By Keely Levins
Mi Jung Hur knows as well as anyone what it’s like to wait for a win. The lag between her first and second LPGA victories lasted five years (2009 to 2014) and 111 starts. It was another five years and 112 starts before she earned her third tour title earlier this year. Happily, she didn’t need to exercise quite as much patience for a fourth win.

Just seven weeks (and three starts) after winning the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open, Hur took the title at the Indy Women in Tech Championship on Sunday. She didn’t just win the tournament, though. She dominated. With a 21-under 267 total—including a closing four-under 68 on Sunday—Hur beat Norway’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen by four strokes and completed the first wire-to-wire victory of her career.

The way Hur sped away from the field was much in line with the nature of the venue. Brickyard Crossing is a unique golf course. The Pete Dye design features four holes inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the same hypnotic way cars speed around the track, Hur steadily steered her way out front through all 72 holes.

Hur didn’t do much of anything wrong: She hit 78 per cent of her greens in regulation, including 17 of the first 18. Even better than her ball-striking was her putting; she averaged 26 putts per round.

Hur pours milk over her head, following the tradition of Indy 500 winners, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after winning the LPGA’s Indy Women In Tech Championship at Brickyard Crossing. (Michael Cohen/Getty Images)

“I’m just trying to enjoy my golf game for the whole year and it’s working really well,” Hur said. “Every day’s not too much stress from my game. I’m so happy.”

Hur has said that her recent success—and positive outlook—stems from getting married in 2018. The 29-year-old South Korean says the new phase of her life helped her gain perspective on her golf game. Finding happiness personally with her husband has translated into finding more joy in golf, too.

“My married life makes me more comfortable, like not thinking [too] seriously about golf,” Hur said after Saturday’s round. “If I hit a bad shot, it’s just a bad shot. Before I got married, I’m like if I had a missed shot, How dare you, MJ. That was so stupid.* But right now, I’m just trying to enjoy my game.”

That’s not to say pressure doesn’t still exist. Hur felt the stress of trying to complete the wire-to-wire win, but the new outlook on golf makes it easier to handle.

Having closed the gap between wins so efficiently in Indianapolis, the question of whether a third victory is possible in 2019 is a fun one for Hur to ponder.

“I just enjoy it,” Hur said after friends doused her with champagne on the 18th green and her husband gave her a congratulatory kiss, “and there will be another chance coming.”

The post Mi Jung Hur wins wire to wire in Indianapolis, earns second LPGA title of 2019 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
Maybe the pressure of the moment got to Lizette Salas, who needed a birdie on 18 to beat Sung Hyun Park and win the Indy Women in Tech Championship. It would have marked her second LPGA win, her first coming in 2014.

After missing the fairway on 18, Salas had to hit her next shot from the thick rough. She put a wedge shot to within four feet, but the birdie putt missed the hole completely. Salas, frustrated, smiled at herself moments later – as though acknowledging her own error in allowing the gravity of the moment and a possible victory get the best of her.

So instead of hoisting the trophy, she headed into a sudden death playoff with Park, who birdied the first hole to win for the third time in 2018.

The sting of the loss was there, but after the round Salas focused on the positives that got her into the playoff.

“My confidence is there. “nd this might draw me back a little bit, but I’m going to rise to the challenge again, and I will be back, for sure,” said Salas, who started the final round with a two-shot lead over Park.

For Park, the win is the fifth of her young career. After winning co-player of the year and rookie of the year honors in 2017, Park has had a more tumultuous 2018 season. She has missed six cuts, but has won three times. With this win at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, the 24-year-old is predicted to regain her World No. 1 ranking.

Andy Lyons

Not atop the leaderboard but still one of the most talked-about players in Indianapolis, Lexi Thompson made her return to competitive golf after taking nearly a month off. Thompson, who was defending in Indiana, said she used the break from the tour to mentally cope with the toll 2017 took on her emotionally. She finished the event 17-under, tied for 12th. The four days were highlighted with a third-round 64 for Thompson.

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By Ryan Herrington
Until Saturday at the Indy Women in Tech Championship, Lexi Thompson’s return to the LPGA after a month-long self-imposed break to mentally re-charge had been seemingly uneventful. The tournament’s defending champion had shot a pair of 68s to jump up the leader board again at Brickyard Crossing Golf Club in Indianapolis.

But during the third round, Thompson found herself in the midst of the last thing the 23-year-old wanted: A discussion with an official about a potential rules infraction.

Thompson had teed off on the par-5 10th hole, her drive leaking right into the adjacent sixth fairway. With the round being played under local rules for preferred lies after rains in the area had left the course water logged, Thompson picked up her ball and was going through the procedures to clean and replace it. However, the rule specified that it applies only if the ball is in the fairway of the hole you’re playing.

Seeing what was transpiring, an official stepped in to explain to Thompson the situation. Eventually, she was given a one-stroke penalty, which could have been two strokes had the official not stepped in (the second for playing the ball from a wrong spot).

RELATED: Lexi on her break: ‘I was just struggling with myself’

Of course, Thompson famously was involved in a rules controversy at the 2017 ANA Inspiration, where she was ultimately assessed a four-stroke penalty that cost her the tournament title. In a press conference this week, Thompson talked about the need to step away from play earlier this month, earnestly noting the highs and lows she had suffered since 2017 and the toll they had taken.

Impressively, Thompson did not let Saturday’s mistake get to her. She had made six birdies on her front nine, turning in six-under 30. After making a par on the 10th hole with the extra stroke, Thompson carded two more birdies to close out a bogey-free 64 that left her in fourth place entering Sunday’s final round, five strokes back of leader Lizette Salas.

“I’m really looking forward to tomorrow,” Thompson said afterward. “Hopefully just go into it and hit it the same way I did these last few days, and still have a few of those—more putts drop, so we’ll see where it goes.”

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By Joel Beall
Lexi Thompson abruptly withdrew from the Women’s British Open three weeks ago, citing emotional and mental exhaustion. “I have not truly felt like myself for quite some time,” Thompson wrote on Instagram. “I am therefore taking this time to recharge my mental batteries, and to focus on myself away from the game of professional golf.”

The 23-year-old’s sabbatical has ended, returning to this week’s Indy Women in Tech Championship. Speaking to the media, Thompson, who is the event’s defending champion, tried to explain what spurred her surprise exit.

“I would say it’s just figuring out what really makes me happy off the golf course, as well, figuring myself out,” Thompson said. “I have transformed myself around this game for such a long time, ever since I was five years old.”

Thompson said she’s still trying to deal with the effects of 2017. 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.

“It was honestly just a buildup,” Thompson said. “The last year and a half, I have honestly been struggling a lot, emotionally, and it’s hard because I can’t really show it. It was just so much to deal with, and I had to show that I was still okay and still play golf. And I don’t even know how I played that well, honestly. And I think it just kind of all hit me coming into this year.

“You can only stay strong for so long and hide it. I am a very strong person, but at times you just need a break.”

Thompson was apologetic for missing the Open, her first skipped major of her professional career. However, Thompson said she couldn’t get herself into the competitive spirit that the championship warrants.

“It was definitely a hard decision for me,” Thompson said. “The British Open, I never want to skip that event. It’s just a very prestigious event. But with how I was, just mentally and emotionally, I wasn’t ready to compete there. I was struggling with my game. Besides that, I was just struggling with myself.”

In spite of her struggles off the course, this year has still been relatively productive inside the ropes. While winless in 13 appearances, Thompson has logged five top 10s and is still in the top five in the world rankings.

“You just have to take the positive out of everything, realize that I have had a great year,” Thompson said. “I haven’t won, but I’m trying my best in every tournament, that’s all I can do.”

The post Lexi Thompson on her mental and emotional break from golf: “I was just struggling with myself” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

And she also drank and doused herself in milk.

Andy Lyons

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