Earth to Kang, Come In Kang
Danielle Kang hasn’t yet returned to earth.
Two weeks ago, Kang broke through in her 144th start on the LPGA Tour for her first win and along with it her first major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“It’s only been two weeks?” Kang said laughing. “It’s been the most amazing experience. I’ve been on cloud 9 and I’ve been trying to come down from it just so I can focus on this week. It’s been incredible.”
The two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion returns to Trump National Bedminster where she competed in the 2009 U.S. Girls Junior, but remembers more about the gifts she received than the course conditions. She’s played the Old Course twice so far this week in hopes of getting reacquainted with the track.
“I have got to play again tomorrow. You have to have a game plan and I haven’t had a set game plan just yet. It’s difficult for sure,” Kang said.
The newly minted major champion is making her eighth U.S. Women’s Open appearance this week where her best finish came in a tie for 14th in 2012.
Ko Emphasizes Importance of Putting
The key to success at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open Championship will come from a good week with the short stick, according to the world No. 4 Lydia Ko.
Ko, who has registered seven top-10 finishes this season on the LPGA Tour, finished in a tie for third at the event last year and this year and has been working with her coach Gary Gilchrist on speed control in the build up to her sixth U.S. Women’s Open appearance.
“The greens will be the biggest part of this golf course,” said Ko.
“The greens are really big here and just because you’re on the green doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be an easy two-putt or a birdie. So, I think getting the speed right, that’s going to be super important.
“Yesterday we (Ko and her coach) did a lot of speed drills and just getting confident and basically balancing that with some shorter ones.”
Ryu Enjoying World No. 1 Pressure
So Yeon Ryu says she is “living the dream” since becoming the world No. 1 ranked golfer, after she won the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G.
As the only multiple winner on the LPGA Tour this season, Ryu will be looking to maintain that feat and pick up her second major victory of the year after winning the ANA Inspiration earlier this season.
Ryu said: “It’s sort of really fun because this is what I’ve been dreaming of and I’m living the dream right now.
“I think of the biggest lessons I’ve ever learned from my psychologist, Dr. Cho, is just think about what you cannot control and what you can control.
“So, right now I am not thinking about the result which gives me less pressure about the tournament and I really focus on how I’m going to prepare everything.”
Lexi Looking Up
As Lexi Thompson addressed the media on Tuesday at Trump National Bedminster, her mother, Judy, stood in the back of the media center listening to her daughter. Having completed her final radiation treatment on Wednesday for uterine cancer, Judy was free to make the trip to New Jersey to support her daughter in her bid for her second win of 2017.
“It’s definitely been tough. We’ve known kind of since Kingsmill and definitely been a hard hit,” Thompson said about learning of her mother’s diagnosis. “I was trying to focus as much as I could on the golf course but it was tough inside. It was hard not to show that.”
Thompson won that week at Kingsmill and has only once finished outside the top-10 since her victory in May. She’ll carry that momentum into this week’s U.S. Women’s Open, which at the young age of 22, she has competed in for more than a decade.
“It’s pretty crazy to think this is my 11th U.S. Women’s Open. It’s been amazing, ever since I got to play when I was 12-years-old. Quite the experience,” Thompson told the media. “I knew ever since I teed it up there that this is what I wanted to do, play on this Tour.”
Battle of the Best Friends
Two-time U.S. Women’s Open Champion Inbee Park is anything but jealous of her best friend So Yeon Ryu becoming world No.1. If anything, the fact her best friend is the elite female golfer in the world can only be a “very good influence” according to Park.
Park said: “We are actually very lucky to have each other because we are very good influence to each other. I think we both push each other very hard.
“It is always good to have your friend to play well, I think. She had her time where she had to look at me and learn from me and to congratulate me and now I get that time back to kind of give it back to her.
“I really like that and I think it is good. We play practice round quite a lot with each other and try to learn from each other and try to learn maybe course management or course strategy.”
However, Park will be looking to finish above her best friend and the rest of the field this week to pick up her eighth major title and third U.S. Women’s Open title.
Ryu Looking Forward to Test of USGA Setup
At the U.S. Women’s Open, the difference between making an eagle, birdie or a bogey on a given hole can vary from one round to the next and that’s exactly what So Yeon Ryu loves about a USGA setup.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open champion told the media Tuesday. “That’s really exciting about the USGA course setup.”
Patience will be key for Ryu as she navigates the evolving conditions of the Old Course at Trump National Bedminster, which this week will play to 6,732 yards at a par 72. When Ryu won her first major title in 2011 at the U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor, patience was critical as she bounced back from an opening round 74 with three-consecutive rounds of 69 to defeat Hee Kyung Seo in a playoff. Ryu’s win forever changed her life, her victory as a non-member earned her status on the LPGA Tour and saw a lifelong dream realized.
“Since Se Ri won the 1998 U.S. [Women’s] Open, it was always my dream back then to win,” Ryu reminisced. “After I won the U.S. Women’s Open, I feel like all my dedication been paid off. That makes me so happy and definitely changed everything in my life and hopefully I can have another U.S. Women’s Open victory. Let’s see what’s going to change.”
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