Three players went unbeaten over the three days but only one earned 4 points over the five sessions.
CASARES, Spain — 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 – five won by the both teams and two ties – 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.
Here’s a breakdown of how each player fared this week by event at the 2023 Solheim Cup.
If you look at past records, the advantage at the 2023 Solheim Cup lies with the home side Europeans.
CASARES, Spain — Who are the favorites at the 2023 Solheim Cup?
The gambling experts in Las Vegas currently have the host Europeans as the favorites at -115, but it’s a close bet with the Americans at +100. A tie is currently +950.
The Rolex world ranking gives the U.S. side a slight advantage as all 12 Americans are ranked inside the top 50. Nine Euros are inside the top 50, with two outside the top 120.
If you ask United States captain Stacy Lewis, she’ll say Suzann Petersen and her European counterparts have to be favored. After all, Team Europe has claimed the last two Cups and will be playing on home soil.
“And that’s not to doubt my team. I just think Europe is really, really strong. They have got all the momentum in this event right now,” said Lewis last month when she made her captain’s picks for the biennial event that begins on Friday at Finca Cortesin on Spain’s southern coast. “That’s going to be our biggest thing is we are going overseas, and we don’t have the momentum on our side. And so we are going to go try to flip it.”
“We have a lot of new blood that has not experienced the last two years,” Lewis continued. “They don’t know what it’s been like, and I think that’s going to be to our advantage, as well.”
Sure, ignorance can be bliss, but the other side of that coin is a lack of high-pressure experience in a truly unique event. That could be an issue for the U.S., who fields a 12-player team this week that features five rookies.
Not only is Team Europe two-time defending champions, but of the 24 players competing, nine have winning records in the event, and six are European.
“I think there might be snakes in the water here, so might be a little interesting.”
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Will the winner jump?
With the LPGA’s first major of the season moving from the California desert to Texas, many have wondered if one of the few traditions in the women’s game would carry on at The Club at Carlton Woods. The pond that’s next to the 18th green at the Nicklaus Course is anything but pool water. It’s murky and natural, a stark contrast to the pristine waters at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
Nelly Korda said she’d jump if she wins. Defending champion Jennifer Kupcho, however, wasn’t so sure, although she didn’t have a chance to decide as she failed to make the cut.
“I think there might be snakes in the water here,” said Kupcho, “so might be a little interesting.”
Stephen Salzman, the club’s general manager and chief operating officer, said the pond is now safe for players. He said the club’s engineering team and director of agronomy went through a number of possible scenarios in the months leading up to the championship. The club originally intended to dredge the entire area to deepen the pond. The Nicklaus design team, however, was afraid the green could potentially slough, so they changed course.
“We ended up building a dock,” said Salzman. “We ended up dredging from the end of the dock to about the rock wall border there. At the end of the dock, it’s 5 feet and progresses down to close to 10 feet.”
They sent divers down to check for rocks and concrete blocks beneath the surface. And for peace of mind, they installed a gator net to protect the area.
When asked if the net kept out snakes, Salzman said, no, but that snakes aren’t super prevalent in this pond. Neither are gators, but one can’t be too safe.
World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who won what was then known as the ANA Inspiration in 2016, didn’t realize that the dock on the 18th was for jumping.
“Are you meant to jump?” Ko asked during her pre-tournament press conference. “I’ve seen people hit shots on to the green, so I wasn’t sure if it was like a hitting bay or you’re a little bored to jump. I thought it was a little deck to jump, but my caddie Dave and my mom was like, surely not, because it’s too small to fit everyone. But if that happens, it’s definitely a good worry to see if you all can fit on the deck.”
Here’s what it looks like on 18 at the Nicklaus Course for @Chevron_Golf. There’s a dock if someone wants to jump. Won’t be staged but a robe will be available. pic.twitter.com/zERHbLUg3v
Ko, who also didn’t make the cut, went on to say that she appreciates that Chevron has given players the opportunity to carry on the tradition. The champion’s leap won’t be organized, but there will be a robe and slippers on standby. It’s best to jump straight out from the dock, however, and not from the sides. Perhaps one person at a time, too.
The build-out around the 18th seats roughly 1,000 fans, Salzman said. His best-guest estimate for spectator turnout on Sunday is 5,000-7,000.
“Houston is a sports town, and The Woodlands is a golf-centric community,” he said, “and I really think they’re going to support this event.”
There are eight 18-hole golf courses in The Woodlands and The Club at Carlton Woods has 768 memberships.
On May 1, the Nicklaus Course will undergo a full restoration and modernization, including greens, bunkers and tee boxes. A new irrigation system will be put in and there will be a lake bank restoration. The cost will be just north of $10 million, Salzman said, and it’s scheduled to be finished in late October.
Georgia Hall said she thinks the Nicklaus Course is a better golf course than the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
“I think just the way it makes you think,” said Hall, when pressed for more.
“You have to think a little bit more around this golf course. You can’t really relax on any hole because there’s always something about a hole that’s very different, just mostly on the greens. In Palm Springs I thought it was quite simple to read the greens, no grain at all, but now we have the grain. I heard it’s going to be a little bit windy, as well, and a lot of factors come into play.”
The new dock that’s in place at the Chevron Championship for a potential Sunday jump. (Golfweek photo)
Hall, who also isn’t sure if the winner will jump, said the 525-yard par-5 18th won’t be reachable by most from the back tee unless its downwind. Salzman said he heard the plan is to move the tee up for the weekend to bring in the risk/reward element.
“I love a par-5 finishing hole,” said Ko. “I think it can really put everybody that’s only like a couple shots away coming down the stretch, put them all in play.”
Amy Alcott was the first player to jump into the lake at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course in 1988, a celebration she calls an “unplanned” and “organic,” which is the opposite of what it developed into in recent years.
“When I jumped in there I had no idea what was in there,” said Alcott of that first leap at the Dinah. “There was a lot of duck doo and wiring. I could’ve really hurt myself and broke my leg.”
But the LPGA Hall of Famer came through unscathed and kickstarted a decades-long tradition.
The pond at the Nicklaus Course doesn’t have a name. Alcott said she still gets 15 to 20 letters a year from fans asking who Poppie is and why didn’t they name the pond after her. (“Poppie” is longtime tournament director Terry Wilcox, and that’s what his grandkids call him.)
Perhaps the pond on the 18th at the Nicklaus Course will one day be named after Alcott, regardless of whether or not the jump lives on.
Salzman said there’s a 10-year contract in place to keep the Chevron here with a five-year clause designed to make sure everyone is still happy. Defending champions this week were given a Bentley to drive. Salzman and his team want this to be every player’s favorite stop on tour.
“I’d like to think they’re here for the next 51 years,” he said.
Players returned at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to wrap up play, with 68 players making the cut, which fell at 1 over.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — World No. 1 Lydia Ko came out early to the Chevron Championship and said she nearly ran out of balls in that first loop around the Nicklaus Course at the Club at Carlton Woods.
“To be honest, I struggled the first few times I played around this course,” Ko said earlier in the week, “and I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”
Turns out it didn’t get much better for Ko, who shot 76 with a birdie on the last hole in Round 2, finishing at 3 over for the tournament and missing the cut in a major for the first time since the 2019 AIG Women’s British Open.
Play was suspended on Friday evening due to darkness with 31 players still left to finish. They returned at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to wrap up play, with 68 players making the cut, which fell at 1 over.
While the field this week was larger than in past years (135) due to daylight savings, the cut was smaller at top 65 and ties. For the first time in tournament history, those who missed the cut received a $5,000 stipend of unofficial money.
The World No. 1 wasn’t the only big name to bow out early. Here’s a list at the other notables who missed the cut:
“I think it’s totally different than Mission Hills,” Atthaya Thitikul said.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — If everything is bigger in Texas, the property here at The Club at Carlton Woods is no exception. Everything from the clubhouse to the buildout to the Inspiration Dome, an enormous golf-ball lookalike structure that houses, among other things, virtual reality golf, is oversized at the Chevron Championship’s new home.
Players report that the golf course feels big too, with the official yardage coming in at 6,824. It likely won’t play that long, however, as the week progresses and tees move up, but by accounts the Nicklaus Course will present a proper challenge, though nothing similar to what players faced for decades at Mission Hills Country club.
“I think just the way it makes you think,” said Georgia Hall. “You have to think a little bit more around this golf course … mostly on the greens. In Palm Springs, I thought it was quite simple to read the greens, no grain at all, but now we have the grain, I heard it’s going to be a little bit windy, as well, and a lot of factors come into play.”
Those who are familiar and confident on Bermudagrass certainly hold the advantage.
Find the best images from the women’s first major of the year here.
The first women’s major championship of the year is upon us, as the best players in the world are in The Woodlands, Texas, for the Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods.
The Club at Carlton Woods is replacing the longtime venue of this event, Mission Hills in California, and is a par-72 track that measures 6,824 yards.
Jennifer Kupcho, the 20th-ranked player in the Rolex Rankings, is the defending champion. The 25-year-old finished tied for 25th in her last LPGA start at the DIO Implant LA Open.
Check out some of the best photos from the 2023 Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods below.
“It was obviously not Kraft mac and cheese, but it was amazing.”
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Jennifer Kupcho had one request for renowned chef Thomas Keller: her favorite food, macaroni and cheese.
The Champions Dinner at the Chevron Championship is a swanky affair as Keller, owner of The French Laundry and once named the Best Chef in America, curates a menu in honor of the previous year’s champion.
Kupcho’s favorite mac ‘n’ cheese is the iconic blue box Kraft variety, but she gave Keller’s version high marks.
“I would say most of the time like fancy mac and cheese is a little bit too rich for me,” said Kupcho, “but he did an amazing job. It was not too rich. It was obviously not Kraft mac and cheese, but it was amazing.”
She also appreciated the Regiis Ova Ossetra Caviar starter, a potato and toasted onion blini, Vidalia onion crème fraiche.
“I probably would never think to order it,” she said, “but it was absolutely amazing.”
Full menu by Thomas Keller at Monday night’s Champions Dinner
Past champions on hand included Amy Alcott, Juli Inkster, Stacy Lewis, Dottie Pepper, Brittany Lincicome, Sandra Palmer, Morgan Pressel, Lydia Ko, Lexi Thompson and Pat Hurst.
“Juli Inkster spoke and talked about how it was so special to see everybody again,” said Kupcho. “So I’m looking forward to that in the future, just being able to catch up every year like that. It’s really special.”
Kupcho, of course, was the last player to win at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, making the final champion’s leap into Poppie’s Pond.
Last year, she remembers calling her swing coach in a panic on Wednesday morning trying to work out what was wrong with her swing.
“Miraculously, turned around really good,” said Kupcho, who won three times last season.
Kang posted on Instagram about a “visit to the ER for respiratory infection and severe nausea.”
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. — Danielle Kang, 13th in the Rolex Rankings and playing in her third LPGA event of 2023, withdrew during the first round of the LPGA Drive On Championship on Thursday.
The LPGA reported it was due to illness.
Kang later posted a message on Instagram stating she took a “visit to the ER for respiratory infection and severe nausea.”
She went on to say she was taking medication and planned to play through it but “now I see that it was a bit too ambitious,” she wrote, with a photo of an IV in her arm underneath the text of her Instagram message.
Kang, who tied for third at the 2023 HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore and and tied for 38th at the Honda LPGA Thailand, birdied the 10th hole to get back to even par Thursday at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club on Thursday. She then had bogeys on Nos. 12 and 14 before calling it a day.
Her playing partners, In Gee Chun and Jennifer Kupcho, finished the day without her, and Kang acknowledged them in her post for “being patient with me on the course as well.”
Kang finished her message stating “hopefully the nausea will subside and will be back to playing some golf again.”
Among the burning questions: Will the champion’s leap, the most significant tradition, carry on?
Every time Pat Bradley walked by the statue of Dinah Shore next to the 18thgreen at Mission Hills Country Club, she’d climb up on the little base and put her hand on Dinah’s arm and have a chat. Longtime Desert Sun golf writer Larry Bohannan recalled the scene as he considered the question: How should Shore’s legacy continue in Texas?
Bradley, like so many LPGA greats, was friends with Shore. The Hollywood superstar made such a tremendous impact on the tour in the 1970s and ’80s that they put her in the LPGA Hall of Fame as the only non-playing member.
But as the 52nd Chevron Championship, still known by many as “The Dinah,” leaves the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and heads to The Woodlands near Houston this year (April 20-23), it’s natural to wonder how Shore will fit in.
“You can’t create that,” said Bohannan of Bradley’s ritual, “that has to be something that’s organic.”
Shore died in 1994, before nine of the top 10 players in the world were even born. Jane Blalock, the tournament’s first champion in 1972, said Shore could be compared to a modern-day Oprah in terms of her popularity and reach.
Another burning question with only three events remaining before this year’s Chevron: Will the champion’s leap, the most significant tradition (one might argue the LPGA’s only noteworthy tradition), carry on?
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Tournament organizers told Golfweek there’s no expectation that a player will jump into the lake on the 18th next month at the Nicklaus Course at The Club at Carlton Woods, but should the mood strike, the championship team is making sure it will be safe.
An area of the lake at the 18th green is being dredged and netted to make sure it’s deep enough for a player and her caddie and family to take the plunge. The traditional robe and slippers will also be on standby, if needed.
“Whoever wins this year needs to jump in and keep it going,” said Brittany Lincicome, a two-time champion at Mission Hills.
View of the 18th hole at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course at Carlton Woods. (courtesy The Club of Carlton Woods)
The hospitality area around the 18th green at the Nicklaus course at Carlton Woods will be named “Dinah’s Place” and Shore’s family has been invited to attend.
Shore’s name will also live on in the generosity of the Chevron Dinah Shore Scholarships, given to high school seniors who are pursuing a college education but not playing collegiate golf. Nominees must have a passion for women’s golf and desire to help grow the game.
There will once again be a Champions Dinner with Thomas Keller, chef and proprietor of The French Laundry, creating a special menu to honor 2022 champion Jennifer Kupcho. The tournament will also bring back a Junior Legacy Pro-Am, designed to link up legends of the game with bright young stars.
The Champions Wall will be, for now, a temporary structure that will celebrate the 51 years of history that took place at Mission Hills.
Sandra Palmer, an honorary member at Mission Hills who won 19 times on the LPGA, including the Colgate Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle before it was a major, feels the championship needs to find a new identity in her native Texas.
There was talk at last year’s Chevron about the LPGA Legends staging an event in the Coachella Valley this spring. There was even a news conference about it Sunday morning before Kupcho won.
Two weeks later, the PGA Tour Champions announced that the new Galleri Classic would be held March 24-26 at Mission Hills. Fred Couples, Steve Stricker, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer and David Duval are among those who have committed to the field.
So far, nothing has been announced in the area for senior women.
Jin Young Ko, caddie David Brooker and agent Soo Jin Choi leap into Poppie’s Pond next to the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club after the 2019 ANA Inspiration on the Dinah Shore course in Rancho Mirage, California (Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Patty Sheehan, who won at Mission Hills in 1996 and lives there now part-time behind the 14th tee on the Dinah Shore Course, signed up to volunteer at the Galleri Classic. She was given three choices: walking scorer, work the range, help out in the caddie tent.
Sheehan, who hasn’t yet decided which job she’ll take, reported that the greens are hard and fast on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course but the rough isn’t up. They’ve added a couple new tees and trimmed the eucalyptus trees to open it up more.
“They’re trying to clean up Poppie’s Pond,” she said, “in case one of them tries to jump.”
Sheehan said she’s trying to “go down the positive road” about how things have turned out.
The 18th green at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course at Carlton Woods (courtesy The Club at Carlton Woods)
Judy Rankin, who like Palmer and Blalock won the Dinah before it was a major, is doing the same. Rankin was part of the deep history of the LPGA at Mission Hills for five decades, right up to the final putt last year in the broadcast booth. She too would like to see the Chevron begin its own kind of history in her home state of Texas, noting that it’s probably right not to see a lot Dinah this year, but that it’s never right to forget her.
“I think it’s part of growing old gracefully,” she said of adapting to change. “Be glad you had it, celebrate on a rare occasion, and let the new be new.”
View photos of major champion Jennifer Kupcho throughout her career
Jennifer Kupcho has been one of the faces of American women’s golf since 2019.
After a storied NCAA career at Wake Forest, Kupcho capped off her amateur days with a win at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The win over Maria Fassi catapulted her into stardom overnight and brought her to the forefront of the game.
Currently ranked No. 11 in the Rolex women’s world golf rankings, Kupcho is set to continue to be one of the faces of women’s American golf for many years to come.
