Tag: sarah schmelzel

Who is Sarah Schmelzel? Here’s a look at her golf career in photos through the years

Sarah Schmelzel, who was an LPGA rookie in 2019, played collegiate golf at the University of South Carolina.

Sarah Schmelzel, who was an LPGA rookie in 2019, played collegiate golf at the University of South Carolina. Over that offseason, she began working with swing instructor Chris Mayson, who helps a number of players on tour including Alison Lee.

Schmelzel, born in 1994, grew up playing one of the few tree-lined courses in Phoenix, Moon Valley Country Club. She was there in March 2001 when Annika Sorenstam carded the only 59 in LPGA history. Schmelzel’s parents have been members there since the late ’90s, and one of the guys in the bag room called her father and told him to bring the kids out. Something special was brewing.

Schmelzel, who is looking for her first LPGA title, had a stretch of four top-8 finishes early in the 2024 season that included a career-best second place at the Blue Bay LPGA in China.

Here is a look at Schmelzel’s career in photos.

 

Sarah Schmelzel, tied for lead at 2024 Ford Championship, seeks first LPGA win in home state

Live final round coverage will start on Peacock at 4:30 p.m. ET and Golf Channel will come on at 6 p.m. ET.

GILBERT, Ariz. — A variety of LPGA golfers with local ties have been making noise this week at the inaugural Ford Championship in this Phoenix suburb.

On a breezy Saturday, former Arizona State golfer Carlota Ciganda made her move up the leaderboard at Seville Golf and Country Club with a 6-under 66 a round that included two eagles and nearly a third, as her chip on the par-5 18th just missed.

“Very happy with the 6 under,” she said. “The wind is really strong. Lots of side winds, and it’s just, yeah, it’s just hard. I think if you can hit greens it’s good shots. There are some holes that are playing downhill and you can take advantage, as well as the par 5s.”

Sitting at 15 under, Ciganda already has a number in mind for Sunday, a day that is expected to be 20 degrees cooler than Saturday with a 60 percent chance of rain.

“I think you still need to get to probably 21-, 22-under to win,” she said. “Try to get to that number and hopefully that’s enough.”

Ciganda has two LPGA wins but none since 2016. Local product Sarah Schmelzel, meanwhile, is seeking her first LPGA win.

She opened with a 68, followed that up with 63 and is hanging around the top of the leaderboard after a Saturday 70. She had three back-nine birdies and just missed another on 18 that would’ve given her the solo 54-hole lead.

“Today was tough,” she told Golf Channel after her round. “It was almost like the weather was a like a bit of a distraction. It was tough out there. It was a grind to just shoot under par this afternoon.”

So far this season, Schmelzel has a T-8, a solo second and a T-8 in her last three starts. And as for making the Phoenix area this week the time and place for her first LPGA win?

“It’s definitely something I have thought about since I was a little kid,” she admitted. “It’s something that’s in the back of my mind, but I gotta stay in the present and if it works out, it works out.”

The third member of the three-way tie for the lead is Hyo Joo Kim, who birdied three of her first four holes but then stalled, stringing together 14 straight pars to shoot a 3-under 69. Kim has a major among her six wins. A win this week would give her a fourth straight season with a victory.

Two are tied for fourth, a shot back: Maja Stark, who had one of the day’s better rounds with a 6-under 66, and Yuka Saso, who overcame a four-putt double bogey on the 15th hole with birdies on Nos. 16 and 18 to get to 14 under.

On a day when the winds gusted up to 35 miles per hour, Mi Hyang Lee produced the best round, an 8-under 64, which put her into a 10-way tie for sixth at 13 under, two shots back. That huge cluster of golfers at 13 under includes Lexi Thompson, Sei Young Kim, Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko.

Hira Naveed shot 7-under 65, the second-best score on Saturday. She’s tied for 16th at 12 under with Ayaka Furue and Lilia Vu.

Despite the heavy wind, only 11 of the 75 golfers who made the cut posted over-par scores, including Peiyun Chien, who shot 65 on Friday and 76 on Saturday.

There are 34 golfers at double-digits under par through 54 holes.

In anticipation of weather Sunday, the LPGA announced that for the final round, golfers will go off split tees in groups of three. The first group will start at 9:08 a.m. local time (12:08 p.m. ET) and leaders will tee off at 11:20 a.m. local time (2:20 p.m. ET).

Live final round coverage will start on Peacock at 4:30 p.m. ET and Golf Channel will come on at 6 p.m. ET.

A win away from the Hall of Fame, Lydia Ko tied for lead at Blue Bay LPGA

Sunday could be historic.

Sunday could be historic on the LPGA.

Needing one win to secure the final point to earn Hall of Fame status, Lydia Ko is tied for the lead at the Blue Bay LPGA at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course in China. Ko shot 6-under 66 on Saturday to move into a tie with Bailey Tardy (66) and Sarah Schmelzel (69) with 18 holes to go.

Ko, a 20-time winner on the LPGA, is one point away from meeting the minimum threshold to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame. The 26-year-old could earn her 21st win on Sunday, making herself the youngest player to ever be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame.

“Still a lot of golf to be played, and it seems like someone shoots a really low score at least one of the rounds,” Ko said. “We all know the pin positions dictate the scores, so I just got to stay patient and keep giving myself good looks and see where that puts me.”

Ko’s round featured five birdies, an eagle and a lone bogey. For Tardy, who played alongside Ko in the third round, she had a clean scorecard with four birdies and an eagle.

Meanwhile, after a player tied the course record in each of the first two rounds, Canadian Savannah Grewal set a new one on Saturday, shooting 8-under 64.

“Feels kind of surreal. Still soaking it all in,” she said. “Just wanted to come out and play my best. I was joking with my brother yesterday that I shot 2 over that today is moving day. I got it.”

However, the focus on Sunday will be Ko, who nearly earned that last point earlier this season. After winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions to open the year, she lost in a playoff against Nelly Korda at the LPGA Drive On Championship the next week.

Come Sunday in China, Ko can make LPGA history.

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Narin An ties 18-hole scoring record, tied for lead at Blue Bay LPGA in China

Record scores galore in China.

It was a record-setting day for Narin An in China.

The 28-year-old from South Korea tied the 18-hole scoring record Friday at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Club during the second round of the 2024 Blue Bay LPGA, shooting 7-under 65 with a stretch that included five straight birdies. An is tied for the lead with Sarah Schmelzel at 9 under heading to the weekend.

“Especially shot and putt was really good today, so I had a lot of birdies on the course,” An said after the round.

An followed up Minjee Lee’s opening-round 65 with one of her own. Lee, however, shot even-par 72 on Friday and is T-4 heading to the weekend.

Schmelzel’s round featured four birdies, including three straight on Nos. 12-14, and one bogey, but she’ll be in the final pairing on Saturday.

“Yeah, we played together a couple times,” Schmelzel said of An. “She’s really sweet, really nice, works really hard. It’s cool to see her up at the top the leaderboard. Like I said, she works hard at her game. I’m excited to play with her tomorrow it looks like and see what’s in store.”

Hye-Jin Choi is solo third at 7 under. Lydia Ko, a point away from earning Hall of Fame status, sits three shots back and T-6.

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Carlota Ciganda dinged with slow-play penalty, loses match at Shadow Creek

This isn’t the first slow-play stunner of the LPGA season.

Carlota Ciganda and Sarah Schmelzel were all square coming into the 18th hole of the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play event on Wednesday. Ciganda won the hole but lost the match due to a slow-play penalty that resulted in loss of hole. Schmelzel won, 1 up.

The LPGA released the following statement:

“On the 18th hole of her Day One match, Carlota Ciganda was assessed a loss-of-hole penalty for a breach of the LPGA’s Match Play Pace of Play Policy. Per the policy, a player is subject to penalty if she exceeds the allotted time for her total strokes taken on a hole by more than 10 seconds, averaging 30 seconds per shot. Ciganda exceeded the allotted time for the number of strokes taken on the 18th hole.”

Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play: Leaderboard

Ciganda did not comment after the round.

This isn’t the first slow-play stunner of the LPGA season. Yealimi Noh tied for 61st at the Kia Classic and took home a $4,247 paycheck. But she actually lost money on the week after a $10,000 slow-play fine.

Noh said a rules official showed up mid-way through the front nine and hung around for nine holes. The rookie received bad times on Nos. 10 and 12.

This week’s event at Shadow Creek is the first match play tournament on the LPGA schedule since 2017. Nine years ago at the Sybase Match Play Championship, Morgan Pressel was hit with a slow-play penalty in a semifinal match against Azahara Munoz that cut her lead from 3 holes to 1 hole with six to play.

The semifinal round took an even more awkward twist when Pressel accused Munoz of touching the line of her putt with her putter on the 15th hole. Rules officials determined that the video footage was inconclusive and, after a lengthy delay, Munoz rolled in her birdie putt to win the hole and square the match,

Pressel maintained that Munoz, who went on to win Sybase title, was the one who put them on the clock.

“I think that what bothers me the most is that we were given sufficient warning, and she really didn’t do anything to speed up,” Pressel said at the time. “And then I was penalized for it.”