PALOS VERDES ESTATES, Calif. — Major champion Danielle Kang recorded the first member ace of the 2024 LPGA Tour season on Thursday at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, making a hole-in-one on the par-3 11th hole at Palos Verdes Golf Club from 174 yards with her 5-iron.
It’s Kang’s fifth time making a hole-in-one on the LPGA Tour and is her first ace since she holed out on the par-3 8th hole during the final round of the 2022 Honda LPGA Thailand. While it always takes a little bit of luck to make a hole-in-one, the six-time LPGA Tour winner knew she hit it well when the ball left the face, and she was proven correct when the ball found the bottom of the cup, much to her and her groupmates’ surprise.
“It's sometimes luck, but I absolutely pured it,” said Kang. “It was 170 yards I believe. I was trying to play it 160, 165 and let it run up to the hole. I hit my 5-iron exactly where I wanted to hit it, and we all just kind of stared it down, and Andrea (Lee) reacted so cute. She was just like, ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God.’ She screamed.”
It’s the 17th time that Kang has recorded an ace in her lifetime, a number that she has a significant history with throughout the course of her golf career, both as an amateur and as a professional. She won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur at 17 years old with a birdie on the 35th hole of the championship match, which just so happened to be No. 17 at Charlotte Country Club.
As a professional, Kang captured her only major title at the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and then played on her first winning U.S. Solheim Cup Team that same year.
She has also had some eerie coincidences with holes-in-one coming on the 17th day of the month or the 17th hole of a golf course. Even today’s ace is a bit spooky considering she holed out from approximately 170 yards.
“Seventeen is my number. It's my lucky number,” said Kang. “I've had four hole-in-ones on the 17th day. I've had five hole-in-ones on the 17th hole. I've had three holes-in-one in on the 17th hole with a 17 numbered ball. There is so much that has happened with 17 that it's just been my lucky number. And then I've been waiting for my 17 hole-in-one for a while.”
With the ace, CME Group will be making a $20,000 donation on Kang’s behalf to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as part of their CME Group Cares Challenge – Score 1 for St. Jude. The Challenge is a season-long charitable giving program that turns aces into donations with a minimum guaranteed donation of $500,000 to St. Jude's, which is leading the way in how the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and life-threatening diseases.
Kang will have the honor of contributing the second $20,000 donation to the 2024 CME Group Cares Challenge, raising this year's donation total to $40,000, and while today’s hole-in-one was definitely special for a whole host of reasons, she is even more pleased to be able to contribute to childhood cancer research, expressing plenty of gratitude to CME Group for the opportunity.
“I think it's great that CME is donating to good causes and partnering up with the LPGA and making differences in people's lives,” said the LPGA Tour veteran. “It definitely gives us a bit more of an edge to do better and do well. Regardless of whether it's a dollar or a hundred (dollars), no matter however much money, it could change someone's life. I really appreciate them donating that.”
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