Minjee Lee wins 9th LPGA Tour title in Ohio


Minjee Lee – image Getty Images / LPGA

Australian Minjee Lee has somehow found the resolve to bounce back from a struggling final nine holes at the Kroger Queen City Championship in Ohio to win a playoff against England’s Charley Hull and secure her 9th LPGA Tour title.

Lee looked to have taken control of the event when she took a two-shot lead into the final round and raced to the turn in 3 under to open up a four-shot lead. It was increased to five when Hull bogeyed the 10th but the final nine would see things change dramatically.

The very much in form and improved Hull put together a final nine of 34 and when Lee double bogeyed the 12th after hitting her second shot out of bounds and was unable to recover over the closing six holes, she entered a playoff against Hull who was seeking a third LPGA Tour victory.

The first extra hole was shared but, at the second, Lee’s approach finished two feet from the hole and when she converted it was all over.

“I had a few moments where I felt I was losing, but I wasn’t,” Lee said. “I was like, ‘Let’s play ‘til the end and see where it ends up.’ I didn’t give up. I played every shot the best I could and won the playoff, so it feels nice.”

Lee was especially pleased to have won just ahead of a break during which she will spend time in Perth.

“Actually, I’m not playing Arkansas and Dallas, so it does feel nice that I finished on a high this kind of stretch of tournaments.

“I’m actually looking forward to a couple of weeks off and some downtime. Going to go back to Perth during Arkansas and Dallas, so hopefully I can enjoy this one back home with my friends and family.”

For Lee, it was her first win of the 2023 season and just her third top ten.

Lee earns US$300,000 and takes her season’s earnings on the LPGA Tour to just under US$900,000 and career earnings to just over US$13 million.

Gabi Ruffels began the tournament well but had a tough weekend to finish 36th but was the next best of the Australians, Stephanie Kyriacou and Lydia Ko were 41st and Sarah Kemp 55th.

SCORES

 

/by

Another great Irish Open week for Ryan Fox

Ryan Fox – file photo Getty Images / DP World Tour 

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox has continued his remarkable record at the Horizon Irish Open after finishing in a share of 3rd place at the K Club in County Kildare overnight.

In now seven starts in the event, Fox has finished runner-up on two occasions, once third and once fourth and today added another €266,000 to his already significant earnings in the historic event.

Fox finished only two shots from the winner, Vincent Norrman of Sweden, who won his first DP World Tour event and €951,000, although the 25-year-old is also now a PGA Tour winner, having won the Barbasol Championship in July.

Norrman came from six shots off the lead through 54 holes to win by one over Germany’s Hurly Long.

Interestingly, Norrman is not a member of the European Ryder Cup team despite having now won on the PGA and DP World Tours this season.

Fox, who is now playing much of his golf in the US after gaining special temporary membership there, added a final round of 70 and needed an eagle at the last to catch Norrman who had finished 90 minutes or so earlier. His second shot finished short of the green after finding the rough from the tee and a poor pitch led to a disappointing par.

Min Woo Lee, who now has similar status to Fox on the PGA Tour, also had a good week when he finished in a share of 7th and moved to 5th on the DP World Rankings.

RESULTS

/by

Anthony Quayle finishes 3rd in Korea

Anthony Quayle – photo JGTO

Anthony Quayle has finished in a share of 3rd place at a jointly sanctioned event between the Korean, Japan, and Asian Tours, the Shinhan Donghae Open in Incheon, Korea.

The 29-year-old Gold Coast-based golfer, completed the event just two shots behind the playoff between the eventual winner, Guntaek Koh of Korea  and Thailand’s Pachara Khongwatmai.

Quayle shared third place with Japanese star and former Australian Amateur Champion, Keita Nakajima, and American Richard Lee and added another US$53,000 to his Japan Tour earnings for 2023.

The finish will move Quayle to 14th on the Japan Tour money list with ¥26 million (A$270,000) and represents his second-best finish of 2023 following his runner-up finish at the Sega Sammy Cup in Hokkaido in early July.

Quayle will lament a double bogey finish to his round on Saturday but it was nonetheless an improvement on his most recent form which had seen two missed cuts in his last three starts.

The next best of the Australians was Travis Smyth who finished in 19th place.

/by

Minjee Lee in touch at Kroger Queen City event in Ohio


Minjee Lee in Ohio – image courtesy of Getty and LPGA

Minjee Lee is in a share of 7th place and six shots from the lead at the halfway stage of the Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati Ohio, but the Perth golfer is just two shots behind the joint second-placed players as the event heads into the weekend.

Lee birdied two holes late in her round to move within striking distance of the leader, 32-year-old Peiyn Chien of Taiwan who has a four-shot lead as she chases her first victory on the LPGA Tour.

Lee has produced a run of solid finishes on late but other than a 2nd place finish at the Founders Cup earlier in the year she has not contended often and has now slipped to 13th in the Rolex World Ranking.

This week does however provide the opportunity for her first win of the year as although the leader has a significant break on the field, she is new to this situation and will be under pressure over the final 36 holes.

Lee missed the cut in this event last year when it was being staged for the first occasion but she can put that wrong right in a big way over the final 36 holes.

The next best of the Australians in Victorian, Gabi Ruffels who in 2024 will enjoy full status on the LPGA Tour after a stellar season on the Epson Tour this year.

Ruffels is in a share of 11th place at 6 under and two behind Lee.

New Zealand’s Lydia Ko finally found a little bit of form after a run of outs and is in a share of 31st at 3 under.

Sarah Kemp and Stephanie Kyriacou also made the cut the New South Wales pair on the number at 1 under.

SCORES

 

/by

Anthony Quayle’s strong finish has him contending in Korea


Anthony Quayle – photo JGTO

Australian Anthony Quayle overcame a slow start to his second round at the Shinhan Donghae Open at the Ocean Course at Club 72 in Incheon South Korea, reeling off four birdies in his last six holes to be tied in 4th position and four shots from the halfway leader, 21-year-old amateur, Wooyoung Cho.

Quayle, playing this event because of its joint sanctioning with the Japan, Asian and Korea PGA Tours, opened with a round of 65 on day one but today he was slow out of the blocks and on a golf course in which scores were low he had fallen behind the eight ball when he slipped to 2 over through 12 holes.

Then came the strong finishing burst to set up an exciting weekend for the 29-year-old Gold Coast-based golfer.

Quayle has had a season of mixed fortunes to date in Japan, finishing runner-up in one event in July but that has been his only top ten to date and this week has shown a sharp improvement on recent efforts.

Scott Hend and former Sydney golfer, but now Korean-based, Won Joon Lee are tied in 12th place while Zach Murray and Brad Kennedy are tied for 23rd.

Hend also produced a strong finish to his round after appearing to be headed out of the tournament early in his second round but a closing nine of 31 saw him finish at 7 under and now six from the lead.

SCORES

/by

Sarah Kemp heads Australasians in Portland


Sarah Kemp – file photo courtesy of LPGA / Getty Images 

North Coast New South Wales golfer, Sarah Kemp, continued her good season on the LPGA Tour when she led the Australasians in the field at this week’s Portland Classic in Oregon.

Admittedly, Kemp would finish in only a share of 21st but it continues a season which has already seen her finish inside the top 15 on four separate occasions and with earnings of now US$258,000 she is on track to better her previous best in 2021 when she amassed US$272,000 and finished 67th in the Race to the Globe standings.

Kemp is currently 66th in the rankings for 2023 and with another ten or so events on the schedule, many of which she will have access to, she has a chance of completing her best-ever season.

Kemp’s best finish of the year came at the Dow Great Lakes event in July when she finished 8th but of importance this week was that she bounced back from two consecutive missed cuts to perform well in Oregon.

LPGA Tour rookie, Grace Kim, did next best of the Australasians when she finished 26th.

Former winner of the event, Hannah Green missed the cut as did the out-of-form Lydia Ko who has finished no better than 31st in her last 13 LPGA Tour starts.

The winner of the event was yet another first-time winner from Thailand, the 19-year-old LPGA Tour rookie Chanettee Wannasaen (pictured).

SCORES

Chanettee Wannasaen – image LPGA / Getty  

/by

Fiona Xu leads Australasians at Stage One LPGA Tour qualifying


Fiona Xu – file photo – courtesy of USGA

One New Zealander and five Australians have safely begun the long and arduous path to LPGA Tour status in 2024 by finishing inside the top 95 of the 350 players who teed it up at Stage One Qualifying in Rancho Mirage in California.

New Zealand’s Fiona Xu, the 2022 Australian Women’s Amateur Champion, led the group when she finished in a share of 3rd place, while Australians Madison Hinson Tolchard (33rd), Amy Chu, Emily Mahar and Darcy Hapgood (55th), and Jordan O’Brien (70th) can now reset their mindsets to Stage Two which begins in Venice, Florida on October 17th.

Should they be successful in graduating from that Stage, they then open up the possibility of finishing inside the top 45 at the Final Stage over 144 holes in Mobile Alabama beginning on November 30th.

SCORES  

/by

Hannah Green records second best finish of 2023 in Canada


Hannah Green – in action this week – image LPGA / Getty Images

Perth’s Hannah Green has produced her second-best finish of the 2023 LPGA Tour season when sharing 4th place at this past week’s CPKC Women’s Open (read Canadian Women’s Open) in Vancouver.

Green, whose only other top ten of the year came when winning the JM Eagle LA Championship, finished three shots from the playoff between Jin Young Ko and the eventual winner Megan Khang and earned US$117,500.

“I’m feeling good,” said Green after her final round. “I played good today. I hit the ball much better which is good, because yesterday I really scrambled. Didn’t hit many fairways at all and was trying to hit as many greens as possible; not really trying to hit it close.

“So today I had that opportunity which was nice. Didn’t really read the greens as well as I did the first few days. Overall, really happy with my result.

“This is a great event. Playing Shaughnessy, it’s obviously a really great golf course. We feel very honored to be on this golf course.

“It’s a challenging one, as you can see by the scoring. Nothing particularly low so it makes you think a little bit. Compared to what course was like on Monday to today it was very different, so it was getting fast, getting quite hard.

“So it was good. I really enjoy that type of golf. It’s nice to find some form after a rough month I guess you could say going into a tournament that’s very fondly in my heart.”

Green was of course referring to next week’s event in Portland which she has won previously.

Victorian Gabi Ruffels who has LPGA Tour playing rights now firmly in her grasp for next season courtesy of her outstanding season on the feeder Epson Tour did well when playing the event on invitation and finished in a share of 19th.

Minjee Lee and Karis Davidson tied for 22nd while the struggles continued for Lydia Ko when she finished last of those who made the weekend and 24 shots from the playoff after a third round of 82.

SCORES

 

 

/by

Australians on knife-edge in race for PGA Tour playing rights

Rhein Gibson – file photo – important few events ahead for the Lismore golfer.

Several Australians are walking a fine line as they chase PGA Tour status via the Korn Ferry Tour over the next few weeks.

The completion of this week’s Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho did little to help their cause, Rhein Gibson and Brett Drewitt missing the cut and slipping to 27th and 30th respectively in the year-long standings in which the leading 30 players following the completion of the Tour Championship in early October gain 2024 PGA Tour cards.

Both Gibson and Drewitt had begun the season well, Gibson winning in February and following soon after with two more top tens to be well inside the top ten at that point.

Drewitt also reeled off five top tens in his first seven starts and looked to be comfortably on his way back to the PGA Tour in 2024 but the further the season has gone on the more vulnerable the pair look in terms of returning to the big dance.

The Korn Ferry Tour now has a three week break before the Simmons Bank Open in Tennessee continues the Finals but, with just three events remaining, both Gibson and Drewitt will need to watch their backs.

Dimi Papadatos was the only Australian to make the cut this week when finishing 43rd, but he too has struggled after what had been a good start to the season which had included a runner-up finish in Chile.

Papdatos has now slipped to 63rd in the rankings and while reaching the top 30 is not beyond him he will need to improve sharply in the remaining events if he is to get to the PGA Tour for the first time.

Spare a thought also for Perth’s Curtis Luck who miscalculated his tee time on Thursday and was disqualified for not turning up on time.

Luck has now slipped to 62nd he, too, has a task ahead.

Interestingly, Luck was quite philosophical about his mistake as he indicated when talking to PGA Tour.com

“For some people, this would be a really, really big issue, because everybody out here is trying to play for a PGA TOUR card,” Luck said. “I’m not taking it that badly, to be honest … My theory is Columbus (the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, which he won in 2020) is where I’m looking to do the most damage … it is what it is.”

KORN FERRY TOUR STANDINGS

REMAINING SCHEDULE

/by

Matt Jones goes down in history making playoff


Matt Jones – runner-up in St Andrews – image courtesy of LIV Golf.

Australian Matt Jones has finished runner-up at the Asian Tour’s International Series event at Fairmont St Andrews in St Andrews Scotland, but that tells only part of what was an historical final day.

The playoff between LIV Golf player, Jones and Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra lasted a massive ten holes (an Asian Tour record) before a two-putt par by Chaccara at the par 5 was unable to be matched by Jones who missed from five feet to keep the battle alive.

For Jones however, it continues a good run of late during which he was a member of the winning Rippers team in LIV Golf event in New Jersey three weeks ago, securing US$750,000 plus an individual prize of close to US$160,000 there, followed by a 4th place finish and another US$76,000 at last week’s International Series event in Scotland and now this runner-up finish and another US$220,000.

So around US$1.2 million in his last three events for the 43-year-old Arizona-based Sydney golfer.

Jones and Chacarra had both birdied the final hole of regulation to force the playoff but it would be the 23-year-old Chacarra who not only won his first Asian Tour event but his first event since turning professional last year. He won US$360,000.

Queenslander, Andrew Dodt finished in a share of third place and earned US$113,000, by some margin his biggest cheque of the year and, after a break from tournament golf and returning at last week’s event in Newcastle where he missed the cut, this is a major boost for three time Asian Tour event winner.

South Australian Wade Ormsby also had a good week when he finished tied for 8th place.

SCORES

 

 

/by