After all, we’re not even through two rounds of the Pelican Women’s Championship and already two players are taking home Lamborghinis. That’s right. Lamborghinis.

OK, so if you read the fine print, it’s actually just a two-year lease of a Lambo. But still, it’s a freaking Lambo.

Austin Ernst poses with the Lamborghini she won with a hole-in-one during the Pelican Women’s Championship pro-am.

Austin Ernst won the first one with an ace on the 147-yard, par-3 12th hole at Pelican Golf Club during Monday’s pro-am. And Pavarisa Yoktuan’s hole-in-one during the second round of the tournament earned her a set of car keys as well. Check it out—as well as her fantastic reaction:

? ACE ALERT ?@Parinprinp aces the par-3 147 yard 12th hole with her 8-iron at the @pelicanlpga!

With the hole-in-one, she wins a two-year lease on a @Lamborghini! ?️ pic.twitter.com/K12m4SHXHg

— LPGA (@LPGA) November 12, 2021

Yeah, she’s pretty fired up. And for good reason.

The best part of Yoktuan’s ace is that it came in competition. Well, actually, that’s just a nice little bonus. The best part is still the fact that she won a LAMBO. Drive on, indeed.

The post Another LPGA player wins a Lamborghini(!) with hole-in-one, reacts accordingly appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
There’s nothing quite like it in golf. The first tee at the Solheim Cup is loud, it’s packed, it’s passionate, it’s not your normal tournament. The Solheim Cup has its own form of etiquette on the first tee: Instead of quiet fans, if you ask them for noise, you’ll get it. Danielle Kang loved the energy of the crowd from her first Solheim Cup back in 2017. True to form, she was hyping the crowd up again on Saturday at Inverness as she teed off in the first match with her partner, Austin Ernst. They took on newly crowned AIG Women’s Open winner Anna Nordqvist and Matilda Castren in foursomes.

 

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Just listen to that @TheSolheimCup crowd!

Electric atmosphere, now on NBC and @PeacockTV. #SolheimCup pic.twitter.com/HxxRjeaZfn

— On Her Turf (@OnHerTurf) September 4, 2021

The crowds are supposed to be big in Toledo over Labor Day weekend, with organizers estimating 150,000 fans will be in attendance. If the first tee is any indication, that number seems to be holding true.

 

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The morning foursomes matches went well for Team Europe, the defending champions. They won three of their matches, and tied the fourth. Each win was close, with Team Europe winning them all 1 up. Team USA is looking to make up ground in the afternoon fourball matches. The home crowd will certainly be cheering for a comeback.

The post The first tee at the Solheim Cup is one of the best scenes in all of sports appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
On Saturday night at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, Anna Nordqvist looked poised to secure her first win since 2017. The two-time major winner had a three-shot lead over Sei Young Kim, and Austin Ernst, Nelly Korda and Jenny Shin sat four shots behind.

But on Sunday, it was Ernst, who’d been waiting even longer for her next win, hoisting the trophy. With rounds of 65-65-63, the 28-year-old from South Carolina won the 54-hole event at 20-under, two shots ahead of Nordqvist.

Ernst, the 2011 NCAA champ, left LSU after two years and joined the LPGA Tour in 2013. She won her first LPGA tournament quickly, the 2014 Cambia Portland Classic. And she’s been waiting since for her next victory, 144 tournaments to be exact.

“It was very frustrating,” Ernst said. “I had finished second I think every year from 2015 to 2018. Every single season. So, it was frustrating to get so close and not get a win when I knew that I could win.”

Though Ernst had to come from four shots back, she was never intimidated while at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Ark. “I’m trying to birdie every hole out there,” Ernst said Saturday night. “I know that you can birdie every hole out there, too.”

Jamie Squire
ROGERS, ARKANSAS – AUGUST 30: Austin Ernst hits her first shot on the 2nd hole during the final round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle County Club on August 30, 2020, in Rogers, Arkansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

She’s not wrong. Throughout the tournament, there were only three holes she didn’t birdie. She hit every fairway on Sunday and made 10 birdies en route to her 63.

Ernst credits the long break as being crucial to getting her game into winning shape. She took the first part of the LPGA Tour’s five and a half month break completely off, citing burnout. Once she felt that she wanted to practice again, she got to work on her putting with the help of her coach, who’s also her father. They changed her putter from a blade to a mallet, switched the grip to a SuperStroke and went from conventional to cross-handed.

“[The pause in competition] gave me a great break to come back rejuvenated and have something that I want to work on,” Ernst said. “I had kind of lost my confidence last year, and to take that break and to take that time where I got to just kind of decompress away from golf, which I’ve never really been able to do.”

Quietly, Ernst had a strong performance at the AIG Women’s British Open the week prior, finishing fifth. Being close to the lead, she was on TV more than usual and her dad noticed a little issue with her stance.

“He noticed that I was a little bit more upright and my hands were a little behind the ball last week,” Ernst said. “So, the quick adjustment this week was, okay, feel like your hands are just forward of the ball and bend from the waist just slightly more. So that little adjustment seemed like the ball started on line more and the contact was more consistent.”

She had to wait a long time for her second win, longer than she expected. But now that it’s here, she’s more ready for subsequent wins than she was back in 2014.

“It’s a little bit of a weight off my shoulders to get this win, but I also think it’s going to be more of a springboard than maybe in ’14,” Ernst said. “Obviously I played good golf after that, but I never got that second win. I think now having two wins seems so much more solid than just having one. You can almost — people might say it’s a fluke if they won once.”

There’s nothing fluky about a top-five finish at a major followed by a win.

The post Austin Ernst wins birdie-fest at LPGA Walmart NW Arkansas Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

8:10 Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson vs Mel Reid and Charley Hull

8:22 Danielle Kang and Lizette Salas vs Carlota Ciganda and Caroline Masson

8:34 Paula Creamer and Austin Ernst vs Anna Nordqvist and Georgia Hall

8:46 Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller vs Karine Icher and Catriona Matthew

The Kerr-Thompson pairing is very strong. Kerr is playing in her ninth Solheim Cup, and has been having an impressive and consistent season. She has a win along with five other top-five finishes in LPGA events this season. Thompson, who is playing in her third Solheim Cup, has also won this season and is currently ranked No. 2 in the world.

Related: Heavily-favoured U.S. team staying humble, fused at Solheim Cup

Though the 2017 resumes of Hull and Reid don’t match the feats of Thompson and Kerr, the two are good at the Solheim Cup. This is Hull’s third time playing, and her record is 6-2-0. This is also Reid’s third Solheim Cup appearance. She’s gone 4-3-1 in the last two.

If Hull and Reid were to win, it would certainly be considered an upset. But while good results in stroke play are important and can instill confidence, there’s no way to calculate how that’s going to translate into match play.

The post Power-pairing Thompson and Kerr out first for U.S. in Solheim Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

At a press conference following the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns, non-playing U.S. skipper Juli Inkster added two captain’s picks—18-year-old LPGA rookie Angel Yin and 25-year-old Austin Ernst—to her 10 automatic qualifiers (see below). Europe’s Annika Sorenstam also named her four wild-cards—Anna Nordqvist, Emily Pedersen, Caroline Masson and Madelene Sagstrom—to complete her side.

Both captains made it clear how difficult it had been to arrive at their respective conclusions. Inkster omitted the likes of former U.S. Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer, as well as six-time Cup veteran Angela Stanford and five-time player Morgan Pressel.

“This has been a really tough day,” said Inkster, herself a nine-time Solheim participant. “I don’t know if there’s ever been so many people in the running for two captain’s picks. I could have gone a lot of different ways. But in the end I went with my gut, and who I thought deserved a chance to play. I hope it turns out OK. That’s all I can say.”

Noticeably absent from the European squad will be Catriona Matthew, who was looking to make her ninth appearance in European colors. The Scot will still make the trip to Iowa, however, as one of Sorenstam’s assistant captains.

“It is always hard to say ‘no’ to someone who lives for the Solheim Cup,” said Sorenstam of Matthew. “She was involved in the plans and knew the players we were talking about and that made it a bit awkward at times. But she has been strong and mature, and I am happy to have her on the team either way.”

UNITED STATES TEAM
Points List
Lexi Thompson, 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 3-2-2 record
Stacy Lewis, 4th appearance (2011, ’13, ’15), 4-7-1
Gerina Piller, 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 3-2-2
Cristie Kerr, 9th appearance (2002, ’03, ’05, ’07, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’15), 15-14-5
Jessica Korda, 2nd appearance (2013), 1-2-1
Danielle Kang, 1st appearance
Michelle Wie, 5th appearance (2009, ’11, ’13, ’15), 7-7-1
Brittany Lang, 5th appearance (2009, ’11, ’13, ’15), 5-6-3
Rolex Ranking
Brittany Lincicome, 6th appearance (2007, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’15), 5-11-2 Lizette Salas, 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 1-3-2
Captain’s Picks
Austin Ernst, 1st appearance Angel Yin, 1st appearance

EUROPEAN TEAM
Points List
Georgia Hall (England), 1st appearance
Florentyna Parker (England), 1st appearance
Mel Reid (England), 3rd appearance (2011, ’15), 4-3-1
Jodi Ewart-Shadoff (England), 2nd appearance (2013), 2-1-0
Rolex Ranking
Carlota Ciganda (Spain), 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 4-1-2
Suzann Pettersen (Norway), 9th appearance (2002, ’03, ’05, ’07, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’15), 16-11-6
Charley Hull (England), 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 6-2-0
Karine Icher (France), 4th appearance (2002, ’13, ’15), 5-4-1
Captain’s Picks
Caroline Masson (Germany), 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 2-3-2
Anna Nordqvist (Sweden), 5th appearance (2009, ’11, ’13, ’15), 8-7-1
Emily Pedersen (Denmark), 1st appearance
Madelene Sagstrom (Sweden), 1st appearance

The post With 2017 Solheim Cup teams finalised, captains Inkster and Sorenstam oversee changing of the guard appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.