Round 4 - So Yeon Ryu wins second Major

April 02, 2017

Since 2014, So Yeon Ryu has been the picture of consistency. She has not missed a cut since June 2014, and she has finished in the top seven of each of her four 2017 events leading into the ANA Inspiration. But on the other hand, 2014 was also the year of her last LPGA victory, when Ryu took home the title at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open. And it has been nearly six years since she won her first major title, the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open.

“I’ve been waiting to win the tournament so long, that this time I was desperate to win the tournament,” said Ryu.

Her wait finally ended today, as she birdied the first playoff hole to win the title over Lexi Thompson and earn the honor of jumping into Poppie’s Pond.

“When you have a 5-foot like champion’s putt, you cannot be really normal. So I shook my hand so much, and then my brain was just going crazy,” said Ryu, who was joined on the jump by her mother (Kywang-Ja Cho), sister (So-Myung Ryu), manager (Sang-Jin Jang) and caddie (Tom Watson). “But I just kept telling myself: Okay, So Yeon, you practice this putt more than a thousand times. Trust yourself and trust what you pick and trust your decision and trust what you’ve been working on, and then I roll it in and I think it falls. That was a pretty nervous moment. But it was a real special moment, as well.”

Thompson handles ruling with grace

During Sunday’s final round, 2014 ANA Inspiration champion Lexi Thompson was alerted in between the 12th and 13th hole that she had been assessed a four-stroke penalty for a rules infraction. That penalty dropped her from a two-stroke lead to a two-stroke deficit. She was able to regroup, refocus and resume her game, ultimately making a birdie on the final hole to force a playoff with So Yeon Ryu.

“I learned a lot about myself and how much fight I do have in me,” said Thompson. “And I don’t know, every day is a learning process, and I wasn’t expecting what happened today but it is what it is. It happens, and I’ll learn from it and hopefully I’ll do better.”

Race to the CME Globe update

With her ANA Inspiration victory, So Yeon Ryu earned 625 points and is projected to move from 2nd to 1st in the Race to CME Globe with 1,425 points.

Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings updates

With her win on Sunday, coupled with her additional four top-7 finishes this season, So Yeon Ryu moved up from No. 3 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings to No. 2.

Lexi Thompson jumped five spots from No. 9 to No. 4 in the Rolex Rankings with her runner-up finish.

With a sixth-place finish on Sunday, Michelle Wie jumped up 30 spots to No. 75 in the new Women’s World Golf Rankings, her first time inside of the top 100 since she was No. 99 on June 27, 2016.

Rolex Annika Major Award update

With her win on Sunday at the ANA Inspiration, So Yeon Ryu takes the early lead for the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award, which honors the player who has the most outstanding major championship record during a current LPGA Tour season. Past RAMA winners include: Michelle Wie (2014), Inbee Park (2015) and Lydia Ko (2016).

CME Group Cares weekend update

Players scored five eagles over the weekend at the 2017 ANA Inspiration, raising $5,000 for charity. This brings the total to 81 eagles on the year, which translates to $81,000 dollars raised.

Quotable

“I never take a cold shower, even after I play like 36 holes or 40 holes, whatever it was. I cannot do it. But I can do that a hundred times.” - So Yeon Ryu, on the feeling of jumping into Poppie’s Pond

Click here for full scores & prize money.

Round 3 - Lexi Thompson leading into final day

April 01, 2017

Lexi Thompson holds the 54-hole lead ahead of a packed leaderboard. Suzann Pettersen lies two shots back at 11-under while Mi Jung Hur, Minjee Lee, Inbee Park and So Yeon Ryu all lie in third place at 10-under.

Quick Hits

• Of the 10 players that are within five shots of the lead, seven are already major champions: Lexi Thompson, Suzann Pettersen, Inbee Park, So Yeon Ryu, Ariya Jutanugarn, Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie.
• At the 2016 ANA Inspiration, Lexi Thompson held the solo lead entering the final round, but a 1-over 73 on Sunday left her in fifth place.
• Lexi Thompson has led or co-led twice after Round 3 at the ANA Inspiration and has won once. Thompson has finished in the top 7 in her last three starts at Mission Hills.
• In the 45-year history of the ANA Invitational, the third-round leader has won the title 26 times, most recently Lexi Thompson’s 2014 title.
• Mi Jung Hur hit 14/18 greens in regulation in the third round en route to posting 7-under 65, the lowest score of the week. It is also her career-low round at the ANA Inspiration.
• Mi Jung Hur cracked the top 10 for the first time in her 31 career rounds (eight starts) at the ANA Inspiration, with her best finish of T14 coming last year.
• With a top-11 finish on Sunday, Michelle Wie is projected to break the top 100 in the Women’s World Golf Rankings for the first time since she was No. 99 on June 27, 2016.
• Michelle Wie has made 12 starts in majors since her win at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, with her best finish being 11th at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open.
• Michelle Wie has now played in five events without missing a cut, finishing inside the top 35 in each of her last four starts. The last time Wie made the cut in more than four consecutive starts was a streak of seven consecutive tournaments to end her 2015 season (made the cut in four consecutive events to end her 2016 season).
• Last week, Mi Jung Hur was second going into Sunday’s final round. She was one stroke back of Mirim Lee at the Kia Classic, and finished the tournament tied for fourth.
• Two of the last three ANA Inspiration titles have been won by Americans (Brittany Lincicome in 2015 and Lexi Thompsonin 2014).
• A total of 15 players have won the ANA Inspiration as their first career major championship.
• Sunday’s winner at the season’s first major championship will take the early lead for the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award, which honors the player who has the most outstanding major championship record during a current LPGA Tour season. Past RAMA winners include Michelle Wie (2014), Inbee Park (2015) and Lydia Ko (2016).

Round 2 - Darkness suspends play, Pettersen in the lead

March 31, 2017

Play was suspended Friday at 7pm with 56 players still on the course. Play will resume at 7:15am to finish the second round.

Suzann Pettersen is in the lead with a 4-under par 68 for round 1 and a 3-under 69 for round 2.

“I played really good. It really hasn't been that long of a day, but I played quite a bit of golf. Just Steady Eddie, just plugging along, hitting good shots, giving myself chances,” Pettersen told LPGA.com

Minjee Lee, Nelly Korda, Inbee Park, Cristie Kerr, Karine Icher and Michelle Wie sit one shot back at 6-under.

Hall-of-Famer doesn't skip a beat

LPGA Tour Hall of Fame inductee Inbee Park hasn’t finished outside of the top 25 on the leaderboard in her four starts since winning Gold at the Rio Olympics. Park became the first player to capture multiple wins at the HSBC Women’s Champions at the beginning of March, and is looking to win her eighth major championship and second ANA Inspiration title this week.

Park said she worried about her health heading into the year after battling back from a left thumb injury that plagued her 2016 season.

“Just being really free of injury and how I was away from the game for a long time,” Park said of her preseason concerns. “So to get the competition feeling again back on the golf course was a worry, but it didn’t take that long.”

Sister, sister

The 2017 LPGA season features two pairs of sisters on Tour - Nelly and Jessica Korda and Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn - and all four are in good position entering the weekend at the ANA Inspiration. Rookie Nelly Korda leads the pack as her back-to-back 69s put her tied for second at six-under, and three strokes ahead of sister Jessica who is T17 (-3).

“I’m like, man, one day, I wish I was as good as her,” Jessica said on seeing Nelly’s name at the top of the leaderboard. “It’s so great. I know all the hard work that she’s put in, too, and I’m so proud to see that it’s paying off and paying off really quickly.”

One stroke separates World No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn and sister Moriya. Just this season, the duo has racked up six top-5 finishes, and heading into the third round of the season’s first major championship, Moriya currently sits at -5 and T8 while Ariya is -4 and T11.

Sister comparison through the first six events of the 2017 season:

Only the strong survive

The five major champions in 2016 all came from the top 40 in the Rolex Rankings.

Last Five Major Champions - 2016 LPGA Tour Season

No player outside the top 37 in the world has won in the past five years at the ANA Inspiration.

Last Five ANA Inspiration Champions

Quick hits

In 11 appearances at the ANA Inspiration, two-time major champion Suzann Pettersen has collected three runner-up finishes, most recently in 2010.

Suzann Pettersen has never held a share of the Round 2 lead at Mission Hills. However, nine of her 15 LPGA titles have come when she’s been a leader/co-leader after the second round.

In four starts this season, Suzann Pettersen has brushed the top 15 just once at the HSBC Women’s Champions, while her last victory was in 2015 at the Manulife LPGA Classic.

Inbee Park has won six major championships since 2011, the most by any player during this time frame. When she won at Mission Hills in 2013, she led the field by one stroke after the second round.

During her amateur career, Nelly Korda played in four major championships, making the cut twice and earning a career-best T59 finish at the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open.

In two starts at the ANA Inspiration, Nelly Korda missed both the cuts with her best 36-hole score coming in 2014 (157). Her -6 (138) score this year is her second-lowest career 36-hole mark.

Nelly Korda is currently in the hunt for the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award. She is 77 points behind Sung Hyun Park who is five under through eight holes in Round 2.

LPGA Tour vet Cristie Kerr has 18 career starts at the ANA Inspiration, with a career-best T2 finish back in 2009.

Cristie Kerr is coming off of her best finish, T4 at the Kia Classic, since she won the 2015 CME Group Tour Championship.

Minjee Lee has shot a second-round 68 in three of her four ANA Inspiration appearances (2014, 2016, 2017) and made the cut each of those three years. In 2015, she shot a second-round 72 en route to missing the cut.

Minjee Lee hit 10 of 14 fairways and made 28 putts in both the first and second rounds.

Moriya Jutanugarn has two top-10 finishes this season and hasn’t finished outside the top 16 in six starts this year.

Sebastian Korda, the 16-year-old brother of 23-year-old Jessica Korda and 18-year-old Nelly Korda, has made it to the quarterfinals as the 10th seed in the International Tennis Federation Junior Circuit’s Easter Bowl Championship at Indian Wells in Rancho Mirage. Their father Petr Korda peaked at No. 2 in the world and won 10 singles titles, including 1998 Australian Open, while mother Regina was on the Czech Republic Olympic tennis team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Play was officially suspended at 7:04 p.m. local time due to darkness, and players were allowed to finish the hole they were on at the time. Round 2 play will resume at 7:15 a.m. local time on Saturday morning. Pairings for Round 3 will be generated following the conclusion of the second round.

Quotable

“Well, the only thing that they say, if we play final round together, in the last group, she going to try to beat me and I say I’m going to try to beat her.”

- Moriya Jutanugarn on the possibility of playing next to her sister, Ariya, in the final group at a tournament.

Round 1 - Play suspended due to high winds

March 30, 2017

Karine Icher started her round ahead of the forecasted winds and finished with a 5-under 67 to take the lead by one shot ahead of

Michelle Wie, So Yeon Ryu, Sung Hyun Park and Eun Jeong Seong (A).

Play was suspended at 4pm local time and will resume Friday morning.

So Yeon, so close

2, T7, T5, T2 – not a bad start to the 2017 season for Rolex Rankings No. 3 So Yeon Ryu. Ryu has finished inside the top-7 in her last seven starts, and owns the longest active cut streak on Tour, 59 events from 2014-present (all-time record is 299 by Jane Blalock).

It’s been three years since the three-time LPGA Tour winner found herself in the winner’s circle, with her most recent victory coming at the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open. In that time span she has collected six runner-up finishes, including two this season.

“I believe my time is coming,” Ryu said after her round Thursday. “I just really trust myself, and I think my game is right there, so I really want to keep enjoying it, and yeah, looking forward to having a fourth title on the LPGA.”

So Yeon Ryu - Record in last seven starts

        Tournament       Finish

2017   Kia Classic          T2

2017 Bank of Hope Founders T5

2017 HSBC Women’s Champions T7

2017 Honda LPGA Thailand 2nd

2016 CME Group Tour Championship 2nd

2016 TOTO JAPAN CLASSIC T3

2016 Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia T5

Wie-zy beats the breeze

In 12 appearances at the Dinah Shore Course, Wie has positioned herself in the runner-up spot after the opening round twice before, most recently in 2014 where she turned in her career-best ANA Inspiration performance and finished as the runner-up.

“I had a lot of fun out there,” Wie said after her opening round four-under 68 playing in the morning wave.

“I played steady,” Wie continued. She was bogey-free until her lone setback on No. 16, but she quickly rallied with a birdie on 17 to finish her day. “I’m really happy the way I positioned myself after day 1. It’s a long way until Sunday, but I’m really happy about the position I’m in right now.”

Success translates in week before ANA

Each of the last five ANA Inspiration winners competed in the Kia Classic the week before and finished 35th or better ahead of their major championship win.

Last Five ANA Inspiration Winners in Event Before (Kia Classic)

Year       Winner              Finish at Kia Classic

2016      Lydia Ko                         Won

2015      Brittany Lincicome            T35

2014      Lexi Thompson                3rd

2013      Inbee Park                       T17

2012      Sun Young Yoo               2nd

Weather Watch

Winds are expected to weaken on Friday, though a few gusts of up to 20-25 mph remain possible through 4:00 p.m. local time. After 4:00 p.m., winds are expected to come down to the 7-14 mph range.

Quick hits

• Karine Icher is the top women’s golfer from France at No. 36 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Icher jumped up 10 spots in the rankings after her T4 finish last week at the Kia Classic.
• Karine Icher represented France in the 2016 Rio Olympics and finished T44. She was joined by fellow countrywomen Gwladys Nocera who finished T39.
• Karine Icher is playing in her 12th career ANA Inspiration and tied her best round in the event on Thursday with her 5-under 67, which she previously shot in the third round in 2012. Icher’s best finish at Mission Hills was T11 in 2015.
• Karine Icher has never won an LPGA event in her 14-year LPGA career. Icher has 43 career top-10 finishes including one this season last week at the Kia Classic (T4), which was her best result since finishing as a runner-up at the 2016 Citi Banamex Lorena Ochoa Invitational Presented by AeroMexico I Delta, one of four runner-up finishes in her career.
• Karine Icher is a 5-time winner on the Ladies European Tour with her most recent win coming at the 2005 Catalonia Ladies Masters.
• Michelle Wie is T2 after Rd. 1 of the ANA Inspiration. The last time she was tied for second after the first round of a tournament was in 2014, which is also the year of her last LPGA win (U.S. Women’s Open).
• Michelle Wie is currently ranked No. 105 in the Women’s World Golf Rankings. The last time she was ranked inside the top 100 was June 27, 2016 when she was No. 99.
• After missing the cut to open the season at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic,Michelle Wie has had a good start to the 2017 season. Her T4 finish at the HSBC Women’s Champions is her best finish since a T3 at the 2014 Blue Bay LPGA.
• So Yeon Ryu currently leads the LPGA in two statistical categories: greens in regulation (85.07%) and scoring average (67.94). With four top-7 finishes she is also the early money list leader with $387,166 in official earnings.
• In seven starts at the ANA Inspiration, So Yeon Ryu has collected three top-20 finishes with a career-best runner-up performance in 2013.
• So Yeon Ryu started the 2017 season ranked No. 9 in the Women’s World Golf Rankings and she has since risen to a career-high No. 3 in the latest rankings.
• 2017 rookie Sung Hyun Park turned in a clean scorecard to continue her hot start to the season. With two top-5 finishes and a T13 finish in three starts this season, she’s the early leader for the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award.
• Amateur Eun Jeong Seong hit a hole-in-one on the par-3 5th hole from 182 yards out with a 6 iron. Seong’s ace is the 22nd in ANA Inspiration history, the first since 2012, becoming the first amateur in tournament history to score a hole-in-one.
• Play was officially suspended for the day at 4:00 p.m. local time due to high winds, with winds sustained at 25 mph with gusts ranging from 30-35 mph. Restart will begin at 7:30 a.m. local time on Friday morning. Play was initially suspended at 3:16 p.m. local time, and players were allowed the option to finish the hole they were on at the time.

Quotable

“Doing algebra II.” - 14-year-old amateur Lucy Li when asked what she’ll be doing tonight after shooting one-under 71 on Thursday’s first round.

Scores

Preview

Ko keeps her head up

Defending ANA Inspiration champion and World No. 1 Lydia Ko has reason to be feeling positive this week returning to the site of her second career major victory where she became the youngest female ever to win two major championships here at the ANA Inspiration (18 years, 11 months, and 9 days). Ko also became the second-youngest golfer (male or female) to two major wins and youngest since Young Tom Morris won the 1869 Open Championship.

“Obviously you know, being the defending champion, there is a little bit of pressure but then at the same time, I think it gave me the confidence to say that I can play well at this course,” Ko told the media on Tuesday.

Adversely, Ko is coming off of a similar situation in attempting to defend a title last week at the Kia Classic. Unfortunately the 19-year-old missed just her second cut in 95 career starts and was unable to play over the weekend in Carlsbad. Yet in typical Lydia fashion, the New Zealander’s glass remains half-full.

“I’m just going to try and erase last week,” Ko stated. “I know that even though I did miss the cut, there were still a lot of positives and you know, the things that we’ve been trying to work on in the off-season, I think they are starting to show a little bit by little and I think those are the confidence boosters and not only just results.”

World No.1 ranking scenario

This week at the ANA Inspiration, Ariya Jutanugarn can pass Lydia Ko and become the No. 1 player in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings if she wins AND Lydia Ko finishes 5th or worse.

Jutanugarn must win for a chance to pass Ko. If Jutanugarn wins, Ko remains No. 1 with a second, third or fourth place finish this week.

Seven months ago, the average points differential between No. 1 and No. 2 in the world was 6.57 points. This week, the difference is now 1.33 average points.

Lewis in the groove

2011 ANA Inspiration winner Stacy Lewis is returning to one of her favorite courses and is off to a fast start in 2017. This season, Lewis already has a third-place finish and recorded her 12th runner-up since her last win on the LPGA Tour at the 2014 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G (25 career runner-up finishes).

At ANA, Lewis has five top-10 finishes in nine career starts including a T5 result in her first-ever appearance, her first career win in 2011 and a runner-up finish in 2015.

“It’s been a really good start to the year,” said Lewis. “I had two kind of close calls already, and played some really solid golf. It’s nice to sit here feel like I’m playing well and not searching for my golf swing and not trying to make things better.

Now it’s just about playing the golf course and shoring up some little things. It’s not looking for a golf swing or a putting stroke. I feel like everything’s there and I’m really excited, because this is one of my favorite courses we play all year.”

Another leap for Lincicome?

Brittany Lincicome enters this week as the only American player that has won on the LPGA Tour in 2017. She cooled off a bit after taking the season-opening Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic shooting 26-under par, but the power-hitting 31-year-old is picking up steam looking to become just the fourth player to reach three wins at the ANA Inspiration alongside Amy Alcott, Betsy King and Annika Sorenstam.

Lincicome, who ranks first on Tour this year in eagles (6) and second in average driving distance (274.05) sounded excited as she talked about unleashing her driver once again on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.

“The tournament last week, I only got to hit three drivers the whole week, and I love hitting my driver,” Lincicome said. “It’s my favorite club. So out here I can hit a fewer drives, which is fun. I think the longer, the better for me personally fits into my game better. It’s obviously narrow this week, so you need to drive it well, and obviously my distance will give me shorter clubs into the tough greens.”

A toast to an all-time great

The World Golf Hall of Fame and the LPGA held a special press conference and celebratory toast for 2017 Inductee Meg Mallon on Tuesday. Mallon was joined by World Golf Hall of Fame President Jack Peter and LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan.

It was announced late last year that Mallon would be enshrined into the World Golf Hall of Fame during the 2017 Induction Ceremony, the week of the Presidents Cup in New York on September 26, alongside Davis Love III, Lorena Ochoa, Ian Woosnam and the late Henry Longhurst. Mallon’s 18-career LPGA Tour victories and four Major Championships are just part of her winning make-up. A member of eight Solheim Cup teams as a player (she was captain in 2013), Mallon was recognized during the LPGA’s 50th Anniversary as one of the LPGA’s top-50 players and teachers. She also earned the Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year award in 1991.

Quick hits

Lydia Ko has spent 75 consecutive weeks as the top player in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Her 94 weeks overall at No. 1 rank third all-time behind Yani Tseng (109 weeks) and Lorena Ochoa (158 weeks).

Lydia Ko has spent 189 consecutive weeks inside the top ten of the Rolex Rankings, the longest current streak of any player.

Lydia Ko needs $510,710 to surpass $8 million in career earnings. Ko currently holds the record as the fastest player to reach $2, $3, $4, $5, $6 and $7 million in career earnings. Yani Tseng currently holds the record as the fastest player to reach $8 million in career earnings at 4 years, 1 month, 4 days (98 events, 2012 RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup).

Before last week’s Kia Classic, the one and only cut that Lydia Ko missed in an LPGA event in her career came at the 2015 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Brittany Lincicome (2009) and Stacy Lewis (2011) are two of 15 players all-time that won their first career major championship at the ANA Inspiration.

There have been six playoffs in the 45-year history of the ANA Inspiration. The last playoff occurred in 2015 when Brittany Lincicome outlasted Stacy Lewis on the third hole of sudden death in the longest playoff in the event’s history.

Stacy Lewis (2nd, 347.5 points) and Brittany Lincicome (8th, 177 points) are both in contention to compete in the 2017 Solheim Cup. The top-8 U.S. Solheim Cup Points earners automatically earn a spot on Team USA. Lewis has appeared in three Solheim Cups for the U.S. in her career and Lincicome is a five-time U.S. Solheim Cup team member.