Tag: Kelly Tan

Dow Championship team event ideal week for LPGA players to change the course of their season

For Sandra Gal and Maude-Aimee Leblanc, an opening 67 gives the old friends reason to smile.

There’s something about team golf that, for many, brings out the best. Over the course of the past four editions of the Dow Championship, several winning teams have enjoyed a serious springboard.

Cydney Clanton was ranked 269th in the world and playing on the Epson Tour when Jasmine Suwannapura invited her to play the Dow in 2019. By week’s end, Clanton was an LPGA winner and back on the big tour after the pair won by six.

Last year, Elizabeth Szokol teamed up with good friend Cheyenne Knight to earn her first LPGA title at age 29.

For Sandra Gal and Maude-Aimee Leblanc, an opening 67 in the alternate-shot format at Midland Country Club gives the old friends reason to smile. Gal, who is coming back from a years-long battle with Lyme disease and recent hip surgery, reached out to Leblanc after hearing she needed a partner.

A dozen years ago, Gal was Leblanc’s “big sister” on tour, a rookie program the LPGA puts together to help young players adjust. Their team name, “The Shorties,” is tongue-in-cheek given that both players are at least 6 feet tall.

“I think we really complement each other, obviously,” said Gal. “Maude hits it very, very far, and I think I hit some good wedge shots coming in and then we both made a few putts. It just felt like we just trusted each other and really enjoyed being out there.”

Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Canada and Sandra Gal of Germany walk the eighth fairway during the first round of the Dow Championship at Midland Country Club on June 27, 2024, in Midland, Michigan. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

Gal, 39, who has played a very limited schedule for the past four years, is currently No. 813 in the world while Leblanc is 386th. Gal made her first tour start since 2022 earlier this season at the Blue Bay LPGA, where she tied for 55th. She withdrew from the ShopRite and missed the cut at the Meijer two weeks ago. The German won her only LPGA title in 2011 at the Kia Classic. She played on two Solheim Cup teams in 2011 and 2015.

Leblanc, 35, hasn’t finished better than a share of 47th so far this season and has never won on tour.

LPGA members on the winning team will receive the standard two-year winner’s exemption. CME points and prize money will be official for the purposes of the current-year LPGA Official Money List and Race to the CME Globe Standings. Rolex Player of the Year, Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year and U.S. Solheim Cup points will not be allocated and statistics will not be calculated. Rolex Women’s World Rankings Points also will not be allocated.

Another duo looking for a boost from the week is Team FinAsia – Matilda Castren and Kelly Tan – two players whose friendship blossomed years ago on the Epson Tour. Tan even served as Castren’s maid of honor two years ago. The pair finished second at this event in 2022, which marked Tan’s career-best finish on the LPGA.

“We have such a close friendship,” said Tan, “and we just cherish that we get to team up and play together.”

Tan currently ranks 905th in the Rolex Rankings while Castren, who has missed eight of her last nine cuts, is 369th. Castren won on the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour in 2021 to play her way onto the European Solheim Cup team.

The pair opened with a 2-under 68.

Interestingly, the team with two players ranked in the top 10 – Celine Boutier (6) and Yuka Saso (10) – had an unusually rough finish, carding a bogey and triple-bogey on the last two holes to shoot 74.

The second and final rounds will be played in a four-ball (best ball) format while the third round returns to foursomes (alternate shot).

After 36 holes, the field will be cut to the low 33 teams and ties. The purse of $3 million will award a first-place team prize of $732,165 ($366,082 each).

Matilda Castren, Kelly Tan pick up where they left off at LPGA’s Dow Great Lakes

A year ago, Matilda Castren and Kelly Tan got off to a lukewarm start, but got progressively hotter through the week.

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The Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational is the second of three team events on the LPGA schedule in 2023.

Thailand won the Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown earlier this year. In September, of course, is the Solheim Cup. Both of those events are based on teams made of players from the same country.

This week, at the Dow at Midland Country Club in Midland, Michigan, the players get to make their own teams and one of the more interesting duos is the pairing of Brooke Henderson and Lexi Thompson, who are teaming up for the first time.

A year ago, the duo of Matilda Castren and Kelly Tan got off to a lukewarm start with a 69 in the opening round, but got progressively hotter through the week, posting rounds of 61 and 62 en route to a second-place finish behind champs Jennifer Kupcho and Lizette Salas.

But this year, Castren and Tan picked up right where they left off, using a 64 to get out to a one-stroke lead over Amelia Lewis and Paula Reto.

Paula Reto of South Africa hits her tee shot on the sixth hole during the first round of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational at Midland Country Club on July 19, 2023, in Midland, Michigan. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

“I felt like I was way more comfortable today than last year the first round, but I think that helps, and also knowing those good memories,” Tan said, soon after the duo birdied four of the last six holes to storm into the lead.

“And, you know, you go up to the hole, and you kind of are saying, oh, last year I chipped in from here and stuff like that. You have those good memories, so that helps with … actually calms me down and makes me happy and excited all day.

“I felt like we gelled really well today, honestly. She struck the ball so good. I had the chance to make the putt. And, I mean, I think vice versa. We both played pretty good today. There’s no complaints.”

Meanwhile, the Swedish team of Linnea Johansson and Linnea Strom had a wild ride with three bogeys and seven birdies in a colorful card, but the tandem is just two shots off the pace.

If the team can prove victorious, it would make for quite a stretch for Swedish golf as countryman Linn Grant secured her first victory last weekend at the Dana Open. 

“Every time a Swedish player wins on any tour it’s great, and both of us were lucky to be there. It’s not every week you can be there when someone wins. So we decided to stay and be there for Linn, and it was just an incredible performance. It’s always fun to see someone play so well,” Johansson said. “When I left Sunday, we drove here in the car, and I said, like, Hey, we just have to ride on this. We’re all there for each other and support each other. We are trying to do whatever we can to ride on her great performance from last week.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Strom added. “It just gives so much energy and so much fun to be there on the 18 to watch her win. I think we just have a little bit of energy from last week. We got to do that together, you know, especially for her. It was pretty cool. It’s a lot of fun.”

“Gives me chills just talking about it,” Johansson said.

As for that Thompson/Henderson team, they posted a 3-over 73 on Thursday, nine shots off the pace.

Aces wild! Jeongeun Lee6 one of three players to make a hole-in-one at the same hole during third round of JTBC Classic

“It was my third hole-in-one, but first hole-in-one during (a) tournament,” Lee6 said.

If there’s no video evidence, was it really an ace?

Well, we’re just going to have to trust the scorecards this time around. Three players made aces during the third round of the LPGA’s JTBC Classic Saturday, including major champion Jeongeun Lee6.

The par-3 third at Aviara Golf Club was set up for action, measuring in at a mere 97 yards. And boy, oh boy, did the field take advantage.

Lee6 was part of the first group off this morning and, like the other two players to make aces there, used a 50-degree wedge.

“It was my third hole-in-one, but first hole-in-one during (a) tournament,” she said.

Lee6 went on to shoot a 6-under 66.

Lilia Vu made the next one. On top of the ace, Vu made six birdies and signed for a third-round 7-under 65.

Then, last but not least, Kelly Tan cashed in. She had a wild day in Carlsbad, California on Saturday. She made an ace, an eagle, five birdies, five bogeys, and a double. All-in-all, Tan signed for a 2-under 70.

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