1. The right “approach” pays off

Hyo-Joo Kim and Xiyu Lin shared the Day 1 lead with matching four-under 68s. Kim and Lin were also first (4.48) and third (3.77), respectively, in SG/putting. Only Nasa Hataoka (eighth) of the six players at T-3 is in the top 10 of SG/putting.

However, the majority of players in the top 10 on the leaderboard are also in top 12 in SG/approach with amateur Aine Donegan in first (4.35), Allisen Corpuz in fourth (3.78), Bailey Tardy in fifth (3.58), Hae Ran Ryu in sixth (3.58), Leona Maguire in eighth (3.28), and Hataoka in 12th (3.05). Surprisingly, the leaders trail by a decent margin, with Kim in 25th (1.9) and Lin in 38th (1.43).

2. Annika Sorenstam’s still got it … around the green

Ezra Shaw

Posting an 80, even for Sorenstam at 52, seems inconceivable for one of the game’s all-time greats. Sorenstam finished in last in SG/off the tee, making sense, given she only hit one fairway. A lone bright spot was ending up with 2.51 SG/around the green, the sixth-best in the field. While her capabilities on a major venue are different from what they were in her prime, the 72-time winner needed no data to know the best part of her game Thursday.

“I’m disappointed in that [80], but I fought really hard,” Sorenstam said. “I thought I made some great saves. It sounds funny when you have this score, but I did.”

3. An amateur leads the field in this SG stat

Donegan, an amateur from Ireland who plays college golf at LSU, posted a 69 despite her clubs not arriving until Tuesday. That makes her 4.35 SG/approach stat even more impressive, particularly too considering she hit only 12 greens in regulation. The Irishwoman bested defending US Women’s Open champion Minjee Lee in the category, with the Australian sitting at 4.05 SG/approach.

Donegan’s driver clubhead also arrived smashed to Pebble Beach, but she raved about the replacement one she put into her bag this week, saying it fueled her ability to play well into the greens by outperforming the field from the tee box as well. Donegan sits in second in SG/off the tee (1.58).

4. One of the most consistent US Women’s Open performers leads SG/off the tee

Harry How

Megan Khang has rattled off three consecutive top-10s at the US Women’s Open and is lurking at five shots off the pace after the first round. Her secret sauce might lie in her ability from the tee, as finding 13 of 14 fairways contributed to her leading 1.84 SG/off the tee. That’s .26 ahead of Donegan. In a reminder of how distinct SG/off the tee is, compared to driving distance, the longest player in the field Thursday, Amelia Garvey, sits in 114th in SG/off the tee at -.39.

5. Michelle Wie West didn’t lie—she doesn’t like putting drills

Entering Wie West’s final competitive start, she shared the thing she won’t miss the most.

“The putting drills that I’m doing, you’d best believe I’m not going to do another putting drill for the rest of my life if I don’t need to,” Wie West said.

Fitting, then, that the 2014 US Women’s Open winner finished last in the field in SG/putting at -4.18. Wie West carded a 79, sitting T-126. Impressively, she kept her touch, finishing 11th in SG/around the green (2.01).

The post What these 5 stats had to say about Day 1 at the US Women’s Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Hyo Joo Kim attempts to hula dance after winning the Lotte Championship. Sean M. Haffey

By Keely Levins

Hyo Joo Kim made the finish to her fifth career LPGA win more stressful than it needed to be Saturday at the Lotte Championship. A bogey at the 17th shrunk her three-shot lead at the start of the round to one over Hinako Shibuno. But Kim recovered immediately, taking advantage of the par-5 18th with a birdie. She finished at one-under 71 for the round and 11-under 277 for the tournament, two shots ahead of Shibuno.

“I feel very proud, a little confident about the future,” Kim said. “The outlook looks great for me and I feel like I can do better moving forward.”

The final group at Hoakalei Country Club in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, was a reminder that there’s more than one path to getting into contention at an LPGA tournament. Kim, the 26-year-old winner from South Korea, has something in common with one of her Sunday playing partners, Shibuno: Both women had won majors before becoming members of the LPGA Tour. Kim won the 2014 Amundi Evian Championship and Shibuno won the 2019 AIG Women’s Open. For Shibuno, the event was the first time she’d played outside of her home country, Japan.

Back in the Winner's Circle! ?

The final putt of the 2022 @LPGALOTTE belongs to Hyo Joo Kim! pic.twitter.com/2aoFVubbHr

— LPGA (@LPGA) April 17, 2022

While Kim accepted LPGA membership immediately after her win, Shibuno opted not to. She continued playing on the Japan LPGA Tour until making it through LPGA Tour Q-School in 2021. This year is her first full season on the LPGA Tour.

The third player in the final group was Brianna Do. The 32-year-old played college golf at UCLA and won the 2011 US Women’s Amateur Public Links title before turning pro in 2012. At the beginning of the week, Do was ranked No. 510 in the world and wasn’t even in the Lotte Championship field. She played in the Monday qualifier to earn her last-minute spot and she made the most of it. Rounds of 72-70-67 put her into the final group for the rare LPGA Saturday finish. But the gusting winds caught up with her, and she closed with a 77. Though she slid down the leader board to T-12, it’s her best finish in an LPGA event.

As the three players took different routes to the final group at the Lotte Championship, their paths now diverge again. Kim is hoisting her fifth LPGA trophy, Shibuno is working towards her first win as an LPGA Tour member, and Do is awaiting the reshuffle, hopeful this finish will help her gain better status and more LPGA starts.

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The post After bogey at 17, Hyo Joo Kim recovers to win Lotte Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Paisley
Hyo Joo Kim wore a full-face mask all week at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, not because of COVID concerns but due to a severe sun allergy. Kim’s hat and sunglasses covered the rest of her face, giving her the appearance of a beekeeper heading to work.

The coverings kept secret the emotions the 25-year-old South Korean was feeling as she made up a five-shot deficit coming into the final round at Singapore’s Sentosa Country Club. With a bogey-free 64, Kim rallied for her fourth career LPGA Tour victory, but the first since the 2016 Pure-Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic.

“Winning after such a long time, it feels like my first win of all,” said the former major champion (2014 Evian) through her translator after finishing at 17-under 271 for the tournament. “It feels like a dream at this moment.”

Kim delivered a dream-like performance on Sunday, passing nine players en route to victory. Her first birdie came on the par-5 fifth and from there, she got on a roll, making seven more over her next 10 holes.

As Kim made her comeback, her biggest challengers came from her own group and the final threesome of the day. Patty Tavatanakit, recent ANA Inspiration winner, was playing beside Kim and made seven birdies of her own. A closing 65 left Tavatanakit at 15 under, two back of Kim, and eventually in a tie for third along with 54-hole lead Xiyu Lin and Inbee Park.

When Kim made her last birdie on the 15th hole, she also held a two-shot edge over Australia’s Hannah Green, who was playing in the last group with Lin and Park. Green came into the tournament with momentum, posting top-15 finishes in her last three starts, including a T-3 a week ago at the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open. She lingered on the leader board Sunday before holing out for eagle on the par-4 14th, her second eagle hole out of the weekend, to tie Kim at 17 under.

AN EAGLE FROM THE FAIRWAY TO TIE THE LEAD

What a shot from @hannahgreengolf! ?@HWWCGolf | @GolfChannel pic.twitter.com/t3ajgKK70F

— LPGA (@LPGA) May 2, 2021

As Kim watched from the players’ lounge, eating a hot pot with friends to curb her hunger in case she had more golf to play, Green grabbed the lead with a birdie on the 16th hole. But the Aussie couldn’t seal her third career LPGA win, her putter betraying her on the 17th and 18th holes. Back-to-back three-putt bogeys saw her finish one stroke back of Kim.

“Made a really good putt on 16 to make birdie, but obviously pretty disappointed to have two three-putts finishing,” Green said, posting a closing 69.

After not playing at all on the LPGA Tour in 2020, deciding to remain in Korea and play the KLPGA in the midst of the COVID pandemic (where she won twice), Kim set a goal for 2021 to end her LPGA victory drought. Taking the title, however, also gives her some breathing room in trying to qualify for the South Korean team that will compete at this summer’s Olympics in Tokyo. Ranked No. 9 in the Rolex Women’s Rankings, Kim was solidly in the fourth and final spot on the team starting the week, with Jeongeun Lee6 the next closest Korean at No. 17. Kim missed out on representing her country in Rio in 2016.

The current four players slotted to represent Korea—Jin Young Ko (first in the Rolex Ranking), Inbee Park (second) and Sei Young Kim (third) joining Kim (9th)—have all won once on the LPGA in the last six months. Qualifying for the team ends June 28.

Lionel Ng
Hyo Joo Kim poses with the trophy after winning on Sunday at Sentosa Golf Club.

“I didn’t really give a lot of thought about going to the Olympics,” Kim said, “but I heard from my fans that they want me to end up on the Olympics. So with this win, I feel very confident to represent Korea.”

Not to mention proud to be an LPGA winner once more.

The post South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim becomes latest top-ranked player to end LPGA winless streak appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege

Ariya Jutanugarn benevolently injected drama where there had been none on Sunday, turning what should have been a back-nine victory lap at the U.S. Women’s Open into a nightmare that still somehow ended well.

The 22-year-old from Thailand squandered a seven-stroke lead with nine holes to play, before defeating South Korean Hyo-Joo Kim on the fourth playoff hole at Shoal Creek Golf Club in Birmingham, Ala.

The victory was Jutanugarn’s ninth career LPGA title and second major championship, though it’s likely more accurate to say she survived it, rather than won it.

Jutanugarn began the final round with a four-stroke lead that grew to seven when she made the turn. Then she hit her tee shot right and into a hazard at the 10th hole, leading to a triple-bogey 7. Moments later, Kim improbably holed a birdie putt in the vicinity of 70 feet to cut Jutanugarn’s lead to three.

It became two when Jutanugarn bogeyed the 12th and one when Kim holed a 50-foot, left-to-right breaker for birdie from off the green at 15.

RELATED: The clubs Ariya Jutanugarn used to win the U.S. Women’s Open

Jutanugarn rebounded by hitting it stiff on the par-3 16th, where made birdie to give herself a two-shot cushion. She needed only to par one of the final two holes to win but was unable to do so. At 18, her second shot came up short and in a bunker, and she failed to get it up and down for par.

On the first of a two-hole aggregate playoff, Kim holed a 30-foot, left-to-right birdie putt at the 14th, then gave it back with a bogey on the 18th hole to send it a sudden-death playoff.

On the fourth extra hole, Kim was unable to save par from a bunker in front of the green on No. 18, missing a 15-foot putt, while Jutanugarn from the back bunker hit an exceptional shot to inside two feet for a tap-in par and the win.

Jutanugarn, who closed with a one-over-par 73 and a 72-hole score of 11-under-par 277, has won two of her last three starts, and she has finished in the top seven in seven of her last eight starts. She started the week at Shoal Creek, however, under difficult circumstances when her golf clubs failed to arrive on Monday. They finally made their way to Birmingham on Tuesday, but given their detour and the rainy weather that caused the course to be closed early in the week, Jutanugarn only was able to play nine practice holes before the start of the play on Thursday.

She came into this championship sixth in the Rolex Rankings, though given her form chart she again is playing like the No. 1 she once was. She might get there again, provided, that she plays as well as she did in her first 63 holes at Shoal Creek and not as poorly as she did in her last nine.

The post Ariya Jutanugarn squanders seven-shot lead but defeats Hyo-Joo Kim on fourth playoff hole of U.S. Women’s Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By E. Michael Johnson

Ariya Jutanugarn has made playing without a driver fashionable. And as you might expect from someone who has 12 clubs that are irons or wedges in her bag, it was those clubs that propelled her to her second major title at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Jutanugarn appeared poised to cruise to victory, holding a seven-shot lead as she headed to the final nine, but made triple bogey 7 on the par-4 10th hole to allow Hyo-Joo Kim an opportunity to make things interesting. Kim did just that with birdie bombs of 35 and 50 feet on the 12th and 15 holes to narrow the margin to one, before Jutanugarn nailed a 7-iron on the 197-yard, par-3 16th hole to three feet and a clutch birdie, extending the lead to two. But Jutanugarn bogeyed the final two holes, creating a two-hole aggregate playoff, which went two holes beyond that before Jutanugarn was able to win with a nifty up-and-down par save from the greenside bunker, giving her another major title to go with the 2016 Women’s British Open.

Jutanugarn’s iron set is an interesting one, consisting of a pair of TaylorMade Tour Preferred UDI driving irons and the company’s RSi TP UDI driving iron for her 4-iron. Her 5-iron through pitching wedge are Titleist’s 716 AP2 model and she carries a trio of Titleist Vokey SM7 wedges.

For the week, the 22-year-old from Thailand hit 52 of 72 greens in regulation for a 72.2 percent clip, ranked T-3. More importantly, she did so consistently, hitting 14, 13 13 and 12 greens in regulation in each of the four rounds, respectively.

Even so, Jutanugarn needed to rebound in the playoff to avoid a collapse reminiscent of Arnold Palmer at the 1966 U.S. Open. Jutanugarn managed to come up with some clutch par saves with her Titleist Vokey SM7 wedges, however, to take the title.

What Ariya Jutanugarn had in the bag at the U.S. Women’s Open

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

3-wood: TaylorMade AeroBurner, 15 degrees

Irons (2-3): TaylorMade Tour Preferred UDI; (4): TaylorMade RSi TP UDI; (5-PW): Titleist 716 AP2

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7 (50, 56, 60 degrees)

Putter: Odyssey Works Cruiser V-Line

The post The clubs Ariya Jutanugarn used to win the U.S. Women’s Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.