The LPGA is traveling northwest from Toledo, Ohio, to Calgary, Alberta, for the CPKC Women’s Open. The 50th edition of this national open has 11 of the top 25 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings ready to compete. Surely national favorite Brooke Henderson headlines the field, but Henderson is not the betting favorite. After two straight top-10 finishes, Haeran Ryu leads the board and will be attempting to secure her second career win in less than 12 months.
Similar to the U.S. Women’s Open, the venue for the CPKC Women’s Open changes every year. Although some sites are repeated, Earl Grey Golf Club is a new course in the half-century history of this championship. Set on the Elbow River, this picturesque setting can subdue you but don’t lose focus because this course will test you with 67 bunkers and five holes where water comes into play. Two of those penalty areas sit greenside on two of the toughest par 4s at the venue: the 11th and 12th holes.
Tournament officials have significantly changed the order of the holes on the scorecard for this championship. For those who have played at Earl Grey Golf Club before or want to do their own research, here’s the tournament routing with the actual hole numbers in parentheses:
- Front nine: 1 (11), 2 (12), 3 (13), 4 (14), 5 (15), 6 (16), 7 (5), 8 (6), 9 (7)
- Back nine: 10 (2), 11 (3), 12 (4), 13 (17), 14 (18), 15 (1), 16 (8), 17 (9), 18 (10)
Founded in 1919 and renovated in 2018, players will experience many traditional elements at this golf course. Tree-lined fairways, elevation changes, and a plethora of doglegs make one consider if the “Elbow” River was part of the inspiration for this awesome layout.
The par-72 course covers 6,856 yards, so length will be an advantage this week. The weather forecast shows temperatures in the low 80s with no rain. A slight breeze will be blowing toward the river out of the west.
Conquering this test for the first time will require a complete effort from tee to green. Megan Khang, Minjee Lee, Ryu and Rose Zhang lead the field in strokes gained tee to green, giving these players an advantage since most everyone in the 156-player field will be playing this course for the very first time. The top 65 and ties will make the weekend to compete for a share of $2.6 million and a first-place prize of $390,000.
Earl Grey Golf Club has the fourth largest green surfaces (6,100 sq/ft) on average these players have seen this season, so simply hitting greens in regulation won’t weed out the pretenders from the contenders in this field.
Instead, compare greens in regulation hit along with proximity. Most weeks, hitting greens in regulation is enough, but as green size expands, it helps to think about proximity. (Minjee) Lee, Mao Saigo and Andrea Lee are players who not only hit the putting surface but typically who knock it close.
Big greens also allow for more players to three-putt. If you analyze strokes gained putting along with putts per GIR, the better players in that comparison ranking do not three-putt. Lilia Vu, Hannah Green and Gabriela Ruffels have an advantage on the field with their flatsticks.
Those approach and putting advantages only increase when you consider this brand-new venue. Take those three traits and begin to build your winning list.
With no course history this week, let’s test our analytics. Can these characteristics help determine the contenders? I believe they can, and that’s what makes this so much fun.
Keith Stewart is an award-winning PGA Professional. He covers the LPGA and PGA TOUR for Golf Digest, SportsGrid, The Sporting News, LPGA, and PGA TOUR. If you are looking to raise your golf acumen and love inside information about the game, check out his weekly newsletter called Read The Line.
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