China’s Ruoning Yin got her breakthrough LPGA win in March. Three months later, she’s now a major champion.

With a 10-foot birdie on the par-5 18th hole on the famed Lower Course at Baltusrol Golf Club, Yin closed out a bogey-free four-under 67 to reach eight-under 276 and defeat Yuka Saso by one shot at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Ruoning Yin birdies No. 18 to take the outright lead!!!#KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/LXr9NYGNiV

— KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 25, 2023

Yin started Sunday in Springfield, N.J., three shots off the lead held by Leona Maguire. She then played a methodical final round, a round interrupted for nearly two hours by a passing thunderstorm.

When play resumed, Yin was at five under through eight holes, trailing countrywoman Xiyu Lin and South Korea’s Jenny Shin by two shots. From there, Yin made 13th and 14th holes to grab a share of the lead, before claiming it outright with her birdie on the closing hole.

At the DIO Implant L.A. Open, the 20-year-old became just the second golfer from China to win an LPGA event, joining Shanshan Feng. Yin is also now the second to win a major championship.

Saso, the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion, made a birdie on the 18th to get to seven under for the tournament, closing out a five-under 66 and hoping she’d done enough to get into a playoff.

With the victory, Yin claimed the first-place prize money payout of $1.5 million from the record-breaking $10 million purse.

Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer who made the cut at Baltusrol. Come back shortly after the tournament’s finish and we’ll update the list with individual names and specific paydays.

Win: Ruoning Yin, -8, $1,500,000
2: Yuka Saso, -7, $875,130
T-3: Carlota Ciganda, -6, $423,070
T-3: Megan Khang, -6, $423,070
T-3: Xiyu Lin, -6, $423,070
T-3: Stephanie Meadow, -6, $423,070
T-3: Anna Nordqvist, -6, $423,070
T-8: Rose Zhang, -5, $214,811
T-8: Ayaka Furue, -5, $214,811
T-8: Jenny Shin, -5, $214,811
T-11: Nanna Koerstz Madsen, -4, $168,170
T-11: Leona Maguire, -4, $168,170
T-11: Perrine Delacour, -4, $168,170
14: Grace Kim, -3, $147,571
T-15: Allisen Corpuz, -2, $125,531
T-15: Lauren Coughlin, -2, $125,531
T-15: Sarah Schmelzel, -2, $125,531
T-15: Jodi Ewart Shadoff, -2, $125,531
T-15: Brooke M. Henderson, -2, $125,531
T-20: Linn Grant, -1, $104,451
T-20: Hyo Joo Kim, -1, $104,451
T-20: Minjee Lee, -1, $104,451
T-20: Jin Young Ko, -1, $104,451
T-24: Gabriela Ruffels, E, $86,483
T-24: Mina Harigae, E, $86,483
T-24: Ariya Jutanugarn, E, $86,483
T-24: Mel Reid, E, $86,483
T-24: In Gee Chun, E, $86,483
T-24: Marissa Steen, E, $86,483
T-30: Cheyenne Knight, +1, $68,115
T-30: Esther Henseleit, +1, $68,115
T-30: Narin An, +1, $68,115
T-30: Lee-Anne Pace, +1, $68,115
T-30: Angel Yin, +1, $68,115
T-30: Celine Boutier, +1, $68,115
T-36: Daniela Darquea, +2, $56,538
T-36: Haeji Kang, +2, $56,538
T-36: Amy Yang, +2, $56,538
T-39: Madelene Sagstrom, +3, $45,217
T-39: Pajaree Anannarukarn, +3, $45,217
T-39: Celine Borge, +3, $45,217
T-39: Yuna Nishimura, +3, $45,217
T-39: Danielle Kang, +3, $45,217
T-39: Pornanong Phatlum, +3, $45,217
T-39: Ashleigh Buhai, +3, $45,217
T-39: Lindsey Weaver-Wright, +3, $45,217
T-47: Nasa Hataoka, +4, $35,071
T-47: Jeongeun Lee6, +4, $35,071
T-47: Yu Liu, +4, $35,071
T-47: Min Lee, +4, $35,071
T-47: Lexi Thompson, +4, $35,071
T-52: Samantha Wagner, +5, $29,705
T-52: Alison Lee, 5, $29,705
T-52: Mariah Stackhouse, +5, $29,705
T-52: Emily Kristine Pedersen, +5, $29,705
T-52: Hye-Jin Choi, +5, $29,705
T-57: Linnea Strom, +6, $25,395
T-57: Gina Kim, +6, $25,395
T-57: Moriya Jutanugarn, +6, $25,395
T-57: Lydia Ko, +6, $25,395
T-61: Maria Fassi, +7, $22,040
T-61: Albane Valenzuela, +7, $22,040
T-61: Gemma Dryburgh, +7, $22,040
T-61: Alexa Pano, +7, $22,040
T-61: Stephanie Kyriacou, +7, $22,040
T-61: Soo Bin Joo, +7, $22,040
T-61: Eun-Hee Ji, +7, $22,040
T-68: Hannah Green, +8, $19,644
T-68: Lauren Stephenson, +8, $19,644
T-68: Jasmine Suwannapura, +8, $19,644
T-71: Morgane Metraux, +9, $18,685
T-71: Elizabeth Szokol, +9, $18,685
T-71: Stacy Lewis, +9, $18,685
74: Annie Park, +10, $18,206
75: Charlotte Thomas, +13, $17,987
76: Aditi Ashok, +14, $17,759
T-77: Sung Hyun Park, +15, $17,422
T-77: Matilda Castren, +15, $17,422
79: Lucy Li, +18, $17,089

The post Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer at the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It was all worth the wait.

With a 10-footer for birdie on the par-5 home hole of the famed Lower Course, the 20-year-old from China closed out a final-round 67 to post an eight-under 276 total, one stroke clear of 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso. In turn, Yin had claimed her second career LPGA title and her first major championship victory, joining Shanshan Feng (2012 Wegmans LPGA Championship).

“I’m glad that I can be the second Chinese player after Shanshan won a major. She is the person who inspired me the most,” Yin said. “I think it’s going to push a lot of kids to play golf.”

Yin, a second-year LPGA Tour pro who won for the first time in March at the DIO Implant L.A. Open, was statistically the best ball-striker in the field this week. Two of her four rounds were bogey-free, including her Sunday performance, no small accomplishment given the two-hour rain delay that she and the field had to endure. The six bogeys she did make—four in her second round and two in her third—each came on three-putts.

Yin’s winning score was largely due to her performance on Baltusrol’s nine par 5s, which she played in seven under for the week. That final birdie on the 72nd hole came after her second shot failed to carry the ridge in the middle of the green, sending her ball some backwards some 30 yards short of the green. With Yin’s third shot settling 10 feet away, and Saso in the clubhouse at seven under after a closing 66, a playoff look likely.

Until Yin’s putt rolled squarely into the middle of the hole.

Ruoning Yin birdies No. 18 to take the outright lead!!!#KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/LXr9NYGNiV

— KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 25, 2023

“I actually kind of felt that I was going to make it, and I made it,” she said. “It’s a very weird feeling, but I felt it on that putt.”

Much like Scottie Scheffler’s recent performances on the PGA Tour, it was the kind of hot ball-striking/lukewarm putting display that is often good enough for a high finish, but not necessarily a victory. But you don’t win major championships without a bit of luck, the saying goes, and for that, Yin had those around her on the leaderboard to thank.

Andy Lyons

Leona Maguire, who won on the LPGA Tour the week prior, had been leading most of the tournament and took a one-shot advantage into the final round. She had hit 83 per cent of her greens in regulation in her previous seven rounds and was the player many expected to capture her first major at Baltusrol. But perhaps suffering under the scrutiny of playing in the final group for the first time of her career, or maybe just tired from a busy two-week stretch, Maguire never got comfortable. Her three-over 74 dropped her to T-11.

Instead, it was Maguire’s playing partner and longtime friend Stephanie Meadow—“I’ve known her since she read Harry Potter books,” Meadow said of Maguire coming into Sunday—who mounted the more formidable challenge. Meadow has yet to win on the LPGA Tour, but she was flirting with the lead for most of the day after a birdie on the par-5 seventh hole. Another one from off the green on the par-5 17th, and a combination of late blunders from other players, meant Meadow could match Saso’s score with a birdie on the 18th and book her place in the presumed playoff. When Yin’s birdie putt drop in the group ahead, Meadow’s task became making an eagle to tie, and that’s where her luck ran out.

“Sometimes the golf gods are in your favour and sometimes they’re not,” she says. “Obviously it’s not the outcome that either Leona or I wanted today, but we fought hard, and we did our best.”

Rose Zhang and Xiyu Lin, playing in the group ahead of Yin, each made charges of their own, but both stumbled on the 72nd hole. Needing birdies to post seven and eight under, respectively, both Zhang and Lin pulled their drives into the hazard left.

It was an uncharacteristic mistake for Zhang, in particular, but the player who came into this year’s tournament with so much attention managed to save par anyway. Her final round 67 was enough for her first major top 10.

“It’s been incredible,” she said of the tournament. “I felt so much support and love from the crowds out here. It’s super special, and I took it all in for sure.”

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This week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is being held at one of the most historic venues in golf: Baltusrol Golf Club. Well, men’s golf, that is.

To be clear, Baltusrol has hosted big-time women’s events before. Four to be exact. A pair of US Women’s Opens and a pair of US Women’s Amateurs. But when you think of Baltusrol’s Lower Course and its iconic clubhouse, you think of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Phil Mickelson and, yes, even Jimmy Walker. More recently, you think of rising star Michael Thorbjornsen, who won the U.S. Junior Amateur here in 2018 over fellow phenom Akshay Bhatia.

Stacy Lewis, who is competing in her 15th Women’s PGA in the Garden State this week, couldn’t help but notice the same thing during her initial clubhouse stroll.

“The biggest thing for me is you walk through that clubhouse, and you see the winners of all these past champions that have won big events here, and it’s guys, it’s guys, it’s guys,” Lewis said on Wednesday. “And then there’s maybe one here of a US [Women’s Am] or something like that.”

Stacy Lewis. USWO

In fairness, one of the members of the LPGA Tour’s Mount Rushmore (if such a thing were to exist), Mickey Wright, won the US Women’s Open on the Lower Course in 1961. But, up until this week, there’s been just one women’s event at Baltusrol since, and it took place on the just-as-good-but-not-as-storied Upper Course, also originally designed by the legendary AW Tillinghast. This week the ladies will take on the Gil Hanse-renovated Lower for the first time in over six decades. It is a huge and much-needed opportunity on the big stage for the women’s game.

“To just start a history here of women being on those pictures and being around that clubhouse, that’s the biggest thing for me of what’s changing in women’s golf,” Lewis said. “Because we’re doing this every year. We’re doing this every golf course we go play. It’s going to happen at Pebble, too. We’re changing the history of these golf courses. I’m just glad that the powers that be picked up the phone and said that they were ready for it.”

There is not a more historical figure at Baltusrol than the GOAT himself, Nicklaus, who won back-to-back US Opens on the Lower Course, 13 years apart. The first win in 1967 featured one of the most iconic shots in golf history, the Golden Bear hitting a 238-yard 1-iron into the 72nd green to set up a birdie for a final-round 65. There’s a plaque dedicated to the moment in the middle of the par-5 18th fairway, which is how Lewis learned about the shot’s existence during a practice round Tuesday.

“Oh, man. I learned about Jack Nicklaus’s 1-iron yesterday on the 18th hole,” Lewis said. “I honestly haven’t learned a lot about [the course] because I’ve been running from one thing to the next the last two days.”

Believe it or not, there’s even video of the shot despite it occurring in 1967. And it’s in colour.

In 1967, @jacknicklaus hit his famous 1-iron on the 72nd hole en route to his 4-stroke victory over Arnold Palmer in @usopengolf on Baltusrol Golf Club's Lower Course, where half the #USJuniorAm field is teeing it up today! pic.twitter.com/8OklLhK2J4

— USGA (@USGA) July 17, 2018

You’ll have to forgive Lewis for not being a massive golf nerd like the rest of us. The best way to learn about history is to see it and get a feel for it up close, which the women have not had a chance to do here at Baltusrol since 1985. This week, it’s their turn to make some history of their own.

The post Stacy Lewis didn’t learn about one of the most iconic shots in Baltusrol (and golf) history until she was on the 18th fairway appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Kerry Haigh is ever the optimist. In Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course, the PGA of America’s chief championships officer has got a layout that’s close to everything he could ask for when setting up a major championship test: bouncy fairways, thick rough and firm greens that make the 6,621-yard par-71 track hosting this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship feel almost links like. The one thing he doesn’t have is a forecast working in his favour, with at least a 50-per-cent chance of rain predicted for all four days of competition.

“It is 50-per-cent of sunshine is what we hear,” Haigh joked when asked about the weather.

The thing is, Haigh has experience with rain at Baltusrol, having to navigate wet weather when the Lower Course hosted the 2016 PGA Championship. Conditions got so bad, the PGA of America implemented lift, clean and place during the final two rounds that were stacked back-to-back on Sunday.

Should Mother Nature interrupt the festivities again this week, it would be a shame as the top female players come to one of the game’s most historic courses. Baltusrol has hosted nine men’s majors, but just two women’s, the 1961 and 1985 US Women’s Open. In two weeks’ time, the top female players in the game will experience another legendary major championship venue for the first time, Pebble Beach making its debut as a US Women’s Open.

For the women to compete on these stellar courses provides a unique opportunity to showcase the women’s game. Casual golf fans may be more apt to tune into the coverage to see how the women will fare on courses they’ve seen the men play previously. The curiosity factor is bound to attract more viewers.

Thankfully, they’ll have lots of opportunity to watch. Twenty-six hours of live coverage from Baltusrol will be shown. At Pebble Beach, Saturday and Sunday rounds will be broadcast during prime-time hours, a first for a women’s championship

The opportunity to compete at these venues is something Stacy Lewis, a two-time major winner and the US Solheim Cup team captain, has been longing for since joining the LPGA Tour in 2009. Since KPMG and the PGA of America came on board to help run the former LPGA Championship nine years ago, the venues have become more high profile: Hazeltine National, Aronimink, Atlanta Athletic Club, Congressional and now Baltusrol.

When asked about what the next two events will mean for the women’s game, the LPGA veteran offered an intriguing answer. Rather than lament about it taking so long for the women to visit these premier venues, she noted how exciting a time this has become as she spoke about what the players are in store for in the coming weeks. And what players are most looking forward to in the experience.

“The biggest thing for me is you walk through that clubhouse, and you see the winners of all these past champions that have won big events here, and it’s guys, it’s guys, it’s guys, and then there’s maybe one here of a US Am or something like that,” Lewis said. “But to just start a history here of women being on those pictures and being around that clubhouse, that’s the biggest thing for me of what’s changing in women’s golf, because we’re doing this every year.

“We’re doing this every golf course we go play. It’s going to happen at Pebble, too. We’re changing the history of these golf courses. I’m just glad that the powers that be picked up the phone and said that they were ready for it.”

The post What makes playing majors at Baltusrol and Pebble Beach so meaningful according to major winner Lewis appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Rayhan Thomas will face talented American William Mouw in the opening round of matchplay at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship on Wednesday after quite literally reversing his recent strokeplay woes at historic Baltusrol Golf Club yesterday.

The 18-year-old Dubai star kept alive his hopes of bettering his semifinal run at the USGA’s U-19 championship last year by reaching the last 64  – and knockout phase – in a share of 40th place overnight following rounds of 75-70.

At 22nd in the latest WAGR, the Indian No.1 and MENA Tour trailblazer is 44 places higher than Mouw and thus a clear favourite for their 9am local time (5pm UAE time) showdown today.

But the American will be no cinch; Mouw has previously been ranked as high as 35th and won the 2017 Western Junior Championship, a prestigious U.S. event where he recently finished 13th in his title defence.

Thomas will be pleased to have made it through to the knockout stages after strokeplay slips in his two most recent events.

However, unlike the St. Andrews Links Trophy and British Amateur Championship in Scotland when he suffered back nine meltdowns in the second round to miss the cut, he overcame a slow first round start on Baltusrol’s Upper course Monday (a five-over 75) to fire a tidy even par 70 on the famed club’s lower course Wednesday. Thomas even overcame a nightmare double-bogey start and a third dropped shot two holes later, compiling a homeward nine of 33 including an eagle two and two birdies to safely advance.

The matchplay phase is all scheduled to be played on the upper course at Baltusrol which has hosted the U.S. Open seven times and the PGA Championship twice.

Tiger Woods won the U.S. Junior Am title three years straight from 1991 while Jordan Spieth, the champion in 2009 and 2011, was denied a similar hat-trick when fellow American Jim Liu succeeded Woods as the event’s youngest winner in 2010.

The post Thomas through to U.S. Junior Amateur knockout appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 18-year-old, Dubai-based Indian No.1 is one of 25 players exempted into the 156-player field after his breakout run to the semifinals of the under-19 USGA championship at Flint Hills National last July.

He’ll tee it up with Americans Fulton Smith and Luke Ludwig at 9.09am local time (5.09pm UAE time) on Monday on Baltusrol’s Upper course before playing in the penultimate group in Tuesday’s final round of strokeplay on the slightly shorter Lower course Tuesday at 11.57am (7.57pm UAE time).

The top 64 players advance to the matchplay knockout stages and the spotlight will be on Thomas in the second round, and more specifically the back nine on Tuesday, after he let golden opportunities slip in last month’s St. Andrews Links Trophy and The (British) Amateur Championship.

The MENA Tour trailblazer had been T-22 after an opening 72 on the par 70 Royal Aberdeen and comfortably on track to make the top-64 at the 123rd edition of the British Am. But as was the case at the St Andrews Links Trophy at the Home of Golf the previous week, where Thomas went from contending after 27 holes to somehow missing the 36-hole cut, he struggled with another five-over homeward nine.

“I love links golf so I loved playing those two weeks on some of the best links courses the world has to offer but unfortunately, my back nine game on the second days was where I fell short,” Thomas told Golf Digest Middle East.

“I’m looking forward to [Baltusrol] in New Jersey. Going forward, just keep working on the same things I’ve been working on… The game is in good shape, I just need to figure out a better way to start scoring on those back nines and I’m sure I’ll come back swinging.”

Thomas was beaten 5 and 4 by eventual champion Noah Goodwin in last year’s semifinals in a championship that dates back to 1948 and increased the age limited from U-18 to U-19 in 2016.

Tiger Woods won the title three years straight from 1991 while Jordan Spieth, the champion in 2009 and 2011, was denied a hat-trick when fellow American Jim Liu succeeded Woods as the event’s youngest winner in 2010.

“The run to the semifinal last year was awesome. I played decent in the strokeplay and then I really kicked it up a gear in the matchplay, had some really good games, just played solid, putted really well.

“That’s the key in match play, if you are able to putt well you can progress pretty far. Keeping the pressure on as I did last year to the semis was awesome. It was a good stepping stone for me because it was such a big event.

“I’m going to look at the course as much as I can on the internet, watch the 2016 PGA [Championship] for the lower course even though the matchplay is on the upper course, get an idea of how it looks.

“I’m just going to keep working on the same things because I’m playing solid, don’t need to do much else. Just get my head on straight and swing hard.”

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