View photos of Jodi Ewart Shadoff throughout her career.
Jodi Ewart Shadoff is the epitome of perserverance on the LPGA Tour.
The Englishwoman earned her Tour card in 2011, a year after turning pro upon graduating from the University of New Mexico in 2010. In her first 50 starts, Ewart Shadoff finished inside the top 10 on six occasions including a T3 finish in 2013.
Her youth as well as her solid play earned her a spot on the 2013 Solheim Cup team where she went 2-1-0 in her debut. Since then, Ewart Shadoff has represented Europe in both 2017 and 2019 and has yet to be a part of a losing effort against the Americans.
The tears said it all. Jodi Ewart Shadoff, playing in her 246th career start on the LPGA, finally found the winner’s circle at the LPGA Mediheal Championship.
“I didn’t know if this moment would ever come,” said Ewart Shadoff, who became the third wire-to-wire winner of the season, joining Lydia Ko and In Gee Chun.
The 34-year-old Englishwoman came into Sunday with a four-stroke lead and watched it melt away as the day wore on at The Saticoy Club. She even fell behind.
While Ewart Shadoff dueled most of the day with South Africa’s Paula Reto, another first-time winner this season, several players put themselves in position down the stretch. Late bogeys from Reto on Nos. 16 and 17 gave Ewart Shadoff some breathing room, and pars down the last four holes proved enough for her to hang on for the victory at 15-under 273.
Major champion Yuka Saso closed with a 66 after posting birdies on four of the last five holes. Saso finished alone in second while Georgia Hall (65), Danielle Kang (67) and Reto (69) finished two shots back.
Ewart Shadoff played her first full season on the LPGA in 2012 and made the Solheim Cup team not long after earning her tour card. She has since represented Europe on three occasions.
Considered one of the best ball-strikers on tour, Ewart Shadoff has struggled on the greens and with injuries over the course of her career. She averaged 29 putts for the week this week in California and it proved the difference-maker.
“I’ve always struggled with putting and it’s been a source of frustration for a long time,” she told Golf Channel after the round. “But this week it was the best part of my game, so, yeah. I think practicing putting goes a long way.”
Jodi Ewart Shadoff reacts on the 18th green after winning the 2022 LPGA Mediheal Championship at The Saticoy Club in Somis, California. (Photo: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Ewart Shadoff is the 10th first-timer winner this season and the 24th different winner. The record for the most different winners in a season is 26, which happened in 1991 and 2018. There are four tournaments remaining in the 2022 season.
Ewart Shadoff, who now works with former PGA Tour winner Grant Waite, missed only three fairways for the week and hit at least 14 fairways each round.
Raised in a small horse racing town in North Yorkshire, England, Ewart Shadoff’s mother, Zoe, once said that Middleham is so quaint, if you walked around town at 2 a.m. during Solheim Cup week, you’d get an idea of how many people know Jodi by the number of house lights switched on.
Ewart Shadoff’s father, Harvey, is a former jockey who met Zoe at the stables. Jodi didn’t take to horses growing up but her grandfather bought her a set of plastic golf clubs one Easter. When she broke off the head of one of the clubs, grandpa booked her a lesson.
Ewart Shadoff met her husband, Adam, during her sophomore year at New Mexico. Adam, a young sports reporter, became smitten during an interview, and they’ve been together since. He’s now a sports anchor at Fox35 in Orlando.
At this time last year, Ewart Shadoff, who was struggling with back pain so bad she thought she might not be able to play this season, began working with Waite. The changes Waite made to her swing has enabled Ewart Shadoff to play pain-free.
“Just a different type of hip rotation that’s just off-loaded my lower back a little bit,” she said. “I’ve been able to use my lower body. Definitely hitting the ball farther, but I have – most importantly, I have a lot more control in the club head.”
As for putting, Ewart Shadoff said they’ve worked a lot on speed training, trying to limit three-putts.
“My stroke in general is pretty decent,” she said. “But, you know, matching speed to line has been a pretty big issue for me, and I think that I’m doing a much better job at that.”
When Ashleigh Buhai, 33, broke through with her first LPGA title at the AIG Women’s British Open earlier this summer, she noted that she’s playing the best golf of her life. Veteran Ewart Shadoff feels the same.
“I think all facets of my game are just gelling really well together,” she said, “and I’m doing – all the hard work that I’ve been putting in throughout the season, the past year, has just really been paying off.”
Steve Stricker said there is nothing like this little-known California gem on the PGA Tour schedule.
SOMIS, Calif. — Ventura County’s hidden jewel is finally being shared with the world.
The Saticoy Club, Ventura County’s oldest private golf club, ended a century’s wait this week by hosting its first professional event, the LPGA Mediheal Championship.
Lee Martin, who served as the club’s head golf professional from 1979 to 1999, couldn’t wait for the historic occasion.
“We’re finally going to have a tournament that’s going to validate the golf course,” Martin said.
For more than a century, the club has been the playground of Ventura County’s elite, who have shared it with A-Listers like Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and, more recently, Michael Jordan.
Those who have had access to it marvel at its beauty, as well as its challenges.
“It’s the toughest golf course probably on a day-to-day basis between Riviera and Pebble Beach,” Martin said. “It’s the best-kept secret in Southern California. … People who have never played it before don’t realize the gem they’re playing until after they finish.”
When Bob Lowe, who has been a member of the club since 1980, brings up his beloved golf course, he is used to hearing “Where’s that?” as a response.
“They call it a hidden jewel of the West because not many people were aware the course existed,” Lowe said. “Consequently, not many have played it.”
Or even seen it, until The Golf Channel cameras arrived this week.
Prepping for the pros
The course was originally designed by Billy Bell, who also helped design Riviera, as well as Buenaventura, Olivas Park and the Ojai Valley Inn, locally.
The club has been preparing for this weekend for nearly four years, when membership was bought out by new ownership in 2018.
“It was a Rembrandt,” Saticoy Club general manager Robert Nagelberg said. “It just needed to be dusted off, polished, shined and returned to the Louvre.
“This tournament is kind of the culmination of that.”
New ownership worked with Arnold Palmer Design on a long-term plan. They reshaped and leveled 18 tee boxes, replaced sod on four greens, enhanced the irrigation system and removed or trimmed about 225 trees.
“We did a lot in a short period of time,” Nagelberg said. “If you looked at the list, it’s 200 items long.”
Although the club, an hour from Los Angeles and 15 minutes from Highway 101, is set back in the hills above Somis, Nagelberg is hoping to share the facility with more than 10,000 golf fans this week.
The Saticoy Club, founded in 1921, is hosting its first professional tournament this week — the LPGA MediHeal Championship. (Contributed photo)
Membership ‘culture’
The club opened in 1921 on Wells Road in Ventura, where Saticoy Regional Golf Course now sits. It moved to its present location in 1964.
“It was a very private club,” Martin said. “I grew up at the old club on Wells Road and they only had 300 members.”
Martin learned to golf at the old course, where members hosted the likes of Crosby, Mickey Rooney and Babe Didrikson Zaharias. He once caddied for a foursome that included Dean Martin.
Until the mid-1980s, members were required to own property in Ventura County. That meant the membership reflected the economy locally.
Members were local businessmen in oil, insurance and real estate. There were a lot of doctors and farmers, Martin said.
Julius Gius, The Star’s editor from 1960 to 1987, was also a member.
“Basically the membership was Ventura County culture,” Martin said.
There also were a few movie stars, like Cheech Marin.
“They didn’t want any notoriety at all,” Martin said. “We had a lot of really good members.”
‘Legitimate test of golf’
The course itself is known for speedway-fast greens.
“It’s mainly the greens,” Martin said. “The greens are the main defense of the golf course.
“It’s in beautiful shape, the bunkering is well done. It’ll challenge anybody. … No matter what tees you play, if you play a set of tees to your ability, you will be challenged.”
Lowe has been playing the course for more than half a century, and it still surprises him.
“It’s a legitimate test of golf,” Lowe said. “It’s not tricked up. Everything you’ve got in your bag, you better be good at.
“I’ve been a member for a great many years and I’ve been fooled now and again.”
While the course has never previously hosted a professional event, it has hosted plenty of professional golfers.
Martin tutored future PGA Tour player Duffy Waldorf during his times golfing for Taft High and UCLA. Waldorf still shares the course record from the blue tees at 64.
Fred Couples and Lanny Watkins were among the golfers who used the course to prepare for The Masters.
Steve Stricker told The Star in 2011 that he prepared for Tiger Woods’ World Challenge event at Sherwood Country Club in 2007 at Saticoy, on the suggestion of tournament director Greg McLaughlin.
“The course is harder and trickier than this one,” Stricker told the Star. “If you hit it on wrong side there, you have no chance. And the greens are as fast as these greens, so it’s a great place to get a lot of work in.”
Stricker said there was nothing like Saticoy on the PGA Tour schedule.
“You have to do everything well to play there,” Stricker said. “It’s narrow so you have to drive it well and I’ve talked about the greens. It’s difficult, but I really feel like I get a lot out of practicing there.”
A regular tour stop?
The club has often hosted USGA and Southern California Golf Association events.
It’s hosted the Pac-12 Conference and California Community College events. Rio Mesa High once hosted tournaments at the course, as Pepperdine University and Loyola Marymount University have done recently.
The big question, at least next week, will be whether the pros will return.
“That’s a good question,” Nagelberg said.
The Mediheal event was previously hosted the last four years by the Lake Merced Country Club in Daly City. That course is currently undergoing renovation.
“I think everybody’s trying to feel out how it goes the first year,” Nagelberg said. “As a property, we are intrigued and we’ve told them we want to … knock it out of the park and do it again. Does that mean we’re doing one again? I don’t know.
“But the LPGA Tour, Outlyr (event production company) and ourselves have put a lot of time, effort and resources into kind of setting the base template and getting it tournament ready. I can’t see how any of us wouldn’t want to come back and do this again.”
Joe Curley is a staff reporter for The Ventura County Star, part of the USA Today Network. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. Follow him @vcsjoecurley on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The field of 120 golfers will compete for a $1.8 million purse over the four-day, 72-hole tournament.
The LPGA Tour is returning to Ventura County in California.
The LPGA Mediheal Championship has been moved this fall to The Saticoy Club in Somis, the tour announced on Thursday.
The event, previously hosted by the Lake Merced Country Club in Daly City the last four years, will take place from Oct. 3-9.
The field of 120 golfers will compete for a $1.8 million purse over the four-day, 72-hole tournament, which will be televised by Golf Channel.
Matilda Castren of Finland shot a 14-under 274 to win the tournament last year.
“In the tournament’s first four years, we have established the LPGA Mediheal Championship as a world-class championship,” Hyuk je Kwon, tournament executive, said in a news release. “It is an honor for us to support women’s golf and provide a platform for the game’s best players to showcase their talents to fans all over the world.”
Danielle Kang hits a tee shot on the 17th hole during the second round at the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. on Friday, June 3, 2022. (Darren Carroll/USGA)
Danielle Kang — a graduate of Westlake High, less than 30 minutes from The Saticoy Club — finished tied for fifth in the event last year. The 2017 Women’s PGA Championship winner recently took a two-month break following the diagnosis of a tumor in her spine. She announced on social media earlier this month that she will return to the tour, beginning with the CP Women’s Open later this month at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.
Mediheal will be the first professional tournament hosted by Saticoy Club, which has previously hosted USGA and Southern California Golf Association events.
“Saticoy Club is excited to host the world’s best female professional golfers,” Saticoy Club general manager Robert Nagelberg said. “As one of the top-rated courses in California, Saticoy will provide a championship-level test.
“We look forward to welcoming the players and fans to Saticoy in October.”
It will be the first LPGA event in Ventura County since the Los Angeles Women’s Championship was held at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley in 2000.
“The support we have received from The Saticoy Club and Ventura County has been outstanding,” tournament director David Tucker said. “We are thrilled to bring the first-ever LPGA Tour event to Saticoy and showcase such a wonderful facility to the world.”
The Saticoy Club was founded in 1921 as Ventura County’s first private country club. The 18-hole course was designed by architect William F. Bell, refined over the years by architects Robert Muir Graves, Tom Doak and John Harbottle, and renovated in 2018 by Arnold Palmer Design.
Tickets sales and volunteer registration are open at MedihealChamp.com.
Daily general admission is $25. Weekly general admission is $40. Premium hospitality in the Stone Pine Club, an open-air deck above the ninth and 18th greens, are $275 (daily) and $1,000 (weekly).
All military and first responders are eligible to receive complimentary admission. Children are admitted free with a ticketed adult.
Joe Curley is a staff reporter for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. Follow him @vcsjoecurley onTwitter,FacebookandInstagram.
Matilda Castren became the first player from Finland to win on the LPGA, emerging from a thick Marine Layer as a rising European star.
Matilda Castren became the first player from Finland to win on the LPGA, emerging from a thick Marine Layer as a rising European star.
“I knew one day it would be me,” said an emotional Castren, “but you didn’t think it was going to be so soon.”
Castren, who began the day two strokes back of Min Lee, started out blazing hot at chilly Lake Merced, stuffing her approach shots for easy birdies on the first three holes and then converting a short eagle putt on the par-5 fifth. She was 5 under through five holes and looking like someone who’d been in this position one thousand times over. In truth, this was only her 15th start on the LPGA.
The seemingly unflappable 26-year-old made the turn in 30 and built a three-shot lead over Taiwan’s Lee, who looked to become the first player to win on the Symetra Tour and LPGA in consecutive starts.
As Castren cooled off with pars on the back nine, the easygoing Lee tightened things up, pulling to within one after a birdie on the par-5 15th.
A short miss for par on the par-3 17th, however, gave Lee her first bogey of the day and put her two back with only the closing par 5 to play. Lee’s eagle putt on the 18th from just off the green from around 25 feet, came up about an inch short and the expressive player dropped to her knees.
Castren then calmly dropped in a final birdie putt to cap off a glorious 65 that put her at 14 under for the tournament, two head of Lee. It was a two-player contest for most of the day, and they only dropped one shot between them.
“I mean, winning a tournament you have to practice,” said Lee, “and this is a great practice. Maybe after couple times I will be there.”
So Yeon Ryu and Hannah Green, both majors winners, finished in a share of third at 8 under.
Castren, a 2020/21 LPGA Tour rookie, won seven times at Florida State and collected her first LPGA title on the same day another former Seminole, Morgane Metraux, won on the Island Resort Championship on the Symetra Tour.
Prior to this week, Castren’s career-best finish on the LPGA was a tie for eighth at the 2020 LPGA Drive On Championship in Georgia. She tied for 30th at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open at nearby Olympic Club.
Celine Boutier bolted up the board with a closing 64 to move into a share of sixth. Jodi Ewart Shadoff hit 18 greens in a final-round 65 that included six birdies in the last eight holes to also vault into the top 10.
Michelle Wie West played the weekend for the first time since coming back from maternity leave. Wie West, who is a member at Lake Merced, shot 69-71 over the weekend to finish tied for 40th.
One week after suffering a heartbreaking loss at the U.S. Women’s Open, Lexi Thompson finished with a 74 to place tied for 34th.
Lauren Kim finds herself grateful to be back in competition post-COVID break. This week, she’s riding all the home feels at Lake Merced.
In the San Francisco Bay area this week, Lauren Kim is enjoying the advantage that familiarity brings.
“It’s amazing to stay at home, sleep in my own bed,” she said. “Just have the local support and know that people that are rooting for me are really close by.”
Kim is giving them reason to cheer. The 26-year-old has fired a pair of 69s to open the LPGA Mediheal Championship at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, California. At 6 under, she enters the weekend in contention.
This is the LPGA’s second consecutive stop in the area. Last week’s U.S. Women’s Open was played at nearby Olympic Club, but Kim wasn’t in the field.
Kim played this Lake Merced layout often as a junior golfer growing up in Los Altos, California. She admitted she doesn’t play it as much as an adult.
“It’s kind of fun to come back and just see how your game improves on the same course over like a decade of playing it,” she said.
It hasn’t been an easy for for Kim, an LPGA rookie in 2017, the past few seasons. She missed the cut in her first three starts in 2021 and finished 81st at the Pure Silk Championship before teeing it up this week.
“Yeah, it really has been a struggle. I’ve been kind of grinding away and hoping for results and kind of patiently waiting,” she said.
Maybe it just took a home environment to bring them out. Count Kim among the six players with Stanford ties playing in this field. Kim was a member of Stanford’s 2015 NCAA title team.
That number also includes Michelle Wie West, who attended Stanford but didn’t play for the team, and current player Rachel Heck, who won the NCAA individual title at the end of last month.
Michelle Wie West (left) and Rachel Heck (right) on the second hole during the first round of the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. (Photo: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
There was a period in Kim’s time on the Symetra Tour that she considered walking away from competitive golf.
“That took a lot of self-reflection,” she said. “I think realizing why I play the game in the first place and just kind of appreciating the opportunity. I think it’s really easy to get wrapped up in the grind of being on tour – whether it’s Symetra or out here even – wrapped up in results and all of the performance that goes with it.”
Last year’s COVID break brought perspective, namely a window into what life would be like without competitive golf.
“I got into cycling, backpacking, a lot of different hobbies, things that I felt like I couldn’t really do being on the road all the time,” she said of the things she focused on while on that forced break.
“And so I don’t know, just having fun with it, making the best out of a really poor situation. When I found out I wasn’t going to be competing, to have that taken away, I think really helped me practice like negative visualization in way and what would my life look like without golf.
“Just made me really grateful to be back out here.”
Wie West, meanwhile, will play the weekend at Lake Merced for the first time in five starts this season after becoming a mom. The 31-year-old fired rounds of 73-75 and at 4 over was sitting just inside the cut number. Heck, who was paired with Wie West the first two rounds, missed the cut with rounds of 76-78.
Lexi Thompson took Monday off for a photo shoot and then got right back to work this week at Lake Merced.
Ireland’s Leona Maguire rolled in nine birdies in the opening round of the LPGA Mediheal Championship to take a one-shot lead at 7 under. But the big question heading into the first round at Lake Merced: How would Lexi Thompson fare?
After suffering a devastating collapse at the U.S. Women’s Open, less than four miles down the road at The Olympic Club, Thompson took Monday off for a photo shoot and then got right back to work. She’s currently tied for 14th at the Mediheal after a 1-under 71.
“Really just surrounded myself with my dad and my manager as well,” said Thompson, when asked how she tried to reset. Thompson also noted that she tried to sign as many autographs as she could.
“Just really focused on the good that came out of Sunday, and the good that I had that whole week.”
Thompson, who is currently tied for 11th, said she hit two “iffy” tee shots on Thursday but rolled it well coming in. She hit nine fairways, 14 greens and took 33 putts. She also pitched in for eagle on the par-5 fifth.
“It was good that I just didn’t go home and ponder over it all,” she said of the decision to play this week.
Thompson, of course, rebounded with a victory at the Kingsmill Championship shortly after that brutal loss at the 2017 ANA Inspiration. She also won the ShopRite LPGA Classic immediately after a runner-up finish at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open.
Leona Maguire lines up her putt on the 15th hole during the first round of the LPGA Mediheal Championship at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, California. Photo by Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Rookie Maguire has a new Irish caddie on the bag this week and said Lake Merced has a home feeling to it. It’s also the first time identical twin sister Lisa has been out on tour with Leona since last February. The pair planned to visit the Golden Gate Bridge Thursday afternoon.
“I suppose the weather is similar to home, even the golf course is similar to home,” said Maguire. “It’s very green and sort of tree-lined a little bit like what we get at home. Northern California’s been good to me and I won my first Symetra event not too far from here, so these kind of golf courses suit my eye and it was a lot of fun to play with Lydia (Ko), and we played a lot together over the last few months at Lake Nona.”
In keeping the recent Stanford storylines going, Cardinal grad Albane Valenzuela holds a share of third after a 4-under 68 with former teammate Ziyi Wang, who goes by Emily, on the bag. Wang, a Rhodes Scholar, graduated from Stanford with a Master’s degree in international policy on Wednesday.
“She’s really like my best, best friend from college,” said Valenzuela, “and this week neither my dad or my brother could caddie because my brother is playing in the Mexican Am, so I called her and I was like, ‘Can you please caddie for me?’ She was like, ‘done deal.’ Reply within five minutes. Really cool.”
Inbee Park headlines a group at 3 under, making four consecutive birdies on Nos. 4-7. Park said she didn’t get too much rest after the USWO because she played Harding Park with a few friends earlier this week.
The LPGA Hall of Famer is a huge fan of Bay Area courses.
“Obviously the weather is a little bit chilly for those two weeks and we’re going to be in the summer after this,” she said, “but I really enjoyed playing these two courses. They’re a little bit different. Both really good layouts I love to play.”
LPGA commissioner Mike Whan gave his players a glimmer of hope by rescheduling the ANA Inspiration despite postponing three additional events on the schedule.
The LPGA has announced that it is further delaying its season in the wake of the coronavirus. The tour most recently postponed its first major of the year, the ANA Inspiration, in addition to two more domestic events. Now, the LPGA has informed its players that three more domestic events will be postponed: the Lotte Championship in Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii (April 15-18), the Hugel-Air Premia L.A. Open in Los Angeles (April 23-26) and the LPGA Mediheal Championship in Daly City, California (April 30-May 3).
But the LPGA also sent some good news on Friday morning. The ANA Inspiration has been rescheduled for Sept. 10-13 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. The Cambia Portland Classic in Portland, Oregon, which had previously been scheduled for those dates, will now take place Sept. 17-20.
LPGA commissioner Mike Whan informed his players of the changes with a personal letter in which he wrote that he and the tour had held out on postponement of those next events as long as they could – hoping the situation would improve. He told his players “you deserve better,” and also noted that he had made a promise to himself not to send any more cancellations without also sending positive news, hence the rescheduling of the ANA Inspiration.
“The truth is, every time I think we’ve made a plan to address changes, it never seems to be ‘long enough,’” he wrote. “I wish I could tell you when the LPGA Tour will resume our schedule, but the truth is, no one has those answers. Virtually all our events are concerned given the conditions they currently face in their respective markets. At this point, the only option is to reschedule what we can and hope the COVID-19 situation starts to improve. Trust me, patience is NOT my best quality, so this situation is hard on me, too.”
Whan also filmed a message of encouragement for social media this week, in which he spoke directly to fans and sponsors.
LPGA players are in the unique position of also having lost three international events in February and March that were to be played in the Asia Pacific region. The LPGA has arguably been hit harder than many professional tours by the coronavirus. Nine consecutive events have now been canceled or postponed.
The next event on the Tour’s schedule is the Pelican Women’s Championship, to be played May 14-17 in Belleair, Florida. It would be a first-year event. The PGA Championship was scheduled to take place that weekend in San Francisco, however, and already has been postponed.
