Sarah Kemp has work to do in order to retain full LPGA Tour playing privileges next season but this week’s Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati in Ohio has given her hope of doing just that.

The New South Welshwoman finds herself in a share of 4th place and three from the leader, Jeongeun Lee6 at the halfway stage of the US$1.75 million event.

Kemp has just one top ten to her name in 2022, has missed two of her last three cuts and is currently in 100th place in the Race to the Globe rankings so if she can capitalise on her fine start here, it will play a key role in retaining the right to play the LPGA Tour again in 2023.

“I played really solid again, especially on the front,” said Kemp. “I started to get a little tired. I said to Lisa kind of with about five or six to play, I feel myself getting a little tired.

“I left a couple putts out there and had the bogey on 17. We said at the beginning of the day, let’s get to double digits, so I’m not really disappointed at all. Goal ticked.

“I sort of need a good week. I hate saying that word, but…Well, I don’t need it this week, but I need one in the next sort of four or five events. It would be great to have it this week, but I’m not putting too much pressure on myself because I feel like I’m playing good.

“If it doesn’t happen this week I’ve got some good chances coming up. I was speaking to my coach, John Serhan, in Australia, and I told him, I’m not panicking because I’m playing great. So, he knows.

“I call him when I’m not playing well and I feel like I really need some help, but I actually feel like I’m — I know where the ball is going to go, and so that’s really a nice place to be.”

“Yeah, kind of keep doing the same thing as I have the first two days, and, yeah, we’ll see how it goes.”

Hannah Green is some six shots behind Kemp and in a share of 26th.

Of the other Australians, Minjee Lee, Sarah Jane Smith and LPGA Tour rookie, Karis Davidson, missed the cut. Lee was unable to fully recover from her opening round of 76 and the leader of the Race to the Globe missed her first weekend of the year.

Lee also withdrew from the recent CP Women’s Open in Canada.

Ryan Fox – seen here when runner-up at the Irish Open, unlucky to miss selection – photo Getty Images

The upheaval caused by the switch to Liv Golf by the likes of Cameron Smith, Joacquin Niemann, Marc Leishman, Abraham Ancer, Louis Oosthuizen and others has created even further issues for an International Presidents Cup Team trying to find a way to be, at least, competitive against an American side at Quail Hollow later this month.

International team Captain Trevor Immelman’s already demanding task has been made even more so by the depletion in the ranks and so he has been forced to turn to some unlikely calls in terms of replacements.

The automatic qualifiers were Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim, Corey Conners, Mito Pereira and Adam Scott, that group joined by Immelman’s selections Taylor Pendrith, Sebastian Munoz, Si Woo Kim, Cam Davis, Christian Bezuidenhout and K.H. Lee.

Unlucky not to have been selected are New Zealand’s, Ryan Fox, whose current world ranking has him in 7^th place amongst those eligible for selection.

Fox has played sparingly of late and missed the cut at his last appearance at the European Masters last week but his form in June and July was first class and he can be considered unlucky.

So too was Australia’s Lucas Herbert who would have been 9^th in terms of world ranking amongst those eligible for selection and a 15^th place at his last start at the BMW Championship must surely have put him right in line for consideration as would several other good performance on the PGA Tour in 2022.

The task of winning the Presidents Cup for just the second time since its inception in 1994 just became that much harder for an International side that will carry eight Presidents Cup rookies into battle in Charlotte on September 22^nd.

Lucas Herbert – a 13th place finish at the PGA Championship must have given him a chance  – photo PGA of America    

Aaron Baddeley did best of the Australians but it was not enough – file photo Bruce Young

Neither Aaron Baddeley nor Jason Scrivener was able to take advantage of one last chance to earn PGA Tour playing rights for next season, the pair unable to advance their cause over the weekend at the final event of the season on the Korn Ferry Tour, the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

Baddeley and Scrivener were the only two Australians to make the cut at the weekend with Min Woo Lee, Anthony Quayle and Harrison Endycott missing out but fortunately for Endicott he had already earned PGA Tour status via the regular season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Baddeley and Scrivener needed something special over the weekend if they were to force their way into the top 25 money earners from the three event Korn Ferry Tour Final series, but were unable improve their standing and will now be forced to play the Korn Ferry Tour in 2023 if they so choose.

Baddeley, because of his twenty year history playing the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours, will have access to a few PGA Tour events but for Scrivener he will likely head back to Europe where he has been increasingly successful over the last few years.

Lee and Quayle will likely play the DP World Tour and Japan Tours respectively

So Endycott is the only Australian to gain status via the Korn Ferry Tour process in 2022, the former successful Australian Eisenhower Team representative now on the big stage next season.

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The winning Italian team – photo Steve Gibbons USGA

Australia have finished in 15th place at the World Amateur Teams event in Paris, their three man team of Connor McKinney,  Harrison Crowe and Hayden Hopewell failing to flatter.

The team’s 13 under par total was a massive 18 shots behind the winners, Italy who finished one shot ahead of the Sweden to take the Eisenhower Trophy.

Italy who have played in the 31 championships since 1958, won for the first time beating their previous best of 4th

McKinney finished in a share of 19^th in the individual competition, nine shots behind the winner, Toblas Jonsson of Sweden, while was Crowe 31^st and Hopewell 76^th.

New Zealand tied for 34^th of the 71 teams, Kazuma Kobori the best of them when he tied with Hopewell for 76^th.

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Smith in action today – photo Patrick Smith LIV Golf

Despite a double bogey in the middle of his back nine, Cameron Smith has made an impressive start to his debut at the LIV Invitational Boston, the Queenslander bouncing back with a birdie, then an eagle at the last to open with a round of 64 to be just one of the pace, set by Talor Gooch and Matthew Wolff.

Smith signed on with LIV Golf this week following the completion of the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship in Atlanta last week and three birdies and an eagle in his opening with eight holes suggested he wasn’t going to be affected by all of the hype surrounding his switch.

He would bogey the 9^th but the spoiler came at the 14^th when he pulled his tee shot left and was forced to pitch out. He then missed the green and from an awkward position, his pitch from left and long of the green finished 25 feet beyond the hole and the resultant double had him back in the pack.

The came the birdies at the 15^th and the eagle at the last to produce an impressive debut.

Smith is tied for 3rd with Joaquin Niemann and two shots clear of those in 5^th place.

“I think the golf course is really quite nice,” responded Smith when asked the question. “I think over the next couple days as it firms up a little bit, it’ll play probably a little bit harder. I think the fairways are generous, but off the fairways they’re quite penal.

It’s a really good test. You have to keep the ball in play, and the greens have a lot of pitch to them, too, so you have to be pretty smart into the greens.

“That round kind of had a bit of everything, very up-and-down. I told Dom after the round, probably wasn’t one of my best driving performances there. I was a bit disappointed with how I drove the ball, especially around here. I think I maybe got away with a few that I shouldn’t have. So something to work on tomorrow.

“You know, putter feels good. Like Wolffy said before, the course is in unreal shape, and you get putts going on the right line, they’re going in.”

“I feel like the crowd out there is almost on top of you with the music,” added Smith when asked about the vibe of his first day. “It feels like the course has a bit of a heartbeat. Yeah, it was very different I would say, but something that I really enjoyed, and I can’t wait for this to keep going onwards and upwards.”

Matt Jones began with a round of 69 to be tied for 23rd, Marc Leishman, also on debut in the LIV Series, opened with a round of even par 70 to be tied for 31st, while Wade Ormsby is back in 44th place in the 48 player field after a round of 73.

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