By John Strege
The 18th green on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course that unexpectedly took a starring turn in the 2020 ANA Inspiration will again garner attention this week, but this time for reasons that aren’t likely to invite controversy.

For the second straight year, the ANA Inspiration that begins on Thursday will be played without spectators and thus without the grandstand that, pre-pandemic, was always erected behind the 18th green. Last September, a structure, dubbed by Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols “the Great Wall of Dinah,” was put there to replicate the grandstand.

Several players, including the winner Mirim Lee, used the structure as a backstop for their second shots on the par 5 to prevent their golf balls from running through the green and into the water behind it.

The structure is not there this year, which will force longer hitters, at least, to decide between laying up short of the water or going for the green in two and running the risk of the ball reaching the penalty area.

MORE: How the ‘Great Wall of Dinah’ played a controversial role in the outcome of the ANA Inspiration

“When they have the tee back, I won’t be going for it, especially with this wind, with it being into,” Lexi Thompson, a past champion here, said on Tuesday. “But once they move the tee up, if I get a good number, I hit 4-iron in today and just placed the ball there and it stopped. It has to be a really good number for me to go for it.”

Sponsor signage that appears to be immovable has been erected behind the 485-yard tee box at 18, and word is that the hole will play at that length of shorter all four rounds. Wherever the LPGA decides to place the tees, they are likely to create even more interest on a hole that already historically proved interesting.

The greens here this time of year play firm and fast, adding to the challenge.

“It’s pretty firm,” Canada’s Brooke Henderson said of the 18th green, “so I think 3-wood is definitely out. If I can hit maybe a high 7-wood into the wind it will hold and a hybrid will hold for sure.”

Nelly Korda, who had a chance to win last September but fell to Lee in extra holes, summed up the dilemma based on her practise rounds this week.

“You’re definitely going to think about going for it,” Korda said. “I hit a 6-iron just short of the green and it rolled up to the middle and then I also tried to hit like a little 5 yesterday to land it in the middle of the green and it went over. So it definitely is going to be very hard to hold.”

Last September, Lee used the backboard to stop her second shot there on the 72nd hole of the tournament, then chipped in for eagle to erase a two-stroke deficit. In a playoff with Korda and Henderson, Lee again used the backboard, leading to a winning birdie.

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By John Strege
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — There were no fans and so there were no grandstands, notably behind the island 18th green of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills C.C. Yet a structure there played a role, controversially so, in the outcome of the ANA Inspiration on Sunday.

The temporary fencing, affectionately nicknamed the “Great Wall of Dinah,” was placed there to loosely replicate what players would see when the tournament was played with fans.

Eventual winner Mirim Lee came to the par-5 18th hole trailing by two shots, when she deliberately used the structure as a backstop on her second shot. (The wall prevented shots from bounding over the green into a water hazard behind the putting surface.) She then holed an eagle chip, wound up in a playoff with Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson, and won on the first extra hole.

RELATED: Mirim Lee wins ANA Inspiration on the wildest of back nines

“I definitely thought to utilise the backboard,” Lee said. “When I had practice rounds, I had practiced that shot, so it was a definite for me to use the space there.

“My plan for 18 was just to have a birdie and do what I have to do to keep my head up, and when the shot went in, I think I was really surprised. It must have been a bit of luck that helped me.”

Suffice it to say, not everyone was thrilled with the presence of the wall, given the material impact it could have on how players approached the 18th hole.

“Honestly, I wish they didn’t have that wall there because I think it would play really cool as like an island green,” Korda said earlier in the week, unable to know just what an impact it would have as she attempted to win her first major title. “It’s like really close to the green this year.”

“There initial plan with this was to replicate what the bleachers were like that had been in that same area all these last years,” Golf Channel’s Judy Rankin said during Sunday’s telecast. “The fact is, it has been I think way too artificial. There was no real reason for it to be there. There were not spectators or clients or anything like that in great sky boxes. And it has effected play way too much.”

Had the structure not been there, it likely would have affected decisions on whether to go for the green in two shots. Lee’s shot, and another by Henderson en route to making a birdie on the hole to get into a playoff, likely would have rolled into the water behind the green had the wall not been there.

Still, there were some players who didn’t mind the structure being in place. “I was actually thinking about what 18 would be like without the bleachers because visually that is just a protector for most of us just knowing there’s water behind it,” another player, Madelene Sagstrom said. “I don’t think that would visually be a very nice shot to go for in two. I don’t really know the reasoning for the thing, but I’m kind of happy it’s there if I want to go for it in two, to be honest.”

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By John Strege
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — The inherent beauty of sports is that it is not scripted, which was never more apparent than on a wild Sunday on a man-made oasis in this broiling desert. It featured a pair of marquee stars, an interloper who wedged her way into the affair and a cameo by an edifice dubbed the Great Wall of Dinah.

The winner of the ANA Inspiration was Mirim Lee, a 29-year-old South Korean who holed three chip shots, two on the back nine on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills C.C., and defeated Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson by holing a five-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.

In the immediate aftermath, as Lee struggled to get control of her emotions, Golf Channel’s Jerry Foltz asked her, “Are you in disbelief right now?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Honestly, I can’t really believe it right now,” she said later. “I feel like I must be a little crazy for having won this.”

Surely, she wasn’t alone in her disbelief. Korda had to be among the disbelievers. She had been on the verge of winning wire-to-wire, and aside from relinquishing her lead for one hole early on the back nine, held the lead through 17 holes, until …

Until the Great Wall of Dinah came into play. It was a temporary structure behind the island green at the par-5 18th hole. Ordinarily, when the tournament is played with fans in April, a grandstand is there, providing players attempting to reach the green in two a fortunate backstop (and preventing balls from finding the water hazard over the green). The structure this week was there to replicate that.

RELATED: Watch Mirim Lee make her amazing 72nd-hole eagle chip-in

Lee, playing ahead of Korda and Henderson, and trailing the leader by two, hit her second shot over the green and off the structure. She was given a free drop, then holed a long, quick downhill chip for eagle to move into a share of the lead at 15 under.

“I definitely thought to utilize the backboard,” Lee said. “When I had practice rounds, I had practiced that shot, so it was a definite for me to use the space there.

“My plan for 18 was just to have a birdie and do what I have to do to keep my head up, and when the shot went in, I think I was really surprised. It must have been a bit of luck that helped me.”

Then the waiting game began for her. A poor drive took the option of going for the green in two away from Korda, who laid up short of the water and hit a poor wedge shot. Henderson then bounced her second shot over the green, her ball scooting beneath the structure.

She found her ball, was given a free drop, then chipped to three feet. The outcome was still dependent on Korda, who had a 22-foot birdie putt to win. It was never online. Henderson then tapped in for birdie, and the tournament went to a playoff, the trio returning to the 18th hole.

Korda again played the par 5 poorly, missing the fairway off the tee. Henderson also struggled, and both failed to convert birdie putts. Lee, over the green in two once more, chipped to five feet with her third shot and holed her birdie putt for the victory.

The win was Lee’s fourth on the LPGA, but first in more than three years. She shot a five-under-par 67 in the final round, making up a two-stroke deficit to Korda and Henderson, who both shot 69s. The trio completed 72 holes in 15-under par 273.

“I played solid today,” said Korda, 22, the third-ranked golfer in the world seeking her first major title, who finished with a Sunday 69. “I had a couple bogeys on the back nine, but I kept my calm. Didn’t hit a really good shot on 18 off the tee both times, so that’s what kind of got me in trouble there.

“I’m just going to take positives from this week. I know my game is trending upward. I’m just going to continue working hard and see where that takes me.”

Henderson, who shot a closing 69 as well, seemed to take the loss in stride, other than noting “it’s tough to lose that way.

“I definitely played really well this week, which is definitely a really nice feeling and definitely gives me confidence moving forward.”

Afterwards, Lee, hesitant at first, took the obligatory leap into Poppie’s Pond, capping a hot and unusual day in the most refreshing of ways.

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That Mirim Lee found her way into a three-way playoff at the ANA Inspiration on Sunday—which she would win with a birdie on the first extra hole—came largely thanks for some heroics with her wedges after holing out for birdie or eagle three times during her final-round 67 at Mission Hills C.C.

It began on the sixth hole, when Lee, one under on the day and three off the lead, chipped in from roughly 30 feet off the green. She’s a pro golfer, and pro golfers make chip-in birdies, so you didn’t think much of it in the moment.

Now at 12 under, Lee hung around the leader board heading into the back nine, never out of hunt in what was shaping into a two-player clash between Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson, but not necessarily applying any pressure on the two either.

Until, that is she got to the 16th hole. Again Lee, now 13 under, missed the green with her approach, but pulled out a wedge and did this:

Boom! ?

Mirim Lee moves into solo second with this chip in on the 16th!

Watch the final round of the @ANAinspiration now on @GolfChannel! pic.twitter.com/s8moWhpve3

— LPGA (@LPGA) September 13, 2020

With no spectators on the course (friends and family were allowed to follow the action), there were no boisterous cheers to let Korda and Henderson what was happening ahead.

While Lee got within one of the lead for the first time during the afternoon, her chances of winning seemed to be lost on the 17th hole when she made her lone bogey of the round to go back to 13 under, Korda sitting at 15 under one group behind Lee.

But then on the par-5 18th hole, Lee pulled off more heroics. After finding the fairway, she hit her second shot long left, the ball heading over the green only to bounce off a wall tournament officials had built behind the green to replicate the grandstand on that was traditionally in place on the hole in past events—to the chagrin of some players and commentators, including Judy Rankin, given how it prevent the water behind the green from coming into play.

It was a lucky break as Lee got to take a drop from the temporary immovable obstruction, leaving her with a chip from 65 feet for eagle. Sure enough, Lee took out a wedge and well … take a guess at what happens next:

ARE YOU KIDDING?! ?

Mirim Lee chips in for eagle on the 18th to take a share of the lead at 15-under@GolfChannel | @ANAinspiration pic.twitter.com/Lss2cPNOBK

— LPGA (@LPGA) September 13, 2020

Too bad there were no fans to roar as the ball found the bottom of the hole. The response would have been amazing, for sure. The eagle-3 jumped Lee to 15 under, and when Korda parred the last hole and Henderson made birdie, it set up the playoff.

Interestingly in the playoff, Lee had another eagle chip from just behind the green. This one didn’t fall in, but stopped five feet from the hole, allowing a conventional birdie putt to secure the title.

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By Keely Levins
South Korea’s Sung Hyun Park, who won the U.S. Women’s Open earlier this summer, shot a final-round 64 at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club to win the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open by two strokes over Mirim Lee.

The 23-year-old Park, a standout on the Korean LPGA playing the event for the first time, overcame a four-shot deficit on the final day to finish with a four-day total of 13-under-par 271. Park’s 64 was the second-lowest round of the week behind Canadian Brooke Henderson, who shot 63 in front of her home crowd to set a new course record.

Though Park played in several LPGA events in 2016, this is her first official season on the tour. She’s played in 17 events, and has made the cut in each one. The win at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open marks her second of the season after the Women’s Open earlier at Trump National Bedminster.

“I think it was a perfect game today,” Park said after her round. “Everything was—there were no mistakes today, and I think it was perfect.”

After all of the energy expended by the top American and European players at the Solheim Cup last week, it’s not entirely surprising that the winner was a player coming off of a rest week. Cristie Kerr, however, was able to keep the momentum up after a dominant performance in the Solheim Cup. She and Marina Alex were the top Americans, finishing as part of a five-way tie for third.

Michelle Wie, one of Kerr’s Solheim Cup teammates, withdrew from the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open before the final round began, saying in a statement she’s undergoing appendix surgery.

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