It’s hard to quantify experience as a positive versus a negative. As Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch once noted, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

What you don’t want on the LPGA Tour is small paychecks. The official money list is used to determine the LPGA priority list. With Jennifer Kupcho deferring her membership until after her graduation, she had six tournaments before the 120 player Evian Championship field was finalized.

Kupcho’s largest paycheck before her sixth event of the year was just over $18,000, not nearly in a position to qualify and in danger of being reshuffled downward a category.

But those negative moments can be valuable lessons when similar situations arise again. Her experience paid off for her at the last possible moment it could before the major fields were finalized.

Kupcho was the last player to get into the Evian Championship by the money list on the back of her rookie season best T5 finish at the Marathon Classic, more than doubling her season total up to that point. It was the final event before the field was finalized.

“Coming in from the Marathon and playing so well, it was nice to know that I earned it. I wanted to prove that I should be here.”

She has level of comfort with the course, having played in 2018 at the Palmer Cup where she went 3-1 in four matches. It showed with her consistency at the Evian Resort Course in the opening 18, a five under 66. It’s her lowest round in a major in her career by five shots. Her strategy from that experience is succinct.

“You just got to come out, shoot for the middle of the greens and make your two putts.”

Her two previous majors were experiences in their own right. Kupcho finished (+9) at the U.S. Women’s Open, and missed the cut after a disappointing opening round at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

“From the Open, I realized you can’t really go for pins just because the greens are so hard and they bounce. KPMG, I learned to hit the fairway.”

At the U.S. Women’s Open, Kupcho found 64% of the greens in regulation. Today, she found the green 78% of the time.

She hit half of her fairways in her two rounds at Hazeltine National. That experience was applied well at the Evian Championship, where she found the fairway 77% of the time in the first round.

Kupcho is putting herself in position to get what she wants this week, instead of gaining more experience with her strong play.

Jennifer Kupcho Applies Major Experience to Five Under First Round at Evian Championship

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