to say about this yearâs host course as the Solheim Cup is held in Spain for the first time in its nearly two-decade history.
Spanish and European media gave a round of applause after Ciganda spoke up for the Spanish national team.
CASARES, Spain â After Spain won the soccer Womenâs World Cup in August, the countryâs triumph and subsequent celebrations were marred by the actions of Luis Rubiales, a former player and official who was serving as the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation and as a vice president for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
Rubiales kissed a Spanish player, Jennifer Hermoso, on the lips during the award ceremony, causing a firestorm of controversy for the weeks to come. Hermoso has been adamant the kiss wasnât consensual. Rubiales has since resigned his position and was in court earlier this week, where a judge gave him a restraining order. The former Spanish official cannot be within 200 meters (656 feet) of Hermoso and the court in Madrid is considering a criminal complaint for sexual assault and coercion.
So what does this have to do with golf? Spainâs Carlota Ciganda was asked about the incident during her press conference ahead of the 2023 Solheim Cup this week at Finca Cortesin and her answer drew a round of applause from Spanish and European media. The following quotes have been translated from Spanish to English.
âI think it was a shame what happened in the end, when Spain won the World Cup, I think we should celebrate the World Cup because in the end that is not going to happen many times,â said Ciganda. âI think that (Rubiales) was obviously wrong, he doesn’t have to act like that, especially in such a public event, when you are in front of everyone.â
âObviously of course I support the players and when so many people agree, obviously things have happened that we may not know,â she continued. âBut I think the important thing is to celebrate the World Cup, which is what everyone should be very proud of, the country we have and the great athletes there are.â
Ciganda, 33, said itâs âa dream come trueâ and âpleasureâ to represent the European team in her home country as she makes her sixth Solheim Cup appearance this week.
âI just love playing for our team. When it comes to Solheim, it reminds me of when I used to play with Spain, like the European Team Championships. I think match play, it’s a lot of fun because you have a winner at the end of the day of the match,â said Ciganda, who boasts a 7-8-4 record in the biennial event against the United States. âSo I just love playing match play, playing for the team, for your teammates, for the captain. I think that’s more fun than playing for yourself. I do love that about this week and the atmosphere that we have. I mean, the European team is always one united team and I love that.â
Despite being the lone Spaniard on the 12-player European side, the Pamplona native and resident doesnât feel any added pressure to perform this week.
âI think more than pressure it’s just going to be excitement, adrenaline, and just fun. I’m going to embrace it and I think it’s going to be great to have all the support from Spain, from my family, lots of members from my club,â said Ciganda. âSo I’m just going to try to go out there and enjoy. I know I’m going to feel nervous and I’m going to feel that adrenaline. I know I can play great golf with that, so I’m just going to enjoy and embrace every moment.â
Three players will make their debut for the European side next month in Spain.
In just a monthâs time the U.S. and Europe will square off at the 2023 Solheim Cup, and one of the two squads has been set.
European captain Suzann Pettersen announced her four captainâs picks on Tuesday, completing the 12-player team bound for Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, Sept. 22-24. Team Europe is comprised of the top-two players in the Europe Solheim Cup standings, the top-six players in the Rolex Womenâs World Golf Ranking (not already eligible) and four captainâs picks.
The Americans have been victorious 10 times, most recently in 2017 at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa, while the Europeans are looking for a third consecutive win and their eighth overall.
Meet the 12 players who will take on the U.S. at the 2023 Solheim Cup.
Carlota Ciganda, a two-time winner on the LPGA and a five-time member of the European Solheim Cup team, was disqualified after the first round of the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship, the fourth LPGA major of the season.
The official reason was for signing an incorrect scorecard, but the situation arose out of a slow-play penalty assessed on Ciganda’s final hole of the round. The Spaniard refused to acknowledge a two-shot penalty, signed her card without adding the two shots, then was DQ’d.
Ciganda was 3 over after her round, not counting the penalty strokes. The penalty would have pushed her score to 5-over 76, and she would have trailed first-round leader Paula Reto by 12 shots.
Ciganda was playing with fellow Arizona State alum Anna Nordqvist as well as Celine Herbin. Officially Group 14, the threesome started on the 10th hole Thursday at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evain-Les-Bains, France.
When they got to the seventh hole, their 16th hole of the day, they were notified by rules officials that they were out of position.
After failing to make up time, the group was put on the clock on the eighth hole, their 17th of the round. On the ninth hole, Ciganda took too long to play and was assessed a two-stroke penalty per the LPGA’s pace of play policy.
As was her right, she appealed to the advance and lead rules officials but was denied, meaning the two-stroke penalty would stick. She opted to sign her scorecard without accounting for those two strokes. Ciganda was told if she left the official recording area having turned in a signed incorrect scorecard, she would be disqualified. The LPGA said she left of her own accord, leading to the DQ.
An LPGA spokesperson told Golfweek: “Rule 3.3b(3) states that if a returned score is lower than the actual score, the player is disqualified from the competition. The exception to this Rule does not apply because Ciganda was aware of the penalty strokes received and upheld before signing her scorecard and leaving the recording area.”
Ciganda tied for 12th in her most recent event, the Dana Open, following a tie for 20th at the U.S. Women’s Open and a tie for third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She ranks 14th on this year’s money list with $876,447, and she is No. 31 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. She won both her LPGA titles in 2016.
