Minjee Lee in Ohio – image courtesy of Getty and LPGA

Minjee Lee is in a share of 7^th 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 2^nd place finish at the Founders Cup earlier in the year she has not contended often and has now slipped to 13^th 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

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 21^st 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 67^th in the Race to the Globe standings.

Kemp is currently 66^th 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 8^th 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  

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 4^th 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 19^th.

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

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 4^th 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

Matt Jones – in a rich vein of form of late 

The second of two Asian Tour International Series events in Britain this August, the St Andrews Championship at the Fairmont St Andrews Torrance Course in Scotland, has reached the halfway mark, and Australians Matt Jones and Andrew Dodt are within striking distance in the US$1.5 million event.

Dodt and Jones are at 10 under, four shots from the lead held by Spain’s David Puig and tied in 3^rd place, Jones’s following up his good week in Newcastle last week when finishing 4^th in a similar event by adding a second round of 65 to move into contention.

Jones was also part of the winning Australian team at the LIv Golf event in Bedminster in New Jersey.

Queenslander, Dodt, on the other hand, missed the cut last week after lengthy break from tournament play but after an impressive start on Thursday when producing an opening round of 66 to be tied in the lead, the 37-year-old, three-time Asian Tour winner added a second round of 68 to remain well and truly in the mix.

The leader, Puig, is a 21-year-old LIV Golf player who has enjoyed commercial success in the team aspect of that series but who has yet to win an event as a professional.

The field includes many LIV Golf members taking advantage of the association the Asia Tour has with Liv Golf which allows them to compete in events such as this.

Wade Ormsby (15^th) is the next best of the Australians in the field.

SCORES