Charley Hull said she didn’t even realize she had a Twitter account because her agent had been running it for her the past five years. But when Hull randomly logged on earlier this week in search of a message she’d sent her cousin some time ago, something else caught her eye.
Lou Stagner, a golf performance coach and assistant at Princeton, had posted a direct message he’d received from an anonymous follower that read in part: “I am a 3-handicapper that plays from 6,900 yards and I hit my driver 290. I would make every cut on the LPGA and be a top-20 player.”
Stagner predicted the amateur would, in fact, finish last every week on the LPGA. The idea that a single-digit male handicapper can hang with the top female players in the world is not uncommon on Golf Twitter.
Hull decided to have some fun with it, replying: “Shall we sort this game out. I’ll let him play off the red tees whilst I’ll play off the whites.”
The Englishwoman’s challenge soon went viral.
Shall we sort this game out 👀 I’ll let him play off the red tees whilst I’ll play off the whites https://t.co/MAGfE4hprP
“I was like, the cheek of him,” said Hull, when asked about the exchange during a conference call with the media on Wednesday to preview next month’s Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America, which Hull won last year.
With four runner-up showings this season Hull, a two-time winner on the LPGA, will soon head to Spain to compete in her sixth Solheim Cup. Hull said every part of an LPGA pro’s game is more consistent than a top amateur.
“I play with a lot of my guy friends over here, men pros, some are on the European Tour and some are on the Challenge Tour,” said Hull, “and, like, I go out and play off the same tees as them and we have good games and I beat them a lot of times. So, I don’t know, I feel like that guy needs to wake up a bit.”
Charley Hull of England looks on during the Day Two of the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Club on August 11, 2023 in Tadworth, England. (Photo by Luke Walker/Getty Images for HSBC)
LPGA veteran Angela Stanford, who won the 2020 VOA, was also on the call and asked to weigh in on the topic.
“I feel like I’ve been a 3-handicap like the last year and I’ve made like two cuts,” said Stanford with a laugh. “So I don’t know why that gentleman thought that that, you know, … I don’t know where his head is. But I think from 1 to 18 we are so much more consistent than an amateur. And then, if it’s an entire tournament, if you have to go four days I can guarantee you, if he makes the cut, when Saturday rolls around, it’s a completely different ball game. And I laughed, and I love that Charley piped up and said it. I mean, she’s saying what we all think.”
Lee has now won six of the last eight tournaments in which she held the 54-hole lead.
It was a weekend of rallies at the 2023 LPGA Kroger Queen City Championship, which also produced a new world No. 1.
Minjee Lee was six shots back of the lead after 36 holes but through 10 holes Sunday during the final round, she held a five-shot lead. Ballgame, right?
As ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso likes to say: Not so fast, my friends, because that’s just when Charley Hull turned on the jets and put on a rally of her own at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati.
Hull birdied the par-3 11th and then overcame a bogey on the next hole to make three straight birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to forge a tie atop the leaderboard at 16 under.
Lee and Hull were still tied on the 18th tee box and they each proceeded to hit driver into the same fairway bunker, their balls ending up with 10 feet of each.
From there, Hull blasted out and got her ball to the front fringe, giving herself a 54-foot birdie putt to win. She missed just left and then watched as Lee, whose third shot was a chip to about eight feet, need to make her putt for par, which she did for a final-round 71. Hull then made her one-footer for a par of her own for a final-round 69 and the two headed back to the 18th tee box for a playoff, the ninth of the LPGA season.
Lee’s second shot on the first playoff hole found the green, but Hull’s took a huge bounce and came to rest near the grandstands behind the green. Her putt from off the green rolled and rolled and rolled and nearly went in, coming to a rest one rotation short of the cup.
Lee then pulled her 20-footer for birdie left and it was back to the 18th tee box for a second playoff hole. That’s where Lee landed her second shot short of the green but it bounded on and rolled to about three feet.
“You have to land it like 25 yards short of the green because I was also coming out of the rough,” she said after he round. “So I just hit pitching wedge and hit it three quarter and it was really… you can’t really predict how far it’s going to run so it was just a guesstimate.”
She then poured in the birdie putt to get the win.
Lee secured her first victory of the season and the ninth in her LPGA career. She now has seven top-20 finishes in her last nine outings. More impressively, Lee has now won six of the last eight tournaments in which she led after three rounds.
“I guess I just have a lot of grit,” she said when asked about her ability to close. “Coming down the stretch I never give up, and I like to think that I’m always putting pressure on my opponents and not giving it up too easily. So I think I just have great fight in me and really great resilience.”
The LPGA breaks for the Solheim Cup in two weeks. There are two events back-to-back after that, but the Aussie says she has other plans.
“I’m actually looking forward to a couple weeks off and some down time,” she said. “Going to go back to Perth during Arkansas and Dallas, so hopefully I can enjoy this one back home with my friends and family.”
Hull fell just short of her third LPGA win.
New No. 1 in Rolex Rankings
Ruoning Yin plays her shot from the fifth tee during the final round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Ruoning Yin, who finished solo third at 14 under, couldn’t quite catch the leaders but by virtue of a top-4 finish, will ascend to the No. 1 spot when the Rolex Rankings are updated on Monday.
She will unseat Lilia Vu, who climbed to No. 1 a month ago after winning the 2023 AIG Women’s Open. Yin, No. 2 in the rankings heading into the week, was outside the top 400 this time a year ago.
Defending champ earns solo fourth
Ally Ewing tees off on first hole during the final round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship in at Kenwood Country Club. (Photo: Albert Cesare/The Enquirer)
Ally Ewing, who won the inaugural Kroger Queen City Championship in 2022, shot a 66 and finished solo fourth.
Mel Reid also shot a final-round 66 to earn a tie for fifth, posting her best finish of the season and first top-10. She came into the Kroger having missed the cut in four of her last five outings.
Another Sunday 66 was recorded by Brooke Henderson, who was celebrating her 26th birthday. She tied for 23rd.
Rose Zhang tapped in for par for a 72 on Sunday, a day after posting a 73. She finished tied for 31st.
A total of 80 golfers made the cut and played the weekend.
Three players will make their debut for the European side next month in Spain.
In just a month’s 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 captain’s 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 Women’s World Golf Ranking (not already eligible) and four captain’s 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.
Check out the photos of the protest during the final round of the last women’s major of the season.
Lilia Vu is the story of the day in women’s golf as the 25-year-old claimed her second major title of the season and third win of the year on Sunday at the 2023 AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath near London.
However, on the 17th hole, a group of protesters from Just Stop Oil invaded the green with flares to speak out against the UK government from licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects. The group similarly protested last month’s Open Championship at Hoylake during the second round. A sign carried by one of the protesters read, “stop insuring climate crisis.”
Charley Hull had just hit an approach to the green when two invaders ran onto the putting surface with smoke flares. After the protesters were cleared, Vu finished her hole and went on to win the tournament.
“What a bunch of idiots,” Hull said after the round.
“I suffer from asthma, but didn’t have my inhaler on me and that stuff was really thick, so no it was not nice. I wasn’t scared when it happened, just thought they were idiots,” she said. “Someone said they are protesting about oil, but how did they get here today? Drove probably.”
Hull shot a 1-over 73 to finish six shots behind Vu for her second runner-up finish at a major championship this season.
Ally Ewing was in complete control after her Friday 6-under 66 at the AIG Women’s Open, leading by five shots. But after stumbling to a 3-over 75 at Walton Heath in England, Ewing will tee off two shots out of the lead Sunday.
Charley Hull made one of the moves of the day, firing a 4-under 68 to grab a share of the 54-hole lead with Lilia Vu. Vu, who won the Chevron Championship earlier this season, was one better than Hull on Day 3, shooting a 5-under 67.
“I think today was really about for me just in terms of confidence,” Vu said after her round. “It’s been a while since I played — I say awhile. It’s been since Chevron that I actually felt pretty decent about my game and where it’s at.
“So I’m just going to do the same thing I did today, just focusing on tee shots and giving myself a good opportunity for birdies, and just do that tomorrow, not think too much about the wind. Because every time that happens, it just slips away from me.”
The pair, at 9 under, is one shot clear of their closest chasers, Hyo Joo Kim and Angel Yin. Kim shot a third-round 68 while Yin signed for a 67.
There are several big names lurking a few shots back, including Linn Grant (6 under), Nasa Hataoka (4 under) and Nelly Korda (4 under).
“Tee-to-green really well. Putting, I’d probably give myself a D,” Korda said. “It was — I started off pretty well and then on the back nine, I just kind of started making more mistakes with the short stick.
“But overall, I would say I moved up on moving day, and conditions were tough and I’ll take that.”
Jin Young Ko is 1 under and eight back, while Rose Zhang slid down the board thanks to a 3-over 75 and will tee off Sunday 11 back of the leaders.
Final round coverage will be broadcasted on USA Network 7 a.m.-12 p.m. ET Sunday before switching to Golf Channel from 12-2 p.m. ET.
The fourth of five women’s major championships is here as the best players in the world have made their way to Evian-les-Bains, France, for the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club.
Last year’s champion Brooke Henderson comes into the week in great form, totaling three top-15 finishes in her last four starts, including the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Hyo Joo Kim, the 8th-ranked player in the world, is the betting favorite at +1200 (12/1). She’s yet to win in 2023, however, she’s finished inside the top 20 in nine of her 10 LPGA starts this year. Kim tied for third at the Evian last season.
Brooke M. Henderson of Canada plays her second shot at the eighteenth hole during day four of The Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club on July 24, 2022 in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
During the first round of the Aramco Team Series event in London at the Centurion Club on the Ladies European Tour, Hull made birdie on Nos. 3 and 5 before disaster struck.
She stumbled her way to a quintuple-bogey 10 on the par-5 sixth and was all of a sudden 3 over for her round.
To her credit, she came back swinging.
Hull immediately made birdie on No. 7 and added another at the ninth to go out in 1-over 38. After making the turn, she made four straight birdies on Nos. 12-15 before adding two more on 17 and 18. Her 5-under 68 is one of the most impressive scorecards you’ll ever see.
“I just lost two balls on a birdie-able par-5. I hit my first tee shot out of bounds and then hit my fourth shot out of bounds. But then to make 10 birdies to shoot five-under was pretty fun,” she said after her round.
“It was a birdie-able par-5, if I’d have made a birdie, I’d have been 11 under. But I felt confident even after I made the ten. I birdied the next couple of holes, so it was good.”
After the morning wave, Hull was in a tie for first with Nelly Korda at 5 under.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Standing on the dais next to a trophy so big and shiny it practically overwhelmed her, Allisen Corpuz told assembled scribes that she never really thought she’d get this far.
No one watching, however, would ever guess it. Not given the way Corpuz calmly went about her business on one of the most historic weeks in the game, where the largest paycheck in women’s golf wasn’t even the biggest headline.
This was bigger than money; it was a chance at history. A chance to stand on the shoulders of the giants in the game who came before and claim the honor of being the first woman to win a major championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links, an American treasure that’s breathtaking in its beauty and brawn.
“My coach told me this morning, no one is going to give it to you,” said Corpuz, who calmy went out on a sun-splashed day and took it from a horde of chasers.
Corpuz joins the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Tom Watson as major winners at Pebble Beach. In a week when fellow Punahou School grad Michelle Wie West retired from competitive golf, Corpuz said aloha to the world.
Allisen Corpuz celebrates with her caddie Jay Monahan after winning on the 18th green during the final round of the 78th U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links on July 09, 2023 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The 25-year-old USC grad now in her second year on tour, came into the week 29th in the world but largely overlooked. She ended the week with a congratulatory tweet from former President Barack Obama, who also requested a tee time.
May Corpuz walked nervously down the famed 18th fairway late Sunday evening, praying as she clutched a water bottle. She sat down inconspicuously below the gallery rope as her youngest child made her way up the fairway with a three-shot lead.
There was no reason to fret. Corpuz smoothly parred the last hole to secure a three-shot victory and a $2 million check. A packed grandstand broke out in chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” as Corpuz, a Hawaii native of South Korean and Filipino descent, became the first American to hoist the U.S. Women’s Open trophy since Brittany Lang in 2016.
Allisen Corpuz celebrates with the Harton S. Semple Trophy alongside her father Marcs Corpuz and mother May Corpuz after winning the 78th U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)
After getting off to a hot start with two birdies in the first three holes, Corpuz was put on the clock on No. 11. Her caddie, Jay Monahan, candidly noted after the round that the timing was particularly brutal given that he had to go to the bathroom.
On the par-4 13th, Corpuz was between a 5-iron and 6-iron on her approach, and with 5-iron in hand, the wind died down and she backed off. At that point, a rules official approached to say that if she received another bad time, she’d get a one-stroke penalty. Because the LPGA typically hands out fines, Monahan turned around and asked, “We get stroked if we get another one?”
“I think she heard me say that,” said Monahan, who could feel the tension rise.
After his boss two-putted for par, however, Monahan said he was eerily calm the rest of the day.
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“I’ve had a few instances in the past where I kind of let that get to me,” said Corpuz of being put on the clock. “Obviously not happy about it, but just kind of rushed things a little and didn’t hit a good shot. I told myself, that’s just kind of how the course plays sometimes. You have a tough hole, you fall behind. I just told myself that we’d catch up later and just stay calm, just keep doing everything at the same pace.”
All week – really since she joined the LPGA – Corpuz has been telling herself that she belongs here, that she’s good enough to compete. Earlier this year in Singapore, she found herself paired with the top two players in the world – Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda – in the final round. While she didn’t win the tournament, Corpuz closed with a 69 and for the first time felt really comfortable in that position.
When the stakes rise, Corpuz finds that she often starts to get too quick. Taking time to look at the bigger picture, she said, helps her to keep things slow and steady.
“Every few holes,” said Corpuz, “I just kind of looked out and said, ‘I’m out here at Pebble Beach. There’s not many places that are better than this.’ ”
She closed with a 3-under 69 to beat a hard-charging Charley Hull (66) and former No. 1 Jiyai Shin (68) by three strokes. She was the only player in the field to card four rounds under par, playing Pebble’s demanding final 11-hole stretch in 1 under.
Corpuz grew up on Oahu on the left side of the seventh hole on Kapolei Golf Course and took up the game with her older brother George around age 4 or 5. At age 6, she told her father, Marcos, “If you want me to play golf, don’t scold me.”
Marcos, a dentist, and May were not overbearing parents, but even at such a young age, Corpuz knew that she was intrinsically motivated to get better. No one needed to push her.
Mary Bea Porter-King a former LPGA player who helped found the Hawaii State Golf Association, said Allisen was about 7 years old when she first came to her junior program. She was no-nonsense even then, too.
“She was quietly strong and very gracious, always very gracious,” said Porter-King.
When asked by the media what made her fall in love with the game at young age, Corpuz gave an amusingly honest answer: “Honestly, I sucked. I just wanted to get better. I think that’s just kind of who I am, like as a person. Just if something can be done better, that’s how I want to do it.”
In 2008, Corpuz surpassed Wie West as the youngest to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at 10 years, 3 months and 9 days. Comparisons naturally followed.
“I’ve never really compared myself to her,” said Corpuz. “I’ve always wanted to make my own name. “She’s just served as a really big inspiration.”
Corpuz did follow in her father’s footsteps to USC, where she stayed an extra year to obtain a Master’s degree in Global Supply Chain Management and a graduate certificate in Business Analytics.
There’s no doubt that Corpuz’s strongest asset is her mind.
Now, she can finally let it rest. She’s made history.
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Some of the biggest names in the women’s game headed home early at Baltusrol.
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey — Some of the biggest names in the women’s game headed home early at Baltusrol. Nelly Korda and Atthaya Thitikul missed the cut by a mile in the first women’s major held over the Lower Course since 1961.
“You hit it a little sideways off the tee and that’s what happens on a golf course like this,” said Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis, who will play the weekend.
“It’s that chipping out and having to constantly be getting up and down from 100 yards, it’s exhausting.”
Lexi Thompson looked poised to miss the weekend as she was outside the top 100 early on Friday, but then came roaring back with four consecutive birdies near the end of her round to sneak in at 4 over. Given how little both Thompson and Korda have played this season, Lewis said she wouldn’t have put any money on them.
Korda took a month off with an injury, and Thompson has played in only five previous LPGA events this season, including the Hanwha International Crown.
“That’s going to be my encouraging words that come later this fall,” said Lewis, “that they play some more tournaments heading into Solheim.”
Radio silence didn’t make for happy remaining teammates on English team after two players withdraw.
For the first time since 2018, the Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown is back on the LPGA schedule.
One of the unique events on the golf calendar, the event pits the top eight countries (based on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings) against one another in match play May 4-7. This week’s tournament will be at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. It’s the fourth installment of the event.
The United States and Korea have dominated the event, but other countries are doing their best to try to take down those two, including Team England.
However, England will attempt to do so without two of its top players, Georgia Hall and Charley Hull. The duo withdrew Saturday, leaving officials scrambling to replace them. Hall told Golfweek she has struggled with her left foot for several weeks. Hull said she hasn’t felt well recently and planned to go home to see a doctor.
However, their Team England teammates don’t sound too happy with their decision. Bronte Law and Jodi Ewart Shadoff said they didn’t find out about Hall and Hull’s decision until Sunday, Law joking she found out through “Chinese whispers,” which is a game in the United Kingdom similar to the American game of telephone in which information is repeated.
“I think anyone with some level of decency would send their teammates a message that they weren’t coming, not find out from other players on tour who have heard things from them saying things at the tournament last week,” Law said during a pre-tournament press conference at TPC Harding Park. “I don’t think that that’s a lot to ask for.”
Ladies European Tour players Alice Hewson and Liz Young flew in Sunday from England to round out the four-player English squad.
“Very happy to have both Alice and Liz are here,” Law said. “They’re both very patriotic, very team-oriented, and I think that that’s a testament to kind of what this tournament is about and is more important than the individuals in the team.
“I know that they’ll fight with everything that they’ve got.”
Law said she didn’t get any messages from Hall or Hull until Tuesday, when Hull reached out to apologize for not being able to play.
“But it’s besides the point now,” she said. “We’re here, and this is our team This is Team England.”
The competition gets underway Thursday. There are eight teams in this year’s Crown: U.S., South Korea, Japan, Sweden, England, Thailand, Australia and China.
