STACKHOUSE FEELING CONFIDENT ON THE GREENS
Sunday at the ShopRite LPGA Classic will be a day of at least one first for Mariah Stackhouse. For starters, she will be playing in the final group for the first time in her three-year LPGA career. The 25-year-old American heads into the final round in Galloway, N.J. just one shot back from major champion Jeongeun Lee6.
Stackhouse has averaged 31.5 putts per round in 10 starts this season on the LPGA, but on Friday at Seaview she needed only 27 putts and just 28 on Saturday. This week was only her third made cut of the season, and she said feeling relaxed on the greens has been the difference.
“Putting has been the issue, and right now it's not an issue,” Stackhouse said. “I've been hitting the ball well for at least the last two months or so, which has been extremely frustrating because I've given myself plenty of opportunity and haven't gotten barely a putt to fall. I feel like my score cards for the last few competitions, I might have two or three birdies a round, sometimes none at all, and you just can't do that. So I think that my switch with putting and trying to go into this a little freer this week, instant turnaround, and now, look, my solid ball-striking is finally for a purpose.”
In 2018 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Stackhouse played with eventual champion Annie Park in the second to last group. This week Stackhouse is drawing confidence from her career-best T7 finish at Seaview last year and her memories of what Park was able to accomplish, especially on the greens.
“I watched Annie drain putts from all over that green. So that's what I'm seeing out here this week is I'm putting the best that I've putted all year so far right now, and it's because I'm just seeing Annie dropping them from everywhere last year, so that's good. That's my last memory of this golf course. So it's a good thing to come in with in the back of your mind.”
ACE FOR BRIANNA DO
Despite finishing +4 on a windy Saturday, Brianna Do highlighted her round with an ace on the Bay Course’s par-3 No. 11. After talking with her caddie, Do decided to go with an 8-iron and rolled it in from 164 yards.
“You know, I've been having a tough day the last few days. But you know, I just felt really comfortable with the club we talked about hitting, my caddie and I. It was just a nice, smooth 8-iron,” said Do, who’s ace was her first on the LPGA Tour. “Probably one of the best shots I hit today. The guys up at the green said it took two hops short of the green and then on to the green and then just kind of rolled in. Didn't have to work too hard on that hole.”
All aces in the 2019 LPGA Tour season are recognized via the CME Group Cares Challenge, a charitable giving program that turns aces into donations. CME Group will donate $20,000 for each hole-in-one made on the LPGA Tour in 2019, with a minimum guaranteed donation of $500,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Do’s ace was the 11th of the 2019 LPGA Tour season, raising the year’s total donation to $220,000. This is enough to cover more than half of the treatment for a pediatric patient battling lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer.
“I think it's awesome,” said Do of the CME Group Cares Challenge. “I mean, St. Jude does so much for children and families and everything when they are struggling with health issues, and so I think it's a great cause. For me to help donate in any way, is a small part in a bigger cause.”
WITH A WIN…
Jeongeun Lee6 would become the fifth player in LPGA Tour history to have won the U.S. Women’s Open and the tournament after it: Louise Suggs (1952), Jane Geddes (1986), Se Ri Pak (1998), Meg Mallon (2004)
She would become the second multiple winner of 2019 joining fellow countrywoman Jin Young Ko (Bank of Hope Founders Cup, ANA Inspiration)
Lee6 would become the first player since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016 to become a Rolex First-Time Winner and win the next event; Jutanugarn won her first LPGA Tour title at the 2016 Yokohoma Tire LPGA Classic and proceeded to win the next two events
Mariah Stackhouse would become the first African American winner on the LPGA Tour
Stackhouse, McDonald or Nanna Koerstz Madsen would become the season’s fourth Rolex First-Time Winner, joining Celine Boutier (ISPS Handa Vic Open), Bronte Law (Pure Silk Championship) and Jeongeun Lee6 (U.S. Women’s Open)
QUICK HITS
- New Jersey native Marina Alex had the lowest round of the day at 5-under par 66
- Defending champion Annie Park missed the cut by one stroke
- Players T6 or better represent five different countries: Republic of Korea, U.S., Denmark, Germany, China
- The round two scoring average, 72.21, was over a stroke higher than the round one scoring average of 70.68
- Players made 431 birdies in round two compared to 584 in the first round
- Ariya Jutanugarn led the field on Saturday with seven birdies; she is T30 (-3) heading into the final round
- 74 players made the cut, which fell at even par
PLAYER NOTES
Rolex Rankings No. 5 Jeongeun Lee6 (63-69)
- She hit 10 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, with 32 putts; she finished birdie-eagle
- She has played her last seven competitive rounds under par; her last over-par round was a 1-over 72 in the third round of the Pure Silk Championship
- Lee6 is a 2019 LPGA Tour rookie; she earned her Membership by taking medalist honors at the 2018 LPGA Q Series
- Lee6 became a Rolex First-Time Winner at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open
- This is Lee6's 10th event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; along with her major win she has three additional top-10 finishes and no finish worse than a tie for 26th
- She uses a 6 at the end of her last name as she is the sixth player named Jeongeun Lee6 in KLPGA history; her fan club in Korea is called "Lucky 6"
- Lee6 is also a member of the KLPGA Tour, where she has six career victories
- Lee6 currently leads the Rolex Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year standings with 752 points
Rolex Rankings No. 183 Mariah Stackhouse (66-67)
- She hit 13 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens, with 28 putts
- Her 36-hole 133 ties her career-best mark; she previously recorded 133 at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic and the 2018 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship
- This is Stackhouse’s 11th event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; she has made two cuts with a season-best T55 finish at the LPGA MEDIEHAL Championship
- She is making her third start at the ShopRite LPGA Classic; in 2018 she finished T7, one of three career top-10 finishes
- Finished in a tie for 21st at the 2016 LPGA Qualifying Tournament to earn Priority List Category 17 status for the 2017 LPGA Season
- Graduated from Stanford University in 2016 with a degree in Communication
- A four-time All-American at Stanford who helped lead the Cardinals to the 2015 National Championship
Rolex Rankings No. 74 Ally McDonald (67-67)
- She hit 12 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens, with 28 putts
- Her 36-hole 134 ties her second-best career mark; she recorded a 133 at the 2018 Walmart NW Arkansas the site of her career-best T3 finish
- McDonald is a 2016 LPGA Tour rookie, she has five career-top 10 finishes including two this season
- Her two top-10 finishes in 2019 have both come at major championships, the ANA Inspiration (T6) and the U.S. Women’s Open (T10)
- McDonald is making her third start at the ShopRite LPGA Classic; her previous finishes are T10 in 2018 and T46 in 2017
- Played on the 2014 U.S. Curtis Cup team and was two-time First-Team All-American while at Mississippi State
Rolex Rankings No. 5 Lexi Thompson (64-70)
- She hit 9 of 18 greens and 7 of 14 fairways, with 29 putts
- Thompson is in her eighth season on the LPGA Tour; she is a 10-time LPGA Tour winner, including a major title at the 2014 ANA Inspiration
- This is Thompson’s 10th event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; she’s coming off a season-best runner-up performance at the U.S. Women’s Open
- She is competing in her seventh ShopRite LPGA Classic; her best finish was T5 in 2012; she made her professional debut at this event in 2010
Rolex Rankings No. 136 Nanna Koerstz Madsen (66-68)
- She hit 8 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens, with 31 putts
- This is Madsen’s 10th event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; she finished 13th at the HUGEL-AIR PREMIA LA Open
- Madsen is in her second season on the LPGA Tour; she recorded her career-best runner-up finish as a non-Member at the 2017 ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open where she was a qualifier
- She is competing in her second ShopRite LPGA Classic; she missed the cut in 2018
- Represented Denmark at the 2016 Rio Olympics (T13)
- Three-time winner as a Epson Tour rookie in 2017 where she finished fourth on the money list to earn LPGA membership for the 2018 season
- She won the 2016 Tipsport Golf Masters on the Ladies European Tour
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