Who’s going to capture the final women’s major of the year?
Whoever wins this week’s AIG Women’s British Open will forever hold a special place in women’s golf history. Three years ago, Muirfield, host of 16 men’s British Opens, invited its first female members in the club’s 275-year history.
The club was actually removed from the R&A’s rota of British Open host venues after a 2016 membership vote failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to change the rule to admit women.
The membership voted again in 2017 and pushed it through. Needless to say, the final major of 2022 carries great significance.
Jennifer Kupcho, winner of the first female event ever hosted at Augusta National, won the final Chevron Championship at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course to kick off major season. Minjee Lee’s dominant performance at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles followed.
Then, In Gee Chun nabbed her third different major at the KPMG Women’s PGA, and two weeks ago, the Amundi Evian saw Brooke Henderson snap a six-year drought between her first and second major titles.
Here’s a look at 10 players to keep an eye on at Muirfield:
One week after an historic $10 million purse at the U.S. Women’s Open, Linn Grant made another leap for the game.
One week after the women played for an historic $10 million purse at the U.S. Women’s Open, Linn Grant made another leap for the game by becoming the first woman to win on the DP World Tour.
Grant, 22, crushed the field of 78 men and women by nine strokes with a closing 64 at the Scandinavian Mixed, hosted by Henrik and Annika. The nearest woman finished 14 back.
Beating the men, she said, was most important.
“All week i just felt like it’s the girls against the guys,” she said, “and whoever picks up that trophy represents the field.”
Grant, a former Arizona State standout, came into the final round with a two-stroke lead and birdied five of the first six holes at Halmstad Golf Club to begin her tear. She posted 26 birdies and an eagle in her 24-under performance in front of massive crowds. Her nine-stroke victory is the largest on the DP World Tour so far this season.
Linn Grant is presented with the trophy by tournament hosts Annika Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson after winnng the 2022 Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Swedish co-host Henrik Stenson, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 2016 British Open, finished second along with Scotland’s Marc Warren, who closed with a 65. Stenson shot 70 on Sunday.
The unique event, co-sanctioned by the LET and DP World Tour, features two different sets of tees for the men and women, who competed for the same $2 million purse. A total of 30 Swedes took part in the competition. Grant, who lives about an hour away from the course, embraced Swedish icon Annika Sorenstam after her extraordinary triumph.
Grant has now won three times in six starts this season, including her last event, The Mithra Belgian Ladies Open in late May. Grant won $30,000 for that victory in Belgium, and $319,717 dollars for the Scandinavian Mixed.
“I just hope that people recognize women’s golf, more sponsors go to LET than the men’s tour,” said Grant. “Hopefully this pumps up the women’s game a little bit more.”
Jason Scrivener leads but just two shots back are two women, including a 19-year-old college student.
The Scandinavian Mixed 2022 is a unique event in pro golf, with a field of 78 men and 78 women from the DP World Tour and the LET competing against each other for one trophy and one first-place check.
After two rounds, Jason Scrivener is 12 under and holds a two-shot lead. He had eight birdies Friday, including four in a row on his back nine, en route to a 64. He’s 214th in the latest Official World Golf Ranking and has yet to win on the DP Tour.
There’s a three-way tie for second at 10 under and there are two women in that group, including Italian Carolina Melgrati, 19, who just finished her freshman year at the University of Arizona. She started her week with a 65 and was tied for the lead after the first round. A second-round 69 has her in contention to win as an amateur this week.
Carolina Melgrati on the 15th green during the 2022 Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed Hosted by Henrik & Annika at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden. (Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
“It is crazy! It is so great,” Melgrati said after her first round. “As soon as I got the invitation, I said yes, I’m playing because it is great to compete with professional golfers. It is amazing and that is also my dream, so it is coming true.”
Melgrati is joined at 10 under by Linn Grant, a former Arizona State standout who turned pro last September. Playing in her native Sweden, Grant won two weeks ago at The Mithra Belgian Ladies Open.
Also at 10 under is Mike Lorenzo-Vera.
The event has Volvo Car as the title sponsor, is co-hosted by Annika Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson and is being staged at Halmstad Golf Club in Halmstad, Sweden.
For Augusta National Women’s Amateur participants, the chance to play the iconic course still feels somewhat untouchable.
To prepare for her first trip to Augusta National, Kenzie Wright has been chipping off of Alabama’s practice putting green to get a feel for tight lies.
“Mic (Potter) probably won’t be too happy to hear this,” said Wright, a fifth-year senior, of the Tide’s head coach.
Apologies to Potter, but there’s a whatever-it-takes attitude when it comes to Augusta National. Whether it’s securing tickets to the Masters or preparing your game for a bucket-list event.
After last year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staying amateur for another year and playing a super-senior season at Alabama was a no-brainer for Wright. The 23-year-old stayed on in Tuscaloosa, where on May 1 she’ll graduate with a Master’s degree in sport hospitality. The Texan plans to attend LPGA Q-School later this year.
But first, she’ll join 82 other amateurs March 31-April 3 for the much-anticipated second edition of the ANWA. Wright, who will be one 54 first-timers at the event, said Masters week always felt like a holiday for her family. In high school, she’d sneak a peek at tournament coverage on her phone during class.
The chance to play the iconic course still feels somewhat untouchable.
The good news is that no matter how Wright plays, she’s guaranteed to tee it up at Augusta National. The field will be cut to the top 30 players after 36 holes at nearby Champions Retreat Golf Club. On Friday, all 85 players will the play a practice round at Augusta National. The final round will be broadcast live on NBC.
In 2019, Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi put on an unforgettable show in front of packed crowds. Kupcho played her final six holes in 5 under, posting a 5-under 67 at Augusta to win the inaugural event. Two days later, both Kupcho and Fassi were on “The Tonight Show StarringJimmy Fallon.”
It was an instant classic.
Linn Grant was in the gallery that Saturday, watching a couple of friends compete after she missed the cut.
“I want to get some revenge,” she said of Champions Retreat.
So much has happened since Grant last competed in Augusta. Last December, for example, she was in the final group at the U.S. Women’s Open on Saturday alongside fellow amateur Kaitlyn Papp. Grant’s inspiring run came unraveled when she carded a quadruple-bogey eight on the 10th hole.
“Inside I was fuming, just furious,” she said. “But then I also know that there and then, the anger inside of me won’t help me to score better.”
Right now, Grant said, everything about her game feels like it’s going her way. The Arizona State sophomore, currently No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, won the inaugural Sun Devil Winter Classic in February, the Bruin Wave Invitational in early March and the Clover Cup 11 days later.
“I just have a mental flow,” said Grant, “and feel very positive about what I’m doing.”
Linn Grant, Arizona State (Arizona State Athletics)
Rose Zhang returns to Augusta as the undisputed favorite. The No. 1-ranked amateur enjoyed a spectacular 2020 season in which she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur as well as three AJGA invitationals and finished 11th at the ANA Inspiration, an LPGA major.
Zhang had the chance to return to the ANA this year (held the same week as ANWA) but instead chose to come back to Augusta, where she tied for 17th in 2019. The 17-year-old Stanford commit suffered a left wrist injury last summer that resulted from hitting balls in her garage during the pandemic lockdown. After making the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open last December, Zhang took a month off from golf to give her wrist more time to heal.
“It was just uncomfortable,” said Zhang, who noted that additional breaks might be in order.
Two weeks before the ANWA, Zhang nearly won a Symetra Tour event. She lost to Ruixin Liu on the second playoff hole at the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Classic.
Rose Zhang lines up her tee shot on the 7th hole during the second round of the 2020 ANA Inspiration Mission Hills Golf Club. (Photo: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)
Ashley Gilliam heads to Augusta National for a third time after twice competing in the Drive, Chip and Putt finals (2014 and 2015). The Mississippi State sophomore was out practicing at Old Waverly when she received a notification on her phone that a package had been delivered. After a long 30-minute ride back to her apartment, Gilliam got her parents and older sister on FaceTime so that they could watch her open the official invitation.
Her parents pulled up pictures from her Drive, Chip and Putt invitations to hold them all side by side. Gilliam’s father, Marshall, who played baseball at Tennessee Tech, will caddie for Ashley the first two rounds. She plans to get a local caddie for Augusta National.
In 2014, it was Gilliam’s mother, Jennifer, who caddied for her at Drive, Chip and Putt. Jennifer played college golf at Ole Miss and introduced her daughters to the game.
Ashley Gilliam, right, and her mother Jennifer. (Photo submitted)
“I can’t remember what age I finally beat her,” said Ashley, whose older sister Savannah is a senior at Middle Tennessee State.
Wright said her father, J.W., a car salesman in McKinney, doesn’t often show his emotions, but he can’t hold back when the subject of his daughter playing Augusta comes up.
“He’s already excited just to go shopping,” she said.
Ashley Gilliam with her Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals invitation (left) and her Augusta National Women’s Amateur invitation (right). (Photos courtesy Gilliam family, Mississippi State Athletics)
Before the pandemic, Wright said only one designated guest was allowed to watch the practice round at Augusta. But now that fewer total guest tickets are available to players, all three designated guests can walk the practice round on Friday. Wright said her boyfriend, Brayden Conover, a golf writer who is taking the week off from his job, will get the third badge.
“It was a big fight between my mom and dad over who was going to be the designated guest before,” said Wright, with a laugh.
Now everyone gets to experience the walk of a lifetime. Maybe even more than once.
Only one woman has ever won the U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur, and that was France’s Catherine Lacoste in 1967. Could another join her?
HOUSTON – Two years ago, Linn Grant found herself in the penultimate group of the U.S. Women’s Open on Saturday as an amateur. The young Swede pulled it left off the first tee at soggy Shoal Creek and knocked it back in the fairway. Her father, John, walked over to a sprinkler head and peered down at the 89. He thought it looked shorter than that, but the yardage book also had a notation of 89. Total yardage was 112 yards. Linn flushed a wedge that landed 20 yards over the green.
Turns out the 89 was really a 68. The indicator lined had blurred out in the mud.
“I didn’t really recover from that,” said Linn of the crushing blow. “I don’t think he did, either.”
The now 21-year-old Linn and her dad get a second crack at it this weekend in Houston, where the Arizona State sophomore sits alone in second place at the Women’s Open, three shots back of leader Hinako Shibuno.
Kaitlyn Papp, a 22-year-old Texas native who has Longhorn coach, Kate Golden on the bag, holds a share of third.
Two more Swedish players, Ingrid Lindblad (T-14) and Maja Stark (T-20) are within striking distance. South Carolina’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (T-20) and Gabriela Ruffels of USC (T-29) round out the six amateurs who head to the weekend in Houston.
With no qualifying this year, the top amateurs in the world were guaranteed a start in the year’s final major. Of the 24 amateurs in this year’s field, 18 are ranked in the top 20.
Only one woman has ever won the U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur, and that was France’s Catherine Lacoste in 1967.
“Linn likes records,” said Swedish national coach Fredrik Wetterstrand.
The drive into Champions Golf Club features a number of familiar-sounding roads. There’s Muirfield Village Drive, Shinnecock Hills Drive and Cherry Hills Road, the latter of which harkens back memories of amateurs Morgan Pressel and Brittany Lang finishing runner-up to surprise winner Birdie Kim at the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open.
The 75th U.S. Women’s Open certainly has a Cherry Hills vibe – minus the electric galleries – with the number of amateurs currently in contention.
“I think the biggest difference for amateur golf to professional golf is scoring,” said Champions member Stacy Lewis, whose husband Gerrod Chadwell coaches the women’s golf program at Houston. “Amateurs are used to grinding for pars and maybe even par wins a tournament.
“I think amateurs struggle more, or at least I did when I went and played a professional tournament when 25 under was winning, and that’s not your mindset.”
Two years ago, Wetterstrand said, Grant said “someone is going to win this tournament, why shouldn’t it be me?”
Grant held a share of fourth at the midway point at Shoal Creek but ultimately wound up in a share of 57th.
“She wants to take revenge this time,” Wetterstrand said.
Grant won the 2017 British Amateur Stroke Play at North Berwick 49 years after her grandfather, James Grant, won the Scottish Boys Championship on the same course. James left Scotland to become a golf instructor in Sweden. John Grant played well enough to earn a scholarship to West Florida and played professionally for a bit.
“I know if you look at her Wikipedia site, it says I’m a (teaching) pro,” said John. “I’m not. There is another John Grant who is a pro at that golf club.”
John, for the record, is a financial advisor.
Not many players have tour winners on their bag, but in Golden, Papp has a woman who shot 63 in the final round of the State Farm Classic to beat Annika Sorenstam by a shot.
“I’ve talked to (Kaitlyn) about staying patient,” said Golden, “and she’s actually done it.”
After shooting even par on the front nine at Cypress Creek, Papp birdied three of her last five holes to leap into third place, including a chip-in on the 17th. This marks the first time she’s made the cut in a major. Seven Texans teed it up this week and so far Austin’s Papp is low Texan.
Papp’s afternoon plans include a final term paper for her undergraduate degree. On Thursday, Papp found out that she’d gotten into grad school at Texas for the sports management program.
Certainly not the typical routine of a Women’s Open contender.
If there was ever going to be a time an amateur broke through again at this championship, 2020 might be it, with no grandstands and no fans. No $1 million check on the line either.
“I’ve been in contention this year and it’s so much different,” said Lewis. “It’s so much easier. Normally at these U.S. Opens you’ve got the 18th hole, massive grandstands. Down the first tee, it’s lined with people.”
The final group on Saturday will feature two amateurs and Shibuno, an effervescent pro who stunned the world last year by winning the AIG Women’s British Open in her major championship debut.
It’s 2020. At this point, nothing would be a surprise.
Amelia Garvey and Pauline Roussin-Bouchard were among the players to make big opening statements at the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston.
In Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Women’s Open, the amateur highlights were plenty. Then again, they were coming from 24 different directions.
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard’s near slam-dunk at the par-3 16th on the Cypress Creek course ranked highly on the list. The South Carolina player, who spent time in 2020 as the top-ranked amateur in the world, was in the second group off Cypress Creek’s No. 1 tee on Thursday morning. Her birdie at 16 was her second consecutive. It helped her put the finishing touches on a round of 1-under 71, good for a tie for 12th.
The day felt much longer than it actually was. Roussin-Bouchard, a native of France, played the golf course in her head all night. On Thursday, she played the first 10 holes without a bogey.
Consider it revenge. Roussin-Bouchard played the Evian Championship last year, another LPGA major. She opened with 87 and still has a bad taste in her mouth about it.
“I’m happy because I really played the golf I wanted to play and I had the behavior I wanted to have, so really satisfied from this round,” she said.
Roussin-Bouchard is No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking – a position she gained on the strength of victories at the 2019 Portuguese Ladies Amateur and Italian Ladies Amateur – and it got her into this championship. The USGA selected the top 20 players in that ranking to compete at Champions
Ranking also would have also easily gotten her into the U.S. Women’s Amateur, but four months ago, Roussin-Bouchard was still at home in France. With quarantines still a reality for international travelers, she ended up remaining in Europe until the start of the college season.
Roussin-Bouchard is playing this week with her college golf coach Kalen Anderson on the bag. The two are keeping the routine they’d usually go through in a college tournament, Roussin-Bouchard said.
Anderson is one of a handful of college coaches with a caddie bib in Houston this week. Georgia head coach Josh Brewer is carrying Bulldog sophomore Caterina Don’s (77, T-126) bag and USC head coach Justin Silverstein is on the bag for 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur champ Gabriela Ruffels (71, T-25). Texas assistant Kate Golden is caddying for Kaitlyn Papp (71, T-25)
Six of the 24 amateurs are at par or better. Arizona State’s Linn Grant, with a 2-under 69 at Cypress Creek, is in the best shape at T-6 on the leaderboard. That’s the same number she fired to open the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, her only other U.S. Women’s Open start.
Ruffels, of Australia, is one of three USC players in the field. Teammate Amelia Garvey, a New Zealander, fired a 1-under 70 at Cypress Creek and is T-12. After a birdie on her first hole, it went through Garvey’s mind that she might be the early leader at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Not a bad thought process for her first major.
In 2015, Garvey became the second-youngest player, behind Lydia Ko, to win a pro event in New Zealand. Early week at Champions, Garvey played with Ko. The LPGA veteran raved about the state of Garvey’s game since the two saw each other three years ago – another confidence boost.
“Actually I said to my caddie when we were walking off the green, I actually thought to myself this morning, I have the game to win this thing,” Garvey said, “and then coming down 18, which was my ninth hole today, it was nice to see Garvey up on the leaderboard.”
Second-round tee times were moved up an hour and half because of expected weather on Friday afternoon, so there won’t be much time for Garvey to think overnight.
“Refocus, I guess,” she said of facing Champions’ Jackrabbit golf course in the next round, “set some new goals and go out there tomorrow and smash it.”
