By Joel Beall
Lexi Thompson announced on Instagram Wednesday that she has withdrawn from the Women’s British Open, saying she needs time to work on herself.

“The events of the past year and a half (on and off the golf course) have taken a tremendous toll on me both mentally and emotionally,” Thompson wrote. “I have not truly felt like myself for quite some time. I am therefore taking this time to recharge my mental batteries, and to focus on myself away from the game of professional golf.”

Thompson experienced two high-profile incidents inside the ropes last year, losing the ANA Inspiration in a playoff following a four-stroke penalty for incorrectly marking her ball, and missing a two-foot putt at the season-finale CME Group Tour Championship for a potential victory. The 23-year-old also attended to her mother’s battle with cancer.

“Thank you all so much for your continued support,” Thompson said. “I hope to see everyone soon as I plan to defend my title at the 2018 Indy Women in Tech Championship.

Thompson, one of the most recognizable names in women’s golf, is currently fifth in the world rankings. This campaign has been somewhat of a roller coaster compared to her historical output, posting five top 10s and ranking 15th on the money list but failing to find the winner’s circle. The Indy Women in Tech Championship tees off on August 16.

The Women’s Open begins next week at Royal Lytham. In-Kyung Kim is the reigning champ.

The post Lexi Thompson, citing mental and emotional toll, withdraws from British Open “to focus on myself” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 19-year-old Californian two-putted for birdie from the back of the par 4 17th green to edge 2009 champion In-Kyung Kim on the second hole of sudden death at Emirates Golf Club.

Both had birdied the 18th to extend what had started as a three-way playoff until France’s Celine Herbin dumped her approach into the water guarding the par 5 and eliminated herself with a double bogey.

After bravely trading near tap-in birdies on 18 with Yin, Kim hit her drive on the 17th just shy of pin high. But the reigning British Open champion rushed her chip six foot past the cup and then tugged the birdie try to extend her a 0-5 LPGA playoff heartache all the way to the Ladies European Tour. 

IK Kim narrowly misses her birdie putt & @angelyinlol lands her breakthrough win @OMEGAGolfDubai @EmiratesGC pic.twitter.com/idq8B7vMsm

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) December 9, 2017

Yin has done it all this week, playing the joker with 36 and 54 hole leader Anne Van Dam (who slid to solo 4th with a closing 71), interviewer of the Dutchwoman on Thursday, interviewee after creeping into contention on Friday before finally emerging as the champion in the first playoff in the 12 year history of the LET’s season-ending event.

The winner’s $75,000 cheque and Omega wristwatch sealed a sensational year during which Yin earned a Solheim Cup captain’s pick from Juli Inkster on the back of a rookie season which netted $455, 235 and 52nd place in the LPGA rankings courtesy of an impressive five top-10s.

It’s clear golf has a new star in its midst after the world No. 57 raised the new Dallah trophy.

“It’s huge for me because at the LPGA, the last event, the CME Tour Championship, I played terribly [T-70] so to close out this year, 2017, which I think I’ve done really well, to close it off on a really good note with such a big win in Dubai , it just gives me that stamp that you can do it next year,” said Yin.

“I feel amazing, my first major tour professional win, so this is big for me.” 

.@angelyinlol looking for payback with a water pistol after winning the @OMEGAGolfDubai & being covered in water.

Watch @broch_nicole & @OliviaCowan run!! pic.twitter.com/JKBSbwFilx

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) December 9, 2017

Yin could and probably should have won it in regulation but pushed a three-footer for birdie on 17 and then, knowing a birdie would get it done, found that her drive on 18 had trickled into the water hazard on the far side of the left-handed dogleg. She held her nerve to make a two-putt par following the penalty drop and a 178-yard five iron into the green to sign for a 67 which saw her join Kim (65) and Herbin (64) on -15 and in the playoff.

“I wasn’t happy of course with hitting in the water because I know if I just had an iron and two putt I win it easily,” said Yin.

“But I know that I can make birdie there. Earlier this year I was playing in the same situation and I hooked it in the water and I had a two iron and I stuck it to two-feet and made birdie so I was like, I can do that again and even if I don’t I can make par and go in the playoff.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better one [finish to 2017]. The playoff, I think that just added to it. I didn’t want a playoff but obviously…it was awesome to have a playoff and play with IK Kim…that shot [Kim hit into 18 to take extra time to a second hole] was nice, she stuck it. “

Yin says her Solheim experience helped her get across the line. 

“I thought I was going to be very nervous at Solheim but I was more pumped than anything and it just helped me able to deal with my adrenaline better coming to the closing holes. Definitely the Solheim helped me a lot, I mean I think I got better with the crowds too.”

Indian teen Aditi Ashok had been in the conversation until she uncharacteristically doubled the 72nd hole after dunking her third shot into the par to finish tied 5th with Swede Pernilla Lindberg (70) and Englishwoman Charley Hull (69) on -12.

Dame Laura Davies started the day just four strokes out of the lead but a fairytale 46th LET title wasn’t to be as the 54-year-old signed for a frustrating six over 78 to nosedive to a tie for 41st.

In the end it was a player 35 years her junior that was celebrating. But how? In keeping with her unusual week, Yin planned to keep a date visiting the Penguins at Ski Dubai in Emirates Mall. You can take the talented kid out of LA, but you can’t take the kooky character out of the kid.

The final @OMEGAGolfDubai leaderboard @EmiratesGC.

All scores: https://t.co/1jQAQY6Z9r pic.twitter.com/1l7UEgFm7h

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) December 9, 2017

The post Swings of an Angel as Yin wins dramatic Dubai playoff appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Laura Davies, among others, certainly agrees. “It is, yeah,” said the four-time major champion who finds herself with a decent shot at a 46th Ladies European Tour title after a moving day 66. “You can take corners on. Like the 1st, the big hitters can take the bunker on, no problem. The second is drivable today and the third is reachable in two. So yeah, this is a big hitter’s course, and it’s unusual for us to get one of them.”

In-Kyung Kim, who describes herself as an “average” length hitter, isn’t so sure the new Dallah will be decided by the big-bombers. Rather, the reigning British Open champion and 2009 winner in Dubai thinks it will come down to whoever wields their flat stick best.

“I think it’s not really a long hitter or short hitter’s course,” said the 29-year-old South Korean who matched Davies 66 to move up from 34th at the start of the third round into a share of sixth with the golfing Dame and into the mix, four back of Dutch pace-setter Anne Van Dam.

I think the green reading, trusting it, is tricky, but whoever trusts it [will win] I guess…

“It’s like how many putts drops, I think, [that] kind of course. Because [the greens] are not very slopey but there is a lot of grain. I’m not sure I played with the grain the last time I was here because I heard they changed the greens a few years ago. I think the green reading, trusting it, is tricky, but whoever trusts it, I guess [will win].”

A birdie-birdie finish, both tap ins, has given Kim hope for Saturday although she knows the late afternoon winds that whip
up around Emirates G.C. will be a factor.

“I think I had the privilege to play without the wind [on Friday]. You know, less hassle. It’s not impossible, but when it’s windy, the scores can be tricky.”

After rounds of 73-69-66, Kim is certainly trending in the right direction.

“I really had a lot of fun today and even yesterday I feel I’m getting better with the time change and all that so I look forward tomorrow. Hopefully I can have fun tomorrow.

“You know, that’s the goal [winning], but I just want to play well tomorrow and go home just to my family, see my family.” The Dallah wouldn’t be a bad home-coming gift.

The post Kim hoping for a hot putter as Omega Dubai Ladies Classic goes to the wire appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There’s a new name and a new trophy at this week’s OMEGA Dubai Ladies Classic. In-Kyung Kim struggled to get her head around the former on the eve of the Ladies European Tour season-ender – “I was like Masters? No. Championship? No. Classic?” – but has very clear designs on that sparkling new dallah come Saturday afternoon.

“It looks more like the guy’s trophy. Fantastic,” said the reigning British Open champion.

“Look’s like a genie is going to come out of it or something. I kept staring at it [during yesterday’s Pro-Am] on the first tee. Yeah, it’s kind of a piece of art.”

With four-time defending champion and world No.1 Shanshan Feng home in China to receive a civic award, Kim is the only former winner and highest ranked player in the field for the $500,000 LET event. But the world No.8 knows she isn’t going to get her hands on the freshly minted silverware without a scrap, not with two-time major champion Brittany Lincicome, recent Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open winner Aditi Ashok and newly crowned European No.1 and LPGA Tour graduate Georgia Hall all in rich form. Charley Hull, who closed with a 65 around the Majlis to finish runner-up to Feng last December, is another who deserves to be in the title contenders conversation.

“I.K.” Kim finished sixth in her last appearance in Dubai to seal LET rookie honours in 2010, a year after closing with a 68 to hold off fast-finishing Michelle Wie, who fired a 63, for the third of her now four LET titles.

She returns to Dubai after a career year, highlighted by her first major title at Kingsbarns in August and before that her fifth and sixth LPGA Tour titles at the ShopRite LPGA and Marathon Classics.

The 5ft 3in South Korean is certainly battled hardened, not allowing the missed 14-inch putt on the 72nd green that cost her the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now the ANA Inspiration) to define her career.

The 2009 win in Dubai certainly helped shape it and Kim knows what will be needed this week. “I think this golf course, keeping it in the fairway is very important. Some pin positions are really hard to get to. So whoever is bravest, and also plays smart, should be the winner.

“Sometime I plan everything, like how I want to play. But this golf course, when the wind changes…I remember this golf course is one of the golf courses that can be very tough to shoot even par on the back nine when it›s very windy.”

Hall, fresh from securing an LPGA Tour card for 2018, has an unassailable lead in the LET order of merit race. What’s not so clear cut is the rookie race where French leader Camille Chevalier is looking for a top finish in her first Dubai appearance to seal the deal.

The 23-year-old, who claimed her maiden title at last month’s Hero Women’s Indian Open, sits approximately €31,000 ahead of Swede Jenny Haglund with season earning’s of €62,985 from eight starts. But with a winner’s cheque worth US$75,000, or approximately €63,246, any of the other first year members in the field could effectively seal the leading rookie title with a victory in Dubai, if Chevalier missed the cut.

Haglund or third placed Luna Sobron could mathematically overtake Chevalier with a runner-up finish but Chevalier is thinking positive.

“A win would be awesome. If not, a top 10 will be okay,” said Chevalier. “I came here to win. If you don’t come to win, then why do you come?”

The post In-Kyung Kim eyes Classic’s new ‘piece of art’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The defending Women’s British Open champion will lead the third threesome off the 10th tee on Wednesday morning in the opening round of the $500,000 Ladies European Tour season-ender at Emirates G.C. after the first round groupings were unveiled today.

Jodi Ewart Shadoff and fellow Englishwoman Sophie Lamb, who won low amateur honours as Kim clinched the British Open at Kingsbarns Links in July, make up the 7.30am group.

Kim, 29, won the 2009 Classic – then Omega Dubai Ladies Masters – and is out to emulate inaugural and back-to-back champion Annika Sörenstam (2006 and 2007) and absent four-time defending champion Shanshan Feng (2012, ‘14, ‘15, ‘16) as a multiple winner.

Having already sealed the LET’s money title, England’s Georgia Hall is off the 1st tee at 11.35am in a marquee group including 2016 runner-up Charley Hull and last season’s Player of the Year Beth Allen.

Dame Laura Davies, European Solheim Cup captain Catriona Matthew and 2016 European team rookie Florentyna Parker are off 10 minutes later while the spotlight will also be on two-time major champion Brittany Lincicome  (11.55am) and reigning LET Rookie of the Year and Fatima Bint Mybarak Ladies Open champion Aditi Ashok (12.15pm) who are also set off the 1st tee.

Crowd-favourite Carly Booth is off the 10th tee at 12.05pm while Golf Digest Middle East’s December cover star Amy Boulden will begin her bid for a maiden LET title at 11.15am from the Majlis’ 1st tee.

South African Nicole Garcia and England’s Holly Clyburn will simultaneously hit the first shots of the 12th Omega Dubai Ladies Classic off the 1st and 10th tees at 7.10am respectively.

Norway’s two-time major champion Suzann Pettersen is a late withdrawal for what has been described as “personal medical reasons.”

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The 32-year-old LPGA Tour star joins reigning Women’s British Open champion In-Kyung Kim, recent Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open winner Aditi Ashok and Norwegian star Suzann Pettersen for the Dec. 6-9 Ladies European Tour season-ender at Emirates Golf Club. Nicknamed “Bam Bam” for her power off the tee – including an official 369 yard bomb on the LPGA Tour – Lincicome is a seven time winner on the U.S. circuit and has made six Solheim Cup appearances.

Related: British Open champion I.K. Kim fizzing for Omega Dubai Ladies Classic return

She’ll arrive in Dubai fresh from winning the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic and finishing 27th in the season-long CME Rankings with $579,061. The world No. 52, who won the 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship and 2015 ANA Inspiration, has career earnings of $8.15 million.

“I am extremely delighted by the opportunity to compete in Dubai,” said Lincicome. “It will be fun playing at The Majlis, a course that I have seen on TV many times. I am happy with my game, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Will take things as they come, step by step.

Related: Pettersen on her Dubai return: “I show up to win tournaments”

“I have a great respect for players on the LET and their competitiveness is second to none. I’ll have to be at the top of my game since the tournament attracts a top-class field every year.”

Visit omegadubailadiesclassic.com to register online for free season tickets. Daily Clubhouse Terrace Hospitality tickets are available for AED 275 while a season Clubhouse pass is available for AED 1100.

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English amateur star Lamb will play the Ladies European Tour season-ender from Dec. 6-9 after accepting an invited from Golf in Dubai, the tournament organiser. It mean’s the low amateur at August’s Women’s British Open will be reunited with the South Korean winner of the fourth of the season’s five ladies major championships.

Related: British Open champion I.K. Kim fizzing for Omega Dubai Ladies Classic return

“Winning the amateur medal in a major event was a huge moment for me. It is something everyone dreams of when they first start to play golf,” said the 19-year-old of winning the Smyth Salver with a -6 aggregate at Kingsbarns Golf Links, 12 shots adrift of Kim.

“It’s been a great experience for me to see where my game compares to the best in the world.  When you have confidence in yourself you feel like you can do just about anything, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself and will take things as they come.

“It will be fun playing in Dubai as I have heard a lot of good things about the tournament and know pretty well that it attracts a very strong field each year.

“I am grateful to Golf in Dubai for the invitation and look forward to visiting the magnificent city and playing on the famed Majlis course, Hopefully, there’ll be some more good times to come.”

Related: Pettersen on her Dubai return: “I show up to win tournaments”

Lamb, whose career took off when she captured the the British women’s stroke-play championship and England Golf Women’s Order of Merit title in 2016, has no intention of turning professional until she’s represented Great Britain and Ireland in the biennial Curtis Cup matches against the U.S. in Scarsdale, New York next June.

“That’s something I want to achieve before I turn professional. Not sure how things will pan out, but definitely the Curtis Cup is something I want to do,” said the East Lancashire teen who is listed as a +4.1 handicapper on the England Golf website.

Lamb was England’s top scorer in the mixed international against Spain for the Seve Ballesteros Trophy earlier this year, winning all her games.

Said Falcon Golf (Golf in Dubai) chairman Peter Dawson: “Her achievements since winning the North of England under-14 championships amply show she has enormous potential. This is just the beginning, and I am sure we will see more of her in time to come.”

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Lee-Anne Pace has a surname tailor made for the top of golf leaderboards, not to mention easy/cheesy headlines. She’s also a pace-setter with a game that ensures her full name regularly gets engraved on important trophies.

The 36-year-old South African set a cracking early mark at the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open Wednesday with an opening six-under 66 at Saadiyat Beach G.C.

She’ll take a one stroke advantage into Thursday over six players – Jenny Haglund (Sweden), Marianne Skarpnord (Norway), Amy Boulden (Wales), Isa Gabsa (Germany), Aditi Ashok (India) and Florentyna Parker (England) – after a red number day in Abu Dhabi where 55 players bettered par.

Pace, who mainly plys her trade on the LPGA Tour in the United States, is playing the FBMLO for the first time but remains one of the Ladies European Tour’s marquee stars.

Her breakout year in 2010 was nothing short of sensational – five wins, the order-of-merit title and Players’ Player-of-the-Year honours courtesy of 92 percent of the vote. She’s added four more LET titles since, the last in 2014 at her home South Africa Open, the same year she captured her thus far sole LPGA title at the LPGA Blue Bay in China.

The world No.97 started the 2017 LPGA season with a bang with a fourth placing at February’s Honda LPGA Thailand and backed it up with another top 10 and three more top 20s in her next four starts. Her form dipped thereafter – she finished 88th in the CME Globe Rankings – but has come good in her last two LET starts with a share of second in Spain in September and a T-16 at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France last month.

She rode a hot putter Wednesday at Gary Player’s ocean-front layout, a course she sees as ripe for the picking.

“It’s the first time that I’ve played here and the par fives are definitely reachable. I messed one up, the 15^th, where I went into the water, but I managed a par there,” said Pace who mixed seven birdies (two of them on par 5s) against a lone bogey on the tough 16th.

“It wasn’t perfect but I did make a lot of putts and seven birdies is quite nice. I played nicely, hit 14 greens and made quite a few putts for par saves, so the putter was working.”

Parker looked set to join Pace atop the leaderboard but the Solheim Cupper bogeyed the 18th to settle for a 67. It was a top start too for 24-year-old Haglund, the current Rookie-of-the Year leader and Ashok who won that honour last year while Boulden will be buoyed by the fast start after the frustration of failing to advance from the second stage of LPGA Tour Q-School in Florida last month.

Cheyenne Woods is poised just three shots back after a 69, alongside Georgia Hall who is third on the LET money list but in pole position to win the OOM title as leader Anna Nordqvist and second-placed In-Kyung Kim have not played the requisite five events to qualify. Kim, the reigning Women’s British Open champion, is scheduled to play the season ending Omega Dubai Ladies Classic but that will only bring her up to four events.

Hall hinted at a fast start with Boulden and friends at Yas Marina on the eve of the tournament. Check out the great LET promo – and some priceless expressions – here:

American Beth Allen opened her title defence with a one over 73 which included a topsy-turvy double bogey, bogey, par, chip-in birdie finish while new European Solheim Cup captain Catrions Matthew signed for a one-under 71 and Dame Laura Davies an even par 72. Even par is already to the projected cut line.

Solheim Cup rookie Mel Reid withdrew from the tournament with a back injury after opening with a 77.

The post Lee-Anne sets sizzling Pace at Saadiyat Beach

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With a swing speed three miles faster than the average PGA Tour player (116mph compared to 113mph) and an eye-popping competition best hit of 402 yards, long drive champion Troy Mullins is sure to be a huge drawcard in more ways than one at the Ladies European Tour’s (LET) $500,000 season-ender from Dec. 6-9.

At least that’s what Tournament Director David Spencer is banking on after granting the Californian her 72-hole pro event debut at Emirates Golf Club.

Spencer took plenty of heat for handing Paige Spiranac her pro debut at the then Dubai Ladies Masters in 2015 and repeating the sponsors’ invite visit last season. He unashamedly admits the social media audience that accompanies Spiranac everywhere was a key driver behind the decision, to the point where the American is returning to the emirate as official starter for the men at January’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Related: On the tee…Paige Spiranac

The key driver behind Mullins’ invite is the one the 5ft 8in American wields, and rather impressively so as this tweet highlights:

She did it!

Troy Mullins is the #MileHighShowdown Women’s Champion! #WorldLongDrive pic.twitter.com/TfM5OpFt7Y

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) July 26, 2017

Nicknamed the Trojan Goddess, Mullins only took up the game after attending Ivy League Cornell University when a hamstring injury curtailed her promising heptathlon career. Now she has genuine LPGA Tour ambitions.

Mullins won the 2017 Mile High Showdown, a World Long Drive event, in July with a 374 yard drive in the final and has a swing so sweet it has some of the game’s most critical analysts swooning, including Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.

Spencer is excited about what Mullins, who speaks four languages including Chinese, Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL), brings to the tournament. She will hold a clinic for spectators after play in the second round on Friday, Dec. 7.

“Troy caught our eye…we’ll we only started following long drive golf because she was on the Golf Channel and was being touted as having a perfect swing,” said Spencer.

“She’ll certainly be the longest player in the field but she’s also an accomplished golfer. We’ll she just how accomplished she is when she comes up against a professional field.”

Key Omega Dubai Ladies Classic signings (from top left clockwise): I.K. Kim, Susana Benavides, Klara Spilkova and Troy Mullins.

As well as unveiling Kim and Mullins, a new name to bring the LET event “into the ‘classic’ family”, and a “sister” trophy to match the Dallah (Arabic coffee pot) handed to Desert Classic men’s champion, Spencer also revealed 16 other name players.

They include Kim’s fellow LPGA players Suzanne Pettersen, Brittany Lincicome, Olafia Kristinsdottir, Mel Reid and reigning Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open champion Beth Allen.

Aditi Ashok, who sealed LET Rookie-of-the-Year honours with a share of third place at Emirates G.C. last December, also returns along with Rafa Cabrera Bello’s sister Emma, Dame Laura Davies, Amy Boulden, Carly Booth, Felicity Johnson, Olivia Cowan and Moroccan trailblazer Maha Haddioui.

New names include Kristinsdottir and Susana Benavides while Czech Olympian Klára Spilková returns.

Benavides is the only Bolivian-born golfer to ever play in an LPGA event and like Spiranac, will bring a strong social media audience with her to Dubai.

Being away from social media made me wanna come back ??er… #poorgreens #highheels #shooting #lpgadresscode #not

A post shared by Susana Benavides (@mumita_b) on Aug 29, 2017 at 6:41pm PDT

Spilková became the first Czech player to win a Ladies European Tour event with a one stroke victory over Pettersen at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco in April.

Photo courtesy LET
Klara Spilkova

Kristinsdottir brought forward double jaw surgery, a procedure that reportedly involved the addition of titanium plates to her nose and screws to her jaw, to correct an underbite just before becoming the first Icelander to play on the LPGA Tour. She is currently 82nd in the CME Rankings with one top-10 in her rookie year, a fourth placing at the Indy Women in Tech Championship Presented by Guggenheim.

Photo courtesy LPGA Tour Olafia Kristinsdottir

I.K. Kim, the highest ranked player in the field at No.8 in the latest Rolex Ranking, banished the haunting memory of missing a 14-inch putt to win the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship when he won the Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns

Related: In-Kyung Kim gets her major redemption with two-shot Women’s British Open victory

Englishwoman Sophie Lamb, who closed with a 69 at Kingsbarns to win low amateur honours, will is also a confirmed Majlis starter along with the 29-year-old South Korean.

The post Troy Mullins set to rip it past major champion I.K. Kim and co. in rebranded Omega Dubai Ladies “Classic” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.