The Solheim Cup will move back to even years starting in 2024 to avoid a clash with the Ryder Cup.
The Solheim Cup will move back to even years starting in 2024 to avoid a clash with the Ryder Cup. With the Ryder Cup moving to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers had previously announced that the men’s match-play event would permanently remain on odd years going forward.
The Solheim Cup Committee announced on Monday a plan to move to even years, as a result.
“With the world sporting schedule changing so much due to current difficulties, we felt it was in the best interest of the Solheim Cup to return to an off-year rotation with the Ryder Cup,” said Dennis Baggett, Executive Director of the Solheim Cup. “When the competition returns to the United States in 2024, I have no doubt fans will have an incredible opportunity to celebrate the best women golfers from the United States and Europe as they represent their home countries.”
The Solheim was first played in 1990 and remained on an even-year rotation until 2003. That move came about because the Ryder Cup switched to even years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks postponed the 2001 competition to 2002.
While future dates will be spread apart, the next two stagings of the biennial competition offer a unique opportunity. In 2021, the Solheim Cup will take place Sept. 4-6 at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, three weeks ahead of the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straights in Wisconsin.
In 2023, the Solheim Cup heads to Spain for the first time from Sept. 22-24, one week ahead of the Ryder Cup’s debut in Rome.
The dates and venue for the 2024 Solheim Cup will be announced at a later date.
Lydia Ko and Danielle Kang lead the LPGA’s Marathon Classic, the second event back after the coronavirus break, after the first round.
SYLVANIA, Ohio – Lydia Ko rose to fame as a bespectacled prodigy by making the game look easy. It felt like old times on Thursday at the Marathon Classic, when Ko made five birdies from tap-in range.
After Ko hit the flagstick on the fifth hole from the rough, playing competitor Amy Olson turned to her and said, “At one point, one of these shots is going in.”
Alas, Ko had to settle for eight birdies in an opening 7-under 64. She shares a two-stroke lead with good friend Danielle Kang, who won last week’s LPGA Drive On Championship seven miles away at Inverness Club.
Only five players broke par at Inverness, where relentless rain made a tough course all the more demanding. It’s a different story here at Highland Meadows, where perfect scoring conditions led to a boatload of low scores.
“Golf is a silly game where one day you feel like everything is going your way,” said Ko, “and the next day you’re like, ‘What am I doing?’”
Ko certainly felt that way at last Saturday at Inverness when she carded a second-round 80. Kang’s post-round interview actually helped Ko turn things around. Ko heard Kang talk about a conversation she’d had with Annika Sorenstam about the need to stay aggressive at a 54-hole tournament. The Kiwi committed to that for Round 3 and beyond.
“Like aggressive doesn’t mean you’re going at every pin,” she explained. “For me, the term aggressive is like even if … I’m playing safe, I’m still being aggressive and committed over that shot.”
Ko hit every green and every fairway on the back nine last Sunday and said the confidence in being aggressive suited her well.
A two-time winner of the Marathon Classic, Ko had a scoring average of 68 at Highland Meadows going into Thursday’s opening round. Her opening 64 is her lowest round on the LPGA since the 2017 Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia.
Danielle Kang during the first round of the Marathon LPGA Classic at Highlands Meadows Golf Club. (Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports)
Ko began working with Sean Foley over the LPGA’s COVID-19 break and said they’ve FaceTimed this week while Foley’s at the PGA Championship in California.
“He just said there is not a lot that can go wrong in my swing,” she said, “so I think when somebody tells you that it gives you the confidence.”
Kang went out for ice cream with Lizette Salas after her victory at Inverness, keeping with tradition. She was hoping for Graeter’s, her favorite, but settled for Baskin Robbins. Amy Yang cooked her dinner.
Then it was back to work for Kang, who jumped to No. 2 in the world, her highest career ranking. Nelly Korda, who opened with a 67, dropped to third.
“I worked a lot on my putting for the last couple days,” said Kang, who had 27 putts in her bogey-free round. “Didn’t really like how the ball was coming off my putter. But I think that I kind of got a good feel out of it; then today my putting worked really well.”
Tamulis hadn’t played any golf in months; she’d torn the tendon completely off the bone in both of her elbows.
Kris Tamulis’ return to the LPGA Tour didn’t go quite as smoothly as she would’ve liked as she tied for 40th in the Drive On Championship in Toledo, Ohio.
Tamulis hadn’t been playing after she tore tendons in both elbows, and also had to carry her own bag when her caddie wasn’t cleared from coronavirus testing. That included a second round in a pouring rain Saturday.
“My caddie didn’t take his COVID test in time,” Tamulis said Monday. ‘There was nobody else that could’ve done it. That was definitely a first for me, and then not having played since Dallas (last October).”
Tamulis hadn’t played any golf in months, but it wasn’t all due to the halt of the tour — and much of the sports world — from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. She’d torn the tendon completely off the bone in both of her elbows.
Tamulis, 39, said it was due to wear and tear.
“I’m an aging repetitive athlete,” she said, referring to the thousands of times her body has swung a golf club in her life.
Her husband, Jeremy Maddox, is a physical therapist, so that was a help in figuring out ways to address the injuries. But nothing seemed to work.
“You don’t realize how much you use your arms until something hurts,” said Tamulis, who had pain doing such simple things as pulling off a pillowcase. “I really struggled with it most of the winter.”
Tamulis has been using platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatments and blood flow restrictive training, which involves a machine with a cuff that goes over whatever arm she is working on. She posted a video on her Instagram of curling a can of corn, saying “Who knew a can of corn could be so heavy!!!”
So understandably, Tamulis didn’t arrive in Toledo last week feeling too confident about her game.
“I came in with very low expectations,” she said. “It’s not usually the way I prepare. But it’s not like I forgot how to play golf.”
During the time off during the pandemic, Tamulis, who lives in the Tampa area, also remembered something else she loves to do — fish. Her Instagram feed is filled with photos of Tamulis and her husband on their boat and with their catches.
“I grew up fishing with my dad,” she said. “My husband loves to fish. That’s what we like to do together. Living where we do in Florida, it’s just such a big part of our lives. I don’t think there’s any place better than being on a boat.”
And that includes golf. Tamulis, who made her tour debut out of Florida State in 2005, admitted that while there are elements of playing professional golf she enjoys, there are parts she didn’t miss.
“I just miss my friends,” Tamulis said. “I don’t miss the grind of trying to make a cut or being disappointed in a shot or feeling like you’ve never done enough.”
Yet Tamulis has an LPGA Tour victory and career earnings of more than $1.8 million.
“That’s been my job, my whole career,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily think I was going to make it a career.”
Tamulis was tied for 14th after the first round last Friday, but when the rain moved in, she was trying to balance carrying her bag, her umbrella, and keeping her clubs dry, already without the second set of eyes and advice caddie Louis Paolini brings.
“I was completely unprepared,” said Tamulis, who followed a 1-under 71 with a 7-over 79.
When she was warming up on the range Sunday, the rain was coming down again.
“I don’t like playing in the rain,” she said. “That’s why I don’t play in the Scottish and the British (Opens). I want to enjoy the golf instead of beating myself up.”
The rain cleared for the final six holes, and Tamulis finished off another 71 to win $4,293. She’ll play in the Marathon Classic in Sylvania, Ohio, this week. Now she’s more used to the coronavirus protocols, which she said pretty much have mirrored the PGA Tour’s, including an at-home test before leaving for a tournament site, daily temperature checks, and another test on site. The good news is that Paolini has returned.
“We were able to play two weeks in a row and test our COVID protocols, which were fairly extensive,” she said.
By the end of 2020, MacCurrach Golf Construction will have completed its 33rd year and more than 100 projects.
It started with a typical argument between a father and his teenage son.
The son, 14-year-old Allan MacCurrach III, was tired of cutting the grass at his home for free, and wanted his father, PGA Tour agronomist Allan MacCurrach Jr., to start paying him.
When the debate got heated enough, the teen asked his father why he couldn’t arrange a job for him at an ambitious project in Ponte Vedra Beach: the construction of the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course.
“You wouldn’t last two weeks out there,” he was told.
“Just try me,” the youngster said.
He did.
Allan MacCurrach III got the job in the summer of 1979, working under Stadium Course architect Pete Dye. It began a lifetime of passion for the process of moving and sculpting the earth to form 18 holes of emerald finery, for everyone from 20-handicappers to the greatest players in the world to sink a tee into the ground and lose themselves for a few hours in nature and the ancient sport.
Years later, when the father would ask him how business was going, the son would reply: “just working on that third week.”
By the end of 2020, MacCurrach Golf Construction will have completed its 33rd year and more than 100 projects, a combination of new construction and renovations — the latter of which can be just as challenging.
Allan MacCurrach III (lower left) founded his golf course construction company in 1987 and has built or renovated more than 100 courses since then. With him at their Oak Bridge Golf Club renovation site is his son Allan IV (center), company president Brian Almony (lower right).
There are few Jacksonville courses that have not experienced the MacCurrach touch. His company, with around 100 employees operating more than five dozen pieces of equipment ranging from bulldozers to small shaping machinery, built the original designs at the Slammer & Squire, Palencia, the St. Johns Golf and Country Club, Eagle Landing, Atlantic Beach Country Club, Amelia National and Windsor Parke.
MacCurrach Golf also gets offers beyond the First Coast. The company built notable designs such as Streamsong Red, Black and Blue courses, the TPC Tampa Bay and LPGA International.
In recent years, with new golf-course construction limited, MacCurrach Golf has been hired to do renovations at the TPC Sawgrass, the Sawgrass Country Club, Pablo Creek, Oak Bridge, Timuquana, Hidden Hills, both courses at the Omni Amelia Plantation, the Jacksonville Golf and Country Club and the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club.
Outside the area, MacCurrach Golf has done restorative work at famed courses such as Seminole, Shinnecock, Bay Hill, the Medalist, the Sea Island Club, Southampton, Canterbury, Inverness, Harbour Town Golf Links and Kiawah Island.
MacCurrach Golf was recently cited by Golf Inc., a trade magazine, for being the construction company involved with its best renovations of 2019 in two categories: the Sea Island Club Plantation Course in St. Simons Island, Ga., for public golf and the TPC Sugarloaf near Atlanta for private golf.
“We’ve gotten awards before, but never in two categories at the same time,” the 54-year-old MacCurrach said.
REPUTATION BRINGS MORE BUSINESS
Along the way, the company has established a reputation for integrity that brings in a high volume of repeat business.
For example, MacCurrach has handled three renovations of the fairways and greens at the TPC Sawgrass and every year when the San Jose Country Club closes for two weeks, he gets the phone call.
“We have about 25 projects per year and about 23 of them are repeat customers,” he said.
There’s a good reason.
“He’s an honorable man … he embodies everything the game of golf is supposed to be,” said former TPC Sawgrass general manager Bill Hughes, now general manager of the Country Club of the Rockies in Colorado. “With Allan, it’s not about the money. It’s about making the customer happy.”
“He’s the best there is,” said Ponte Vedra Inn and Club director of golf Jim Howard, whose Ocean Course is undergoing a MacCurrach golf renovation that will be completed by Labor Day. “He’s always on time and on budget.”
An employee of MacCurrach Golf Construction uses heavy machinery to mold the 17th green of the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course in 2006 as part of a renovation project.
San Jose general manager Rocky Staples said the reputation of MacCurrach and his staff are “impeccable.”
“He’s always fair with his bids and he has great respect for the architect’s vision,” Staples had. “I love the guy. I love his team.”
MacCurrach and his team can work fast. In 2006, they stripped the sod from every fairway of the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, trucked in 10,000 tons of sand and re-sodded in 17 days.
They can also fan out. In the past two years, he has had overlapping projects on the First Coast, Georgia, Virginia and Massachusetts.
“You can have a great design, but at the end of the day, the guys in the bulldozers have to do the job to make it a great golf course,” said M.G. Orender, president of Hampton Golf who has worked with MacCurrach on new and original designs on the First Coast. “Allan and his guys are the best.”
San Jose and the Ponte Vedra Club Ocean Course are two of the active projects MacCurrach Golf is handling in the area. Others include Pablo Creek, the Sawgrass Country Club, Oak Bridge and the University of Virginia golf course.
And in 2018 MacCurrach finished Dye’s final design, an ultra-private course at the White Oak Plantation in Nassau County that is owned by Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter — who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was the 18th and last time that MacCurrach built or renovated a Pete Dye design, which is no accident. Aside from his father, MacCurrach had no greater mentor or role model than Dye.
Hughes said the two are kindred spirits.
“Allan is a man of the dirt, just like Pete was,” Hughes said. “He has a feel for the land.”
LEARNING BY DOING
“The Gardner” was at it again.
It was the nickname laborers on the TPC Sawgrass project in 1979 and 1980 had given Pete Dye for his habit of grabbing rakes or shovels out of their hands and showing exactly how he wanted a fairway or green contoured.
Sometimes it was less subtle. On more than on occasion, MacCurrach said a crew would think they had a green, tee box or mound finished. But Dye would suddenly appear on a bulldozer, and proceed, as MacCurrach recalls, “to just smash everything you had done because he didn’t like it.”
MacCurrach was part of a group that finished the third green of the Stadium Course one day — until Dye plowed through the green with a bulldozer, his way of telling them to start over.
“I was riding home with my father that day and told him, ‘that damn Gardner is nuts,'” he said. “The green was perfect.”
But young Allan found out that Dye has his own definition of perfect.
“That was the genius of the man,” MacCurrach said. “He would never settle. He wouldn’t sleep on it unless he was 100 percent satisfied. He was inspiring to work for because there was an energy about him. You knew you were working on something special.”
MacCurrach’s first job was “picking up sticks and digging holes,” on the property that would become the TPC Sawgrass. But young Allan took an interest in heavy equipment and Dye taught him how to use a bulldozer literally by letting him dig in the dirt like a little kid with a toy.
“After I was done with whatever jobs they had me doing during the day, Pete would let me get on a bulldozer with lights and I pushed dirt up and down on the driving range,” MacCurrach said. “It was a big, muddy mess and you couldn’t do any harm. I just pushed dirt from here to there until about 1 or 2 in the morning.”
MacCurrach would then retire to a cot in a construction trailer, get about four hours of sleep, and then repeat the process the next day.
VAGABOND SETTLES DOWN
For the next three summers, until he graduated from Sandalwood, MacCurrach worked for Dye. After the TPC Sawgrass was finished in 1980, MacCurrach spent the summer between his junior and senior year working on the Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The next summer it was on to Castle Rock, Colo., to help Dye build and Plum Creek Country Club.
Then came a course in North Carolina. Then Georgia. Along the way, MacCurrach got an associate’s degree in golf course management at the University of Massachusetts and even branched out from under Dye’s wing, working for 1982 Players champion Jerry Pate on a course in Michigan.
“I was a vagabond,” he said.
Eventually, MacCurrach had to develop a bit more structure than that. He decided he could handle a job on his own and wrote a proposal to the owner of a planned golf course.
“He started asking me about workman’s comp and general liability … stuff I had never heard of,” MacCurrach said. “I told I’d get back to him.”
MacCurrach leaned on Dye, his father and another architect, Dave Postlethwait, for advice.
MacCurrach Golf was incorporated in 1987 when Allan was 22 years old. Within two years he landed a project in Georgia and two courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama.
Windsor Parke was the first local project. MacCurrach scored his biggest deal in 1997 when he was hired to build the first World Golf Hall of Fame Course, the Slammer & Squire, and the offers have come tumbling in ever since.
RETOUCHING THE CLASSICS
It was during the Slammer & Squire project that MacCurrach was walking around the property one day and saw a young man neck-deep in a trench in the blazing sun, working for $7 an hour.
It was Brian Almony, a recent graduate of Lake City Community College’s Turf program who had moved to St. Augustine.
MacCurrach liked the work ethic the young man was showing. It became not only a lifelong friendship but a business relationship, with Almony eventually rising from that muddy trench to become the company president.
“His talents are where my weaknesses are,” MacCurrach joked. “People actually like Brian.”
MacCurrach began doing more renovations of “classic courses,” those built primarily before 1960 and designed by some of the most famous architects in history.
The names ring out. MacCurrach has done renovation on courses designed by Donald Ross, Walter Travis, A.W. Tillinghast, Harry S. Colt, Seth Raynor, Dick Wilson and Herbert Strong.
MacCurrach Golf has done 40 classic course renovations. The company uses laser technology, robotics and GPS to rebuild greens, fairways and bunkers as closely as possible to the architect’s original design, but often it comes down to someone coming down from the bulldozer, grabbing a rake or even getting on hands and knees to mold the earth by hand.
“You’re always thinking about the designer, and you also think about the great players who have been on those courses,” Almony said. “It’s very humbling.”
COMPANY SURVIVES DOWNTURNS
Renovations have constituted the vast majority of their contracts since the recession in 2008. MacCurrach said the company’s revenue fell by half that year but he was prepared.
“We were well-capitalized and did not have to lay anyone off,” he said. “We stayed committed to our people and we knew what assets we had, how much money we had and we knew what our door-closing number would be. We never got there.”
Despite the current economic downtown because of the coronavirus pandemic, MacCurrach has more than enough business and said the company has exceeded its revenue record in each of the past five years.
“We’re doing a lot of face-lifts,” Almony said. “We like to think of them as new designs on old pieces of ground.”
MacCurrach said having passion is the key.
“We’ve worked with 59 architects and most of those guys are fanatics, passionate,” he said. “They know what they want and they want it right. I love that. We thrive on that.”
MacCurrach’s passion trickles down through his employees and it’s one reason most of his customers only have to dial seven digits to reach him.
“I don’t have enough good words to say about Allan,” Howard said. “There are a number of national construction companies people could go to and we take multiple bids when we want to do a renovation. But we always settle on Allan.”
Danielle Kang might be the only player to ever win the LPGA Drive On Championship, a last-minute event thrown together in the COVID-19 era.
TOLEDO, Ohio – Exactly 100 years ago, Inverness hosted its first of four U.S. Opens. There’s an official program from the championship inside a glass case in the clubhouse. There weren’t any programs at this week’s LPGA Drive On Championship because there weren’t any fans. No friends and family or coaches or agents. Tee times were posted on a board outside the pro shop.
Danielle Kang might be the only player to ever win the LPGA Drive On trophy, as it was a last-minute event, thrown together in the COVID-19 era to give the tour a chance to create a bubble and give players an opportunity to compete.
And yet, it felt like a major championship inside the ropes. Only five players broke par. The No. 4-ranked player in the world won on a course and in conditions that tested every part of the game.
And bonus: The venue that will host the 2021 Solheim Cup delivered a Sunday singles-like showdown between Kang, who leads the U.S. points race and Boutier, who went 4-0 in her Cup debut at Gleneagles last year.
And double bonus: Kang’s boyfriend, Maverick McNealy, still had a chance to win on the PGA Tour at the Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nevada, by the time Kang wrapped up her own title.
“We definitely told each other, go and be aggressive,” said Kang of their pre-round talk. “Trust our games and don’t leave putts short.”
On the front nine Sunday, in unrelenting rain, Kang looked like she might run away with the Drive On after her aggressive lines yielded one strong look at birdie after another.
But Boutier bounced back, making three birdies in a four-hole stretch, even hitting the flagstick for a near ace on the par-3 12th. The Frenchwoman pulled into a share of the lead with Kang with four holes to play.
On the final hole, Boutier needed birdie to force a playoff. The former Duke standout delivered a beauty, knocking her 50-degree wedge to 5 feet. The ensuing lip-out stunned everyone, including the members who were dining on the clubhouse patio. (They couldn’t go on the golf course.)
“Yeah, it’s hard right now to just see the positive right away,” said Boutier, “but I definitely had, you know, a little bit of trouble in the beginning.”
As the sun broke through, Kang, 27, enjoyed a celebratory champagne shower from friends Amy Yang and Lizette Salas along with air hugs. A closing 2-under 70 put Kang at 7-under 209 for the tournament.
Now a four-time winner on the LPGA, Kang insisted that she wouldn’t look at the scores on her phone during the final round. It was permitted this week as there were no leaderboards. Ultimately she couldn’t help herself, pulling her phone out of the bag to check with three holes to play.
When it was over, Kang made sure to thank instructor Butch Harmon for spending a good deal of time with her in Las Vegas during the 166-day break in competition.
When asked to compare her game today to when she won the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA, Kang said it’s less about mechanics and more getting a feel for the course.
“I felt at KPMG, everything happened at the right time,” said Kang. “Now I feel that my game is stable. That I can contend I’m not looking for that one thing that will get my going that week.”
Inverness presented a stern welcome-back test and players who chose to stay sharp through the offseason with tournament play were rewarded at the Drive On.
Mina Harigae rediscovered her love of competition during the coronavirus break, winning four Cactus Tour events. She took a share of sixth at Inverness alongside former Michigan State player Sarah Burnham, who won twice on the Cactus Tour in Arizona, once on the Eggland’s Best Tour in Florida and the Michigan PGA Women’s Open by 10 shots. Burnham’s previous best finish on the LPGA was a share of ninth at the Cambia Portland Classic.
Gemma Dryburgh won twice on the Rose Ladies Series before coming over to the U.S. for a two-week quarantine.
“I can’t imagine this being the first tournament back,” said Dryburgh, who became the first woman to win a professional event at Royal St. George’s during the break. “Definitely thankful I had that prep coming in.”
One of the most impressive showings of the week came from 2016 U.S. Women’s Open champion Brittany Lang, who finished tied for sixth in her first LPGA event since giving birth to daughter Shay in January.
“I’m winning in life right now,” said Lang. “I feel like a champion.”
Brittany Lang walks from the 7th green to the 8th tee with her caddie and husband Kevin Spann at the LPGA Drive Championship. (Photo: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports)
Shay aced her first time on an airplane, said Lang, whose husband Kevin Spann also made the trip. Because Lang’s caddie couldn’t travel due to a hurricane, Spann picked up the bag, a first for the couple at an LPGA event. Lang felt they made a good team out there, which isn’t always the case for couples inside the ropes.
“I always just say, stay positive, let’s be positive,” said Lang when asked if the couple had any caddie rules. “Let’s be in a good mood. I’m not a machine. You’re gonna make a lot of mistakes.”
Shay rocked her first week in daycare too.
“Everybody’s like, who cried most? You or Shay?” said Lang. “Actually, nobody cried. (Maybe) Kevin. Just kidding.”
This week at the LPGA Drive on Championship, players and television viewers are seeing Inverness in its purest form.
TOLEDO, Ohio – Can you picture it? A massive u-shaped structure that seats 3,000 rowdy Solheim Cup fans situated around one teeing area at Inverness Club, serving both the 1st and 10th holes. Rather than a tunnel, Solheim Cup players will walk across a bridge from the practice putting green, over the road and through the crowd, likely high-fiving their way down the stairs and onto the tee box, music blaring.
In Dennis Baggett’s mind, the crowds at Inverness are going from zero to 150,000 in 13 months’ time.
This week at the LPGA Drive on Championship, players and television viewers are seeing Inverness in its purest form. No fans. No leaderboards. No grandstands. No hospitality suites. Maybe two ropes.
The build-out around the first tee next year will extend into where players are parking their cars this week. The ninth and 18th holes will be switched for Solheim so that players can make the short walk to the 10th tee and back into the rockin’ grandstand. On Sunday, players making the turn in their singles matches will have to wait on players who are just beginning the round. The action there will be nonstop.
Quick video explaining what this teeing area will look like at next year’s Solheim Cup (just pretend there are 3,000 people cheering). pic.twitter.com/MlfqTdK4uC
Exactly the kind of environment that Danielle Kang thrives in. As a Solheim rookie in Des Moines, Iowa, Kang revved up the gallery on the first tee, encouraging them to scream and shout right through her swing.
Apparently Kang doesn’t mind the quiet either, as she’s tied for the lead here at Inverness with European Solheim Cup players Celine Boutier and Jodi Ewart Shadoff. With so many Asian players opting to skip the two events in Ohio, past and potential Solheim Cuppers are peppering the board.
Mel Reid, a three-time European Solheim Cup player who served as vice captain last year at Gleneages, said Inverness is one of the toughest courses she’s ever played on the LPGA, a fact that she loves.
“Kind of the running joke between players and caddies this week,” said Reid, “is it’s a major for $1 million.”
The LPGA lost one of its five majors to COVID-19 this season when the Evian Championship was canceled. Inverness, a course that has hosted four U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships, has certainly given the women an unexpected treat. It was only seven weeks ago that the LPGA approached Inverness about hosting the last-minute event and five weeks ago that the club agreed.
While the first round played firm and fast, the second offered a completely different challenge as rain ruled the day. There was a 45-minute delay Saturday afternoon for maintenance crews to squeegee water off the greens. Kang marveled at the way Inverness changed like a chameleon.
There likely hasn’t been a more fan-friendly course than this Donald Ross design. Baggett has walked the course this week like he would as a fan, anticipating crowd flow issues and fairway crosswalks.
“I remember standing in the clubhouse one time and I could see 13 flags,” said Baggett.
Fans can purchase upgraded tickets to the Solheim Pavilion, a structure that offers fans views of the greens on Nos. 4, 11 and 14, the 15th tee and the entirety of Nos. 5 and 12.
Community support is terrific, too. Before the pandemic hit, 84 partners signed up for next year. The good news is that not a single one has pulled out. The bad news is that it’s a tough time to add more.
The Toledo market is faithful to the LPGA. Next week the Marathon Classic will be held less than 10 miles away for the 35th time. When Drive On organizers spotted a concerning pothole on Dorr Street earlier this week, right at the entrance of Inverness, a phone call was placed to the mayor and the hole was fixed the next day.
There are 19 of 24 Solheim Cup players from last year in the field this week as well as 2021 assistant captain Angela Stanford. Captains Pat Hurst and Catriona Matthew aren’t here now, but they’ll be on property soon enough.
“Honestly, this is going to be a spectacle,” said Reid.
At last, a course that is as spectacular as the contest itself.
It was a scattered day at the LPGA Drive On Championship and Danielle Kang will no doubt hash it all out with boyfriend Maverick McNealy.
TOLEDO, Ohio – When Danielle Kang took out her phone after the round, she looked a bit shocked when she saw that the cutline at the LPGA Drive On Championship had moved to 6 over. She knew it was tough at soggy Inverness, but with no leaderboards on the course it’s tough to gauge exactly how tough.
Players are allowed to check the scores on their phones this week, but Kang won’t do it. During the 45-minute afternoon delay that allowed maintenance staff to squeegee the greens, Kang phoned her instructor, Butch Harmon, to ask for advice and inquire about the scores.
“I felt like I was struggling, and I was kind of behind the field,” said Kang. “He’s like, ‘You’re doing fine.’ ”
Kang held the lead at 6 under when Round 2 started. She dropped one stroke and ended the day in a share of first with two European Solheim Cup players, Celine Boutier (71) and Jodi Ewart Shadoff (72) at 5-under 139.
Kang’s group was put on the clock on the eighth hole and remained on the clock for the rest of the round. She tried not to worry about it but wasn’t successful, noting that she’s “out of practice” in being timed. Add in all the weather challenges and it got a bit overwhelming.
She’ll no doubt hash it all out with boyfriend Maverick McNealy tonight. He’s in contention as well at the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship on the West Coast.
“We talk about the best shots we hit, the best putt we made, the most unlucky shot we got,” she said. “We talk a lot of golf. We just go ‘Babe you would’ve loved this shot, I hit this high cut over a tree.’ … He actually 3D satellites on maps and looks at my entire golf course track. … I don’t do that for his tournaments.
“Hopefully he plays well today, and it will be a really exciting Sunday for us.”
Another phone call in particular helped this week too. Over the extended break, Kang talked to Annika Sorenstam about tackling 54-hole events.
“One of the things was just go out there and be aggressive and put on the gas,” said Kang, “and that’s what I did and shot 6 under yesterday. It’s definitely a benefit going into the weekend.”
Sunday at Inverness could turn into a Solheim-like shootout, a fitting end for a club set to host the biennial event in 2021.
Sarah Schmelzel missed her first three cuts of 2020 and now finds herself two strokes off the lead after carding a 3-under 69 in Saturday afternoon’s downpour. The LPGA sophomore has one career top 10, a sixth-place at last year’s Cambia Portland Classic.
Only a dozen players broke par after two rounds. Fifteen players are within five shots of the lead, including a rookie (Yui Kawamoto), a player who had retired from the LPGA (Lee-Anne Pace) and a woman competing in her first LPGA event since giving birth last January (Brittany Lang).
Like many people, Lee-Anne Pace is in a place she never expected to be in 2020.
TOLEDO, Ohio – Lee-Anne Pace wasn’t supposed to be back on the LPGA. Last year she was set to retire from the LPGA before the lure of a $1 million payout kept her out through October. Pace didn’t win the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, that prize went to Carlota Ciganda, so she returned home to South Africa and made plans to have a baby this spring with her partner.
Like so many dreams in the COVID-19 era, however, starting a family was ultimately delayed when the IVF clinic she planned to use in Cape Town shut down. Pace, 39, moved back to France, where she has a second residence, to ride out the pandemic. She certainly didn’t expect to get into the LPGA Drive On Championship and Marathon Classic. She’s No. 214 on the LPGA priority list. But with so many international players delaying their return to the tour, Pace suddenly had an opportunity to come back.
“Why not? Let’s have a go,” she decided.
And so Pace flew to California to quarantine in sizzling Palm Springs, played a couple fun rounds with friends. Now she’s two off the lead at the Drive On after a first round in which she carded a 4-under 68 on a challenging Inverness track that tests every part of a player’s game.
“I practiced last week and this week,” she said. “I’m just as surprised as you.”
Lee-Anne Pace talks with the media at the LPGA Drive On Championship. (Photo: Beth Ann Nichols/Golfweek)
While Pace didn’t win last year’s Aon challenge, she’s still benefiting from the canceled race this week, as is the rest of the field. When Aon asked LPGA commissioner Mike Whan what they could do to help, Whan asked if the $1 million payout could be spread amongst all the players. Aon agreed, and the money was a driving force behind this week’s Drive On.
The Inverness Club was first approached by the LPGA about hosting the event seven weeks ago. The idea was to create a two-week bubble for the players to compete in before heading overseas. And if the Marathon Classic had fans (it has since been decided that it won’t), the LPGA would have a chance to test all their new COVID-19 protocols and get everything set on a site with an extremely limited number of people.
Inverness agreed to host five weeks ago, and it’s proving to be the ultimate welcome-back challenge. Players have raved about the historic Donald Ross design since they stepped foot on the immaculate grounds.
The word “limited” can be applied to virtually everything this week. Kang had no idea she was leading the event until she walked out of scoring as there are no leaderboards here this week. With no spectators, even the ropes are limited. Players are able to check scores on their phones this week, but Kang doesn’t think she’ll do it. While she usually is a leaderboard-watcher, the idea of taking out her phone mid-round and getting distracted doesn’t appeal to her.
“Yeah, it is what it is,” said Kang. “Just go with the flow.”
She will probably check the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship board when she gets off the course tomorrow as boyfriend Maverick McNealy currently sits in second place.
Nelly Korda, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 2, stumbled in with four bogeys on the last five holes and shot 76.
Jodi Ewart Shadoff sits alone in second after posting a 5-under 67 in the afternoon wave. France’s Celine Boutier, who won the Texas Women’s Open as well as the Kathy Whitworth Paris Championship, a Women’s All-Pro Tour event, over the break, joined Pace at 4 under.
A couple of rookies with limited rounds on the LPGA – Yui Kawamoto and Maia Schechter – find themselves in the top 10 after an opening 70.
Players and television viewers are getting an advance look at the 2021 Solheim track at the LPGA Drive On Championship.
TOLEDO, Ohio – The 8:11 a.m. group of Angela Stanford, Amy Olson and Madelene Sagstrom will be mic’d up on Golf Channel for the first round of the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness. Players and television viewers are getting an advance look at the 2021 Solheim track and Stanford, along with Michelle Wie, was recently named an assistant captain under Pat Hurst. Sweden’s Sagstrom won her first LPGA title back in January at the new Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.
This marks the first time an entire group will be mic’d up for television on the LPGA. Coverage for Friday’s first round begins at 9 a.m.
Former Solheim Cuppers Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson and Carlota Ciganda tee off at 8 a.m.
This week’s featured groups at the #DriveOn Championship:
Thompson warmed up for this week’s restart by competing in two men’s mini tour events. She hit only two drivers off the tee in Thursday’s 18-hole practice round. On both holes, Thompson purposely aimed down the wrong fairway. She’s mostly using a driving iron off the tee, hitting it 210 to 215 before getting another 50 or so yards of roll.
“I would say keeping it straight of the tee is the main focus,” said Thompson, “because distance isn’t really super key out here, because a lot of run-outs are about 270-ish and the ball is rolling a lot. So you don’t have to hit it too far in the air.”
Nelly Korda can’t wait for the chance to let some adrenaline escape her system.
“It’s been just sitting inside me for a couple months,” she said.
The World No. 2 moved out on her own for the first time during the pandemic break, getting an apartment that’s about 20 minutes from her parents’ house.
“I still see them almost every day,” she said. “Hey, what are you guys doing for dinner? Can I come over?”
Korda also switched out most of the clubs in her bag over the break. She had one two-week stretch where she didn’t touch a club.
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As the tour eases back into action and builds its protective bubble, physio trainers aren’t on hand for players these first few weeks. (At the Drive On, only players and caddies and allowed on site – no coaches or trainers or family members.) Nelly said she and big sister Jessica packed an entire suitcase full of “recovery stuff.”
“I’m a little nervous about that,” said Nelly, “how my body is going to hold up, because I’ve always had a physio with me.”
Another interesting group of past and potential Solheim Cuppers goes off at 7:49 a.m.: Danielle Kang, Anna Nordqvist and Jennifer Kupcho.
Kang, a self-described homebody, said the break was good for her mentally. She enjoyed walking to Einstein’s in the mornings with her dog, hiking with boyfriend Maverick McNealy and painting (anything but portraits). She also worked quite a bit on her golf game, taking advantage of being close to instructor Butch Harmon in Nevada.
“It’s been a good off-time, but I’m glad to be back,” said Kang. “Like I said, I love the competition and I can’t wait to play.”
The Curtis Cup has a new date on the golf schedule once again, this time clear of the Solheim Cup.
The 2021 amateur golf calendar now has a slightly different look.
This year’s Curtis Cup — a women’s amateur event where the best players from the United States take on a team of players from Great Britain & Ireland — at Conwy Golf Club in Wales was originally pushed back to Sept. 3-5, 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The problem? There was already a rather large event that week across the pond.
The Solheim Cup – the top professional women’s players from the U.S. against the best from Europe – was already slated to be played at Inverness Club in Ohio that week. The Junior Solheim Cup is that same week, forcing some players to decide between the Junior Solheim and Curtis cups.
The Solution? The Curtis Cup has been moved to Aug. 26-28, 2021.
“We have listened to the feedback we received about the rescheduled dates for the Curtis Cup in 2021 and looked again at the schedule,” said the R&A’s Duncan Weir. “We have moved the match forward by a week and introduced a Saturday finish to enable it to slot in ahead of the Solheim Cup.”
The U.S. has won 29 matches to Great Britain & Ireland’s 8. The 1936, 1958 and 1994 matches were tied.
