Las Vegas resident Danielle Kang kicked off her week at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards with a 5-under 67 on Wednesday, making one bogey and six birdies in the first round to sit in the mix early at Shadow Creek.
Kang started sluggishly, making bogey on her first hole of the round, but she recovered quickly with a birdie on No. 11 to erase her early mistake. The six-time LPGA Tour winner then got on the par train from holes 11 to 17 before finally breaking through once again with a birdie on the par-5 18th hole to turn in 1-under.
Kang parred holes one and two before picking up a pair of back-to-back birdies on the par-4 3rd and par-5 4th holes, ultimately snagging two more birdies on Nos. 7 and 9 to post a 67, her lowest round of the 2024 LPGA Tour season and her first round of 67 or better on Tour since day three of the 2023 CME Group Tour Championship.
“I played well. I had some really good putts. I executed really good shots, prepared well,” said Kang, who hit 13 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. “I get to be home this week, so I'm really happy to be here. It was actually my second week at home, so I'm really excited about that. Just seeing familiar faces and having my family and friends come out is really fun.”
The 31-year-old has had a leg up on the rest of the 96-player field this week as Shadow Creek is her home club and a venue with which she’s become increasingly familiar over the years. Sometimes playing at a course that you’re supposed to know like the back of your hand puts a lot of pressure on a player, particularly as the home-field advantage is very much a real thing when it comes to golf.
But Kang is instead feeling incredibly at peace surrounded by her family and friends so far this week and will be looking to ride that good energy all the way to the top eight come the conclusion of Friday play in Las Vegas.
“For me, I'm just really happy to be home,” said Kang. “Traveling is the biggest difficulty that I've been facing, and a lot of people have asked why I haven't played a lot. I'm really happy to be home. No matter what happens, it really doesn't matter. I played a really good round today. I know I got some people excited. There was a huge cheer. As long as I made some people happy today, we're good.”
This week marks Kang’s fifth start of the 2024 season, and she’s working hard to kick things into high gear with the major season looming large as The Chevron Championship is set to begin in just two short weeks. She has missed one cut and earned one top-20 finish in her first four tournaments of the season, tying for 20th at the Honda LPGA Thailand, a slow start that doesn’t seem to be bothering the LPGA Tour veteran too much at this early point in the year.
And while she wants to play well at Shadow Creek, especially with a whole host of people rooting her on, Kang isn’t stressing too much about improving upon her tournament-best result of T5 at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. She’s just enjoying the opportunity to hang out with her people and sleep in her own bed this week in Vegas, leaving the golf at the golf course when all is said and done and relishing her time at home.
“Probably nothing since the round is ended,” Kang said in her post-round interview when asked if her closing birdie gives her any momentum. “I have to go work out now. I get to see my trainer, my physio, and I get to go home, plan dinner, go cook, go walk my dog. It is what it is. Whatever happens each round. All I can do is stay in the present and play my game and execute the shots and execute the way I normally do.
“For me, each shot and every hole, every day doesn't really mean as much as it used to. Like who cares? I shot 5-under today, and then end of story, right? Until you get a new story tomorrow. Then you get a new shot tomorrow and then a new play tomorrow.”
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