OT: Starts Thursday: U.S. Women's Open leaderboard...interesting names!

[Blakeon18]

BMW Ladies Championship 2024 - LPGA Golf Leaderboard | ESPN

Visit ESPN to view the BMW Ladies Championship Golf leaderboard from the LPGA tour

www.espn.com

One of the 5 majors on the LPGA tour...by common wisdom the 'Most' major of the 5.
TV schedule:
Thursday USA 3-8
Friday USA 3-8
Saturday USA 1-3 NBC 3-6
Sunday USA 1-3 NBC 3-7

Nelly Korda is playing....she has been out 3-4 months with a blood clot in her arm. Current world #2 even with that absence.
Hope she isn't pushing it...only 23 years old.

Michelle West Wie: seems to be seriously moving on from golf career..at 31. She'll play here and in next year's
U.S. Open at Pebble Beach...zero other committments...some injuries/a baby factors?
She is married to the son of Jerry West...THE Jerry West.

Annika Sorenstam...around 50[?] ...rarely rarely plays a tour event...does play occasional 'silly season' events.
Basically retired from the tour. In contention on Sunday would move the TV needle...as would Nelly or Michelle.

Winner? A player Asian-based...or a player from the rest of the world including the USA [?]...a wager on the winner being Asian is a good bet.

 

[eebmg]

BMW Ladies Championship 2024 - LPGA Golf Leaderboard | ESPN

Visit ESPN to view the BMW Ladies Championship Golf leaderboard from the LPGA tour

www.espn.com

One of the 5 majors on the LPGA tour...by common wisdom the 'Most' major of the 5.
TV schedule:
Thursday USA 3-8
Friday USA 3-8
Saturday USA 1-3 NBC 3-6
Sunday USA 1-3 NBC 3-7

Nelly Korda is playing....she has been out 3-4 months with a blood clot in her arm. Current world #2 even with that absence.
Hope she isn't pushing it...only 23 years old.

Michelle West Wie: seems to be seriously moving on from golf career..at 31. She'll play here and in next year's
U.S. Open at Pebble Beach...zero other committments...some injuries/a baby factors?
She is married to the son of Jerry West...THE Jerry West.

Annika Sorenstam...around 50[?] ...rarely rarely plays a tour event...does play occasional 'silly season' events.
Basically retired from the tour. In contention on Sunday would move the TV needle...as would Nelly or Michelle.

Winner? A player Asian-based...or a player from the rest of the world including the USA [?]...a wager on the winner being Asian is a good bet.

Besides Korda who I understand is not going to do much off her injury, are there any other American Golfers with a chance to make a run?

 

[Blakeon18]

If I had to pick an American it would be Lexi Thompson. She has won quite a few tournaments including one major.
A looong hitter...putting has been a consistent issue. Open greens tend to be fast...putt well and she will be playing late Sunday.

Note: in 2008 Lexi won the USA17U amateur event at the Hartford Golf Club at 13 years of age. I got to see her play several matches. She was reputed to be The Next One. She is still in her prime...has had a very good career so far...
needs a few more major wins to up her resume. Very popular with fans...her length does provide some sizzle for the tour...much needed.

 

[The deacon]

If I had to pick an American it would be Lexi Thompson. She has won quite a few tournaments including one major.
A looong hitter...putting has been a consistent issue. Open greens tend to be fast...putt well and she will be playing late Sunday.

Note: in 2008 Lexi won the USA17U amateur event at the Hartford Golf Club at 13 years of age. I got to see her play several matches. She was reputed to be The Next One. She is still in her prime...has had a very good career so far...
needs a few more major wins to up her resume. Very popular with fans...her length does provide some sizzle for the tour...much needed.

Your opening appraisal was well done, Blake, and I'd agree Lexi is most likely among Americans to contend. I don't know what Nelly's condition is, but it does seem unusual to come back after such a lengthy absence right into the cauldron of a U.S. Open.

I'd love to see Annika play well... I got to see her play at Brooklawn in Fairfield CT, a course I had competed on back in my halcyon golf days, and she romped to victory. That course was markedly shorter than what she'll face this week, even though she did win the US Open at Pine Needles back in '96!

As for other possible American contenders, I'll play the Deacon card and suggest Wake grad Jennifer Kupcho could be a threat if she putts even close to as well as she did at Mission Hills a a couple of months ago.

Looking forward to it. Thank goodness for golf to get me through the Huskies' off-season.

By the way, there are lots of hours of coverage on Peacock for those with subscriptions.

 

[Blakeon18]

Kupcho indeed! I wouldn't mind having stock in her future.

Outlier/sleeper:

Asian American Rose Zhang.
Just 19...world amateur #1. Just led Stanford to NCAA championship...has won a ton of amateur and college events.
I asked a friend who saw her play quite a bit in the NCAA's and he said she was 'money'.
I saw a bit of her interview yesterday...very poised and delightful.
Interesting: she said was coming back for her soph year at Stanford [and maybe beyond that] in part due to NIL.
Apparently she is the first college golfer to sign with Adidas and that money influenced her decision to not turn pro now
after her frosh year.

Much moreso in the women's game it is not unusual for teens to be competitive on the LPGA tour.

 

[Blakeon18]

LPGA Tour

Get all the most recent LPGA news, videos, air times, injury updates, and more - NBC Sports | Golf Channel

www.golfchannel.com

This is a much better link to the leaderboard. It contains all the scores.
Solid start for Sorenstam at even par thru 11.
Lexi tied for the lead at 3 under midway in her round.

 

[eebmg]

Hmm. Amateur Linblad leading the 1st round -6 under 65.

 

[Blakeon18]

Yikes!

Late push by Mina Harigae...leads at 7 under 64/
Swedish Amateur Lindblad second with 65...lowest score ever by an amateur in this event.

Nelly Korda with 70...nice round considering her absence.

Wie West with 73
Annika with 74.
'sleeper amateur' Zhang with 72.
Lexi Thompson in with 68...in good shape.

A ton of low scores. I doubt the USGA wants a birdie-fest at their most prestigious
event. Tougher pin placements today?

 

[Blakeon18]

Bits and pieces after 36 holes.

Tied for first at 9 under
Harigae and Minjee Lee. Nice follow-up for Harigae with a 69 after her 64.
Minjee Lee is the real deal.
Nice follow-up from the amateur Lindblad after her 65...a 71...6 under still in the mix.
Lexi at 3 under.
The 'sleeper' from above....72-71...one over...makes the cut....Rose Zhang 19 year old amateur.
Nelly Korda...70-69...3 under...rust?...not so much.
Lydia Ko at 6 under...dangerous.

Whoops:

Wie Westz misses the cut...73-74.
Sorenstam misses cut....74-81.
The 81 a shocker. I would think this would either
1: make Annika mad and lead her to more attentiion to her game for a major soon down the road.
2: make it unlikely at 50 that she will play in any future LPGA event.

Board trivia here: Olde Coach was an excellent amateur golfer and somehow got to know Annika a bit in his Florida days.
Annika very much enjoys skiing.

Olde Coach...a world class ski coach...gave her some skiing tips and Annika responded with some golf tips.

 

[Blakeon18]

My bad...I had the wrong KO.
Jin Young Ko is at 6 under...not Lydia. Yes...Jin is 'dangerous' too for sure...she is current #1 in the world.

 

[Blakeon18]

After 54 holes the rest of the field with one exception needs help from the leader Minjee Lee.
Lee is at 13 under...Mina Harigae at 10 under and everybody else is at 7 under or below that.
There a lot of wonderful players at 6 and 7 under but Minjee realistically would have to be over par today for them
to have a shot at the win. I'm hoping for a tight leaderboard on the back nine but if I had to bet it would be Minjee...a young vet with several wins including a major...with a relative walk in the park. Hey..Mina had a 7 under in the first round...toss that score at Minjee today and it well might be her first ever win...much less her first major win.

Minjee: 67-66-67 200
Mina: 64-69-70.......203.

 

[Blakeon18]

Minjee Lee did in fact take a walk in the park...finished 4 up on second place Harigae...never really threatened.
She gets 1.8 million...biggest winning check ever on the LPGA tour...out of biggest purse ever...around 10m.
Toughest conditions of the week...very very few at par or under on Sunday. Lee had even par 71.

Tied for 8th: Nelly Korda...nice job by her considering absence....finished 2 under. Was 7 under late in the third round...maybe got tired?

U.S. Men's Open coming up in 2 weeks at The Country Club near Boston.
A bubbling issue on the PGA tour is the new Saudi tour with huge bucks to offer in prize money
and appearance money and the PGA taking a 'firm stand' against it...'bully pulpit' has been suggested as a better
characterization.



They have issued declarations of fines/suspensions/outright bans for anyone playing in a Saudi event...several of which are in the USA
opposite PGA events the same week.

Uhhh...betting that lawyers are ready to tee it up.