Jason McDede Archives - Golf Digest Middle East https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/tag/jason-mcdede/ Golf Instruction, Equipment, Courses, Travel, News Mon, 12 Dec 2022 10:42:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.2 https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/gd-favicon.ico Jason McDede Archives - Golf Digest Middle East https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/tag/jason-mcdede/ 32 32 Caroline Masson’s three years of swing work are paying off at just the right time https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/caroline-massons-three-years-of-swing-work-are-paying-off-at-just-the-right-time/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/caroline-massons-three-years-of-swing-work-are-paying-off-at-just-the-right-time/#respond Sat, 23 Nov 2019 05:17:02 +0000 https://golfdigestme.com/?p=30893 Caroline Masson had it going on Friday at the CME Group Tour Championship. The 30-year-old German shot a bogey-free, six-under 66 -- highlighted by a massive, from the fringe, birdie putt on 18. She’s in solo second at 10-under, two shots behind leader Sei Young Kim.

The post Caroline Masson’s three years of swing work are paying off at just the right time appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

]]> Sam Greenwood
NAPLES, FLORIDA – NOVEMBER 21: Caroline Masson of Germany plays a shot on the second hole during the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 21, 2019, in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

By Keely Levins
NAPLES, Fla. — Caroline Masson had it going on Friday at the CME Group Tour Championship. The 30-year-old German shot a bogey-free, six-under 66 — highlighted by a massive, from the fringe, birdie putt on 18. She’s in solo second at 10-under, two shots behind leader Sei Young Kim.

It has been a while since Masson’s name has been mentioned as much as it has been over the last few weeks. She hasn’t won since 2016, when she won the Manulife LPGA Classic. It’s her lone LPGA Tour win.

But here she is in Florida, in contention. She had top-10 finishes in July, August, September and then in October, just three weeks before the CME, Masson got dangerously close to her second LPGA Tour win at the Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA. She was in a three-way playoff with Nelly Korda and Minjee Lee, with Korda coming out victorious. The whole situation was made a little more interesting by the fact that Masson is engaged to Korda’s caddie, Jason McDede.

It’s not that she hasn’t done anything since her win in 2016. She is ranked No. 40 in the world, had a second place finish at the Meijer LPGA Classic For Simply Give in 2018, and a T-3 at the 2017 Ricoh Women’s British Open. But those were moments of success. What is happening now appears more sustained, more consistent.

Masson believes that getting into that playoff in Taiwan, though it did not result in a victory, is part of the reason why she’s in contention at Tiburon Golf Club.

“I felt for years that I’m ready to win again. I should be up there more. But sometimes you just have to prove it to yourself to really believe it,” Masson told Golf Digest. “It was a big confidence booster, and with mixed emotions, because I had such a good chance to win. But I told myself, ‘This was not your last chance.’ It was a key week for me.”

Masson attributes her recent success to the last three years of work she’s been doing on her golf swing. She works with David Leadbetter, and when the two started working together, the goal was to create a swing that is more consistent. In order to do that, she had to commit to a long process, trusting that what they were doing was going to work instead of slipping into tinkering mode when the results didn’t come right away.

“Making it tighter, making it more consistent and I think it’s reflecting in my game now,” Masson said. “My bad weeks aren’t very bad and my good weeks are good enough to compete and to win. It hasn’t been one swing change. We didn’t rush it, and we didn’t feel like we had to do it all at once. Just that patience, having the same goals, it’s really helped me be confident. It’s so easy to get lost when you’re trying lots of different things. It’s been key for me to have a path that I’m following. It calms me down. And it’s working well.”

It takes fortitude to believe in a process when the results aren’t where you believe they could be. But Masson has been able to do it. Her reward: finding the best of her game at a moment where it really matters. The winner at the CME Group Tour Championship will win $1.5 million, the highest winner’s check in the history of women’s golf.

Maintaining her confidence through this weekend, while her game is good, might feel easy compared to the time she’s spent believing in herself when she wasn’t in contention. “Once you’re riding that high, it’s all a little easier,” Masson said. “We’re seeing it getting better, and it just proves we’re doing the right thing.”

 

The post Caroline Masson’s three years of swing work are paying off at just the right time appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

]]> https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/caroline-massons-three-years-of-swing-work-are-paying-off-at-just-the-right-time/feed/ 0 Nelly Korda defends her title in Taiwan, credits her caddie, who happens to be the runner-up’s fiancé https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/nelly-korda-defends-her-title-in-taiwan-credits-her-caddie-who-happens-to-be-the-runner-ups-fiance/ https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/nelly-korda-defends-her-title-in-taiwan-credits-her-caddie-who-happens-to-be-the-runner-ups-fiance/#respond Mon, 04 Nov 2019 03:36:28 +0000 https://golfdigestme.com/?p=30421 A no-win situation for looper Jason McDede.

The post Nelly Korda defends her title in Taiwan, credits her caddie, who happens to be the runner-up’s fiancé appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

]]> Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images
Nelly Korda reacts on the 18th green during the final round of the 2019 Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA.

By Ryan Herrington
All’s well that ends well for Nelly Korda. But repeating as champion at the Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA proved more difficult than she had hoped for, and more surreal given how things played out.

On the back nine at Miramar Golf Country Club in New Taipei City, Korda looked to be on her way to victory, having made four birdies and two bogeys through 12 holes to get to 20 under par for the tournament. She was two strokes clear of the field after starting the day with a three-shot lead. But as the talented 20-year-old American was trying to close out her third career LPGA title, she began to show her nerves.

Three-putt bogeys on the 14th, 15th and 17th hole dropped Korda to 17 under and brought her playing partners in the final threesome, Caroline Masson and Minjee Lee, back into play. Masson made birdies on 15 and 16 to get to 18 under to take the lead heading to the 18th, with Korda and Lee one stroke back.

Korda regrouped on the par-5 18th, thanks in part to the calming influence of her caddie, Jason McDede, who happens to be Masson’s fiancé. A tap-in birdie after nearly chipping in for eagle got Korda back to 18 under. Lee also birdied to finish a three-under 69, and when Masson made par to close with a 68, it was off to a three-player playoff.

Back to the par-5 18th, Korda was the only one to find the fairway off the tee. On the advice of McDede, Korda clubbed up with her second shot, playing a 5-hybrid into the wind from 200 yards, finding the green and setting up a chance at eagle. She’d come up just short with the putt, but the birdie was enough to give her the victory.

“I kept telling myself, From the heart, from the heart, from the heart, because I was very nervous because it was my first playoff,” Korda said after her final-round 72. “I made a couple three-putts on the back. It just gets away from you so fast.”

Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images
Korda chats with McDede during the final round of the 2019 Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA.

Korda praised McDede afterward, saying without the pep talk he gave her between the 17th and 18th holes the tournament might have slipped away. The irony that McDede was helping Korda beat his future wife was not lost on the eventual champion.

“Yeah, Jason is engaged to Caroline, but at the end of the day, he is on my team and I am the one signing his paycheck,” Korda said, laughing. “Caroline is a great person, and she played amazing golf today. You know, it was kind of difficult for him. … But I wouldn’t be where I am without Jason, and he made sure that he kept me in the game.”

“It was a little funny,” Masson said of the way things played out. “I was happy—the shot into 18 [by Korda in the playoff], you can’t do anything but just applaud, and you know, I’m quite happy to see them win. I’m proud of them and proud of the two of them, the way they work together, and hopefully I get another chance to beat them down the stretch the next few years.”

It was also a special family moment for Korda in that it was her first LPGA victory with her older sister, Jessica, also playing.

“I felt bad for her when she made all those mistakes coming in, but every time she tried to look at me, I would try to tell her, It’s going to be OK,” Jessica said. “Seeing her walk off 18 in regulation, I saw she had fire in her eyes—I just felt really good about it and I was just praying that it was going to work out.”

 

The post Nelly Korda defends her title in Taiwan, credits her caddie, who happens to be the runner-up’s fiancé appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

]]> https://mot-backup.golfdigestme.com/nelly-korda-defends-her-title-in-taiwan-credits-her-caddie-who-happens-to-be-the-runner-ups-fiance/feed/ 0