When you become a Rolex First-Time Winner and major champion, then win two more titles within just a few months of each other, the expectation to keep performing at a high level can be difficult to manage. Just ask Jennifer Kupcho, who has seemingly achieved it all in 2022 but is still eager to for more as the season comes to an end. The 25-year-old won The Chevron Championship in March, the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give in June and the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational with partner Lizette Salas in July, but her last several weeks on Tour have been less than ideal by her standards.
“I think it's hard, especially being in the spotlight after getting a lot of attention this year. Coming off a couple bad weeks, it's hard,” said Kupcho, who has missed the cut in each of her last two starts. “Golf is a hard game. It's mental already. Then to not have confidence going into a week is really hard. So really just working with my swing coach, who's also my mental coach, just getting through it and realizing that I've put in the work, that it's going to pay off.”
That work seems to be paying off this week as Kupcho sits just two strokes out of the lead at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G. On Saturday, the American went bogey-free to shoot a 5-under 65, moving to -10 overall after her first-round 67. Kupcho, who hit 11 of 13 greens and 17 of 18 fairways with 31 putts, said it was a combination of solid putting and ball striking that led to her second-round success.
“I'm hitting the ball pretty well this week. I came off a couple rough tournaments, so really just trying to get my confidence going early in the round, and that's what I did,” she said. “It's nice to see the ball going in. I've definitely been trimming the edges a little bit the last couple weeks, so to see them actually fall, and see the hard work that I've been putting in actually pay off, is really nice.”
With 18 holes left at Pinnacle Country Club, Kupcho will vie for her fourth title of the season as well as the fourth win of her career. The last player with four wins in a single season on the LPGA Tour was Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Jin Young Ko in 2021. But, regardless of whether she wins or not, Kupcho said she is happy with the season she’s had, never in her wildest dreams imagining she would achieve what she has already in such a short amount of time.
“It's so hard to win out here, so to get them all so quickly in one season is pretty amazing,” she said. “So I'm just blessed to be out here playing.”
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