Crown Colony Golf Club – Syndication Server

Nasa Hataoka, Marina Alex tied for first-round lead at LPGA Drive On Championship

Three of the top 10 players in the world aren’t in the top 50 on the leaderboard in Fort Myers.

The wind seemed to kick up early in the afternoon at the LPGA Drive On Championship.

And kicked some of the best LPGA players down the leaderboard.

World No. 2 Nelly Korda, Yuka Saso, and Brooke Henderson — three of the top 10 players in the world — aren’t in the top 50 in the field after the first round of the tournament at Crown Colony Golf & Country Club in Fort Myers, Florida.

Nasa Hataoka and Marina Alex both shot 7-under 65s in the return Thursday of the LPGA to Fort Myers for the first time in 47 years.

The majority near the top of the leaderboard played in the morning wave in the 120-player field before winds seemed to both strengthen and change directions.

Nelly’s older sister Jessica withdrew after six holes, saying on social media she suffered a sprained rib and had tried to play through it.

“I am getting the treatment I need and hope to be back for the California stretch,” she said in the post.

More: How to watch Drive On since its not on TV
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Hataoka, one of five in of the top 10 in the world playing this week, birdied Nos. 17 and 18 to close her first nine, then shot a 4-under 32 on the back. She had just one bogey.

“I was able to bring the front nine momentum to the back nine,” she said. “Especially on this condition I was chatting Greg, my caddie, and we were able to manage really well.”

Alex birdied Nos. 9-13 and closed with another on No. 18 in a bogey-free round.

“The final stretch of holes are kind of tough. 14, 15, 16 — 17 was definitely a birdie putt out there, but 14, 15, 16 were tough holes,” she said. “Luckily 18 playing downwind made it pretty reachable to get to like the approach there.”

Linnea Johansson of Sweden and Ireland’s Leona Maguire both had 6-under 66s and are tied for third, along with 2021 Rookie of the Year Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand and South Korea’s Yaeeun Hong who had the best rounds of the afternoon wave.

Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand hits from the 9th tee during the first round of the LPGA Drive On Championship at Crown Colony Golf & Country Club on February 03, 2022 in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)

“It was playing tough, windy, firm, and fast,” said Tavatanakit, who birdied three of her first six holes. “Where you are on the green or positioning yourself was really important in the afternoon. I felt like I was solid enough to get myself good looks.”

Madelene Sagstrom, who won the last women’s professional event played in Fort Myers, the Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial on the now-Epson Tour at Cypress Lake Country Club in 2016, had a 65 in the afternoon, and so did England’s Charley Hull and Bronte Law. They are tied for fifth with Caroline Masson and Jeongeun Lee6.

“I think it firmed up a little bit,” Sagstrom said of the afternoon. “The greens are phenomenal, so I think they probably — I mean, it’s tricky. Like the end stretch here on back nine is really tricky.

“I know the wind has been keeping up all day, so I think maybe just a bit of firmness. Other than that, I think it’s been quite similar for everyone today.”

Most of the players were in Boca Raton last week, when wind and chilly temperatures dominated the weekend. Alex shot 77-72 in her last two rounds and dropped into a tie for 34th.

“I was thankful for those rounds,” Alex said. “I mean, when you asked me in the moment I was probably really pissed and furious because I was having a good start and then I kind of just fizzled out there, but it definitely helped coming into today just being a little bit more prepared, so that was good.”

Thursday, Nelly Korda birdied No. 17 to finish at even par. Henderson birdied No. 18 to get to 1 under after starting her round with a double-bogey. Saso had a stretch on the back nine of back-to-back bogeys followed by a quadruple-bogey on No. 16 and shot a 5-over 77.

Stephanie Meadow had the first hole-in-one of the season, on No. 14. A total of $20,000 will be donated by CME Group to St. Jude.

“I had perfect number, little 6-iron,” said Meadow, who happens to be sponsored by CME Group. “It was a little bit windy, and, I don’t know, stripped it right at it. Wind never touched it and just rolled right up there into the hole.

“It’s been a while since the I had a hole-in-one and first one in LPGA career, in a tournament, so, yeah, it’s very nice.”

Golf evened the score two holes later.

“You know, you get good luck, you make a hole-in-one, and then two holes later I pull a 7-iron, hits a sprinkler two yards left of the green and ricochets 30 yards left into a hazard,” she said. “So I got some awesome luck and then some really crappy luck. So, yeah, wasn’t super happy after that.”

With just two rounds remaining instead of three, the players near the top were happy to have that type of a first round.

“Fifty-four-hole events are always kind of important to have a good start because you have that one less day to possibly make up ground if you’re a little bit behind,” Alex said. “So I’ve had some good success in 54-hole events in the past. I’m excited for the next two days, and just see what happens. I mean, I played a really great round of golf today, so I have to anticipate there might be a little bit of some up and downs along the way.

“But that doesn’t mean can’t have a great week out here.”

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LPGA feels it found perfect fit for Drive On Championship at Crown Colony

“The red carpet’s been rolled out,”

Scott Wood was directly impacted by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. But he’s also had a role directly impacting the LPGA’s return to Southwest Florida.

Wood runs the Cognizant Founders Cup in Phoenix, and that was ready to happen. Until COVID-19 hit in March 2020.

“We shut down on Thursday before we went live on Monday (for tournament week),” Wood said.

The Drive On Championship has become a series of one-off events to help LPGA players fill gaps in their schedule created by postponements of many overseas events due to the pandemic.

There were two in 2020, the first at Inverness in Ohio and the second at Reynolds Lake in Georgia, and one last year at Golden Ocala.

“It was a way for us to kind of control how the LPGA was going to get started after we were shut down,” said Wood, who has been part of all four. “It was something we could really control because we owned and operated it. We were our own sponsors.

“It’s become almost familiar for the players. It’s another way for us to just celebrate the tour and all of our members and all our players.”

LPGA Drive On: How to watch since its not on TV

The Drive On Championship, which has a $1.5 million purse, follows up the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando, and the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Boca Raton.

“To do a three-week Florida swing made the most sense,” Wood said. “The players are able to bounce from one to another. Trying to find a golf course in South Florida in February is like trying to find a golf course in March in Phoenix. I know the struggle.”

So Crown Colony Golf & Country Club ended up coming forward, through general manager David Kent, and will host this week’s event with play Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

“The red carpet’s been rolled out,” said Wood, who said a “big net” was cast in the state to see what courses were interested. “We can’t say enough about David and his team, but the membership, the HOA, the community here, everybody’s welcoming.

“It’s been a home run. It truly has been. It’s one of those things where the golf course is getting just as good of rave reviews as the community, as us playing in a familiar location with having a fan base and everything. It’s such a solid golf course. The more and more that the players are getting out there and getting practice rounds in, it’s a true test of golf.”

Wood said the timeline of getting the tournament was the main reason there will be no fans allowed to watch the event live.

“It’s not like we didn’t want to have any,” he said. “… Given the timing of everything, from a safety and just an infrastructure standpoint, we just felt like let’s really focus on giving our players and our members a solid opportunity to earn another paycheck for this year, and then when you start looking at the timing of when you launch ticket sales, and you do everything and all of the infrastructure that goes into shuttles and parking, etc., it became one of those things where we said let’s do X, Y and Z really, really well, and let’s focus on that and let’s make sure that that happens.

“We know that the fans are the lifeblood — fans and sponsors. We’re not like the PGA Tour. I know David’s received a lot of phone calls and we’ve gotten some messages through the LPGA that people want to come and support. They also understand that the short timeframe of planning, it’s not feasible.”

The tournament name comes from the LPGA’s Drive On campaign that highlighted some of the other players on the tour that maybe aren’t the most prominent, but have compelling stories. Naples’ Mo Martin, who has spent most of her time in her home state of California since the onset of the pandemic, was one of the players featured.

Since there already was a recognition factor with that campaign, so bringing that over to the created tournaments made sense.

“Over the last three years, this Drive On campaign has really been able to personalize a lot of our players that are not covered,” Wood said. “The stories behind Drive On and the way we’ve been able to promote it, and to be able to tell that story to a broader audience, I think by having a tournament title Drive On, I think has really been a catalyst for the tour to continue our elevation.”

Despite the Drive On Championships being one-offs, would there be a possibility of a return to Southwest Florida as part of a more permanent Florida swing with Orlando and Boca Raton already secured? Wood was noncommital.

“It’s a fluid operation and thought process,” Wood said. “That’s the way we’ve been operating going on 23 months now.”

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