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The post ‘We don’t know’: Danielle Kang dealing with tumor, uncertainty at U.S. Women’s Open appeared first on Golf.

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — For much of Friday at the U.S. Women’s Open, Danielle Kang’s face seemed at odds with her body.

Her smile preceded her at Pine Needles — a big, beaming grin that she shared with the gallery, with her caddie Olly, and for a brief while, with the whole of North Carolina.

But it didn’t take more than a few footsteps to know her body felt differently. Her gait looked gimpy and her movements measured. Her swing — typically a model of natural movement and flexibility — was segmented, missing its usual ferocity and follow-through. She was at constant odds with her back — grabbing, kneading and stretching an area at the center of her spine.

After her round, a 3-over 74, we learned some of the reason why.

“Yes, I have a tumor. I do have a tumor in my spine,” Kang told a group of reporters Friday. “But right now, it’s not as simple as blaming the tumor to be the problem, but in the process of an issue. It’s not just that I have an issue with my back, there is more to it. The scary part is that.”

Kang first learned about the tumor after she withdrew from an event in Hawaii in mid-April. Kang and her mother, Grace Lee, told reporters they still don’t know much about the nature of the tumor, including if it’s the primary reason for the back issues she’s been dealing with as of late.

“After [the U.S. Women’s Open], they’re going to do more research and specialist work on it,” Lee said. “We don’t know if it’s benign. We don’t know if it’s malignant. We don’t know.”

“I’ve gone through a lot of procedures so far,” Kang added. “It’s process of elimination. And after that, we’re narrowing it down.”

It’s been a jarring few months for the Kang family — a situation that hasn’t been helped by a slow-moving treatment process.

“It’s not just the back pain, but we don’t know what it is for sure,” Lee said, sharing a mother’s anguish. “It takes so long to get the right answers.”

Kang and Lee said they’ve been meeting with specialists for the better part of the last two months, and that Danielle has had “multiple procedures” in an effort to solve the issues in her back. Those procedures helped to the degree that she was capable of teeing it up at Pine Needles, but her future beyond this week is less clear.

“I don’t know that I have any [timeline],” Kang said. “My only goal was to play the U.S. Women’s Open and I’m here.”

With so many unknowns, it was a relief for both mother and daughter to return to something familiar: competition. The two shared a sweet moment — a quick smile and a wave — during a quiet minute in the first fairway.

But then it was back to the tournament, and both of them seemed glad about that … until a bad bounce on Kang’s ensuing approach led to a triple-bogey eight on the first.

“I was pretty calm after the triple,” she smiled, rolling her eyes. (Evidently, the time away has done little to douse her competitive fire.)

Kang finished the day at 3-over, which puts her right on the cutline as of 3:45 p.m. local time on Friday. She’ll have at least the rest of the evening to let her mind care only about a golf tournament, and who knew how meaningful that could be?

“I haven’t played golf in eight, nine weeks. I played [last week’s Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play], and I think I was averaging nine over par,” Kang said. “So me coming out here hitting really good shots, good drives. Having the opportunity to make birdies, not being a nuisance to the rest of my group. That was a good thing.”

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The post Why this pro has been trying to miss greens on purpose (yes, really!) appeared first on Golf.

The post Why this pro has been trying to miss greens on purpose (yes, really!) appeared first on Golf.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Pressure is nearly impossible to simulate. Knowing how you’ll react to pressure? Also tough to predict. Until you’re under the bright lights and the pressure’s on, there’s no telling how you’ll react.

This is what makes golf practice so mystifying. You can put in the hours on the range and practice green, but when the pressure is on, all bets are off. The “clutch gene” is intangible. The best way to get better in pressure situations is putting yourself in them over and over.

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Danielle Kang is familiar with this truth, and she’s gotten quite good under pressure. The 29-year-old has six LPGA Tour wins in her career — plus a major — and she’s become one of the top names in the game.

Still, she’s still always trying to improve. Especially in high-leverage situations. And one of her methods is a bit outside the box.

When chatting with the media at the Chevron Championship, Kang admitted she missed some greens last week on purpose. Her reasoning? To create more game-time opportunities to work on her chipping.

“I’ve been chipping kind of weird,” Kang said. “So I missed couple greens on purpose last week.”

If you’re thinking the method is a bit crazy, you’re not alone.

“I was talking about it with my coach and they thought it was the most absurd thing they had ever heard,” she said. “My friend David Lipsky was like, ‘You did what?’ I said, ‘You’ve never done that?’ [He said,] ‘No, nobody does that.'”

Kang’s method might be a little out there, but her reasoning is sound. There’s no telling how you’ll react under pressure, so the best way to prepare is by creating the situation yourself. She’s thinking unconventionally, but she’s thinking big-picture.

“I have to figure it out eventually, so I have to keep chipping in a tournament scenario when I have to make an up and down,” she said. “You can’t really recreate what you feel in a competition unless you’re in competition.

“I can’t recreate that unless it’s at an event,” she continued. “I’m just trying to mishit and fail and see if I can recover the best that I can.”

Kang explained she tried three times to miss the green last week. She was able to get up-and-down just once.

Her score might have suffered, but she still has the full support of her coach, Butch Harmon.

“[Butch] is always going to say like, ‘D, I trust the work that you put in,'” Kang said. “‘However you’re going to have to get it done, just get it done. You have a job to do.’ He’ll always say that, I have a job to do.”

We can’t endorse the method for a weekend hack, but given Kang is one of the best in the world, we’ll take a step back and give her some extra leeway.

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The post Danielle Kang explains how she dials in her wedges before a tournament appeared first on Golf.

The post Danielle Kang explains how she dials in her wedges before a tournament appeared first on Golf.

Recreational players tend to think that all chipping is the same — and for many of us, that may be true.

But at the pro level, where players have a number of different short-game shots and techniques in their arsenal, deciding which weapon to deploy is an art form, and one that generally needs to be honed in the days before a tournament.

At this week’s Honda LPGA Thailand, Danielle Kang explained how she prepares herself for the shots she’s likely to face around the green.

Short Game

“I try and calibrate to how the golf course is playing, how the ball reacts,” she said. “I try and check the shot, and if it checks up, how much it checks up with different clubs. I use a 58 all the way to 9-iron.”

Kang’s strategy of using a number of different clubs should be aspirational for recreational players. While many of us tend to use only one wedge for chip shots — and maybe also a lower-lofted club for bump-and-runs — Kang tests all of them to find the right fit.

“[I want to see] how much it’s going to roll out depending on what shot I was hitting,” she continued. “Wanted to see how far I could throw it and spin, et cetera. I’m just basically just calibrating.”

Kang said that she reserves Tuesdays for calibration and Wednesdays for testing. And while not every player has the luxury of spending that amount of time practicing on the course, there’s a good lesson here in pre-round prep: Devote some time to hitting chips with a number of different clubs so you can make an authoritative decision on the best option for your given conditions. Your score will thank you!

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The post Lydia Ko holds off Danielle Kang for 17th-career LPGA Tour win appeared first on Golf.

The post Lydia Ko holds off Danielle Kang for 17th-career LPGA Tour win appeared first on Golf.

It was shaping into a familiar story on the LPGA Tour Sunday afternoon as Danielle Kang held the lead late in the final round for the second straight week. Only this time, she was being pushed by a Top 3 player in the world. 

Kang was flawless to start her day and held her lead until a bogey on the 13th hole squared her up with Lydia Ko, also playing from the final group. Ko had been plodding along all day, shooting even par on her front nine.

But sometimes in this game, plodding isn’t just good — it’s plenty good enough. Ko didn’t hit it closer than Kang coming home, but Ko made a 20-foot curling birdie putt on the 15th to push her ahead for good.

“I just tried to focus on me and play the best golf I can,” Ko said afterward. “I know at points it was a bit of a grind, but I’m glad I could get that done.”

It was a bit of a grind, right up to the final hole for Ko, who missed the 18th green, short-sided in a bunker. With Kang staring down a 15-foot birdie try, Ko splashed a high, spinny shot from the sand to a couple feet. When Kang missed her attempt, it was just a formality from there.

When asked after the round about if she’s back to feeling like herself, now nine months removed from snapping a lengthy winless streak, Ko admitted there had been plenty of internal questioning in the past.

“I think last year was kind of a big turn around year for me,” she said. “And even the fall of 2020, when we had that long time off I think it was kind of a time for me to look back at ‘What are the things for me to work on?’ and just take a whole new approach to things. 

“I started working with Sean [Foley] and I think he’s been a huge help in the technical standpoint, getting me to a point where it feels natural and I’m not trying to make positions. At the same time him clearing some of the questions and not so good ideas in my head as well. I feel like it’s been much more consistent … When you keep knocking on the door you feel like it’s going to open.”

A lot of pros keep that final sentence as their motto in contention: Keep knocking on the door, it’ll open eventually. Only so many pros are good enough to walk through it, though. Ko has now done it 17 times, an astonishing tally before her 25th birthday.

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The post Adidas Golf’s new Tour 360 shoe is here and it’s pro-approved appeared first on Golf.

The post Adidas Golf’s new Tour 360 shoe is here and it’s pro-approved appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Gimme That, a GOLF.com column where we’ll highlight one notable item we think you might like. Whether it’s an article of clothing, an intriguing electronic device or anything in between, we want to share these items with you because they’ve generated a bit of chatter by our water cooler (or, these days, on our Slack channel). So sit back, scroll down and keep up with the latest gear golf has to offer.

The new and improved Adidas Tour360 shoes are here, and they’re tried and tested by the likes of Danielle Kang, Xander Schauffele and Dustin Johnson. Any shoe that’s endorsed by top pros on both the men’s and women’s sides of the game is usually a winner, and this is no different.

The shoe looks pretty similar to previous models, but comes in a few unique colorways. We’re really liking the white version with the blue and red detailing.

Like most Adidas Golf product these days, the shoes are made from trash — yep, they’re actually made from cutting scraps and post-consumer household waste, which would otherwise end up in a landfill. And, they still look this good!

But the improved boost technology, locked-in fit and upgraded traction system are what really take these kicks to the next level — for the pros and for you.

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The post 4 tips to hit a perfect bump-and-run, according to Danielle Kang appeared first on Golf.

The post 4 tips to hit a perfect bump-and-run, according to Danielle Kang appeared first on Golf.

Press conferences — particularly in golf — can get extremely mundane.

“Talk about the approach you hit on 14.”

“What were you thinking coming up 18 with the lead?”

Short Game

“How does it feel to get this win?”

*yawn*

Occasionally, however, pressers provide some content gold. Think well-served Dustin Johnson after a team event, or Rory McIlroy with just about anything. It’s must-see TV, and you hope that it never ends. Sometimes, you even learn a little something about how to play golf, too. That’s just what happened during Danielle Kang’s winner’s presser after last week’s LPGA opener.

Coming off the course after her first win in 17 months, Kang was in just the right mood to be a perfect interview subject — a combination of engaging and insightful. The first few questions from the media were run-of-the-mill snoozers, but then, a question came in that really got her rolling.

“I think the one that may have brought a tear on the old-timers’ eyes was the bump-and-run today on 15. You just don’t see that shot very much anymore. Can you walk us through what your thinking is there?“

Luckily, Kang obliged, and we got a step-by-step breakdown on how to hit a proper bump-and-run.

1. Stand the shaft up

To execute the shot to perfection, as Kang did, you need to make the shaft a bit more vertical than you would on a typical greenside shot.

“I stand the shaft up, put the ball back, put the toe down, and I just hit it aggressively through the ball,” she said.

2. Ball in the back of the stance

With the ball in the back of your stance, it’s easier to hit down on it and make ball-first contact.

3. Play it off the toe

You want the ball to get on the ground quickly and roll towards the hole, so you don’t want to put much backspin on the ball. To get this topspin, Kang said she plays the ball towards the toe of the club.

“It comes off like a putt,” she said.

4. Stay aggressive

Perhaps the most important aspect of hitting a good bump-and-run is to stay aggressive.

“You just can’t be afraid of it,” Kang said. “If you hesitate it’s going to duff or chunk or going to catch a little bit too much toe spin. But as along as you’re aggressive it’s always going come out with the nice topspin that you can create with your putter.”

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The post How Danielle Kang found comfort in ‘always being uncomfortable’ — and won appeared first on Golf.

The post How Danielle Kang found comfort in ‘always being uncomfortable’ — and won appeared first on Golf.

Danielle Kang, in her first press conference of the new LPGA Tour season, was minutes into the questions and answers when a reporter wondered about a comment she made from the last event of last year. It was there, at the CME Group Tour Championship, where Kang was asked about playing “a place where you feel comfortable,” and she answered: “Oh, I don’t feel very comfortable” and gave her reasons. 

All of which led to this follow-up exchange last week:

“At the end of last season, you said you were feeling uncomfortable. Where is your comfort now to start 2022?”

Her answer?

“I’m always uncomfortable,” Kang said. “I have to get comfortable being uncomfortable, as my brother says. I’ve done some really good work this offseason. I’m happy with the progress, but I’m not where I want to be yet.”

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You can point to several reasons why Kang won last week’s Tournament of Champions — chief among them leading the field in both greens in regulation and putts in greens in regulation — but this, being comfortable being uncomfortable, may have been the biggest. And why’s that? As she revealed throughout the week, the uncomfortable crept up again and again.

Here’s how she won that battle. And eventually her first tournament since 2020.   

Danielle Kang’s tip for ‘being comfortable being uncomfortable’ 

Before we begin, back to that first press conference. While acknowledging that it’s, as she said, a work in progress, the progression was noticeable, as we saw. So we must know: Just how does one become comfortable being uncomfortable, Danielle?

“Probably reps, and I actually have a sports psychologist named Micah, and he actually helps me really check into the present moment,” she said. “I’m always uncomfortable. We’ve figured that out.

“But trying to have that second or two seconds of just comfort and bringing back to the present moment is something that I work on every day. I slept over at Amy Yang’s house last night. I’m going to throw her under the bus because she made me meditate and stare at nothing for 20 minutes yesterday.

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“That was different. I go, 20 minutes? What? So I just — she made me sit there. Took my phone away, everything. I just — I don’t know how she does it, but things like that I have to work on.

“Did you feel better after that?” a reporter asked. 

“Yeah. I felt calm,” Kang said. “I’m not usually calm, so …”

The meditation would pop up again. 

How Danielle Kang dealt with a crack from a fan 

Round one, Kang shot a four-under 68. In Friday’s second round, she was a stroke better and did so without a bogey — which, she admitted afterward, she learned only after she was asked about it. Turns out, after she holed out a shot, she was reminded by a fan that she hadn’t been putting well that round, and Kang believed one of her best shots was the one she didn’t take in response. 

“So today I guess I was bogey-free, but I missed so many putts on the front nine, but tried not to think about it and I dropped it as quickly as I can,” she said. “I ended up holing out one, and I think maybe the gallery said to me, ‘Maybe you’ll learn how to read a putt now.’

Instruction

“I said, ‘Oh, OK.’ Normally it would bother me, but I just go, ‘Oh, OK,’ and then you drop it and have the next thing to focus on. Things are going to happen that I’m not going to like, but just going to have to keep moving forward. That’s the most difficult thing that I’m working on.”

A reporter then noted that “golfers can be very results oriented,” Kang agreed, and the reporter then asked: “When you’re not as much, does it lighten things a little?”

“A little bit,” Kang said. “I’m not going to say I don’t care about the result. I definitely do. But trying not to focus on the result during the process of what I need to do to get to the result. I still need to somehow get there.

“Yeah, it’s hard. Golf is a hard sport or game, whatever you want to call it.”

How Danielle Kang, who doesn’t like to play in the cold, played in the cold 

Round three, Kang shot a 69, and she did so in what we’ll call Florida cold. No, it wasn’t 30 below and snow, but a windy, 50-degree day isn’t what you sign up for when you go to Orlando, either. And for Kang, who also lives in the desert of Vegas, it was coat weather. 

“I don’t perform quite well in the cold,” she said. 

Instruction

So she layered up. To keep the blood pumping, she did jumping jacks. She played when it was brisker in Sin City, too. It also turns out that her caddie, Olly Brett, who’s from England, has wanted his boss to one day win the Women’s Open across the pond, where it can also be, yes, windy and 50.  

“My caddie’s dream is for me to play well at the British, so I — yes, my history at the British Open is not so great. I get that,” Kang said. “He’s been on my bag for five years. Least I can do is be able to be prepared for the cold weather. So during the offseason, it’s being able to try and swing with how many layers I have on, what’s the max, what I’m capable and not capable of doing. There are certain shots I can’t do, shots I can’t hit during the cold weather, and I just take them out of my arsenal.

“Those are the things I have to figure out.”

How Danielle Kang dealt with slow play 

As promised, more meditation. Also during the third round, there was a backup on the par-3 13th at Lake Nona, and what better time to collect your thoughts than that?

Kang birdied the hole. 

Instruction

“Just a lot of time,” she said. “I just wanted to — the word “meditation” throws people off. I guess it’s just getting back to the present and thinking about what’s going on around you more so than what’s going to happen, what has happened; thinking about should have, would’ve, could have.

“It’s something that I’ve been working on so it’s good.”

How Danielle Kang overcame a poor shot 

Round four, Kang shot a 68, finished at 16-under overall and won by three. Still, no round is without its errors, and, on the par-4 16th, first she was putting from 100 feet away for par, then she ran the putt by. 

Kang made the come-backer.   

“That’s actually going back to the things not letting me bother me so much, right?” Kang said. “I’m trying to — it is what it is. That’s one of the worst sayings and the best sayings. I hit it [the second shot] — it wasn’t a good swing, but I was on a right-to-left lie on a right-to-left wind on a right-to-left shot, and I ended up overturning it.

“It told myself it wasn’t because I had bad thoughts, it wasn’t because I was coming down the stretch. I just hit a bad swing. The best thing I can do, I told my caddie, I have to save a bogey here at the worst.

Instruction

“So I hit the putt, first putt really firm. It was over 100 feet, and then I watched it roll by the hole. So that was important for me. So instead of freaking out about or panicking about the results — what if I don’t make a bogey; what If I don’t make a double — I was more focused on what I needed to do the best I can to hit the next shot with 100 percent commitment, which was to watch my putt, and I trusted that line, and I made that bogey, so I was really proud of myself.”

How Danielle Kang overcame a poor lie 

And then there were the unforced errors. On the par-5 11th, she hit “a really good wood” off the tee, only to have “a really crummy lie.”

She birdied the hole. 

“I quietly said to my caddie, I’m raging right now,” Kang said. “Because it could have been anywhere; why here? I said, It’s fine. Just let me rage, just let me get angry for five seconds, and then I dropped it. I knew I could hit that shot. I practiced it during the practice rounds and gave myself a really good up and down.”

Chirps from fans, poor weather, slow play, bad shots, bad lies — and a tournament title. Comfort in the uncomfortable, indeed. At the end of her winner’s press conference, Kang was asked: “Is this win on that note mean more to you because it is in the cold and in the wet and in the windy with Ollie? Does it mean something a little bit more special?”

“I think it’s more special because a lot of stuff that I did during the offseason; it was really hard,” Kang said. “I mean, I’ve actually gained nine pounds, so I worked really hard to gain that weight.

“I feel really good. I don’t feel injured, tired. Those are the things that I worked on doing, a lot of different types of analysis and people helping me out. I have a great team back home. They’re probably not going to listen to this, but Nicole is my nutritionist, I got my mental coach, I got Duncan with my strengthening, Heather with my physio. It’s just nonstop with all these groups of people building and helping me better, like create better footing. 

“So those are the things that it’s hard to do, so it’s — I’m just more proud of myself that I actually did it.”

The post How Danielle Kang found comfort in ‘always being uncomfortable’ — and won appeared first on Golf.

The post Monday Finish Minute: Scratch amateurs are a world away from LPGA players appeared first on Golf.

The post Monday Finish Minute: Scratch amateurs are a world away from LPGA players appeared first on Golf.

Danielle Kang won the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at -16. Derek Lowe, the week’s low celebrity amateur, shot +7 from the same tees, proving once again that you and your buddies can’t beat an LPGA player under any circumstances.

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The post Tour Confidential: Course-setup rage, LPGA outlook, wild caddie moves appeared first on Golf.

The post Tour Confidential: Course-setup rage, LPGA outlook, wild caddie moves appeared first on Golf.

Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us @golf_com. This week, we break down course-setup comments by Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, the LPGA’s season-opener, wild caddie moves and more.  

1. At the PGA Tour’s American Express (won by Hudson Swafford), world No. 1 Jon Rahm, in a fan video published to social media, was overheard saying to his caddie: “Piece of [expletive] setup. Putting contest week.” This comes on the heels of record low scores at the year-opening Tournament of Champions and a birdie blitz last week at the Sony Open. Is Rahm right? In scorable conditions, do PGA Tour events simply come down to who’s putting best — and, if so, is there anything wrong with that?

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Sean Zak, senior editor (@sean_zak): Yes, he’s right. And this is bound to bother Rahm more than any other player in the world, simply because he’s the best player in the world. He has routinely shown that when conditions are tough, when courses are difficult, he’s going to finish in the top 10. Cream rising to the top, they say. There’s nothing wrong with this happening at a handful of events over the course of the season. The issue is that it happens too often. Where players are not asked to work the ball both ways, to make difficult club choices off every tee box, to use different trajectories into greens. Organizers of the event seem to love the PGA West setup, though. This isn’t changing. 

Michael Bamberger, senior writer: No, all golf scoring is interconnected. The putting contest is grounded in how close you hit it. How close you hit it is related to where you hit your tee shots. BUT I totally understand what Rahm is saying. The harder the course, the smaller the number of people who can win. These desert courses are as easy as it gets, on Tour. That’s OK.

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): And on that note, remember when PGA West first hosted a Tour event in the ’80s? A bunch of pros thought it was tough to the point of being unfair. They wanted no part of it on a Tour rota.

Nick Piastowski, senior editor (@nickpia): I get what he was saying. It should first be noted that his putting misses in the third round were particularly brutal — shoot, even the Tour tweeted out a video of them — so he was running hot. But I agree with Michael. The putts were dropping more, because players were hitting fairways and greens more. It’s easier to do so on some courses, and that becomes a different style of golf. Not every course is supremely difficult, nor do I think we want every one to be. Now, if they’re all easy …  

2. On the DP World Tour, more course-setup consternation! After making a 9 in the third round on the 646-yard par-5 18th hole at Yas Links, Tyrrell Hatton said of the hole: “What’s wrong with it? Where do you start? It shouldn’t have a bunker in the middle of the fairway, and it shouldn’t be over 600 yards from a forward tee. If you hit a good drive as a pro, you should have at least a chance to go for the green in two, otherwise the hole becomes a par-3, and that’s if you play it well. Hardly anyone will get there in two with the wind even slightly against you.” Let’s set aside Hatton’s gripe with this specific hole and instead discuss his wider point about par-5s. Should all pros, with a good drive, have a chance to reach every par-5 in two?

Zak: I have no issue with a true three-shotter, so long as each of those shots have some level of difficulty layered within them. If the setup that day implies that it’ll take three good ones to reach the putting surface, so be it. The player’s placement anywhere on any hole should always leave some question remaining, whether it’s a risk-reward decision or a discussion on the best angle to hit the approach from. I’m not sure if Yas’ 18th does that, but this YouTube clip says it routinely plays into the wind, so perhaps it might need to be altered from 646 yards. That’s a lot. 

Bamberger: The par-5 is dead. It had a good run.

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Sens: Hatton’s frustration was clouding his thinking there. Nothing wrong with a three-shot par-5, as long as the second shot requires some thinking and execution. The worst par-5s are holes that ask you only to advance your ball on the second shot, with no other considerations. 

Piastowski: Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with a three-shot par-5, but like Sean and Josh said, it should have some creativity mixed in, and not just driver, iron, wedge, putt, putt. And from just a look at the scoring, the hole did play difficult — after all, Hatton took the nine on it. 

3. On the LPGA Tour, Danielle Kang, behind a final-round 68, held off a star-studded field to win the season-opening Tournament of Champions. Also of note on Sunday, world No. 1 Nelly Korda, who entered the round with the lead, stumbled to a three-over 75. Takeaways from week 1?

Zak: Kang has an infectious personality, and I’d love to see her fight for the No. 1 spot in the world ranking. So it’s hard for me to have a takeaway that doesn’t involve wanting this to be a 2022 launching point for her. My only other takeaway is that the frivolity of music playing in the background and all the celebs getting involved kinda makes it feel like an all-star showcase. Why can’t we bring it to Hawaii during the first week of the year, alongside the men?

Sens: That Nelly is human.

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Bamberger: And golf is hard, and four days of it harder yet.

Piastowski: The depth of the women’s game right now is fantastic. Nelly will win her share, but I think we’re going to see a lot of winners this year. 

4. Luke Donald, according to an exclusive report from the Daily Mail, is in line to be named the next European Ryder Cup captain. The report claims that 2020 captain Padraig Harrington, a key member of the five-man committee that chooses Europe’s captain, has given “a ringing endorsement” to Donald’s potential captaincy. Wise choice? And who’s your early pick to helm the American side?

Zak: Donald is a sound choice. He’s squarely in that aging-out-but-still-around-to-compete bracket that seems to bode well for captainship. They weren’t going to make a bad choice. European temperaments are too kind. As for the Americans, the game would be better off with Fred Couples as RC captain, even if that ship has sailed. Zach Johnson seems to be next in line, but he’s still playing a very full schedule. Phil Mickelson is showing no signs of stopping. Tiger is, I think, incapable right now, all due respect. I think Jim Furyk has my vote, huh? 

Sens: Sean’s right about Donald. He’s in that sweet spot. Respected veteran. Ryder Cup experience. Past his peak, competitively. Unless he’s been living in the U.S. so long that we can count on him as a double agent? Agreed that Johnson will be at the American helm. 

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Bamberger: Oh, that’s funny. I’d have preferred to see Rory McIlroy as a playing captain, and Johnson — Dustin Johnson — doing the same on the other side. The event should require playing captains, and no assistants. As is, the captains and the “vice” captains clearly have way too much time on their hands.

Piastowski: Donald is fine. Does Lee Westwood then make the team at 50? As for the Americans, Fred Couples would be my choice. The team will need a cool head in the room when it heads to Italy. But no matter what happens, the captains for the 2025 event have to be Mickelson and Poulter. Those two, with a New York crowd. Love it.  

5. In a bizarre scene during the American Express’ third round, Lee Hodges, tied for the lead at the time, was pulled off a shot by his caddie — in the middle of his backswing. While it turned out to be the right move — Hodges hit the green and birdied the hole — Golf Channel analysts Trevor Immelman and John Cook both said they had never seen such a thing. What’s the boldest move you’ve seen from a Tour caddie?

Zak: Well, there’s Kessler Karain’s dust-up with an Australian spectator during the President’s Cup in 2019 that literally banned him from finishing the competition. But in the lighter category, I loved when Austin Johnson went to retrieve a ball of his brother’s from a hazard (he had to; DJ wasn’t done with the hole yet) and kept his shoes on when he jumped into the water. They were on the 4th hole when it happened, so it made for a squeaky afternoon. 

Sens: What year was it when Brian Stuard’s caddie quit mid-round in Reno? Oh, right, Google tells me it was 2014. That took some chutzpah, as no one on the Tour says.

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Bamberger: Well, Tom Watson’s not on Tour, but his Yiddish is solid. I’m going to leave out the names here, but a long time ago, a caddie quit on a player after he whiffed in the woods and didn’t count it. The player said it wasn’t a whiff — he had aborted his swing. The caddie begged to differ.

Piastowski: I just want to talk more about that move. For anyone who doubts the value of a good caddie, watch the video. He wasn’t just carrying the bag. He was his coach out there. And he legitimately put his job on the line to do so.  

6. In a three-part series on GOLF.com this week, our Michael Bamberger sung the praises of nine-hole golf. What the best, most memorable and/or most fun nine-hole experience you’ve encountered?

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Zak: I need to get this answer written before Dethier logs on. The Valliere nine at Morfontaine was never promised to us, but it came at the end of our playing the 18-hole course. With the sun setting, we were reaching that afternoon golf nirvana where you’re desperate to just … keep … going. Thankfully, a member had joined us and invited us out for the original nine holes constructed on the property. It felt like we were cheating by getting an extra nine holes, but I remember them way more than the other 18. All of them were extremely scorable, Dylan nearly made an ace, I made an eagle, and we capped it off with a quiet beer on the terrace. An experience I’m probably incapable of recreating. 

Sens: Hard to beat Northwood, an Alister Mackenzie nine-holer north of San Francisco. Cut through the redwoods, with such an easy-going atmosphere that visibility is sometimes clouded by a cannabis haze. But I also highly recommend Gleneagles, in San Francisco. Great throwback. Bay views. Compelling test. (Lee Trevino called it one of the toughest nine-holers he ever encountered.) And frequented by time-capsule San Francisco characters.

Bamberger: The nine-hole par-3 course at Augusta National is memorable and beautiful. If you play it with one ball, you’re doing some golfing. I needed one sleeve and part of another. The nine-holer in Edgartown, Mass., is one of my favorite courses — nine or 18 — anywhere. The nine-holer on Mackinac Island is outstanding. Golf’s so-called fifth major is the spring net championship at the St. Martins nine-hole course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. The third green is one of the best in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Any ball on it, in approach or whole putting, seems to have a life of its own.

Piastowski: The nine holes I’d play as a kid under the twilight rate at the Milwaukee County Parks golf courses. While technically the courses were 18-holers, you could get in only nine, due to either lack of sunlight, or an increase in bug bites. But all it cost you was 5 bucks. Safe to say, it wasn’t until I was older where I played golf in the morning.  

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The post Danielle Kang kicks off 2022 with dominant victory at Tournament of Champions appeared first on Golf.

The post Danielle Kang kicks off 2022 with dominant victory at Tournament of Champions appeared first on Golf.

Sunday’s final round at the Tournament of Champions finished how most fans expected: An American star lifting the trophy, starting off her 2022 LPGA season in style.

It just wasn’t the American star most people expected.

Danielle Kang was T2 entering the day, a shot behind World No. 1 Nelly Korda. But Kang rode a red-hot stretch in the middle of her round into the lead and never looked back, leaving Korda and the rest of the field in her wake.

In the end Kang’s final-round four-under 68 got her to 16 under for the week, three shots clear of runner-up Brooke Henderson. Gaby Lopez finished third at 12 under, while Korda faded to T4 at 10 under alongside Celine Boutier.

The three-shot final margin looked like a dominant victory, but the result wasn’t always so certain. Korda entered the round with a one-shot advantage, the top ranking in the world and a gold medal to her name. In other words, she was the betting favorite. But she started slowly in the chilly Orlando morning. When she made bogey at the par-3 fourth hole, she lost the lead. Up ahead, Gaby Lopez made birdies at 5, 6 and 7 to seize that position for herself.

Sunday’s conditions were tough; scores rose as temperatures dropped, and bogeys came easy as the day wore on. Korda made another at No. 10 to fall further off the pace. Lopez made four bogeys in her final 10 holes. But Kang was just getting going. She made birdie at the par-5 ninth, then another at the par-5 11th, showing off her arsenal of short-game shots. Then she added birdies at 13-14-15 for good measure. The lead grew.

The final three holes at Lake Nona were playing as the three toughest, and Kang settled for bogey at No. 16. No worries; she’d built enough of an advantage that an up-and-down for par at No. 18 was relevant only in terms of preserving the final margin of victory.

The win was the sixth of Kang’s career but her first since 2020, when she won the LPGA Drive On Championship and the Marathon LPGA Classic in back-to-back events.

The tournament format included a separate celebrity competition. Former Red Sox star Derek Lowe edged out Annika Sorenstam on the first playoff hole.

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