The LPGA Tour has another mother amongst its ranks: Amy Olson, along with husband Grant, announced the arrival of their baby girl, Carly Gray, born September 15. Olson becomes the fifth LPGA player to have a child in 2023.

 

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Back in March, Olson announced her pregnancy. Fast forward to July, and Olson was at Pebble Beach, competing in the US Women’s Open. Though she missed the cut, she was proud to have competed in the championship while seven months pregnant.

Olson, who hails from North Dakota, turned pro in 2013. The 31-year-old has finished T-2 in two majors, the US Women’s Open (2020) and the Evian Championship (2018).

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For all of the right reasons, there will be plenty said and written this week about Amy Olson competing in the 78th US Women’s Open. The 30-year-old is 31 weeks pregnant and will traverse on foot the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links. With a few steep climbs along the cliffs, it’s not an easy stroll—about four miles if you walked in a straight line, which nobody does. “We’re calling it ‘Mission Waddle,’” Olson said with a laugh on the phone last week.

The attention now will be about how Olson feels; how she can possibly swing and putt with her belly literally growing by the day; how she views the opportunity to join other LPGA Tour moms and professional athletes who have walked this path.

But let’s not forget or underplay how Olson got here. That’s the truly remarkable part of the story.

On May 22, Olson showed up at Somerset Country Club in Mendota Heights, Minn., with no idea how she would play in the 36-hole US Women’s Open final qualifier. “Everyone who plays golf knows that you go to the golf course and ask yourself, ‘What do I have today?’ Olson said. “That [thought] is on steroids when you’re pregnant.”

She had dreaded these exhausting marathon days in the past and only made it through US Open qualifying once. Only two players among the field of 45 in Minnesota would secure a spot in the first women’s major to visit Pebble Beach, and Olson debated whether it was even worth a try, given how far along she would be in her pregnancy when the Open’s first round arrived on July 6. Not to mention, she had only played four competitive rounds in the 2023 LPGA season.

“When I found out I was pregnant, I texted some of the moms on tour,” Olson recalled. “I asked about what the sweet spot was for them and when was their cutoff. I kept hearing from people who played from 28 to 30 weeks. Beyond that was pretty borderline. I thought, OK, I’m going to be 31 weeks when Pebble rolls around.”

Among those she spoke to was Brittany Lincicome, who went into labour with her first child in 2019 after flying to Illinois to play in a Monday pro-am. She also played the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at 30 weeks pregnant with her second child. “She really pushed it, as far as how long she played,” Olson said.

Olson’s decision? This wasn’t any Open; it was Pebble Beach, and she was just enough on the borderline to give it a shot. “It’s very difficult to try to qualify for the Open,” Olson said. “You have to have the right round on the right day. I thought, If we qualify, we’ll deal with it then.”

Olson asked her mom, Twyla Anderson, to caddie for her for at the qualifier, and the beautiful symmetry was not lost on them. “It really was sweet to think about—three generations walking down the fairway,” Olson said.

Olson played solidly on the first 18 at Somerset and birdied her last hole to post an even-par 72. There were a couple of three-under scores, however, and she figured she might have to double that by shooting 66. Daunting for anyone, pregnancy notwithstanding. And sitting down for an hour at lunch between rounds didn’t help.

“One of the hardest things for me during my pregnancy was stopping and starting,” Olson said. She later added, “It used to take me five balls to warm up. Now, it takes me 50 to 55, and by then I’m tired.”

Beware, however, of the woman living and playing for two. Studies have shown that pregnancy requires the endurance of marathon runners or Tour de France cyclists, and Olson found another gear that afternoon. She shot the lowest round of the event—her target 66—and earned medalist honours by two shots.

Daughter and mom celebrated their triumph with a trip to a nearby Culver’s restaurant, where the treats were appropriately indulgent: cheeseburgers and Concrete Mixers.

Amy Olson and her mom, Twyla Anderson, celebrated reaching the US Women’s Open with a trip to Culver’s for burgers and custard.

As fate would have it, Olson entered the Meijer LPGA Classic in the second week of June, and playing on a sponsor’s exemption was Wake Forest star Rachel Kuehn, who is truly a golf baby. Her mother, Brenda Corrie Kuehn, was 36 years old and 39 weeks pregnant with Rachel when she played in the 2001 US Open at Pine Needles. Brenda accompanied Rachel to the Meijer, giving Olson the opportunity to have lunch with her.

“She was worried,” Brenda Kuehn recalled on the telephone last week from her home in Ashville, N.C. “I said no, ‘Heck, I did it farther along. You’ll be fine. You’ll be in good shape and you’re hardly showing.’

“These girls are in so much better shape now than we were 20 years ago,” Kuehn later added. “They work out. Though it’s not like I was sitting around. I did walk and play golf [while pregnant]. I played golf on the day before each of my three kids was born.”

A pregnant Brenda Corrie Kuehn competed in the 2001 US Women’s Open with her husband Eric Kuehn as her caddie. LUKE FRAZZA

Kuehn was an amateur when she qualified for the 2001 Women’s Open, and with little experience facing the media, she said he was overwhelmed by the attention. She handled most of it well, but an interview got heated when a reporter suggested that Kuehn could have given up her spot to a player who was more capable. Translation: not pregnant.

“That really pissed me off,” Kuehn said. “I’m usually pretty polite, but I was, like, Excuse me, I earned my spot here. I beat whoever it was. Nancy Lopez was in my qualifier, and she didn’t make it. I don’t have to pass on playing because you think I can compete or not.”

Kuehn has plenty of other memories about her experience, including the contractions she had while competing and the awful clothes she wore, because there were few options for pregnant women at the time. “What was I thinking wearing my husband’s extra large golf shirt with the horizontal stripes?” Kuehn said with a laugh.

Ultimately, Kuehn didn’t come close to making the cut in the Open at Pine Needles, where Karrie Webb won by eight shots. Nine days later, Rachel Kuehne arrived. “To me,” Olson said, “that’s completely insane!”

Last week, Olson and her husband, Grant, retreated to a place his family owned on Lake Florida in Minnesota. It was the beginning of Grant’s four-week vacation from his coaching job at his alma mater, North Dakota State, and they got a chance to unwind before the attention becomes intense at Pebble Beach. At home in Fargo, N.D., Amy’s home state, a room awaits for the first child of the family—the gender will be a surprise—but the couple has plenty of work to do, considering the space currently is filled with golf clubs and pickleball paddles.

Amy Olson and her husband live in Fargo, N.D., where Grant is an assistant football coach at North Dakota State.

As much as Olson has tried to maintain a practice routine, she’s feeling like her swing is changing by the day as her belly gets bigger. She can’t stand over the ball as much as she’d like, and she laughed when admitting that she didn’t realize how much her right arm would bump into her stomach while putting. Kuehn warned her about how much distance she’d lose, and that’s become a reality. And, of course, Olson and the field of 156 won’t be playing a normal LPGA course for the week, but one that is supposed to be the biggest challenge the women face all year.

“I know what it takes to play at the elite level and play in a major championship,” Olson said. “Realistically, my ball-striking is not there right now. Do I think I can post a good score? Yes. But to say I can be competitive, that’s probably a stretch. With the weight gain, I don’t think this is going to be anybody’s formula for success.

“That’s OK,” she added. “This is just so much bigger than golf. Golf has been a dream of mine for so long, and so is being a mom. I get to do both of these things, and I don’t want to put them at odds with each other. Both are really special, and I’m excited.”

Amy Olson, shown while playing the Meijer LPGA Classic, is embracing all of the challenges the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach will present her. David Berding

Winless in 10 years on the LPGA, Olson had a shot at capturing the 2020 US Women’s Open that was postponed to Houston in December because of the pandemic. Contending through the final stretch on a finish delayed by weather into Monday, she ultimately lost by one shot when A Lim Kim rallied with birdies on the last three holes to win. The defeat has hardly deemed a heartbreak for Olson, whose father-in-law, Lee Olson, died unexpectedly on the Saturday night of the Open.

“We’re walking through the opposite spectrum of losing somebody who was very close to us, and this time, we’re about to gain a family member,” Olson said. “The irony is not lost on me.”

This week at Pebble Beach, she said, is a celebration of women and of life.

“This is a gift,” Olson said. “There is a narrative in our culture that women can do everything, and I think that puts a lot of pressure on women to be good at everything all at the same time. There are different seasons in life, and you have to embrace each season, be grateful and joyful in each of those seasons.”

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Competing in the first US Women’s Open held at Pebble Beach Golf Links will be a thrill for everyone teeing it up come July. But for Amy Olson, it will be even more memorable moment thanks to the fact she be playing while also seven months pregnant with her first child.

On Monday, the 30-year-old LPGA Tour pro shot a six-under-par 138 to earn medallist honours in the USGA’s 36-hole qualifier at Somerset Country Club in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. Olson outpaced the other 44 in the field to be one of two golfers to earn a trip to the Monterey Peninsula.

A second-round 66 lifted professional @AmyOlsonGolf to medalist honors and a spot in the field at the 2023 @uswomensopen @PebbleBeachGolf. Olson shoots 6-under 138 at Somerset Country Club. pic.twitter.com/ZTrIY22EP6

— Minnesota Golf Association (@MNGolfAssn) May 23, 2023

“I wanted a shot at it because it’s Pebble,” Olson told the Minnesota Golf Association on Monday. “That was the big motivation and it’ll be my last tournament before the baby comes, so it’s a good way to go out.” Olson, who announced her pregnancy on Instagram in March, is due in September.

Impressively, Olson shot a six-under 66 in her second round, with three birdies on her front and back nines. That marks Olson’s lowest tournament score since the final round of the LPGA’s AmazingCre Portland Classic last September.

Qualifying for the national championship is a high point thus far in Olson’s 10th season on tour. The Fargo, North Dakota, native has only played in one event to date, last month’s Lotte Championship, where she finished T-61. Her lack of starts isn’t because of her pregnancy but rather her limited status due to finishing 109th on the 2022 LPGA’s CME points list. Olson tried to Monday qualify into the Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain in Arizona in March, but her two-under-par round missed by three strokes.

A former US Girls’ Junior champion who won an NCAA record 20 college tournaments at North Dakota State but is winless on the LPGA Tour, Olson already joked on Twitter about what the USGA will need to provide for her, asking for PB&J’s with peanut butter on both sides.

Already sending in my requests for the @uswomensopen. I’m high maintenance, but the @usga is here for it. pic.twitter.com/NMljgUh74D

— Amy Olson (@AmyOlsonGolf) May 23, 2023

This will be the seventh time Olson will be playing in the Women’s Open. She memorable finished in a tie for second to A Lim Kim in the 2020 championship at Champions Golf Club in Houston. That year she played with a heavy heart after her father-in-law died unexpectedly less than 48 hours before the final round.

There were other notables who reached the US Women’s Open on Monday. Anna Davis, the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, earned medallist honours at Valencia (California) Country Club, with UCLA sophomore Zoe Campos also advancing from there. PGA Tour player Maria Fassi was second among three qualifiers in Alexandria, Virginia.

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By Brian Wacker
HOUSTON—Amy Olson came into the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open on Monday with a heavy heart after her father-in-law passed away unexpectedly just two days earlier.

She left it tearful and without a trophy again.

Leading by two strokes with seven holes to play, Olson finished one back of winner A Lim Kim after a one-over 72 at Champions Golf Club, where the final round was pushed back a day because of inclement weather on Sunday. In seven years on the LPGA Tour, Olson, who won an NCAA record 20 times while at North Dakota State University, remains winless.

“Super mixed emotions,” she said, wiping away tears. “It was just one of those things, I felt very weak and helpless the last couple days, and probably the same went today on the golf course.”

The day was understandably a roller coaster of emotions for Olson. The same was true of her round.

Robert Beck
Amy Olson made one mistake down the stretch, with a bogey on the 16th hole.

After beginning the day just a stroke off the lead, Olson stumbled early, making three bogeys in her first four holes to drop down the leader board. But she bounced back with a birdie at the par-5 fifth and another at the sixth. One hole later, she was tied for the lead after overnight leader Hinako Shibuno bogeyed.

Shibuno then stumbled again with bogeys on 10 and 11, putting Olson in front by herself.

But as Kim roared to the top of the leaderboard with three straight birdies to close out a 67 and take the clubhouse lead, Olson, who at one point rattled off nine straight pars, finally cracked. Trailing by one and standing on the 16th tee, she hit her hybrid on the 180-yard par-3 through the green, failed to get up-and-down and made bogey.

“I hit a cut 5-iron on the previous hole, and it had flown 152 yards, so I’m sitting there, and there’s no way I can pull that club,” Olson said. “I tried to hit a high, cut hybrid, which I pulled off beautifully, but it just—I don’t know if it caught a little downwind gust or anything, but obviously it didn’t hold the green and got kind of a tough lie behind the green and didn’t make it up and down.”

Olson bounced back with one final birdie at the 18th, but it wasn’t enough.

The close call in a major was just the latest for the 28-year-old, whose husband, Grant, the linebackers coach at NDSU, had flown in for the weekend, only to return home on Sunday to be with his mom and brother after his father’s sudden death on Saturday. Two years ago, Olson, leading the Evian Championship by one as she played the 72nd hole, made double bogey to lose by one. That same year, she played in the final group on Sunday at the ANA Inspiration but finished T-9.

This one will probably sting a little less, though.

“I really believe the Lord just carried me through,” Olson said. “It just makes you realise how much bigger life is than golf.”

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By Brian Wacker
HOUSTON—In a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic dominated headlines, it was perhaps fitting that in the final major championship of 2020 another one would be written by a player wearing a mask all week, even as she played, at the U.S. Women’s Open.

“Every time I practice, I usually wear a mask, so I’m kind of used to it,” A Lim Kim said. “I’m OK to get positive tests for COVID-19 but I don’t want to affect other people, players, a caddie that’s playing within the group, so that’s the reason I wear the mask throughout the round.”

Her play down the stretch on a frigid Monday at Champions Golf Club, in the first U.S. Women’s Open played in December, made a statement all its own.

Trailing by five strokes at the start of the day, the 25-year-old South Korean birdied each of her final three holes to match the low round of the week, a four-under 67, to take the clubhouse lead at three-under 281. Then she waited to see if anyone could catch her.

No one did.

Kim held on to win by one stroke over world No. 1 Jin Young Ko (68) and Amy Olson (72), giving her the title in her first career start in a major and her first tournament played in the United States. She also tied the record for the largest comeback in tournament history.

“Still can’t really soak in that I’m the champion, but it feels different winning the tournament here,” Kim, who plays mostly on the LPGA of Korea, said through an interpreter. “Back in Korea, the style and the environment is different. But I’m really glad—and through COVID-19 we had a lot of difficulties—but glad we had the U.S. Women’s Open held in Houston. It was a great win.”

And one that few likely saw coming.

Jamie Squire
Jin Young Ko made birdie on the 72nd hole to finish one stroke out of first.

Kim came into the week ranked 94th in the Rolex World Golf Rankings and not since Birdie Kim won in 2005 at Cherry Hills has there been such a surprise winner.

But A Lim Kim has also enjoyed plenty of success in South Korea, where she learned the game from her father and was inspired by watching Annika Sorenstam on television.

On the KLPGA, Kim won the 2018 Se Ri Pak Invitational, where she rallied from three back in the final round to defeat Jeongeun Lee6, who would go on to win last year’s U.S. Women’s Open. And at the OrangeLife Champions Trophy—a match-play event between KLPGA and LPGA members—she beat Danielle Kang and So Yeon Ryu in singles the last two years.

Just how good is the golf on that circuit?

Jamie Squire
A Lim Kim celebrates after making a birdie on the 18th green during the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open.

“I know this course is tough, but the KLPGA [courses] are also tough,” said Ko, who shot a final-round 68 on Monday. “[The players there] are getting better and better. They have to.”

That was evident down the stretch on Monday as Kim stuck each of her final three approach shots close to set up the clinching birdies—4 feet on 16, 18 inches on 17 and 7 feet on 18. She is the first Women’s U.S. Open champion to birdie the last hole to win since Eun-Hee Ji in 2009 at Saucon Valley.

Kim also is the latest in a long line of Koreans to have success in major championships, particularly at the U.S. Women’s Open. In the last 13 editions of the tournament, Koreans have won nine of them.

As for how Kim will celebrate the victory? She smiled before her and her interpreter provided a telling answer.

“I really miss Korean food right now, so I’ll probably have good Korean food with my family,” she said.

Her interpreter then added a dose of reality: “We’ve got to do 14 days of quarantine when we go back to Korea, so it’ll be family gathering time for those two weeks, so looking forward to it.”

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By Brian Wacker
When Amy Olson resumes her pursuit of a U.S. Women’s Open title on Monday morning, she’ll do so with a heavy heart.

On Saturday night, Olson’s father-in-law, Lee Olson, died suddenly and unexpectedly. The news was first reported by Golfweek and confirmed to Golf Digest by the LPGA on Olson’s behalf.

Olson’s husband, Grant, who played football at the couple’s alma mater, North Dakota State, where he currently is the linebackers coach, had travelled to Champions Golf Club this weekend as his wife moved into contention. The 28-year-old, who is looking for her first career victory in her seventh year on the LPGA Tour, is one stroke off the lead of Japan’s Hinako Shibuno with 18 holes to play.

Grant Olson, who married Amy in 2017, returned home on Sunday night to be with his mom and brother, an LPGA official confirmed.

While Amy Olson, who recorded an NCAA-record 20 wins at NDSU, has yet to win as a professional, she has come close on multiple occasions. Two years ago, she played in the final group of two majors, the ANA Inspiration and Evian Championship, only to finish T-9 and T-2, the latter coming after a double bogey on the 72nd hole as she went from leading by one to losing by one.

The U.S. Women’s Open final round was suspended shortly after 9 a.m. local time on Sunday, less than 30 minutes before Olson was set to tee off with Shibuno and Moriya Jutanugarn in the day’s final group. Play never resumed, and 3½ hours later the round was suspended for the rest of the day and is scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. local time Monday.

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By Brian Wacker
HOUSTON—Amy Olson’s week at the U.S. Women’s Open began with a hole-in-one in the opening round. It was just the second that she’s made in competition.

Now she hopes it ends with something that’s been even more elusive: a victory—in a major no less.

Making the 147th start of her career this week, the 28-year-old from North Dakota will enter the final round at Champions Golf Club just a stroke off the lead of Hinako Shibuno after shooting an even-par 71 on Saturday. She was just one of five players to score par or better in the muddy, difficult conditions after heavy rain the day before saturated the Cypress Creek Course.

“It was such a grind,” Olson said. “Pars were a great score on every single hole today. Fortunately made a couple good birdies, especially the one on 17 coming in.”

Olson began the day in a tie for third but fell down the leaderboard after making two bogeys in her first six holes. Then she bounced back with a birdie on the par-5 ninth. She gave it right back with a bogey one hole later, but persevered and added another birdie on the par-5 13th before adding one more on the par-4 17th with a terrific 8-iron approach that nearly went in the hole.

“Same shot as I hit for my hole-in-one actually on Thursday,” she said. “A little cut 8-iron, almost the same number.”

Now she has her sights set on another number: trying to capture the first title of her career. She’s come close before.

In 2018, Olson was in the final group on Sunday at the ANA Inspiration but shot 72 to tie for ninth. Later that summer, she was tied for the lead going into the final round of the Evian Championship and led by one going into the 72nd hole, but made a double bogey to lose by one.

This year, Olson has just one top-10 finish in 15 starts, but did finish second at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in February, three strokes back of Inbee Park.

Now comes another opportunity in career that, for good reason, was expected to be filled with victories. In college, Olson won 20 titles while at North Dakota State, easily breaking Juli Inskter’s NCAA record of 17. Her decorated amateur career also included a victory at the 2009 U.S. Girls’ Junior and in 2012 she represented the U.S. in the Curtis Cup.

Since turning pro in 2013, however, she’s had to learn to be patient because the victories failed to materialize. That same patience has come in handy this week, too. Especially on Saturday.

“There were about 18 [mud balls],” Olson joked. “At one point I laughed, and it was, like, is it going to be in a divot or a mud ball? Because it was one or the other pretty much all day. So I’m really hoping that we either do lift, clean and place or it’s so wet [Sunday] that the water just pulls the mud off, I don’t know.”

The forecast for Sunday calls for more rain, and possibly lightning, which is why the USGA moved up tee times to try to beat the bad weather. Players will tee off in threesomes, with Olson joining Shibuno and Moriya Jutanugarn, who is two back of Olson, in the final group at 10:35 a.m. (ET).

Still, it’s likely she’ll have to play through at least some bad weather and those conditions will again test Olson’s patience. But that’s nothing new. At the start of the week, she said that when she turned pro she expected to win early on in her career.

Seven years later, she’s still waiting.

“It obviously would be a huge accomplishment, something that you dream about as a kid,” Olson said of the possibility of capturing the U.S. Women’s Open. “But obviously that’s a long way away.”

How much longer, we’ll find out on Sunday.

The post Amy Olson can notch her first pro win on the grandest stage appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
ADELAIDE, Australia — She didn’t quite finish as she started, but the ending was sweet enough for Inbee Park at the ISPA Handa Women’s Australian Open. Three days after beginning her opening round by holing-out a wedge for an eagle 2 on the first hole, the 31-year-old South Korean strolled to victory on a blustery Sunday at Royal Adelaide. Park’s closing one-over-par 74 was enough to maintain her overnight three-shot edge and clinch her 20th victory on the LPGA Tour.

Closest to Park’s winning aggregate score of 14-under 278 was American Amy Olson, who finished strongly with a 70 on a day when only one player, Cristie Kerr, shot in the 60s (69). France’s Perrine Delacour, the leading money-winner on last year’s Symetra Tour, was third at 10 under after a closing 73 marred by a triple-bogey 7 on the 14th hole.

It was, however, Park’s day, Park’s week and Park’s tournament from the moment her ball disappeared into the cup on the first green Thursday morning. Almost two years on from her previous victory, this was the LPGA Hall of Famer and former World No. 1 back to something like her distinguished best.

Park’s putting, something of a bugaboo recently but normally a strength, was the biggest difference between her and the rest. Time after time she holed out from six to eight feet for pars—most notably on the sixth, eighth and 12th greens—during a final round in which her ball-striking slipped from the peerless form she had shown over the first 54 holes, but never enough to cause her any real anguish. Only once all day was the margin between first and second less than three shots.

Sue McKay/Getty Images
Park waves to the crowd as she heads towards the 18th green at Royal Adelaide.

Still, while this win was obviously important to the new holder of the Patrica Bridges Bowl—“19 is an unlucky number in Korea,” she said—it also represented an important step towards qualification for the Olympic Games in Tokyo later this year. The gold medalist in Rio four years ago, Park is currently not one of the top-four Koreans on the Rolex Rankings; she was ranked No. 17 entering the week. Such is the depth of quality her home nation can boast in women’s golf, even making the top 15 in the world (any country with four players inside that mark is allowed to take only four to the games) would offer no guarantee of a seat on the plane to Japan.

But that is for the future. For now, Park had some kind words of tribute for her longtime caddie, Australian Brad Beecher.

“It’s been a long time with him [14 years],” she said. “He loves Australia and every time we play in the U.S. he flies back there, even if there’s only five days off. So being able to win for him in front of his people in Australia is just great.”

More soberly, while Park was clearly intent on enjoying a long-awaited victory to become the 28th golfer to break the 20-win mark on the LPGA Tour, she hinted again at her previously expressed desire to retire from the game in the not too distant future.

“It’s a great honour to put my name among these legends in golf and hopefully later, 10, 20 years later, everybody looks at those names and maybe one of my name, and then everybody thinks that it is their honour to be on there,” she said of the trophy previously held by the likes of Laura Davies, Annika Sorenstam, Lydia Ko, Karrie Webb and Jan Stephenson. “And yeah, it is hard, travelling like this. But it is what I need to do so that I can do what I love to do. Although, after I retire I’m going to miss this life probably.”

Maybe. Maybe not. But what is for sure is that Park didn’t miss much else this week during her visit to South Australia.

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By Keely Levins
The most talked about story coming out of the Honda LPGA Thailand involved world No. 1 Ariya Jutanugarn and Amy Olson. When they celebrated after Olson’s ball hit Jutanugarn’s, keeping it from running far from the hole on 18th green during the second round, conversations on Twitter and beyond popped up about the controversial issue of “backstopping.” Ultimately the LPGA Tour ruled there was no breach of the rule, meaning neither player was penalised.

@GeoffShac @MichaelClayto15 @LPGA @the_fried_egg @BoysBackstop @johnhuggan

At least the fist bump shows you have zero care for the integrity for the rest of the field. #Cheating pic.twitter.com/ShfweJiQ0b

— Duncan French (@Teamfrench23) February 22, 2019

While all of this was going on, another Amy—Amy Yang—was quietly making her way to the top of the leader board at Siam Country Club. It’s a move that has become common for her in this event. With a seven-under 65 on Sunday, the 29-year-old from South Korea won by one stroke, bringing her total number of victories at the Honda LPGA Thailand to three.

It was hot in Thailand. Temperatures were in the 30s °C and the humidity was high all week, and then thunderstorms caused a break in play during the final round.

Yang was paired with Minjee Lee on Sunday. Both started the day at 15 under, but that number plunged lower for Yang early in the round. After putting together a string of five straight birdies on the front nine, Yang turned with a five-under 31. She cooled off on the back nine. After a bogey at 14, she and Lee were tied. A birdie at 16 put Yang back out from by one, and when both players finished par-birdie, Yang had won her fourth career LPGA title.

With the $240,000 winner’s cheque, Yang is a little more than $100,000 shy of $9 million dollar mark for career earnings.

When asked why she has had such success in Thailand—in addition to the wins, Yang has three other top-10s in the tournament—the champion said she wasn’t sure. As for why things came together for her this week, she had a pretty simple answer: “[When] hitting and putting like works well together, the score goes low.” Yang, who has been on the LPGA Tour since 2008, missed a total of 13 greens during the tournament and averaged 28 putts per round.

Despite her impressive record in Thailand, Yang said she was still nervous playing the final round.

“I was honestly very nervous, especially last three holes,” said Yang. To cure the nerves, she said she told herself: “Just be patient, do your best. Just when nervous thinking rises, just let it go.”

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