By Keely Levins
If you’re leading an LPGA event, one of the last people you’d want chasing you down would be Danielle Kang, a two-time winner on tour in 2020 and one of the game’s fiercest competitors. But that was the position Ally McDonald was in during the final round of the LPGA Drive On Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee on Sunday. Yet McDonald steeled herself against Kang’s charges, shooting a final-round 69 for a 16-under 272 total to grab her first career tour title by one shot.

While McDonald, a former Mississippi State All-American, had played the first few years as a pro in anonymity, working her way up through the Symetra Tour to earn an LPGA card for 2017, she became recognizable in 2019. That’s when U.S. Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster selected her as a last-minute pick to replace an injured Stacy Lewis in Scotland. McDonald came in and immediately tied a Solheim Cup record, winning her first match, a fourball with Angel Yin, 7 and 5, over Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall.

That would be McDonald’s lone point of the match, but the experience proved valuable on Sunday in Georgia against her Solheim Cup teammate, Kang. McDonald said it felt like match play during the back nine on the Great Waters course. McDonald started the day two strokes ahead of Kang and had extended her lead to four through 12 holes. But a Kang birdie and McDonald bogey on the 13th cut the lead back to two, and it certainly started to look like match play.

McDonald said she drew on the pressure-filled Solheim Cup experience and put herself in the match-play mentality where you expect your opponent to make everything. “I knew from the start that Danielle was going to hang in there,” McDonald said. “You kind of go to match-play mode and you think absolutely she’s going to put the pedal down.”

The purpose of that mentality is to prevent yourself from ever being surprised by what your opponent does. If she pulls off a great shot, you’re not shaken out of your routine because you were expecting it. The mentality kept McDonald from losing herself as Kang made another birdie at 14 to cut the lead to one.

“I just told myself to calm down and do what I’ve been doing every single round, and that is just trying to execute my game plan, control what I can,” said McDonald, whose lead returned to two shots when Kang bogeyed the 15th hole.

Kang did, however, almost shake McDonald out of that stable state of mind. Kang spun her wedge shot back on the 18th, nearly holing it for eagle on the par-5 home hole, which would have tied her with McDonald. Kang made her birdie putt to close with a four-under 68.

“You can tell yourself all day that you expect the other person to make it, but when they actually get that close you’re like, Whoa,” McDonald said, her surprise at the shot still apparent as she recalled the moment after the round.

McDonald has the rare gift of being able to savor her win before the next event begins. Due to the cancellation of the Asia swing, the LPGA Tour has three weeks off before its next event. McDonald said she’ll be celebrating with family. The celebration begins tonight with birthday cake made by mom, as McDonald’s win came on her 28th birthday.

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With Ally McDonald replacing an injured Stacy Lewis on Tuesday in the American lineup, captain Juli Inkster now has six golfers on her 12-player squad who are playing in their first Solheim Cup. McDonald joins Nelly Korda, Megan Khang, Marina Alex, Brittany Altomare and Annie Park as newcomers. It’s the largest group of rookies for an American team since the inaugural event in 1990. In 1992 (when Inkster played her first Solheim Cup) and 2002, Team USA has had five rookies.

The patriotic socks and footwear of Jessica Korda of Team USA during a practice round prior to the start of the Solheim Cup. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

In addition, three of the six “veterans” on the U.S. team (Danielle Kang, Jessica Korda and Angel Yin) have only competed in the Solheim Cup when it’s been played stateside. Although not technically rookies, they’re new to a Solheim Cup in Europe, where the majority of the crowds won’t be rooting for them. Since Solheim Cups draw the biggest crowds in women’s golf, that matters.

That leaves three players—Lexi Thompson, Lizette Salas and Morgan Pressel—who have played against Europe, in Europe. Thompson and Salas are playing in their fourth Solheim Cup, and Pressel is playing in her sixth.

David Cannon

How Inkster plans to approach setting up her pairings in foursomes and four-balls becomes a big storyline heading into the three-day competition. It’s common for captains to pair rookies with veterans to help ease nerves and have a steady voice for advice. Yet Inkster won’t have that luxury.

“We’re not doing a veteran with a rookie. I’m going to send a couple of rookies out there together,” Inkster said. “They’ve got to grow up sometime. Everybody’s a rookie once. And I just happen to have six of them. So we’re just going to throw them out there.”

Some dynamic Team USA pairings are already broken up by the lack of seniority. Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr, the most successful U.S. pairing in Solheim Cup history with a record as a team is 4-0-2, aren’t going to be playing together because Kerr did not qualify for the team. Thompson, all of 24 but already having played in three Solheim Cups, will have to take on more of a leadership role.

To her credit, Inkster doesn’t appear to be worried about the rookie factor. “I’m really not changing anything,” she said. “For two years they’ve played well and they’ve made the team. They deserve to be out there. I’m gonna put them out there and see what they do. They have the right to play, and I’m going to play them.”

Inkster went as far as saying that this might be the ideal situation for some of America’s younger players to get their first Solheim Cup experience.

“I think if you’re a rookie, it’s a lot easier to play away your first Solheim because you’re really not expected to win and you can go out there and play a little looser,” Inkster said. “You don’t have the U.S.A. crowd pumping you up, and you just rely a lot on your teammates and your team. I think it’s easier to bond over here; you don’t have a lot of outside distractions.”

There isn’t a consistent precedent for what can happen when the U.S. team is rookie-heavy. Inkster knows firsthand that it can go poorly: In 1992, the Americans lost, 11½-6½. But in 2002, they won 15½-12½. In truth, the history Inkster will be relying on is more personal. This is her third straight Solheim Cup as U.S. captain, and so far she’s undefeated.

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