World #3 Lydia Ko doing homework ahead of this week’s event – image PGA of America
The elite of women’s golf are in Springfield in New Jersey this week for the staging of their second major championship of the 2023 LPGA Tour season, the KPMG PGA Championship at the famed Baltusrol Golf Club.
The event carries prizemoney of U$S9 million with a first place cheque for US$1,350,000, a huge increase on the US$3.8 million on hand when Australia’s Hannah Green became just the third Australian after Jan Stephenson and Karrie Webb to take this title and won US$575,000.
Australasia has a strong representation of nine players, headed in terms of world ranking by New Zealander Lydia Ko who will play her 11th Women’s PGA Championship, three of those resulting in top tens with a best of 2nd behind Brooke Henderson in 2016.
Ko won an event early in the year in Saudi Arabia but for much of the year to date her form has been below that she displayed for much of 2022 and she will need to improve if she is to be a factor this week.
“I haven’t been playing the best golf leading up to this event,” said Ko “But in saying that, I feel like my scores haven’t been the exact reflection of how I’ve been playing.
“Last week I didn’t feel like I played that bad but just a few putts here and there, maybe a few shots, and those are the big differences at the end of the week.
“Hopefully being able to bring all that together, that’s the weird thing and fun thing and frustrating thing about golf is that every day it’s different. Everything is clicking for you one day or that week, and then it may not be the case the week after.
“Hopefully it’s not too far away, and I’m just trying to be positive, especially on a golf course when you know it’s going to be tricky. You just have to be really patient.
“A lot of people are saying it’s tough, but it’s tough for everyone. It’s not just tough for one certain player. It’s going to be fair, and I’m hoping to have a fun week out here at a beautiful golf course.”
West Australian Minjee Lee has fared better in 2023 has also not played her best to date this year, a runner-up finish at the Founders Cup her only to ten in seven starts.
Lee will play her 8th Women’s PGA Championship, her best being when runner-up behind In Gee Chun last year.
Perth’s Hannah Green is one of only three Australians to win this title, her magnificent win in 2019 and her 5th place last year her best finishes in five previous starts.
Three starts ago Green won her third LPGA Tour title in Los Angeles but her form around that has been lacking in consistency. She has shown a capacity to play the big events well, however, and could again do well.
Sydney’s Stephanie Kyriacou just keeps getting better and appears destined for big things on the LPGA Tour after a couple of successful seasons in Europe.
Kyriacou finished 10th in this event last year and was then 7th at the AIG Women’s Open suggesting she does not mind the big stage. She has not exactly been setting the world on fire yet in 2023, but she has the game to go a long way.
NSW’s Grace Kim is in her rookie season on the LPGA Tour and is already making her mark with a win in Hawaii and a 10th place at the Founders Cup. Kim missed the cut in her only previous start in the event last year.
NSW’s Sarah Kemp has played well in patches in 2023 but having missed her last two cuts she arrives at this event with her confidence not at the level it was earlier in the year. This will be Kemp’s 13th start in this event making her the most experienced of the Australasians in that regard.
Having said that, Kemp has only made the cut in four of her previous twelve appearances in the event with a best of 37th.
Victorian, Su Oh, is a much better player than her current standing suggests but she has been forced to play both LPGA Tour and Epson Tour events in 2023 in order to keep continuity. A recent 6th place in an LPGA Tour event suggests she might have found something with her game and let’s hope she can continue to build on that effort.
Victorian, Gabi Ruffels has been in outstanding from on the Epson Tour in 2023 with two wins and one other top ten. She is already assured of graduating to the LPGA Tour next season but gets a chance at the higher level courtesy of her performances on the secondary tour.
Ruffels,a former winner and runner-up in the US women’s Amateur Championship, has already performed well at the elite level with top twenty finishes in three major championships and, with the confidence her success on the Epson Tour has no doubt brought, she might do better again.
Karis Davidson is struggling a little in her second season on the LPGA Tour and gets to play this event for the first occasion. A 17th place three starts ago suggests her game is getting better but it needs to.
