SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Linn Grant’s debut at the KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol surely felt like a long time coming for the up-and-coming Swedish star. This week marks Grant’s first major championship on American soil since the December 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, and she’s squarely in the mix heading into the weekend.
Vaccination travel restrictions kept Grant from playing in the United States after she earned her LPGA card in 2021. Remarkably, she managed to keep her card by competing in events only held outside the U.S., recording four top-eight finishes in the span of six events.
Back-to-back rounds of even par on a soggy Lower Course in Springfield, New Jersey, have Grant four strokes back of leader Xiyu Lin.
“I feel like my game is getting better for each day,” said Grant. “That’s usually how I work.”
Now a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, Grant said she wouldn’t have the same level of confidence in her game that she now possesses were it not for the experiences she had playing in Europe. She topped the season-long Race to Costa del Sol in 2022 and won the Jabra Ladies Open earlier this year in France.
“I try to see it as a positive,” said Grant, who made history when she beat the men at the Scandinavian Mixed last year. “That’s pretty much all I can do.”
Now No. 22 in the world, Grant missed the first major of the season in Texas as well as the chance to represent Sweden at the Hanwha International Crown due to travel restrictions.
With the national public health emergency expiring in May, the former Arizona State player was permitted to compete in the LET event in West Palm Beach, Florida. In her first LPGA start in the U.S., she advanced to the semifinals of the Bank of Hope Match-Play at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
While the vaccination topic is deeply controversial, Grant said she reads all the comments on her Instagram feed and said most of them have been positive.
“I think a lot of people think that they’re negative,” she said, “but at least on my Instagram they’re all positive.
“The few negative I get, I just brush them off. They don’t know me. They don’t know my reasons.”
Golfweek‘s Beth Ann Nichols, who is on the ground this week for the women’s second major of the year, had to call an audible last night. The weather in Springfield, New Jersey, has been dreadful and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club heads to the weekend.
So, a trip to the store for rain pants was needed.
Scattered thunderstorms are expected to hit the area this afternoon, while both days over the weekend are forecasted to receive rain.
Here’s a look at the complete forecast for the next few days at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey – Xiyi Lin first met a teenage Ruoning Yin at the 2019 Buick LPGA Shanghai. Yin asked Lin for advice on what would be the proper way to get to the LPGA.
“At that time, I was like, ‘Wow, like this kid, she really wants something,” said Lin.
Fast forward four years to the KPMG Women’s PGA, where Lin and Yin were briefly tied atop the leaderboard at 4 under with two-time major winner Brooke Henderson before South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace birdied the 18th get to 5 under. The two Orlando-based friends from China put together bogey-free rounds at Baltustrol’s Lower course on a day when big numbers were plentiful.
Lin, 27, who goes by “Janet” on tour and Yin, 20, who goes by “Ronnie,” play together every couple of weeks when they’re both in town but have talked more regularly of late about plumbing issues. Yin now rents Lin’s old house.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been dealing with some draining problems,” said Lin, “so when I see her, I always feel so sorry. Not with the golf, but it’s like the toilet is clogged or something. We finally fixed it like three weeks ago.”
Yin considers Lin to be a mentor, but she’s also technically her landlord.
Ruoning Yin plays a shot from the fairway on the 18th hole during the first round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports
“Yeah, I know,” said Lin. “After she win, I’m like, ‘I need to raise the rent. It was way too low for you now.’ ”
Lin laughed, taking great delight in the success of her friend. Yin won the DIO Implant Open earlier this spring, becoming the second Chinese winner in LPGA history after former No. 1 and 10-time LPGA winner Shanshan Feng, who is now retired and working as China’s national coach. Feng won this event in 2012 when it was known as the LPGA Championship.
“Shanshan, I think, is my goal,” said Yin. “All the Chinese players’ goal.”
There are nine Chinese players currently competing on the LPGA and 10 Chinese players have earned a check on the Epson Tour this season. There are also 30 Chinese players playing college golf in the U.S.
“I think there’s more to come,” said Yin.
Lin, currently No. 14 in the world and seeking her first tour title, finished tied for third last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic. She smiled brightly in the aftermath despite another close call. Lin finished second three times in 2022 and lost in a playoff to former KPMG champ Hannah Green earlier this year at the JM Eagle LPGA Championship.
“I compliment myself a lot more than before,” said Lin. “I feel like I get to a point that I know what’s going to happen. I’m experienced enough. I’m still going to miss a cut here and there, still going to feel hurt, still going to feel bad from a bad round, but I’m old enough to be able to deal with them. I feel like I work hard and I balance my life.”
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Rose Zhang, already a history-making player at the tender age of 20, hit a 1-iron for the first time last year during a team-building exercise at Merion with the Curtis Cup team. She did not get closest to the hole. Didn’t even reach the green, in fact. One of the few times she’s lost at anything in the past year.
From the Ben Hogan plaque on the 18th at Merion to the one celebrating Jack Nicklaus’ famous 1-iron here at Baltusrol’s Lower Course, Zhang finds herself immersed in big moments these days.
Zhang struck her best drive of the day up the 18th at the Lower Course in the opening round of the KPMG Women’s PGA, and though she was far from the Nicklaus plaque, nestled a 3-wood up to 8 feet for eagle on the closing par 5. The ensuing putt was a touch short on pace.
Every birdie at the Lower Course on a drizzly and gusty Thursday was a solid one, as only six players broke par in the morning wave. Zhang’s 1-under 70 put her one back of a trio of players with the clubhouse lead early on, though by day’s end she trailed leader Lee-Anne Pace by four.
Leona Maguire, winner of last week’s Meijer LPGA Classic, made a birdie of her own on the 18th to finish at 2 under in a share of sixth. The steely Irishwoman hit every green and missed one fairway in an opening 69.
“It’s a completely different test,” said Maguire of last week to this week. “I think you had to drive the ball equally well last week I would say, but you were going gung-ho at a lot of pins. Today you had to be really disciplined.”
Not long before Zhang turned professional, she broke Maguire’s record of 135 consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Maguire, 28, was a prodigy in her own right own right long before she arrived at Duke.
“We knew even before she went to college, she started winning everything,” said Boutier, a former Blue Devil teammate, “so it was kind of obvious that she would make it.”
Maguire, who took off a year of high school to concentrate on golf as a junior, won 10 times as a Blue Devil and worked her way to the LPGA via the Epson Tour. She became the first player from Ireland to win on the LPGA last year and now seeks to become the first female from Ireland to win a major.
Maguire’s swing coach since age 10, Shane O’Grady, was at Baltusrol earlier in the week. Coming straight off her second win, however, there admittedly wasn’t much to work on.
“It was nice for him,” said Maguire. “He hadn’t been at a major in quite a few years I would say, so nice for him to sort of see how the golf course is set up, the shots that we need.”
Zhang, who like Maguire was a two-time national player of the year in college, won a dozen times at Stanford, including her second NCAA title, and then clinched her first LPGA title in her pro debut at the Mizuho Americas Open.
She went back to Palo Alto after that remarkable victory and a New York media tour to finish her final exams. After two weeks away from the tour, she’s back in the spotlight at Baltusrol, the most sought-after player in the field.
Zhang started grinding early on Thursday with bogeys on two of the first four holes, an especially taxing stretch on the newly renovated A.W. Tillinghast design. She held on to play the last 12 holes in 3 under, putting herself in fine position at the first women’s major on the Lower Course in more than 50 years.
“There’s so many obligations as a professional,” said Zhang, “but I’m really taking it in my stride. I feel very thankful to be in this position.”
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Celine Borge carried her own bag on the Epson Tour last season, where she finished sixth on the money list to qualify for the LPGA. Even now, midway through her rookie year on the LPGA, Borge isn’t comfortable letting someone else carry her bag. She’s used a local caddie every week this season, even here at the KPMG Women’s PGA, where a Baltusrol looper helped her take a share of the clubhouse lead after a 2-under 69 over the famed Lower Course. She did not ask him for help on the greens.
“I just try to do what I’ve always been doing,” said Borge, “just play my own game and just (need) someone to carry the bag.”
Borge, currently No. 228 in the Rolex Rankings, has made 10 starts so far on the LPGA with three top-20 finishes. The Norwegian player makes her second career major start this week after missing the cut at the Chevron Championship.
The 24-year old was bogey free on the day until she reached the par-3 ninth, where she recorded her only blemish.
“I tried to not think about it,” she said of having the solo lead in the early stages of a major, “just tried to do my best on the next shot and see how it goes.”
Borge’s 11th caddie of the season, Corey Birch, grew up about 20 minutes from the Springfield club and had started out with an inside job. After he played well in a caddie tournament, the club’s caddie master asked why he wasn’t looping.
Birch, 27, has worked at Baltusrol for a decade now and is one of a handful of local caddies picked for a job this week. He typically does about 10 loops per week around the club’s Upper and Lower courses.
“We’re a very busy club,” said Birch, “and I’m fortunate the be here. I guess lot of people call it a golf factory, I guess you could say. We never sleep.”
This week marks the first time Baltusrol’s Lower Course will host a women’s major since 1961.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — This week marks the first time Baltusrol’s Lower Course will host a women’s major since 1961. No one in the field at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA was born when Mickey Wright won her third U.S. Women’s Open title that year.
This week presents a history lesson for the best female players in the world as they tackle a course that saw Jack Nicklaus win two U.S. Open titles and Phil Mickelson win a PGA Championship. The first USGA championship ever held at Baltusrol was the U.S. Women’s Amateur back in 1901.
This week marks another chapter in the storied club that in 2014 became a national historic landmark.
“The course is in immaculate shape,” said former KPMG champ Brooke Henderson. “I’ve never seen a golf course in such great shape, I don’t think.”
Unfortunately, bad weather looms on the horizon, with anywhere from a 60 to 80 percent chance of rain expected every day though Sunday. New drainage and a SubAir system will help, but players will experience a vastly different test from they’ve seen in the practice rounds.
Here’s what some of the best in the world had to say about what’s to come:
Sunday’s final round of 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA on NBC will be commercial free.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — The television broadcast schedule for the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol includes uninterrupted coverage presented by Callaway for the final hour on NBC on Sunday. This marks the first time the Women’s PGA will feature commercial-free coverage.
The overall broadcast package this year takes a big step as NBC Sports brings a record 26 hours of coverage from Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey. That’s almost double the number of hours (14) from last year at Congressional, where fans missed out on much of the final round as well as much of eventual champion In Gee Chun’s opening 64.
Last year, the weekend coverage was exclusive to NBC and featured three hours each day. This year, coverage starts at 11 a.m. ET on Peacock Saturday and picks up on NBC from 3-6 p.m.
In addition, there’s five hours of onsite pre-tournament coverage from noon to 5 p.m. E.T. on Tuesday and Wednesday as well as one hour of onsite pre-round and post-round coverage Thursday to Sunday.
“I think we were all like-minded on it,” said LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan on the priority of extending television hours for this major.
“Let’s do everything we can do to get more hours and get more exposure. I think there wasn’t pushback on any level. We all agreed it was something we needed to do and make a commitment to that, and I think we all know it really matters. I think we still have a ways to go.”
Nelly Korda tackles Baltusrol with a pain-free back and a new coach.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. – Nelly Korda didn’t touch a club for several weeks after lower back pain resulted in a forced spring break. When the 24-year-old returned to work, it was with a new swing instructor. Jason Baile, director of instruction at Jupiter Hills Club in Florida, started working with the former World No. 1 a week and a half ago and this week is at Baltusrol Golf Club helping Korda prepare for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“A couple of my sister’s friends work with him,” said Korda, who noted that LIV’s Peter Uihlein is among them. “I heard he’s really good, so testing him out.”
They’ve mostly worked on setup, she said, moving closer to the ball and getting her right shoulder more through the ball rather than stuck behind it.
Korda, currently No. 2 in the world, hasn’t won this season but has notched six top-six finishes. She’s one of four players on tour ranked in the top 20 in both strokes gained off-the-tee (third) and strokes gained putting (16th).
Korda trails only Jin Young Ko in strokes gained total per round.
This isn’t the first time Korda, an eight-time winner on the LPGA, has dealt with lower back pain, which caused her to withdraw from the KPMG at Aronimink three years ago after the first round.
This time around, Korda couldn’t point to a specific shot or movement that caused the pain, but she immediately talked to her doctor about it and decided to take several weeks of rest before it worsened. Korda’s last round on the LPGA was May 12 at the Cognizant Founders Cup, where she missed the cut. She’s now pain-free.
“There’s a lot of torque in the golf swing,” said Korda, “so I feel like I’m not the only golfer that kind of struggles with the low back.
“Also, when you’re traveling four weeks in a row, different beds, flying out right after your round, sometimes you just tweak it and you just need to take rest.”
Nelly Korda walks the first fairway with her team during a practice round before the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club on June 19, 2023 in Springfield, New Jersey. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Nelly’s sister, Jessica Korda, 30, announced late last month that she was taking a break from the tour indefinitely to try to get her back healthy.
“I think coming from a family that has played sports throughout their entire life, it just comes with it,” said Nelly. “You look at so many athletes, they all go through something. I can only speak on let’s say tennis, where you see (Rafael) Nadal, who battled with so many injuries throughout his entire career.
“It’s something you constantly learn from.”
Korda said her split from her previous instructor, Jamie Mulligan, was about time management more than anything else, and they remain close. She also still considers David Whelan part of her team. She sees Whelan often at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, when she’s at home, mostly casually. Korda started working with Whelan at age 14.
“Even when he doesn’t say anything, just the fact that he is there with me at practice makes me very comfortable,” she said. “I am where I am because of him.”
As the world’s best women take on Baltusrol’s Lower Course for the first time since 1961, Korda said the first four holes will be crucial. Getting through them in even par is a big goal for the week.
“They’re big, monstrous kind of holes,” she said.
Baltusrol’s dual courses (the Upper and the Lower) have hosted 16 USGA Championships and two PGA Championships. The championship tradition began in 1901 with the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Jack Nicklaus won two U.S. Open titles on Baltusrol’s Lower Course. Mickey Wright and Phil Mickelson won here, too.
“The club just bleeds major championship golf,” said PGA chief championships officer Kerry Haigh.
Korda was blown away Monday by the condition of the A.W. Tillinghast design, which was restored in 2020 by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner and reopened in 2021. The Lower ranks No. 35 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S., and the Upper ties for No. 62. Both courses rank among the top 10 private clubs in New Jersey.
With rain in the forecast, players will face a different test than they’ve seen so far in sunny and dry practice rounds. The club’s new drainage and sub-surface air system might be put to the test before the weekend.
The rough, last cut on Sunday, is right where they want it. Korda said she tried to hit 6-irons from the rough and they came out as knuckle balls, dead left. Haigh said the PGA plans to top it off Wednesday and again Friday if needed.
“I enjoy these kinds of golf courses where you have to kind of think a little bit more,” said Korda, “and it’s a very demanding golf course as well … everything has to click for you this week in order to perform well.”
The Performance Insights relies on caddies to gather information and turn in a special card after each round.
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Two years ago, KPMG launched an analytics platform to help narrow the information divide between the men’s and women’s games. The program, similar to what’s offered on the DP World Tour, relies on caddies to gather information and turn in a special card after each round. KPMG pays the caddies a small stipend.
It’s an evolving system that gets more useful over time as data accumulates.
Scorecard numbers can only tell so much of the story, and as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship kicks off this week at historic Baltusrol for the first time, we take a closer look at the Performance Insights numbers of five players to keep an eye on in New Jersey.
Rose Zhang makes her first major start as a professional at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Given how things turned out in her professional debut two weeks ago, she’s as much of a headliner at Baltusrol as World No. 1 Jin Young Ko.
Zhang, of course, won the LPGA’s Mizuho Americas Open in her first professional start, becoming the first player to accomplish such a feat since Beverly Hanson in 1951. Expectations are sky-high for the 20-year-old American.
With three majors left on the schedule and full LPGA status, it’s natural to think big for Zhang, the most decorated amateur in the modern game.
She jumped to No. 61 in the world after her win at Liberty National, but is nowhere to be found on the LPGA points lists for the U.S. Solheim Cup team, Player of the Year or Rookie of the Year.
There are other ways to make the Solheim Cup beyond the points list, of course, but not receiving the 150 points toward the Rookie race or the 30 for the POY race puts Zhang at a massive disadvantage when it comes to year-end accolades.
If given the points, she’d currently be fourth in the rookie race and tied for 14th in the POY. South Korea’s Hae Ran Ryu leads the rookie standings with 381 points in 10 starts. Ryu has four top-10 finishes this season but has yet to win.
Two years ago, the LPGA changed its regulations so that non-members who win on tour receive official points and money for any win after accepting tour membership. After Sophia Popov won the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open, she accepted tour membership and started at zero. Her money from Royal Troon was unofficial, and she didn’t earn any points toward the CME Race to the Globe, which kept her out of the ANA Inspiration and the CME Group Tour Championship.
The LPGA waited until the next season to make that change.
Rose Zhang of the United States acknowledges the crowd after her putt on the second green during the final round of the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club on June 4, 2023, in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Zhang’s Mizuho victory did earn her 500 CME points, thanks to the Popov rule. She’s currently 27th in that race. But she didn’t receive points for anything else.
Nancy Lopez won nine times during her rookie season in 1978, including five in a row, and remains the only player to win LPGA Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Vare Trophy in the same season. Given the depth of today’s game, winning nine times in a season would be a phenomenal feat, likely one that will never be matched.
It’s entirely realistic to think that Zhang might miss out on Rookie of the Year honors this season because her Mizuho victory points did not count. Given her consistency, she might even contend for Player of the Year, too, despite playing college golf for half the year.
When asked for an explanation as to why points are applied to the CME race but nowhere else, an LPGA spokesperson said, “As with anything within our regulations, we will review as a group and make any changes that benefit the LPGA and the membership. Any proposed changes will not be made retroactively since we have already started the 2023 LPGA season and 2023 and 2024 Solheim Cup qualifying periods.”
The Rolex Rankings and captain’s picks make it possible for Zhang to compete in Spain next September regardless. But as for the Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year races, there’s nothing stopping the LPGA from making those changes now.
There’s been a change in leadership since that original decision was made for the 2021 season, and it’s likely that many didn’t realize the full breakdown of those regulations for non-member wins until Zhang stepped into the winner’s circle. Maja Stark, for example, won last summer in Northern Ireland as a non-member and didn’t receive Rookie of the Year or Player of the Year points.
Wouldn’t it be better to make those changes midstream to help ensure that the points system in place rewards the member who won the most events?
The LPGA’s system should be set up to celebrate greatness – not hold it back. The beauty of using a points system to determine year-end awards is that it removes subjectivity. The system fails, however, if the points aren’t properly distributed.
