The world’s best players including six of the world’s top 10 have landed at Dundonald Links for the Women’s Scottish Open, with defending champion Ayaka Furue, US Women’s Open Champion Allisen Corpuz, and golf’s latest major winner Celine Boutier talking to the media.

Ayaka Furue
World No. 18

• Defending Champion
• Shortest active player on the LPGA at 5 foot
• Won last year’s event in her rookie year on the LPGA
• A final round 62 to seal victory last year included a run of six consecutive birdies
• Has earned seven top-10 finishes this season, including second place at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play

On what the Japanese fans thought of her rookie win in Scotland…
“When I went back to Japan, all the Japanese fans, they already know the bunkers and the course is very difficult. So they were very happy that I was able to win in that condition, and everybody said great job, great job.”
On her tactics this week…
“I’m only trying to be a good friend with the wind on this course and enjoy my golf this week.”

Celine Boutier. Women’s Scottish Open

Celine Boutier
World No. 4

• First French winner of the Amundi Evian Championship
• Four LPGA victories to her name
• Won this year’s Amundi Evian Championship by six shots over two-time major winner Brooke Henderson
• Has finished within the top-10 at every major:
  The Chevron Championship                     T4: 2022
  KPMG Women’s PGA Championship      T7: 2021
  U.S. Women’s Open                                   T5: 2019
  AIG Women’s Open                                   6th: 2019
  The Amundi Evian Championship            Won: 2023

On winning her first major in front of her home fans…
“I never really pictured how it was going to happen. Obviously it was such a dream for me. I wouldn’t even call it a goal for me this year. I obviously wanted to perform well in the majors. But in the past I was never really able to play well in Evian, just the pressure of everything was a lot for me to handle and this year, I just decided to really do it for myself and not put so much pressure on myself. The fact that I even had a chance to play for the win in the final round was a big advantage for me and to pull it off on the final day to, have the crowd behind you, which I never imagined that they would be so loud and so energetic, so passionate about it. It felt like a win for me and it felt like a  win for them as well. To be able to share it with everyone in my home country is an absolute dream come true.”
On why she is here this week after the biggest victory of her life…
“I had a very good week last year on this course. I feel like I really enjoy playing in links course. And I feel like even though Walton Heath is not going to be like links, traditional links, I feel like it’s still good to be in the UK and Scotland and to be able to get a feel for the wind and weather and stuff like that. I feel like it was going to be a good week to prepare for the British.”

Allisen Corpuz. Women’s Scottish Open

Allisen Corpuz
World No. 7

• Won her first major at this year’s US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach
• In her rookie year on the LPGA, she made 17 of 21 cuts and finished the year at 41st on the Rolex World Rankings
• Member of the victorious 2021 Curtis Cup team in Wales, which was also her first-time playing links golf
• Making her second appearance at the Women’s Scottish Open

On returning to Dundonald Links…
“I think it’s definitely a gettable course. There’s a lot of birdie opportunities. There’s just a few holes that play a little tougher, a little longer and especially with the wind it can definitely be tough to gauge just yardages in, how much the ball is going to roll out, even into the wind, how much the wind is going to play a factor there. So really just coming in with a little more knowledge and trying to score a little better this year.”
On what she enjoys most about links golf…
“Yeah, I haven’t quite figured it out yet but I think it’s really fun. I think it’s great to watch drives roll like a hundred yards and be thinking, Oh, it’s going to roll up 50 yards to the green. I think that’s really fun. It definitely just takes some extra time, a little more thought, but I love it.”
On staying onsite this week…
“It’s beautiful and a very spacious room. Very nice shower. It’s just nice to be able to roll out of bed and just walk on to property. It’s nice to be able to see the course from the room. Haven’t had dinner here yet but the food has been really good so far.”

The post What they said: Stars speak ahead of Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Allisen Corpuz set the expectations for how she would approach the final round of the 78th US Women’s Open on Saturday night. With the sun setting over Pebble Beach Golf Links following her third consecutive under-par round, the 25-year-old Hawaii native explained that while one stroke off the lead with a chance to win her first LPGA event, her goal was still the same as it was at every tournament to date in 2023, her second year on the LPGA: become more comfortable with how it feels to be in contention. Nearly three months earlier, Corpuz went through a similar learning experience at the Chevron Championship, when she shared the lead through 54 holes only to finish T-4 with a closing 74. She didn’t win, but she did mature, preparing herself for the next time.

Come Sunday, however, Corpuz surpassed what even she believed she could accomplish with a dominant closing three-under-par 69, overcoming a one-stroke deficit to win by three shots with a nine-under 279 total. “My mind is racing,” Corpuz said. “Like I said yesterday, this is really a dream come true. It was something I had dreamed of, but at the same time kind of just never really expected it to happen.”

Corpuz’s journey from “sucking” at golf, as she described when she started playing at age 4, to becoming the first female to win a major championship at Pebble (and claiming the $2 million first-place prize money payout) has been built on a foundation of self-reflection. Since picking up the sport, Corpuz says her motivation has come from focusing the simple notion of improving every time she plays.

Not wanting to be terrible drove her to continue playing alongside her father, Marcos. Corpuz developed her game during a junior career that included 17 USGA championship appearances and a record performance as the youngest golfer (age 10) to play the US Women’s Amateur Public Links in 2008, breaking the mark held by fellow Hawaiian Michelle Wie West.

Fitting, then, Corpuz applied the lessons of losing at the Chevron in April for her breakthrough victory Sunday. After giving her mom, May, a hug on the first tee box, Corpuz implemented her newly honed approach.

“I think I’ve just played a little conservatively in the past, and just really went out there and told myself I had the game to do it today,” Corpuz said.

Corpuz made six birdies as she played her way around Pebble Beach. Her third birdie came on the par-3 seventh, where her caddie Jay Monahan said that Corpuz suggested taking a wedge straight at the flag on the short downhill hole. If the wind took it left, so be it. Their process, honed over two seasons of working together, involved Monahan pushing back if he felt differently. Happy with the aggressive choice, Monahan signed off. Corpuz’s wedge flew true, leaving herself a 10-footer.

“This course does offer those [birdie] opportunities if you can get them,” Monahan said. “It’s just little things like that. But she took the strides that she needed to [in order to win].”

The rapport between Allisen Corpuz and her caddie Jay Monahan help her stay calm during Sunday’s final round. Harry How

Corpuz wound up being the only player in the field to shoot under par all four days at Pebble with scores of 69-70-71-69. Tied with Hataoka with nine holes to play, Corpuz played a sublime back-nine, taking a four-shot lead at one point and leaving little room for doubt as to who would be the winner.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t moments of nervousness. Corpuz explained that at times, she did get ahead of herself, imagining the Harton S. Semple Trophy in her hands early in her round.

“I made the birdie at 1, 3, and just kind of told myself, stay in the moment,” Corpuz said. “It’s obviously not done yet. Still a lot of golf to play. I think that was the moment when I kind of knew I just need to get home.”

To ground herself back into the present moment, Corpuz leaned on work she has been doing with her mental coach, Bill Nelson. That involves trying to keep things slow while on the course. Corpuz reminded herself every few holes she was at Pebble Beach, soaking in the sun-splashed views that golf fans dream about.

While Corpuz faced the prospect of slowing down too much—she and Hataoka were put on the clock early on the back nine and Corpuz was one more slow time away from getting a penalty shot—she stuck to the routine she had followed since childhood. Before each shot, Corpuz leans slightly to the left, closes her left eye, raises her club, and stares down her target. In a brief moment, Corpuz plans out what she wants the shot to do, steps up to the ball, and executes.

Learning how to win was a process for Corpuz in college as well. Justin Silverstein, the women’s coach at USC who secured Corpuz’s commitment to play for the Trojans when she was heading into ninth grade, explained that she diligently journaled each day. Corpuz jotted down what went well and what didn’t. However, early in her collegiate career, Corpuz would almost adjust too quickly, trying to make constant adjustments rather than give herself the space to simply recover from a bad shot. While Corpuz won for the first time as a sophomore, it took until her fifth year on the team to become more consistent player. Corpuz won twice in 2021, her final season before turning professional.

With a successful drive off Pebble’s 18th tee, Corpuz claimed her first career LPGA Tour title without much 72nd-hole stress. Harry How

“[Her thoughtfulness] helps a majority of the time,” Silverstein said. “But I think also, at times in her past held her back a little bit with just a little too much analysis.”

With her first professional win in hand, a major no less, Corpuz kept her aspirations low for the future. Instead of imagining becoming a top 10 golfer in the world, a Solheim Cup player and being included in the conversation with the likes of Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda, Corpuz envisioned a simple wish as she was standing alongside the glistening Pacific.

“I love it,” Corpuz said of Pebble Beach. “I hope I get a chance to come back.”

The post The mindset that pushed Allisen Corpuz as a junior golfer helped her make history at Pebble Beach appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

On the Monterey Peninsula, and particularly at Pebble Beach Golf Links, everything just feels better when the sun shines. The changing shades of blue and green in the water are more stunning. The sand on the beach looks whiter, the grass on the course greener.

For the first two days of the first US Women’s Open played on this historic seaside locale, the mood was dampened somewhat by the clouds that refused to give the sun a peak until it was about time to set. It’s not overstating to say it was gloomy, and the play seemed to mirror that at times, with some of the world’s best players looking cold and glum.

That all changed when Saturday dawned with bright skies and the prospects for a memorable weekend. Pebble Beach truly emerged as the wondrous golf jewel it is, each turn on the course more stunning than the next (as the drones so masterfully captured), and the players responded with their finest golf.

Allisen Corpuz, an accomplished amateur and second-year LPGA player who, on the outside at least, seemed almost too meek to make a huge statement, did exactly what you need to do in a US Open. She steadily and without disaster shot 71-69 on the weekend, bleeding the resolve out of her chasers, including final-group playing partner Nasa Hataoka, who led Corpuz by one at the outset and ended up six shots behind her.

The golf got more compelling as the weekend went on. We should always remember that Hataoka took her lead with a stunning Saturday 66 and that Charley Hull on Sunday missed a birdie putt for 65 that would have tied her with Tiger Woods and Gary Woodland for the lowest round in US Open history at Pebble.

And, finally, as Corpuz stood on the 18th green with the trophy, the first woman to hoist the prize on this shoreline, the sun shone on her face, just as everybody envisioned.

In this case, Pebble Beach won, too.

The expectations for the week were incredibly high, and both the players and the course rose to the occasion. A winning score in the mid-single-digits under par seemed reasonable, and Corpuz did even better at nine-under 279. She left the rest to scuffle at finishing in red numbers, with only seven players pulling that off.

It was by no means a blood bath, and that’s exactly as the USGA hoped. The setup, with nasty rough for the women’s game but manageable yardages and green speeds, drew nearly universal praise, other than maybe some quibbles with most of the par 5s not being reachable in two. But considering that’s seen virtually every week on the LPGA, that extra challenge was absolutely necessary for the national championship.

The biggest buzz beforehand was how this first US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, shown in primetime on the east coast, might attract fans and viewers who hadn’t connected with the women’s side of the game. On-site, the event drew 45,000 spectators over five days, including 11,000 on Saturday. The USGA was happy with that, as it was with the overnight ratings for Thursday’s first round on USA Network. The average total viewership over six hours was 367,000—making it the most-watched first round of the Women’s Open since Pinehurst in 2014 and 119 per cent better than Thursday last year at Pine Needles.

The television ratings numbers for Friday aren’t expected to be released until Monday, and the weekend numbers should be out on Tuesday. But the USGA’s belief is that they will be among the best in the history of the event.

Other takeaways from the week:

The Rose Zhang factor is real

Rose Zhang signs her autograph for a young fan prior to the 78th US Women’s Open. Harry How

We could chalk it up somewhat to the fact that Rose Zhang went to college 90 miles north of Pebble Beach at Stanford, but the large galleries that followed her—by far the most for any player during the week—say something much more. Zhang has become the “it” player in the LPGA after opening her professional career with a victory at Liberty National and contending into Sunday in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship earlier this month.

Pebble is not an easy walk, but parents dragged their little ones, or put them on their shoulders, to follow Zhang from hole to hole, probably so they could say that they saw her before her popularity truly exploded. At least it feels that way, with Zhang not winning, but once again showing that all of her top-level amateur success will translate beautifully on the pro circuit.

Zhang wasn’t able to create a true buzz at Pebble because she opened with a 74, got somewhat back into the mix with a 71 but fell back again with a 72. Eight shots off the lead heading into Sunday was a bit too much to ask, even after she came from six back at Liberty National, and Zhang closed with another 72 to finish at one-over 289.

Still, that’s now a win, and T-8 and T-9 in subsequent majors in Zhang’s first three pro starts. Happily, for women’s golf, this is just a palate cleanser for what we’re going to see for weeks and months to come.

A caddie and husband’s big payday

It’s definitely a unique arrangement. Jennifer Kupcho is one of the top players on the LPGA and her husband, Jay Monahan, is the caddie for Corpuz. Monahan never saw himself as a full-time looper, but then Corpuz needed him in a pinch at the end of January 2023, and they have been a team ever since.

That’s all well and good, but how about when the husband is the first to be part of a major championship win? While Monahan figures to make about 10 per cent of Corpuz’s winnings—or $200,000—Kupcho didn’t make the cut at Pebble and was paid only $8,000 by the USGA for expenses.

“This is obviously incredible, but I think it’s going to take a while to settle in,” Monahan said on the edge of the 18th green after he’d accepted a sliver plate from USGA CEO Mike Whan. “I felt like since I started working with Allisen I’ve been pretty lucky. She’s a joy to work for and a great player. She’s had a few close calls now, and to see her get over the hump today was remarkable.”

An Irish delight

Amateur Ãine Donegan waves after making par on the second green during the third round of the 78th US Women’s Open. Harry How

The breakout “discovery” of the week was Irishwoman Aine Donegan, an upcoming junior at LSU whose early play—she opened with a 69—and good-natured interviews (and playful brogue) won many hearts. Even when Donegan closed with a 77 on Sunday while battling an illness to finish with a nine-over total, she was exuberant on the 18th green, waving an Irish flag and shedding a few tears.

This is a woman who completely took in stride making a quintuple-bogey 9 on the eighth hole in the third round.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better week,” Donegan said. “My goal was to make the cut.”

What’s up with Lexi?

Lexi Thompson stands on the sixth green during the second round of the 78th US Women’s Open. Harry How

Lexi Thompson has lived for nine years with the question of when she would win her second major. But at only 28 years old, she now seems to be facing a more existential crisis about her golf.

When Thompson dejectedly walked off Pebble Beach’s 18th green on Friday, with no shot at making the weekend after shooting 74-79, she left behind big questions about where she goes from here. She still is ranked 13th in the world, but that’s a precarious position, considering that the 11-time tour winner has played only seven times in 2023 and missed four cuts.

Worse for Thompson, she is ranked 137th in the CME Globe season race after the US Open and a long way to making the top 60 who’ll compete in the November’s Tour Championship.

The top 100 in the CME standings earn their tour cards for next year, and with Thompson possibly not among them, she will have the option to use her tournament winner status or career money list exemption. She’s 10th all-time.

The question is: What’s her desire to play at this point? She has spoken of no injuries, but her play has continued to be mediocre. Maybe she’s reached the burnout stage, or is it just too many disappointments in majors that have taken their toll. She coughed up the 54-hole lead in the 2021 US Women’s Open at Olympic Club and twice finished top-four in majors last season, including losing a two-shot lead with five holes to play in the Women’s PGA.

Maybe the time comes when it’s all just too much to care so deeply about. We’re not saying that’s the problem, but the rest of the season might provide more answers.

The post Pebble Beach a major winner, Rose Zhang’s star quality and 3 other takeaways from US Women’s Open week appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Corpuz, 25, a University of Southern California graduate and twice an All-American, began the final round trailing by one and wrested control of the national championship on the back nine, beginning with a birdie at the 10th hole. She added birdies at 14 and 15 en route to a three-under-par 69 and a three-stroke victory.

“Unreal. This week has just felt like a dream come true,” Corpuz said. “It’s been awesome to be out at Pebble this week. Every few holes I kind of looked out and said, ‘I’m out here at Pebble Beach. There’s not many places better than this.’ I just tried to keep grounded and play my game.”

It was her first victory as a professional and came on one of golf’s grandest stages, earning her a payday of $2 million, the largest in women’s golf. To say it was an upset is only marginally an understatement. She came into the US Women’s Open 29th in the Rolex Rankings, and in two previous major championships this year, she tied for fourth in the Chevron Championship and tied for 15th in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

She completed 72 holes in 10-under-par 278 with rounds of 69, 70, 71 and 69. England’s Charley Hull had the round of the day, a six-under-par 66 that enabled her to climb to a tie for second with Korean Jiyai Shin.

On Friday, Wie West, who won the 2014 U.S Women’s Open at Pinehurst, played what she said was her final competitive round and missed the cut. Corpuz did not arrive with the same fanfare as Wie West, but she was among those Hawaiian junior golfers to draw inspiration from her.

“I think she was just old enough where I never really interacted with her too much,” Corpuz said on Saturday. “But she’s done so much to put Hawaii golf on the map, women’s golf. Yeah, I have always been inspired by her. Definitely grew up watching her kill it out here, and it’s awesome to see her transition into the next phase of her life.”

The post Allisen Corpuz makes history by winning first US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.