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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Author
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 Girls’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 received the Chevron Championship, Ruoning Yin captured the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship, Allisen Corpuz took the U.S. Girls’s Open, and Celine Boutier got here out on high on the Amundi Evian Championship.
4 girls — Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Se Ri Pak — received 17 of the 20 majors from 1999 to 2003. Prior to now 5 seasons, 16 of the 23 majors performed had been captured by first-time main champions.
“I feel it is throughout any tour, any sport,” world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda mentioned. “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 had been 10-plus years in the past.
“I’d say as an entire, clearly there have been a number of that had been very skilled however I’d say everybody takes it very critically now. So yeah, I’d say that, you recognize, it is powerful to win out right here. Yearly, the ladies are getting higher. Yearly there’s youthful ladies popping out dominating. Rose [Zhang] got here out, profitable her first occasion. It is getting powerful. So everytime you win, it feels actually good.”
Boutier’s heater
After profitable the Amundi Evian Championship in her native France on July 30, Boutier captured the Freed Group Girls’s Scottish Open the following week. She is the primary lady to win a significant and the following event since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016.
Boutier has climbed to 3rd within the Girls’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 may 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 works to the participant with the perfect efficiency within the 5 majors.Corpuz, the U.S. Girls’s Open winner, has a 14-point lead within the standings, however Boutier can seize the trophy by profitable at Walton Heath. She will additionally probably overtake Corpuz by ending fourth or higher, relying on the place Corpuz finishes.
“I do know the chances [of winning],” Boutier mentioned. “To be honest, like even profitable two in a row is already fairly low, so I do know three … it will be unbelievable if it occurs. However I am simply not going to place loads 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 in all probability 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 Girls’s Championship and for ninth on the U.S. Girls’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, changing into the primary lady since Beverly Hanson in 1951 to win in her LPGA debut.
Zhang missed the reduce in her AIG Open debut at Carnoustie Golf Hyperlinks in Scotland in 2021. She was the low novice the following yr 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 novice in enjoying these main championships,” Zhang mentioned. “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 very good technique has allowed me to decide to my recreation after I’m on the market enjoying. Little question, it is actually onerous to be on the market, and you recognize that it is a large occasion, however preserving your self in composure and in your stride is one thing that I’ve executed nicely within the final three occasions.”
Zhang, 20, is predicted 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 courses at Stanford in January. She turned the one lady to win two NCAA particular person nationwide championships whereas enjoying for the Cardinal.
“Sure, I will be going again to class in January,” Zhang mentioned. “So I will be again on campus and I will be stacking up courses within the winter quarter. Doubtlessly taking some courses within the spring quarter, after which persevering with on to proceed enjoying golf and enjoying on tour.”
Zhang mentioned she has leaned on former LPGA star Michelle Wie West for recommendation. Wie West attended Stanford whereas enjoying 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 mentioned. “Each of us form 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 undoubtedly impressed by her, along with her skills to each end her teachers in addition to play skilled golf, and it was actually one thing that I used to be slightly 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 principally after I was speaking to my counselors, they pulled up her transcript for me to see what courses she took, which is basically enjoyable to form of see how another person did this, and was profitable in doing so.”
One other new venue
For the fourth time this season, a significant championship is heading to a course for the primary time. The Membership at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, was the positioning of the Chevron Championship in April; Baltusrol Golf Membership in Springfield, New Jersey, hosted the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship in June; and the Girls’s U.S. Open debuted at Pebble Seaside 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 had been previous members, and the venue hosted the 1981 Ryder Cup. It isn’t a conventional seaside hyperlinks course like different Open venues, however there may be loads of hassle as thick purple heather covers a lot of the tough on the Previous Course and New Course.
The AIG Girls’s Open can be performed totally on the Previous Course, apart from the twelfth and thirteenth holes on the New Course.
“After I was out right here, it undoubtedly 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.”
Current 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 form of see extra of the shorter hitters enjoying nicely,” Korda mentioned. “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 powerful out right here with chip pictures out. I’d say the greens are fairly gradual. There’s loads of refined breaks to them however I additionally assume they’ve gotten loads of rain previously two weeks, so it is performed utterly completely different to what it performed perhaps a month in the past.”
Korda’s change
Korda made a stunning driver change earlier than the third spherical of the Evian Championship final month, and it seems like she’ll be hitting her outdated Titleist TSR1 driver once more in England this week.
She signed an attire take care of 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 pictures behind Boutier. It was her greatest end shortly. She missed the reduce on the Cognizant Founders Cup and the Girls’s PGA Championship earlier than tying for sixty fourth on the U.S. Girls’s Open.
“After I first began testing with TaylorMade, they reassured me that they need me to play what I’ll play greatest with, so I have been attempting to form of determine the driving force out, and on the finish of the day, they need me to carry out my greatest, they usually have been an incredible companion,” Korda mentioned.
“They’ve supported me by means of your complete course of, however proper now I am simply going to play with what I performed greatest with and hopefully, you recognize, they’ve some thrilling issues within the work, and I am actually excited for the long run.”
