On a blustery day with autumn crackling in the air, historic Aronimink Golf Club was every inch a major championship test. And the brilliant Donald Ross design served up a leaderboard on Thursday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship that sizzled with star power and simmered with stars in waiting.
Eight of the last nine LPGA majors have been captured by players who had never won a major, including Sophia Popov at the AIG Women’s Open in August and Mirim Lee at the ANA Inspiration in September. Looking to join them is Kelly Tan.
But if the 26-year-old from Malaysia is to add her name to that list she’ll have to hold off an impressive group of major winners, including Brittany Lincicome, a new mom who took major titles at the 2009 and 2015 ANA Inspiration. Tan and Lincicome are tied for the first-round lead at three-under-par 67 on a challenging scoring day.
One stroke behind at 68 and also looking for their first major are Carlota Ciganda, Gaby Lopez, Linnea Strom and Cydney Clanton along with Danielle Kang, who won the KPMG Women’s PGA in 2017 and took the first two titles when the LPGA season resumed after the Covid-19 suspension, and Lydia Ko, a two-time major champ.
And then come a bunch of others who also know how to win the big one. At 69 are major winners Anna Nordqvist and Pernilla Lindberg along with Amy Yang, who has 17 top-10 finishes in majors, including four at the KPMG Women‘s PGA, without winning one, and Matilda Castren.
Among a dozen players lurking at even par – three strokes off the lead -- are major champions Lexi Thompson, Georgia Hall, Hinako Shibuno and the queen of major champs in the field – Inbee Park, who thought the players may have seen Aronimink at its most benign on Thursday.
“Ball-striking was really good today, and I just feel like I was hitting to the right spot, giving myself those uphill looks, and made a few nice 20 to 30-footers,” said Tan, who admitted to being inspired by first-time winners like Popov.
“Winning golf tournaments out here is life-changing,” Tan said. “It's very emotional even when I watched them win. I wish I to do that one day.”
Lincicome and husband Dewald Gouws welcomed their first child, Emery, on July 8, 2019. The new mom played the first round as if she’d never been away from the Tour.
“Something finally in my mind kind of switched in Atlantic City after I missed the cut,” Lincicome said about getting back into the swing of things. “I've had so much time off since having Emery and taking time off and COVID. Each week it's just kind of been let's make the cut, let's make the cut, and that's not a way an eight-time winner should play golf.”
With a win at the ShopRite Classic last week, Mel Reid erased the memory of a final-round 74 while taking a lead into Sunday at the Cambia Portland Classic two weeks earlier. This week, Ko has a chance to blot out the memory of a 73 in the final round while playing with the lead at the Marathon Classic two months ago.
The difference is that Reid picked up her first LPGA win at ShopRite. If Ko prevails at the KPMG Women’s PGA it would be her 16th LPGA victory and third major – not bad for a 23-year-old, an age at which Annika Sorenstam had yet to win and all she did was end up with 72 LPGA victories, including 10 majors – three of those at the KPMG Women’s PGA.
“I feel like especially the five-week stretch kind of gave me the confidence and belief that I'm moving in the right direction,” Ko said about the run of tournaments when the Tour returned. “Nice to be able to start with a solid round and hopefully I'll be able to keep the good momentum going for the rest of the week.”
Aronimink, just down the road from Philadelphia, is the latest legendary course to play host to this event since KPMG and the PGA partnered with the LPGA six years ago to elevate a championship first played in 1955. The first KPMG Women’s PGA Championship was at Westchester Country Club outside New York City in 2015 and it was the third consecutive victory in the event by Park, matching Sorenstam in that feat.
A victory by Park, who has 20 LPGA titles, including seven majors, would tie her with Mickey Wright as the only players to win the Women’s PGA four times. Park is a member of an exclusive club of Hall of Fame members with three KPMG Women’s PGA titles – Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan and Se Ri Pak, as well as Sorenstam.
“Even par is not a bad score out there,” Park said. “I think today is going to be the easiest that it's going to play because we are expecting wind, and looking at the scores, like 2- to 3-under par is the best score. I'd say anything under par is going to be pretty good.”
The KPMG Women’s PGA was supposed to be played in June but Covid got in the way. But it’s here now. And the way things unfolded on Thursday, what was supposed to kick off the summer could very well end up being a fall classic.
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