Two weeks later, In Gee Chun’s opening round at Congressional Country Club still doesn’t seem real.
On a day where the field scoring average was north of 75.3, Chun beat that number by more than 11 strokes, carding 64. Over the previous decade, no player at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship had beat the field average by more than 9.52 shots in a single round. Chun nearly bettered that by two.
Chun carried a five-shot advantage into the second round, tying Mickey Wright in 1961 for largest 18-hole advantage in the championship’s history. Despite a pair of 75s on the weekend, Chun became the fourth player in tournament history to lead outright after all four rounds, and the third woman from South Korea to win three or more majors.
Following next week’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, the LPGA Tour shifts across the Atlantic for four consecutive significant events in Europe. Among them, a pair of major championships: the Amundi Evian Championship beginning July 21 in France, and the AIG Women’s Open two weeks later at historic Muirfield.
Let’s take a look back at the key numbers from Congressional, then dive into what we can expect as we hit the accelerator deep into the summer schedule.
Conquering Congressional
The numbers behind Chun’s thunderous Thursday get more ridiculous the further you dive in. She hit every fairway and missed only three greens in regulation, racking up 6.65 strokes gained tee-to-green – a full shot more than any other player on the course that day. She gained an even more ridiculous 6.82 strokes with her approach play, nearly two full strokes more than any other player in any round all week at Congressional.In all, her strokes gained against the field in round one accounted for an enormous percentage of her totals for the week. 68% of her strokes gained approach for the tournament came on Thursday, while 72% of her strokes gained tee to green happened in round one.
Chun wasn’t just excellent with her full swings on day one – she was red hot on the greens, as well, needing a mere 25 putts for the day. Chun gained 4.37 strokes on the field on the greens in round one, the second-highest total of any player in the field. Only Agathe Laisne (5.55 strokes gained putting) had more. The brilliance of Chun’s performance through two rounds carrying the water for a tougher weekend showing are most present when analyzing her putting numbers: Through two rounds, Chun gained 7.06 strokes on the field putting. On the weekend, she had -3.02 strokes gained on the greens.
Her brilliant play through two days gave her the cushion needed for the weekend fight against Congressional. As her closing 75 was the highest final round score by a major championship winner since Inbee Park in this same championship nine years prior. Park carded a closing 75 at Locust Hill before beating Catriona Matthew in a playoff. It would be Park’s first of three consecutive KPMG Women’s PGA Championship victories.
Numbers to Know from D.C.
*Minjee Lee led the field at Congressional in strokes gained approach, something she’s quite familiar with on the LPGA Tour in 2022. For the week, she gained 11.98 strokes with her approach shots, about seven-tenths of a stroke more than Lauren Coughlin, who wound up in second place in the statistic. For the season, Lee is averaging 2.68 strokes gained approach per round, the highest rate of any player on the LPGA Tour. Second-best? In Gee Chun.*Hannah Green led the field in strokes gained putting at Congressional, racking up multiple strokes on the field in that statistic in each of the first three rounds. Stephanie Meadow and Atthaya Thitikul rounded out the top-three in that stat for the championship. Green finished tied for fifth on the final leaderboard, her second top-10 finish in a major championship in 2022. She tied for eighth at The Chevron Championship earlier this season in California.
*The field leader in strokes gained off the tee for the week at Congressional was Bianca Pagdanganan, who gained more than five and half strokes on the field with tee shots for the championship. Lexi Thompson wound up fourth for the week, one of just four players to average a full stroke gained or more per round off-the-tee over the course of the full 72 holes. Thompson’s runner-up finish was her fourth in the majors since 2015, the most of any player in that span.
Looking Ahead to the Amundi Evian Championship
*At last summer’s Amundi Evian Championship, Minjee Lee’s putter heated up as the week progressed. After losing 1.37 strokes to the field on the greens in her opening round 68, Lee gained more than six-and-a-half strokes putting over the final three days combined. That culminated in a final round 64 where she was seven-for-eight putting from 5-to-10 feet away.| Minjee Lee - Strokes Gained Putting by Round | |
|---|---|
| 2021 Amundi Evian Championship | |
| Round 1 | -1.37 |
| Round 2 | +1.60 |
| Round 3 | +2.02 |
| Round 4 | +2.91 |
Lee’s strokes gained profile in her Amundi Evian win was relatively balanced: she gained 35.1% of her strokes against the field with her approach play, and 30.1 percent putting. Compare that to her U.S. Women’s Open victory in June, where her scorching-hot putter gained 42.2 percent of her strokes, and approach play accounted for 33.8%.
Lee will undoubtedly be one of the favorites in France, and not just because she’s the defending champion. Over her last five major championship starts, Lee has not finished worse than 12th, racking up four top-five finishes and a combined score to par of 52-under.
*Jeongeun Lee6 suffered playoff heartbreak at the hands of Lee last year at Evian Resort Golf Club, but her resume in the event lends optimism to her hopes for a win this year. In three career starts, she’s finished tied for sixth and second. Her career scoring average of 68.5 is the best of any player with 10 or more rounds played since the Amundi Evian Championship became a major nine years ago.
*In eight career starts at the Amundi Evian Championship, Lydia Ko has finished outside the top-10- just twice. Ko is a combined 46-under-par at the event since 2013, the best cumulative score of any player. Ko has been the best putter on the LPGA Tour this season: At 1.45 strokes gained putting per round, she’s averaging more than two-tenths of a stroke more than any other player in 2022. If you’re into more traditional numbers, she’s ranked T4 on the tour this season in putts per green in regulation.
*Evian Resort Golf Club typically yields the lowest scores of any major championship venue in women’s golf. Since 2013, the average winning score to par there is 14-under, the lowest among the five major championships in that span. Second-lowest in that stretch is the Chevron Championship, at 13.6 strokes under par. Since this tournament became a major in 2013, there has only been one instance where single digits under par has won – that was in 2017, when the event was shortened to 54 holes due to weather.
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