At the LPGA Drive On Championship last week, the first full-field event of the season on tour, Golfweek asked several players to name their favorite swing on tour (outside of their own). Not surprisingly, one name kept popping up – Nelly Korda.
The hometown favorite would go on to win her ninth LPGA career title in a playoff against Lydia Ko in Bradenton, Florida. Danish player Nanna Koerstz Madsen even noted that she has used videos of Korda’s swing in the past to help her get into certain positions.
The No. 2 player in the world wasn’t the only name mentioned, of course. Here are the favorites:
Maja Stark became the seventh first-time winner on the LPGA this season with her commanding five-stroke triumph at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland. The victory qualified Stark, a former standout at Oklahoma State, for immediate LPGA membership.
Stark has now won seven times worldwide since turning professional last summer.
Two of the seven first-time winners – Jennifer Kupcho and Ashleigh Buhai – won majors. Last week, Buhai became the 44th player to become a Rolex first-time winner at a major.
The record for most first-time winners in a season is 11, set in 1995. In 2018, there were 10: Jin Young Ko, Pernilla Lindberg, Moriya Jutanugarn, Annie Park, Nasa Hataoka, Thidapa Suwannapura, Georgia Hall, Marina Alex, Nelly Korda and Gaby Lopez.
Here’s a closer look at the seven first timers in 2022:
Hataoka’s sixth LPGA win puts her in elite company.
Nasa Hataoka’s sixth career victory at the DIO Implant LA Open on Sunday puts her in elite company with Jessica Korda. Together they’re the winningest players on the LPGA without a major title.
Who are the best players without a major? Some on this list, like Hataoka and Korda, have won quite a bit already. Others, like rookie Atthaya Thitikul, make the list based on talent and potential.
Minjee Lee and Jennifer Kupcho are two players who played their way off of last year’s list. Lee won the 2021 Amundi Evian Championship, and Kupcho broke through with her first LPGA title at the Chevron Championship earlier this month.
Here’s a list of 10 players (with their Rolex Ranking) who are either primed to win a major or past due:
Jin Young Ko is the No.1 player in the Rolex rankings and the winner of six of her last 11 starts on the LPGA.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Jin Young Ko, the No.1 player in the Rolex rankings and winner of six of her last 11 starts on the LPGA, found herself outside of the cut line at the start of the second round of the Chevron Championship. She shot a 74 on Thursday that snapped her consecutive rounds under-par streak at 34. Ko responded like a top player.
Playing with Lexi Thompson, Ko rallied with a 4-under 68 in the second round Friday. That pushed her to 2-under par for the tournament, well inside the cut line that came at 1-over 145. That’s still seven shots behind 36-hole leader Hinako Shibuno.
Several big names who struggled Thursday played their way back into the cut with solid rounds Friday, including past Chevron winners Inbee Park (69 in the second round) and Seon Yo Ryu (68), both at even par for the first two days.
Perhaps the biggest name to miss the cut is Yuka Saso, the reigning U.S. Women’s Open champion, who finished two rounds at 2-over par.
Jin Young Ko of South Korea walks down from the second tee box during round two of the Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, Friday, April 1, 2022.
Home cooking
Last week Gabriela Ruffels was in the field of the developmental Epson Tour event in Beaumont. That’s where Ruffels, whose home course is Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells, will play most of her golf this year since she does not have status on the LPGA after failing to maintain her LPGA playing privileges through qualifying school.
This week, Ruffels is playing for a major championship on the LPGA Tour at the Chevron Championship. While she is not exempt for the regular tour, she made the field of the Chevron by finishing in the top 20 of the Mission Hills event in 2021. A final-hole birdie allowed her to finish 19th.
Ruffels, the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, is obviously pleased to be back at Mission Hills this year even as she’s planning a year on the Epson Tour.
“I can’t really control that. Yeah, I don’t have any status, but I just feel like I’m so grateful to be out here,” Ruffels said. “When I do get a start, I’m just so grateful to be here.”
Ruffels has played in the tournament twice, finishing 15th in 2020 and then 19th last year.
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“It’s really cool to be out here again. I had exemptions last year on the LPGA Tour but couldn’t quite get status through Q-School,” she said. “I just think it’s just being grateful to be out here and just having a lot of fun playing against the best in the world.”
Through 36 holes, Ruffels is 5-under 139, including a 71 Friday.
Red-hot player
There is lots of talk about how well Jin Young Ko has played in the last few months on the LPGA, but it is Nanna Koerstz Madsen who might actually be the hottest player on the tour. In her last two starts, she has a win at the Honda LPGA Thailand and a playoff loss at the JTBC Classic in Carlsbad last week.
That has Koerstz Madsen in second place in the Race to the CME Globe points behind Danielle Kang. Koerstz Madsen said her solid play is just a matter of taking her time.
“I’m just staying patient and trusting my game. I was very frustrated after my round yesterday,” Koerstz Madsen said about her opening 71. “I didn’t hit the ball good at all yesterday. I really fought around. Only hit eight greens yesterday.”
She rebounded with a 5-under 67 on Friday to get back in the hunt.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen hits her second shot on the 9th hole during the second round of the Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, April 1, 2022.
“So just really that I grinded it out yesterday and ended up getting it to minus-1, and then I had some time on the range,” she said. “As long as I think I can play good, then I believe it.”
Give us the cheers
Georgia Hall played in the Chevron Championship when there were no fans on the course because of COVID-19, and she knows she didn’t like it.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s a big difference having fans,” Hall said Friday after shooting a 1-under 71 to get to 5-under for the tournament. “It was really quiet the first time we came out and there was no one here. It didn’t feel like a major.”
Things have changed and for the better with fans back on the course this week, and Hall notices that the crowds seem to be a bit bigger than three years ago.
“Now everyone is back out and kind of back to normal,” she said. “It’s really nice. Always nice to get some support even though I’m out of the U.K.”
Youth prevailed as 19-year-old Atthaya Thitikul ousted Nanna Koerstaz Madsen in extra holes.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen picked the absolute worst time to record her first three-putt of the week at the JTBC Classic.
Needing to two-putt the 72nd hole to collect her second consecutive title, the Dane pushed her par putt and fell into a tie with 19-year-old rookie Atthaya Thitikul, who had finished play an hour earlier.
As Koerstz Madsen put the finishing touches on a 2-under 70, Thitikul stretched and worked on her short game a bit but never went to the range as she kept tabs on the scoreboard. The Thai phenom closed with an 8-under 64, the round of the week, Sunday at Aviara Golf Club to finish knotted with Koerstz Madsen at 16-under 272 for the tournament.
Only three players have ever won their first two events on the LPGA in consecutive starts. Koerstz Madsen looked to become the fourth, joining Trish Johnson (1993), Emilee Klein (1996) and Ariya Jutanugarn (2016).
Thitikul, No. 14 in the Rolex Rankings, has four wins on the Ladies European Tour, making history when she won the first at age 14. The LPGA rookie looked to win for the first time in just her fifth start in 2022.
Ultimately, youth prevailed, with Thitikul claiming her first LPGA title with bogey on the second playoff hole after Koerstz Madsen’s approach met a watery end.
“It means to the world to me,” said a champagne-soaked Thitikul,
The first of many I’m sure for Atthaya Thitikul. Wins in the fifth start of her rookie year. ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/LvNiC8cUyd
On the first playoff hole, both players had 156 yards left into the difficult 18th. They told each other that it didn’t matter who went first. Koerstz Madsen eventually gave the nod to Thitikul to go ahead, and Thitikul proceeded to nearly dunk her approach for eagle.
Koerstz Madsen couldn’t match the effort, missing the green left. She did, however, nestle her third shot close, and after Thitikul failed to convert for birdie, the pair moved on to a second playoff hole after matching pars.
The second time around, Koerstz Madsen’s tee shot hit the cart path and she hit her hybrid from 216 yards with her right foot still on the concrete. Her approach shot leaked right into the water, opening the door for the rookie to make her mark.
Thitikul needed only to three-putt for bogey to collet her first LPGA victory.
Earlier this month, Koerstz Madsen, whose fiancé Nicki Hansen caddies for her on tour, won the Honda LPGA Thailand in a playoff with an eagle on the final hole.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen tees off the second hole during the final round of the 2022 JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, California. (Photo: Donald Miralle/Getty Images)
Last year at the AIG Women’s British Open, Koerstz Madsen came into the 72nd hole tied with Anna Nordqvist but suffered a heart-breaking double-bogey on the taxing 18th that included a shocking shank from a green-side bunker.
That now seems a distant memory.
“I do think before I was chasing a lot the birdies,” said Koerstz Madsen. “I have changed my game plan a little bit the way I hit into the greens. Nicki is in charge of that actually. I just hit the shot. He tells me exactly where I should hit the ball. Just the mentality of not being too aggressive, going after everything, and it’s okay to have a 7-meter putt. Sometimes that’s good enough. And then you go for the pin wherever you can, obviously.
“The British Open was really a good experience for me. I think after the British Open I really wanted to put myself in that position again, so I worked very hard to get there again.”
Koerstz Madsen began the final round with an eagle and ended her day the same way.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen began the final round in Thailand with an eagle and ended her day the same way, draining a 10-foot putt on the second playoff hole against Xiyu “Janet” Lin, to secure her first LPGA title. Koerstz Madsen became the first player from Denmark to win on tour.
“It’s amazing. It’s a dream come true,” said Koerstz Madsen, who along with Lin set a new scoring record of 26-under 262 at the Honda LPGA Thailand.
China’s Lin, who was also looking for her first LPGA title, birdied her last two holes in regulation as well as the two playoff holes. Lin closed with a 6-under 66 on the steamy Old Course at Siam Country Club.
“I’m very proud,” said Lin. “Sometimes it’s just weird. You shot 26 under and then cannot win a tournament. But that’s my lowest ever shot in a tournament week, and like four days of very solid golf. Like I’m going to take a lot from this.”
Nanna Koerstz Madsen of Denmark gives the golf club to her caddie after her second shot on play-off at 18th hole during the final round of Honda LPGA Thailand at Siam Country Club Pattaya Old Course on March 13, 2022 in Pattaya, Thailand. (Photo by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images)
Koerstz Madsen, whose fiancé Nicki Hansen caddies for her on tour, caught a flier on the par-5 18th hole in regulation that led to a closing bogey. She rebounded by playing the two playoff holes in three under. Koerstz Madsen is known for sometimes carrying lemons in her golf bag that she sucks on to help keep her calm and focused.
Last year at the AIG Women’s British Open, Koerstz Madsen came into the 72nd hole tied with Anna Nordqvist but suffered a heart-breaking double-bogey on the taxing 18th that included a shocking shank from a green-side bunker.
That now seems a distant memory.
Koerstz Madsen, 27, joins Leona Maguire as the only first-time winners thus far in 2022. Both competed on the victorious European Solheim Cup team at Inverness in 2021. Koerstz Madsen won three times on the Epson Tour in 2017 to earn a “Battlefield Promotion” to the LPGA.
“I mean, Janet, she really fought,” said Koerstz Madsen. “She finished up birdie-birdie, so she played amazing, too. Yes, I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous there.”
Celine Boutier finished one shot out of the playoff in third at 25 under. Amy Yang, a three-time winner of this event, tied for fourth with Brooke Henderson at 23 under.
Yuka Saso, the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion, made a final-round push with a career-low 10-under 62 that included eight birdies and a pitch-in for eagle from 30 yards on the par-4 15th. Saso’s round tied the tournament low set by Jessica Korda in 2018.
It was an impressive display of golf in the final round, particularly because Anne Van Dam had to overtake Nanna Koerstz Madsen to win
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Anne van Dam might have the most coveted swing in women’s professional golf. The Dutch player crushes it off the tee – she was the longest hitter on both the LET and the LPGA in 2019 – and the European Solheim Cupper has continued to pad her win column. Van Dam defended her title Sunday at the Ladies European Tour’s Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España. It’s her fifth title on that tour.
It was an impressive display of golf in the final round, particularly because van Dam had to overtake her Danish friend Nanna Koerstz Madsen to win her second title in this event. Interestingly, even Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez made an appearance in the gallery for the final round.
Madsen had a three-shot lead after three rounds at Aloha Golf Club in Marbella, Spain. She holed out for eagle at the par-4 ninth and was still two shots ahead at the start of the back nine. She was down to a one-shot lead on the 18th tee.
Madsen made a double-bogey there after dumping her drive left in the water. It was her third double-bogey in a final-round 74.
Van Dam played to her length and placed her tee shot in the middle of the fairway with a 4-iron. She won with a seemingly easy par for a final-round 70 and a 13-under total. She said she didn’t expect to see Madsen’s final hole unfold the way it did.
“Nanna is a good friend of mine so I would have loved to beat her in a playoff, it would have been a better feeling for me,” van Dam told the Golf Channel. “That’s what it is. It’s golf, she took more risk off the tee hitting a driver. I’ve been hitting an iron there all week.”
Madsen tied for second with Aditi Ashok at 12 under.
Van Dam is the second player recent history to win back-to-back Spanish Open titles. Spaniard Azahara Munoz did it in 2016 and 2017.
The Ladies European Tour wraps up its regular season this week at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, a new event on the schedule.
