Shon’s 63 sets mark at Olympia; Kang, Kim co-leaders through 36

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Friday, June 30, 2017

In the United States Open fourteen years ago, Olympia Fields Country Club members blanched when the best players in the world pockmarked their famed North Course with a fusillade of eagles and birdies highlighted by Vijay Singh’s second-round 63.

The mortification of the old-timers quadrupled when columnists from around the country such as Woody Paige mocked the course’s toughness.

Paige isn’t here this week, and some of the old-timers are no longer with us, but the best players in the world – female division – are on the premises, and the scoreboard is once again neon red.

That’s crystal clear after 36 holes of the 63rd KMPG Women’s PGA Championship, where 7-under 135 leads, where 40 players are under par, and where Kelly Shon, whose first-round 77 put her in danger of missing the cut, rebounded with a women’s course record 8-under-par 63 on Friday morning.

The 63, a 14-stroke improvement, not only matched Singh and Rickie Fowler, who recorded his 63 in the first round of the 2007 Fighting Illini Invitational, but is the lowest score in relation to par in Olympia North history. Singh and Fowler were playing against a par of 70.

Oh, and Shon is five strokes back of leaders Danielle Kang and Sei Young Kim going into the weekend.

Kang and Kim each added 5-under 66s to opening 69s and stand at 7-under 135 at the halfway point. First round leader Amy Yang, who completed her 6-under 65 with a birdie on the 18th hole on Friday morning, scored even-par 71 in the second round and is tied for third at 6-under 136 with Chella Choi, Brittany Lincicome and Jodi Ewart Shadoff, the latter two scoring 66s on a North Course softened by an overnight rain and an afternoon cloudburst.

World No. 1 So Yeon Ryu is in a gaggle at 5-under 137, and joined by, among others, defending champion Brooke Henderson, who, buoyed by an eagle at the par-5 18th, added a 69 to Thursday’s 68, and Moriya Jutanugarn, who has toured the North in 68-69.

For Kang, her bogey-free excursions across Olympia’s leafy acreage are going according to plan. A plan concocted in consultation with her brother Alex, a web.com player who played the course in the Fighting Illini Invitational while at San Diego State, firing rounds of 78-76.

“I played Tuesday and walked off the golf course not having a plan,” Kang said. “I kind of was super-overwhelmed and I didn’t know what to do.”

A phone call to Alex and about 10 texted photos later, she had a plan for several previously-baffling holes, and the course in general.

“No matter what, you have to give yourself an opportunity to putt,” Kang said. “I can’t let the greens get the best of me this week. Each shot matters.”

She proved that to herself on the 18th green, when a 30-foot uphill eagle putt came up three feet short.

“I didn’t think about speed, and look, I ended up three feet short,” Kang said. “But it’s not an easy three-footer. It breaks outside the cup. It challenges you.”

She made it for the 66, and while Kim matched her, nobody finished better, though Choi got to 8-under before bogeys on two of her last three holes.

Kim was also bogey-free on Friday, beating the thunderstorm to the clubhouse with her 66, a distinct improvement on an opening 69 that included a double-bogey and two bogeys in four holes late in that round.

“I realized my grip was a little loose,” Kim said of how she held the club. “Just a little adjustment, stronger than before. That was key.”

Seven threes and a deuce on her card unlocked the 66. But she said being in contention won’t alter her outlook.

“I have to focus on what I have to do,” Kim said. “I couldn’t focus on my position, don’t think about it or anything. Don’t think of future. Don’t think of other players scores. Yeah.”

Shon, playing unconscious golf, outdid them all. She had four holes left when the horn blew on Thursday night, and 8-over for those 14 holes. She was clearly on track to miss the cut. But she parred her first three holes of the resumed round on Friday morning, and then dropped a 90-foot putt for an eagle 3 at the last.

“Pure luck,” Shon said. “Dead center at perfect pace.”

A harbinger, to be sure.

“My caddie said to me. ‘I had a feeling you were going to make it. I had a feeling if you made it, you were going to make the cut.”

Shortly after, Shon went back out on the tournament’s back nine and scored 4-under 31, eagling the par-5 18th again, this time with a putt breaking right to left and toppled in. Four more birdies on the front side equaled 32 for a 63, which matched the best score in LPGA/Women’s PGA Championship history. Patty Sheehan and Meg Mallon had scored 63 in the past, but not on courses the caliber of Olympia North.

“I’m really honored by joining those names,” Shon said. “I wish I had known I could have beaten them all by one shot – just kidding!”

Shon is 10-under over her last 19 holes. If she keeps up that pace, she could lap the field by Sunday night – unless Kang and Kim continue to bash the course.

Thanks for coming

The cut fell at 2-over 144 and included 74 players. Among those missing the fun on the weekend: World No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn – who bogeyed her last hole to fall to 3-over 145 – Na Yeon Choi, Yani Tseng, Morgan Pressel, Mo Martin, Laura Davies, Cristie Kerr, Shanshan Feng, Hyo Joo Kim and Karrie Webb, major champions all.

Around Olympia

Among the dark horses is Ally McDonald, who scored back-to-back eagles on Nos. 18 and 1 Friday morning, shot 1-under 70 and stands in a mob at 3-under with Lexi Thompson and Gerina Piller, among others. Thompson posted a 69, Piller a nifty 66. ... There was one stoppage for a rogue thunderstorm from 2:09 to 2:43 p.m. ... Galleries didn’t pick up on Friday, which is a surprise and contrary to Chicago tradition. As with Thursday, over the entire day about 5,000 fans appeared to be at Olympia. The biggest galleries were only a few hundred, following the groups featuring notables including Michelle Wie and Lydia Ko. For all the talent, there’s not a lot of instant name recognition for LPGA players, largely because more coverage in print media and Golf Channel – the only electronic entity to pay attention to the ladies – is dedicated to the PGA Tour. Essentially, the people not on hand don’t know what they’re missing. ... Of Chicago’s traditional print media outlets, only the Chicago Tribune was on hand on Friday. No Sun-Times, no Daily Southtown – the home-area paper, so to speak, no Daily Herald.

– Tim Cronin

Choi, Yang lead suspended 1st round of WPGA

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Thursday afternoon at Olympia Fields Country Club featured Amy Yang against the course, and eventually against the weather.

She opened the 63rd KPMG Women’s PGA Championship chasing morning leader Chella Choi, whose windblown 5-under-par 66 opened a one-stroke lead on Brittany Altomore.

But Yang had the advantage of playing much of her afternoon round on Olympia’s famed North Course in calm conditions, and took advantage from the start, making a birdie on the first hole and holing out from the fairway on the par-4 second, which is usually the 11th for member play.

A bogey on the third followed, but the 27-year-old South Korean’s card for the 6,577-yard course was nearly spotless after that, with four more birdies speckled on a field of pars and one bogey, on the par-3 17th, to stand at 5-under on the 18th tee.

Yang also beat the weather – almost. Play was suspended at 7:01 p.m. for an approaching thunderstorm. Lightning was seven miles away, too close for comfort, and the horn blew before Yang could hit her tee shot. First-round play for the 30 stranded players resumes at 7:45 a.m., with the second round slated to begin on time at 7:30 a.m.

Choi, in contrast, had to deal only with a persistent breeze from the west that gusted to 22 mph at times. While she hit only 12 greens in regulation, she made birdies on seven of those holes en route to the 66.

“My putting is there today, so I made a lot of birdies,” Choi said. “A lot of times, before a shot, I switched my clubs.”

She switched wisely enough to score birdies on four of her last six holes, a garrison finish that vaulted her to the morning lead. If Choi had a technical secret, she couldn’t explain it beyond saying “It’s a perfect line and my stroke is perfect, so I get a lot of birdies.”

That worked enough to open the stroke lead on Altomore before Yang shook down the thunder in the afternoon. And Altomore’s joined by Joanna Klatten, who was at 4-under through 16 before play stopped. She birdied the 14th and 15th to climb out of the second 10.

Meanwhile, defending champion Brooke Henderson and fan favorite Michelle Wie both opened at 3-under 68.

Henderson opened her morning round by saving par on the fourth hole with a long putt, and closed with an inward 32, birdies on three of her last six holes, plus a giddy thought.

“I was going to try to take it a day at a time and see what happens, but I’m in a great spot right now, so I’m really excited,” Henderson said.

Wie went around in the afternoon and poured in four birdies for an inward 4-under 31 after going out in 37. A brilliant approach on the 10th hole jump-started the inward half.

“I hit a sand wedge, and that was the shot that clicked for me,” Wie said. “Had a lot of fun in tough conditions.”

All the way to the finish, where she two-putted for birdie at the last, dodging a spike mark on her four-footer to finish the round.

World No. 1 Su Yeon Ryu celebrated her 27th birthday and first round as the top-ranked player with a 2-under 69, finishing just before play was called. Four birdies and a brace of bogeys were on her card. Like Choi, the wind was a factor for Ryu before it laid down at about 4:30 p.m.

“The wind was howling and sometimes changed direction,” Ryu said. “It’s really hard to make a decision. It was strong enough to affect putting as well, so that was one of the things I struggled with.”

She had 31 putts, but never three-putted, with two of her five one-putts saving par. The other three produced birdies.

Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko each scored 1-under 70 and are in a gaggle tied for 23rd at nightfall.

For Thompson, just playing was a relief. Her mother Judy was diagnosed with uterine cancer, and underwent surgery earlier in the month. She’s doing well enough that Lexi felt comfortable to play this week, and hopes to have her mother on hand at next month’s U.S. Women’s Open.

“It’s been my outlet to go out and play,” Thompson said. “She’s a fighter. She always says to me, ‘Do the best you can do.’ To see how much she’s fighting, she’s an inspiration.”

Around Olympia

Photo by Len Ziehm for Illinois Golfer

Olympia Fields honorary member Carol Mann, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, was the afternoon starter on No. 1. ... The sisters Jutanugarn were eight strokes apart, Moriya scoring 2-under 69, Ariya at 6-over 77 and tied for 128th. The cut is to the low 70 and ties. ... Rounds averaged about 5:15, played in threesomes on a course where many tees are but a few steps from the previous green. ... When you go 84 years between women’s major championships on a course, and have nothing of significance recorded in between, the course record is sure to be beaten. So it was when Brittany Altomore was the first to finish at 4-under 67. That blew June Beebe’s then 1-over 79 from the qualifying round of the 1933 Women’s Western Open out of the water. But Beebe, an Olympia Fields member, went on to win the title, her second in three years. ... The course was not jammed with people in the morning, but there was a good gallery with Michelle Wie’s group, and more fans turned out in the afternoon. There may have been 5,000 on hand over the course of the day. ... An Olympia member knocked down the rumor that only 70 of the club’s members had volunteered, saying, “You could hold a committee meeting out there.”

– Tim Cronin

Women's PGA is wide open

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Wednesday, June 29, 2017

It’s hard to pick a winner in this week’s 63rd KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the third under that name since the LPGA and PGA of America went in together on the second major championship of the year.

The reasons are myriad. First, everyone is at Olympia Fields Country Club this week. All of the top 100 players in the rankings are playing. Nobody’s ill, or hurting, or worn out and resting. That indicates a strong interest in glomming onto the big trophy and the $525,000 that goes with it.

Second, the battlefield is new to all. There’s no track record of who played well on the North Course in the past. It’s the first women’s major here in 84 years.

Third, the prize is significant. This was known as the LPGA Championship, the top competition in the organization, until three years ago, when the big partnership with the PGA of America and the luring of KPMG brought a new name to the old trophy. But most everyone of note in women’s pro golf since 1955 has won the title, from Louise Suggs and Mickey Wright to Inbee Park and defending champion Brooke Henderson. The notable exception from days of yore: Carol Mann, who learned how to play golf as a junior at Olympia Fields and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Here are the likely contenders for the crown on the 6,588-yard par-71 course beginning – expected overnight storms permitting – at 7:30 on Thursday morning:

• Henderson. The defender, a winner at Blythefield near Grand Rapids two weeks ago, jumping her to 12th in the world ranking. A big driver with decent short game, and when she’s on, deft with the putter.  Her stats are baffling. She’s third on the LPGA Tour in birdies but 83rd in putting and averages 1.78 putts when hitting a green in regulation.

“When I won Meijer, I think I kind of proved to some of the naysayers and proved to myself that I’m in a great position,” Henderson said. “This course is very tough. You’ve got to really think your way through. Hopefully that means I’m hitting a lot of fairways and keeping the ball below the hole on my second shots.”

• So Yeon Ryu. The winner last week in Arkansas, a feat that jumped her to No. 1 in the rankings from No. 3. She has a solid short game, as a 10-under 61 in the second round last week proved on top of her lead in season greens in regulation, and enough distance to keep up with the big kids. Nine top-10 finishes in 11 starts this season and the money lead – $1,212,820 – make her the favorite in a crowded field.

“I thought I was kind of far away from No. 1,” Ryu said, “but yeah, here I am, finally No 1. I’m living in a dream. I want to keep this position as much as I can, as long as I can.”

• Aryia Jutanugarn. Champion of the 2011 U.S. Girls Junior on Olympia’s South Course, she can duplicate Walter Hagen’s feat of clinching a national title on each side of the clubhouse by winning this week. She arrived at Olympia in form, having won in Canada a fortnight ago to sit briefly at No. 1, and hasn’t scored over par in her last 15 rounds, as befitting someone first on the LPGA Tour in birdies. So is regaining the top ranking a big goal? 

“It means a lot to me, but the most important thing is not about the ranking,” Jutanugarn said. “It’s more like how I’m going to play golf. I really want to be happy on the course. The ranking is like, if I get there, I get there.”

• Lydia Ko. The longtime No. 1 is now No. 3 and hasn’t won in a year, but recently has shown flashes of jumping back into contention. A tie for second at the Lotte Championship, advancement to the sweet 16 in Lorena Ochoa’s match play tournament, subsequent ties for 10th including a 65 and 64 on the card auger well for a big showing this week for Ko, ninth in scoring this season.

“I’m thinking more about how can I be more consistent and put myself in contention rather than thinking about, ‘Hey, I really want to be the No. 1 ranked player again,’ ” Ko said. “I think we all motivate each other.”

• Lexi Thompson. The world No. 4 shoulda-coulda-woulda won the first major of the season, the ANA Inspiration, but never got her hands on the Dinah Shore Trophy thanks to mismarking her ball on Saturday and getting penalized for it on Sunday. She fell to Ryu in sudden-death, but has won since, at Kingsmill in Virginia, on May 21, and has followed with a pair of joint runner-up finishers in her last two starts. She’s $410 from winning $1 million this season.

Unfortunately, her mother Judy took ill recently and was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Judy Thompson had surgery June 6. Thompson hasn’t spoken with reporters this week, but her agent said she will beginning Thursday.

• Michelle Wie. Apparently out of a long slump, Wie has contended enough to score six top 10s this year and rise to eighth on the money list. A fan favorite, she tied for fourth in Arkansas and tied for second at Blythefield.

Stacy Lewis, whose personal sponsorship by KPMG aided the arranging of tournament sponsorship, doesn’t think Olympia North is a bomber’s course.

“So I think it’s good,” Lewis said. “This golf course is opened up to a lot of different types of players. It’s really going to be a thinker’s course, plotting your way around because there’s quite a few holes here that I don’t need driver on. Ariya never hits driver, but for someone like Lexi’s length, there are holes where driver is taken out of play, and there’s opportunities for her to hit driver and go over bunkers.”

Ryu noted that the rough wasn’t as long as the previous two WPGAs, at Westchestern Country Club in 2015 and Sahalee Country Club in 2016.

“Easiest so far,” she said. But there’s a catch.

“Very different, these greens compared the last two years and any other major tournament course. To me, smaller, and really slopey, so the greens, one of the toughest for sure.”

At Olympia Fields, it almost always comes down to the short game. This week should prove no different.

Around Olympia

Golf Channel has offered a pair of special previews and a host of other programming from Olympia Fields this week, but live tournament coverage is only three hours a day, and from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Commitments to PGA Tour play take up the rest of the daylight hours. ... It’s hard to say how many people will turn out. While organizers are hoping most fans take the train, the main public parking lot on Dixie Highway appears to hold only about 500 cars.

– Tim Cronin

Olympia prepares for the WPGA

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Off the course, the big news Tuesday at Olympia Fields Country Club was the extension of the agreement between the LPGA, the PGA of America and title sponsor KPMG for the Women’s PGA Championship through 2023, four years added to the original five-year term that began in 2015.

“If we’d have been in player dining and told them this is going on through 2023, you’d have gotten a 10-minute ovation,” LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said.

The deal includes a purse increase next year to $3.65 million. This year’s kitty is $3.5 million, with $525,000 to the winner.

“We’re going to continue to make sure that we make this one of the very best events not just in women’s golf, but in golf,” PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua said.

The news on the course during the KPMG Pro-Am was the course springing a leak. In the afternoon, a sprinkler head near the 17th green went haywire, the leak so severe that the ground was damp all the way to the 18th tee. But grounds superintendent Sam MacKenzie’s crack grounds crew was on it so quickly, no damage was done to the course.

Photo for Illinois Golfer by Phil Arvia

Meanwhile, among early finishers, Ariya Jutanugarn’s team scored a best-ball 58, beating Angela Stanford’s squad by four strokes.

Wednesday at Olympia

Players have the course to themselves for final practice rounds before the first ball is struck in anger at 7:30 by England’s Holly Clyburn on the first tee on Thursday morning. Of the course, the KPMG Leadership Summit takes place in the pavilion overlooking the tournament’s 18th green.

– Tim Cronin

Women's PGA week starts with shotmaking clinic

 

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Monday, July 26, 2017 

There were about 700 people, many of them children by turns attentive, awe-struck, giggling and eventually eager for autographs, crowding the eighth tee at Olympia Fields Country Club’s South Course on Monday, delighted to see Brooke Henderson, Lydia Ko, Stacy Lewis and Phil Mickelson put on a shotmaking exhibition.

One of that quartet is not playing in the 63rd Women’s PGA Championship, which commences on Thursday on Olympia’s testing North Course, which hasn’t hosted a women’s major championship in 84 years. Since then, there has been a PGA Championship, a U.S. Open, an NCAA Championship and two Western Opens, plus the 2015 U.S. Amateur.

Lewis, for one, can’t wait.

“Frankly, we can play here,” Lewis said. “To add a female to that list of past champions where guys have played U.S. Opens, it’s really an honor for us to be here. It’s nice to see things changing and going in that direction.

“It’s awesome. You walk on property and you can feel it’s a major championship.”

Henderson had similar feelings.

“What’s so amazing about this major championship is we play the best golf courses,” Henderson said. “Watching Jim Furyk win (the 2003 U.S. Open), maybe I’ll have to go back and watch some highlights to see how he did it.”

Henderson was 5 when Furyk held off the field to win that Open.

Now 19, Henderson has played the North Course twice so far, and has the logical assessment.

“It’s a tough golf course,” Henderson said. “Especially if the wind picks up like this. It’s not going to be super-low scoring. If you get solid under-par rounds each and every day, your chances are really high.”

Mickelson, once again heaping plaudits on caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay, said brother Tim Mickelson will carry his bag for the rest of the year, and that he has no idea whom Mackey will work for next.

“There’s going to be a lot of great players (asking), but one great player is going to be lucky enough to have him, and he’s going to bring a lot to his game. They’re going to be a great team.”

The quarter-century Mickelson and Mackay were together is unusual in the player-caddie realm. Even Jack Nicklaus and Angelo Argea were together only about 20 years.

“We’ve gone through highs and lows on the course and highs and lows off the course,” Mickelson said of his relationship with Mackay. “We wanted to end it at the U.S. Open, because that’s where it started in 1992. We wanted to make it exactly 25 years, but technically it was, because our first event was the qualifier in Memphis in 1992. We knew that final round in Memphis (this year) was our last round together, most likely, and it was an emotional day.”

One prospect is Jon Rahm, whose agent is none other than Tim Mickelson.

The appearance of Mickelson, who tied for 55th in the 2003 U.S. Open, was not by happenstance. He, like Lewis, is paid to represent KPMG, the title sponsor of the Women’s PGA.

Tuesday at Olympia

There’s a pro-am, in which a few hundred amateurs will torture themselves on the course while playing with the pros, who will try to get in some serious practice. It runs all day.

– Tim Cronin