One final main championship. One final shot at glory for girls’s skilled golfers this season.
The ultimate main championship of the 2023 season, the AIG Ladies’s Open, tees off Thursday at Walton Heath Golf Membership in Surrey, England.
There have been first-time main championship winners within the first 4 majors this season: Lilia Vu gained the Chevron Championship, Ruoning Yin captured the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship, Allisen Corpuz took the U.S. Ladies’s Open, and Celine Boutier got here out on high on the Amundi Evian Championship.
4 ladies — Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Se Ri Pak — gained 17 of the 20 majors from 1999 to 2003. Prior to now 5 seasons, 16 of the 23 majors performed have been captured by first-time main champions.
“I feel it is throughout any tour, any sport,” world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda stated. “The gamers are simply getting higher. Athletes are simply getting higher. They’ve extra information. They’ve extra instruments to work with, and everyone seems to be far more skilled, I really feel like, than perhaps they have been 10-plus years in the past.
“I’d say as a complete, clearly there have been a number of that have been very skilled however I’d say everybody takes it very severely now. So yeah, I’d say that, you already know, it is robust to win out right here. Yearly, the ladies are getting higher. Yearly there’s youthful ladies popping out dominating. Rose [Zhang] got here out, successful her first occasion. It is getting robust. So everytime you win, it feels actually good.”
Boutier’s heater
After successful the Amundi Evian Championship in her native France on July 30, Boutier captured the Freed Group Ladies’s Scottish Open the subsequent week. She is the primary girl to win a serious and the subsequent event since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016.
Boutier has climbed to 3rd within the Ladies’s World Golf Rankings and leads the Race to the CME Globe and Rolex Participant of the 12 months standings. She’s additionally a slam dunk to be a part of the European group that can play the People within the Solheim Cup, scheduled for Sept. 22-24 at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain.
Boutier has an opportunity to seize the Rolex ANNIKA Main Award, which fits to the participant with one of the best efficiency within the 5 majors.Corpuz, the U.S. Ladies’s Open winner, has a 14-point lead within the standings, however Boutier can seize the trophy by successful at Walton Heath. She will be able to additionally doubtlessly overtake Corpuz by ending fourth or higher, relying on the place Corpuz finishes.
“I do know the percentages [of winning],” Boutier stated. “To be truthful, like even successful two in a row is already fairly low, so I do know three … it might be unbelievable if it occurs. However I am simply not going to place plenty of strain on myself about that. I am truthfully attempting to place some good rounds collectively and see on the finish.”
Zhang’s plans
It most likely should not be a shock that rookie Rose Zhang has already posted three top-10 finishes in her first three majors as a professional. She tied for eighth on the PGA Ladies’s Championship and for ninth on the U.S. Ladies’s Open and the Evian Championship. She is the one participant on the LPGA Tour to complete within the top-ten in every of the previous three majors.
Zhang captured the Mizuho Americas Open on June 4, turning into the primary girl since Beverly Hanson in 1951 to win in her LPGA debut.
Zhang missed the lower in her AIG Open debut at Carnoustie Golf Hyperlinks in Scotland in 2021. She was the low beginner the subsequent 12 months when she tied for twenty eighth at Muirfield in Scotland.
“The final couple years, I have been capable of have considerably of an expertise as an beginner in taking part in these main championships,” Zhang stated. “And I knew how onerous and the way grueling each single week is, so taking that into consideration, ensuring I am getting ready my physique and ensuring that I am going on the market and having a extremely good technique has allowed me to decide to my recreation after I’m on the market taking part in. Little question, it is actually onerous to be on the market, and you already know that it is a massive occasion, however protecting your self in composure and in your stride is one thing that I’ve performed nicely within the final three occasions.”
Zhang, 20, is anticipated to be considered one of U.S. group captain Stacy Lewis’ captain’s picks for the Solheim Cup. Zhang is at present seventeenth in factors, regardless of making solely 5 begins this season.
Zhang informed reporters in England on Tuesday that she plans to return to take lessons at Stanford in January. She turned the one girl to win two NCAA particular person nationwide championships whereas taking part in for the Cardinal.
“Sure, I will be going again to class in January,” Zhang stated. “So I will be again on campus and I will be stacking up lessons within the winter quarter. Doubtlessly taking some lessons within the spring quarter, after which persevering with on to proceed taking part in golf and taking part in on tour.”
Zhang stated she has leaned on former LPGA star Michelle Wie West for recommendation. Wie West attended Stanford whereas taking part in on the LPGA Tour. She by no means competed for the Cardinal however graduated from the college in 2012.
“It is basically what Michelle did,” Zhang stated. “Each of us type of talked about it earlier than and that is how she gave me such nice recommendation on what I need to do in my future. I am positively impressed by her, along with her skills to each end her lecturers in addition to play skilled golf, and it was definitely one thing that I used to be a bit bit iffy about.
“However she informed me it was completely doable, which inspired me to proceed down that path, too. And we each main in communications, so mainly after I was speaking to my counselors, they pulled up her transcript for me to see what lessons she took, which is admittedly enjoyable to type of see how another person did this, and was profitable in doing so.”
One other new venue
For the fourth time this season, a serious championship is heading to a course for the primary time. The Membership at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, was the location of the Chevron Championship in April; Baltusrol Golf Membership in Springfield, New Jersey, hosted the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship in June; and the Ladies’s U.S. Open debuted at Pebble Seashore Golf Membership on the California coast in July.
Walton Heath Golf Membership, about 28 miles southeast of London, opened in 1903. Winston Churchill and King Edward VII have been previous members, and the venue hosted the 1981 Ryder Cup. It isn’t a standard seaside hyperlinks course like different Open venues, however there’s loads of bother as thick purple heather covers a lot of the tough on the Previous Course and New Course.
The AIG Ladies’s Open might be performed totally on the Previous Course, apart from the twelfth and thirteenth holes on the New Course.
“Once I was out right here, it positively was completely different from the earlier British Opens that I’ve performed, Muirfield and Carnoustie, these are very conventional links-style golf programs,” Rose Zhang informed reporters in England. “So after I got here out right here, I used to be nicely conscious of the heather. The heather is gorgeous nevertheless it’s horrible to be in. Not someplace you need to be this week.”
Latest rain has softened the course, which could profit gamers who do not hit it very far off the tee.
“I really feel like each single time I’ve talked about perhaps having a bonus due to size at golf programs, you really type of see extra of the shorter hitters taking part in nicely,” Korda stated. “I feel it is nearly getting the ball within the gap. I imply, they’re used to hitting hybrids into the greens.
“I imply, on the finish of the day, everybody simply has to play their very own recreation and maintain it in play. If you’re not hitting the fairways, it will get fairly robust out right here with chip photographs out. I’d say the greens are fairly sluggish. There’s plenty of delicate breaks to them however I additionally suppose they’ve gotten plenty of rain prior to now two weeks, so it is performed fully completely different to what it performed perhaps a month in the past.”
Korda’s change
Korda made a shocking driver change earlier than the third spherical of the Evian Championship final month, and it feels like she’ll be hitting her outdated Titleist TSR1 driver once more in England this week.
She signed an attire cope with Nike and an tools contract with TaylorMade in January and beforehand hit the TaylorMade Stealth 2 earlier this season.
Korda carded a 7-under 64 within the third spherical and tied for ninth at 5 beneath, 9 photographs behind Boutier. It was her finest end shortly. She missed the lower on the Cognizant Founders Cup and the Ladies’s PGA Championship earlier than tying for sixty fourth on the U.S. Ladies’s Open.
“Once I first began testing with TaylorMade, they reassured me that they need me to play what I’ll play finest with, so I have been attempting to type of determine the driving force out, and on the finish of the day, they need me to carry out my finest, they usually have been an incredible associate,” Korda stated.
“They’ve supported me by way of your complete course of, however proper now I am simply going to play with what I performed finest with and hopefully, you already know, they’ve some thrilling issues within the work, and I am actually excited for the longer term.”
#AIG #Womens #Open #preview #Celine #Boutiers #sizzling #streak #Nelly #Kordas #driver #change