In Gee Chun won’t tee it up at home this week in South Korea at the BMW Ladies Championship. The three-time major champion took a four-week break from her golf clubs after an MRI and X-ray tests showed inflammation in the shoulder area and a diagnosis of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, according to her longtime coach Won Park.
Chun, 28, last competed on the LPGA in August at the CP Women’s Open in Canada. Her last start came in mid-September at the KB Financial Group Star Championship on the KLPGA. In addition to this week’s BMW, Chun missed the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America and Mediheal Championship as a result of injury.
In Gee Chun holds the trophy after wining the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo: Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports)
Chun won the KPMG Women’s PGA at Congressional in June and lost in a playoff at the AIG Women’s British Open at Muirfield in August. She’s currently ranked No. 7 in the world.
Chun plans to return to the LPGA for the Pelican Women’s Championship in mid-November as well as the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, where the winner receives $2 million.
It was set up to a be a dramatic Sunday and the stars delivered.
BELLEAIR, Florida – It was set up to a be a dramatic Sunday at the Pelican Women’s Championship, and the stars delivered. Though it was as shockingly good as it was bad.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda collected her fourth LPGA title of the season, making her the most decorated American player since Stacy Lewis in 2012. Lexi Thompson, on the other hand, reminded us that no amount of living room sessions on the Perfect Practice Putting Mat can simulate the pressure of needing to make a putt with everything on the line. For all the talk of Thompson’s improved putting this week, it’s three short misses down the stretch that will likely haunt her for some time.
After a back-and-forth battle that saw Korda, 23, and Lexi Thompson, 26, tied for the lead at 19 under with two holes to play, a session of ugly golf broke out on the short par-4 17th, with Korda making a triple from the fairway and Thompson missing a 4-footer for par.
“Honestly, I lost hope,” said Korda, who said curse words were flying as she walked down the 18th fairway.
Caddie Jason McDede told Korda to give herself a one-minute reset and think nothing but positive thoughts. Korda took the time to think about all the putts she’d made.
Being fired up though, has always been a benefit to her game.
“When I used to play against my dad when I was younger,” said Korda, “he would always try to piss me off because he always says that I step it up a notch when I’m pissed.”
Thompson held a one-stroke lead heading into the 72nd hole but, after Korda knocked in a birdie, missed yet another 4-foot putt for par, sending the foursome of Sei Young Kim, Lydia Ko, Korda and Thompson back to the 18th tee for a sudden-death playoff. Kim, the 2020 Pelican champion, had drained a 25-foot putt for birdie in regulation play to join them at 17 under.
In the playoff, Kim found the left fairway bunker off the tee and went long with her approach, as did Ko from the fairway. Korda, meanwhile, put herself on a similar line from before: This time 18 feet below the hole. Thompson, who was last to hit, left herself in a similar spot to what she faced in regulation as well, this time 6 feet left of the hole.
When Kim and Ko could do no better than par, Korda showed her moxie with a second straight birdie on the 18th hole pour the pressure back on Thompson.
As Korda stood off the side of the green with her hands behind her back, Thompson approached yet another short putt to decide her fate. Once again, the ball slid to the right, leaving an uncomfortable-looking Thompson heartbroken and Korda triumphant.
As Jessica rushed over to hug her little sister, an emotional Thompson stood off to the side with her caddie. This was supposed to be a redemptive moment for Thompson, with her mom watching in person for the time in nearly two years. The sting of the meltdown at The Olympic Club certainly still fresh in the minds of many watching from outside the ropes.
Thompson took one question after the round from an LPGA media official, who asked her to assess the week.
“Played a lot of good golf, made a lot of good putts, and just wasn’t meant for me in the end,” she said.
While Thompson hasn’t won on the LPGA since June of 2019, Korda has won five tournaments in that time. She now has a total of seven career victories.
With her victory in Belleair, Korda joins Jin Young Ko as the only players on tour with four victories this season. She also jumps 10 points ahead of Ko in the LPGA Player of the Year race with 191. A victory at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship is worth 30 points and second place is worth 12. Ko won last year’s edition.
“It doesn’t even feel like a season,” said Korda. “If feels like it’s two seasons. I feel like Lake Nona was a couple years ago.”
When asked to rank her accomplishments so far, Korda put the major on top of the heap, saying it was the hardest to win because it came on the heels of another title and it’s what she had dreamed about as a kid. Lewis, Korda’s pod leader during the Solheim Cup, sent a “great fighting” text to Korda when it was done. Korda loves the way Lewis never backs down.
“Even though I say I think I lost hope,” said Korda, “I will never give up. I’ll go down fighting every single time.”
You get a Lambo! You get a Lambo! You get a Lambo!
BELLEAIR, Florida – Su Oh doesn’t have a car in the U.S. or back home in Australia. She shares an Audi Q5 rental with Hannah Green when she’s in America and borrows her parents’ Volkswagen CC when she’s in Melbourne.
On Sunday at the Pelican Women’s Championship, Oh was the first player of the day to take a swing at the par-3 12th hole, and she recorded her second ace of the season. Oh hit a smooth 7-iron from 157 yards, becoming the third player this week to win a two-year lease on a Lamborghini.
“I would actually love it if I could take it to Australia,” she said, “but I don’t think that’s going to work.”
🚨 ACE ALERT 🚨@suohgolf aces the par-3 157 yard 12th hole with her 7-iron at the @pelicanlpga!
Austin Ernst was the first player to ace No. 12 during Monday’s pro-am. She took a test drive around the parking lot on Friday but, as of Sunday, said she hadn’t yet talked to the dealership about the details of insurance or a cash-out option.
Pavarisa Yoktuan was the second player to ace the 12th, and her fantastic reaction was caught on camera as this week marks the first time the LPGA has had a “Feature Hole” live stream on Peacock. Every players’ shot into the 12th is being streamed live.
Thailand’s Yoktuan took a test drive herself on Sunday, but said given how much she travels, it didn’t make sense to pay the insurance on it. She didn’t get an official quote, but heard at least $30,000 for two years.
“But I don’t think it’s that cheap,” she said. “I think it’s probably more.”
Coming into this week, Yoktuan had made $23,991 for the entire 2021 season.
BELLEAIR, Florida – The Pelican Women’s Championship – and its sensational leaderboard – is here to stay through 2025, the tournament has announced. Next year’s event will be held Nov. 10-13 and the purse will increase to $2 million.
After making its debut in 2020 where Sei Young Kim walked away victorious, the event returned this week with spectators. Fans on Sunday are being treated to a star-studded top 10 led by Lexi Thompson and Nelly Korda that includes Jennifer Kupcho, Lydia Ko, Patty Tavatanakit, Christina Kim, Sei Young Kim, Leona Maguire and Jin Young Ko.
This week’s field of 108 players are competing for a $1.75 million purse at the newly renovated Pelican Golf Club.
“We are excited to extend our partnership with the LPGA Tour in bringing the world’s best female professional golfers to Tampa Bay for the Pelican Women’s Championship,” said Dan Doyle Jr., who co-founded the club with his father.
“We are committed to providing a best-in-class experience for the players and fans alike, and we are thankful for the tremendous support from the Belleair community in helping to build this new championship as a premier event on the LPGA Tour.”
This week the tour also debuted Feature Hole coverage for the first time tour history. Fans can watch live streaming on Peacock of the par-3 12th hole, where both Austin Ernst and Pavarisa Yoktuan have made aces to win two-year leases on a flashy Lamborghini.
Final-round coverage of the tournament takes place from 1-4 p.m. ET on the NBC Sports app and NBCSports.com. The event will be tape-delayed on Golf Channel from 7:30-10:30 p.m. ET.
“I wasn’t going to stop working. I wasn’t going to take a step back.”
BELLEAIR, Florida – Ryann O’Toole simply wanted to get her two English Bulldogs into the house. When she reached down to pick up the ball Hank and Moose were playing with, one-year-old Moose accidentally clamped down on her right hand. Nine stitches later, O’Toole’s right thumb threatened to put a stop to her practice leading up to the last two events of the year.
“They’re sweethearts,” said O’Toole. “(Moose) is a puppy still. He felt terrible when he did it.”
O’Toole reached out to her instructor, Jorge Parada, and asked for a one-arm practice schedule. She spent the next week using only her left hand for speed work, chipping, bump-and-runs, flop shots, and putting. Her first round of golf with two hands took place last Wednesday.
O’Toole enjoyed the one-handed session so much she might add left-hand only days to her practice routine going forward. In fact, she’d recommend it to amateurs, too.
“It creates great timing,” she said. “It creates good synchronization with the body, and to be honest, it’s amazing how much the right side adds the power force to it, but your left arm is really the driver. It does a lot.”
O’Toole practiced three to four hours a day with her left hand and said she was able to feel things in her putting that she previously couldn’t. It helped with a swing change she’s been trying to implement, too.
“Lately I’ve been working on trying to get my upper body over to the right side on the backswing better without swaying,” said O’Toole. “When you’re swinging left-hand only, you can’t sway back in order to create contact.”
When she got bored and played one-handed from the forward tees at her home course in Arizona, she tried to play bogey golf, hitting it 130 yards off the tee and about 90 yards with each iron.
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O’Toole, 34, won for the first time on the LPGA earlier this season and is in the field for this week’s Pelican Women’s Championship as well as the CME Group Tour Championship, which features a $1.5 million first-place prize, the largest in golf.
“I wasn’t going to stop working,” said O’Toole. “I wasn’t going to take a step back.”
Make an ace, win a Lambo – sounds like a sweet deal.
The ace that won Austin Ernst a two-year lease on a Lamborghini on Monday wasn’t caught on camera. But every shot that’s struck on the par-3 12th during competition rounds of the LPGA Tour’s Pelican Women’s Championship will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock. It marks the first-ever Featured Hole stream in LPGA history.
“Apparently a lot of people came close on Monday,” said Ernst, who struck an 8-iron from 147 yards at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. Any player who follows Ernst’s lead the rest of the week will also win a two-year lease on the iconic Italian car.
Ernst said she hadn’t gotten the information yet on how much the insurance will run her for two years. That number will determine whether or not it makes sense to accept the prize.
Back home in South Carolina, Ernst drives a Chevy Tahoe, and she was relieved to hear that the Lamborghini is an automatic as she has yet to learn how to drive a manual.
“I was like wait, I can’t drive a stick,” said Ernst. “Probably shouldn’t learn how to drive on that car either.”
Raymond James Pro-Am ahead of the 2021 Pelican Women’s Championship at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, FL on Monday, November 8, 2021.
(Ben Solomon/Outlyr)
Live stream coverage of the 12th hole will feature live interviews by Amy Rogers and studio coverage from host George Savaricas and analyst Jim Gallagher. Coverage of the watery par 3 will begin at 7:45 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday and 9:45 a.m. ET over the weekend. It will be free to consumers on the Peacock app.
Television coverage of the Pelican will be live on Golf Channel from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. Weekend coverage will be tape-delayed on Golf Channel from 7:30-10:30 p.m.
The event’s live stream times on the NBC Sports App and golfchannel.com are from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 1-4 p.m. over the weekend.
Korda has won three times on the LPGA this season, including a major, as well as the Olympic gold.
Nelly Korda didn’t know that she had returned to No. 1 in the world until someone told her walking off the 18th green on Monday during a pro-am round.
“I was like, ‘No, you’re joking. How is that possible?’ ” recalled Korda. “So it was a little bit of a shock to me.”
Shocking because neither Jin Young Ko, now No. 2, nor Korda played last week, and it’s strange to think that one can rise to No. 1 without hitting a golf shot. In fact, Korda hasn’t played at all in three weeks. (The Rolex Rankings are based on a two-year rolling period.)
This week’s Pelican Women’s Championship, the penultimate event on the LPGA schedule, takes place Nov. 11-14 Club in Belleair, Florida, and will feature the first of two head-to-head battles between Korda and Ko to round out the 2021 LPGA season.
Korda has won three times on the LPGA, including a major, as well as Olympic gold. Ko, the hottest player in golf, has won four times since July.
“I was pretty dominant in the summer, and now she’s dominant,” said Korda, “so I think that is just how sports go. You kind of pass on the baton in a sense, and someone passes you and you just try to battle it out.”
Korda trails Ko by 15 points in the Hall of Fame race and said she had no idea where she stood in that season-long competition. She did, however, know that she’s not eligible for the Vare Trophy, given to the player with the season’s lowest scoring average. Both awards are worth one point toward the LPGA Hall of Fame (which requires 27 points).
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To be eligible for the Vare, players must compete in 70 rounds or 70 percent of official tournament rounds, whichever is less. In this case, that would be 70 rounds.
Neither Korda (currently 15 events, 54 rounds, 69.074 average) nor Ko (17 events, 59 rounds, 69.186) will meet the minimum requirement to be eligible. Lydia Ko, currently fourth on the list at 69.615, is the highest-ranked player who is eligible.
When asked if she considered adding any events late in the year to become eligible, Korda said her schedule was “crazy enough.” She also didn’t realize that she’d be ineligible for the award this year until she read about it in the media.
“I had to pull out last minute from Portland because I just wasn’t feeling well,” said Korda, “and same with Walmart.
“So, no, I don’t think I could have played more events because my body was just so tired. I typically play all the events at the start of the year, and if I play well, then I’ll take some time off, because the traveling in the summer was just so crazy.”
Older sister Jessica said that in her 11 years on the LPGA, she had no idea there was a round minimum for the Vare Trophy. When asked if she felt that minimum should be changed or reconsidered in a year in which several events were canceled due to the global pandemic, Jessica said “100 percent.”
“That’s for other people to decide,” she continued. “We’re just here to play.”
Nelly Korda (USA) bites her gold medal, won in the women’s golf event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, Japan. Photo by Matt York/Associated Press
The Korda sisters grew up in Bradenton, Florida, and spent a good deal of time competing in junior tournaments around the Tampa Bay area. They’re renting a house this week near the course and brought over food their mother Regina cooked to warm up each night.
Nelly said she drove back to Sarasota after Monday’s pro-am round to spend a little extra time at home.While Jessica did compete in last year’s inaugural Pelican event, Nelly came out as a spectator as she was still dealing with a back injury suffered at the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA.
One year later, she has a chance to further stake her claim as the best of 2021. A victory at either of the last two events of the season is worth 30 points and second place is worth 12.
“Honestly, I think I’ve always said good golf kind of solves it all in a sense,” said Nelly.
“I’m not going to worry about anything, no trophies, nothing, until I tee up that first shot and hopefully sink that last putt on the 72nd hole.”
Monday pro-ams don’t often make headlines, but Austin Ernst certainly generated buzz with a timely ace before the LPGA’s Pelican Women’s Championship. When Ernst’s 8-iron from 147 yards on the par-3 12th at Pelican Golf Club found the bottom of the cup, she suddenly found herself behind the wheel of a bright green Lamborghini.
“It feels like it’s probably pretty fast,” said Ernst after sitting inside. “It will be exciting to take a little test drive.”
Ernst, 29, who was playing in the Raymond James Monday Pro-Am in Belleair, Florida, won a two-year lease on the flashy Italian car. She now has four career aces, including two in competition and a pair in pro-ams. This is the first time she has won anything for striking the perfect shot.
“I did see it go in,” said Ernst. “I hit it, and I hit it fairly off the toe, but it was right on line.”
Ernst, who married Jason Dods on Oct. 1, is a three-time winner on the LPGA. She won earlier this year at the LPGA Drive On event at Golden Ocala.
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The former NCAA champ is one of 108 players teeing it up Nov. 11-14 in this week’s Pelican Women’s Championship. She’ll be joined in the field by World No. 1 Nelly Korda, No. 2-ranked Jin Young Ko and last year’s champion, Sei Young Kim (No. 4).
Fassi was one of the last women standing in a thrilling battle for the Dubai Moonlight Classic title this past week in Dubai
Maria Fassi was one of the last women standing in a thrilling battle for the Dubai Moonlight Classic title this past week. Ultimately, Bronte Law shut the door with a well-timed eagle on her next-to-last hole and a stuffed approach shot on her last to edge Fassi, but it’s not the last you’ll hear of the fiery player from Mexico this year.
Fassi will tee it up Nov. 8-14 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, for the LPGA’s Pelican Women’s Championship, the final full-field event of the regular season and the next-to-last event on the LPGA’s 2021 schedule.
The tournament opportunity comes on the heels of what amounts to Fassi’s best finish this season. Since finishing 12th at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in July, Fassi has had three top-25 finishes in five LPGA starts, which included a fifth-place finish at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer. She also recently launched the Maria Fassi Foundation and Fassi’s Friends, a series of inclusive and adaptable clinics that bring disabled and full-bodied kids together to learn the game of golf.
By extending Fassi the exemption, tournament officials have assured her a spot in the field should she not qualify on her own. Stephanie Meadow was granted a sponsor exemption, too, along with Destiny Lawson, the 2021 North Florida PGA Women’s Section champion and assistant golf professional at Ocala Golf and Equestrian Club in Ocala, Florida.
“We are excited that Maria and Stephanie will be joining the field at the Pelican Women’s Championship,” said Marci Doyle, executive director of the Pelican Women’s Championship. “Maria has had a strong second half of her season and Stephanie is hoping to replicate her play at the 2020 Pelican Women’s Championship. They are outstanding players who also have a tremendous passion for growing the game.”
The Pelican Women’s Championship is in its second year on the LPGA schedule.
Ko will be the latest player out of the running for this year’s Vare Trophy.
Lydia Ko will make her debut in Saudi Arabia at next week’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International, followed by the Aramco Team Series Jeddah, the fourth and final leg of the Saudi-backed series that included stops in London, Sotogrande and New York.
The Jeddah event will be held opposite the LPGA’s Pelican Women’s Championship in Belleair, Florida.
With only one event remaining on the LPGA schedule after Pelican – the CME Group Tour Championship – Ko will be the latest player out of the running for this year’s Vare Trophy. To be eligible for the Vare, awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average for the season, players must compete in 70 rounds or 70 percent of official tournament rounds, whichever is less. In this case, that would be 70 rounds. Ko currently has 65 official rounds for the season. The CME would put her at 69, one short.
Ko currently ranks fourth on tour in scoring average at 69.615. The three players ahead of her on the list, Nelly Korda (69.074), Jin Young Ko (69.186) and Inbee Park (69.534) will not meet the minimum number of rounds required.
The next player who is eligible to win: In Gee Chun at 69.794. Chun currently has 68 official rounds.
Players must earn 27 points to be eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Ko currently has 19 points. She has never won the Vare Trophy.
“This will be my first visit to the Kingdom,” Ko said in a release, “but having watched some of last year’s debut Saudi events, the Aramco Team Series tournaments this year, and having heard only good things from the girls on Tour, the Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by PIF is an event I am really excited to be part of.
“Being able to play in different countries around the world and inspire more young people and young girls especially into golf is something that I never take for granted. I know the impact this event had with Saudi girls last year – with more than 1,000 signing up to learn to play – so it sounds like I’ll be playing in somewhere that’s really starting to fall in love with golf.”
Golfweek has reached out to Ko’s agent to see if the former No. 1 was aware of where she stood in the Vare race.
Other LPGA players who will be competing in Saudi Arabia include major winners Anna Nordqvist, Minjee Lee, Georgia Hall and Laura Davies.
Two events will be held over the course of nine days. The first tournament will be staged Nov. 4-7 and the second Nov. 10-12. Both events feature $1 million purses, and Emily Kristine Pedersen will return to defend. Last year marked the first professional women’s event ever held on Saudi soil.
Charley Hull, who won the third leg of the series in New York, will be on hand as well as fellow Solheim Cup teammate Carlota Ciganda.
The LET-sanctioned events are backed by the government of Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund, the same group that’s behind Liv Golf Enterprises, the new men’s series with Greg Norman at the helm that was reported on Friday by various outlets, including ESPN.
Of the 19 events on the LET schedule that are not co-sanctioned with the LPGA, five are backed by Golf Saudi.
While some of Saudi Arabia’s discriminatory laws against women have relaxed in recent years – women can now drive cars and travel abroad without permission from their male guardian – it remains one of the most gender-segregated countries in the world.
