{"id":1311614,"date":"2019-06-19T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/women-ready-to-add-to-their-history-at-hazeltine\/"},"modified":"2019-06-19T23:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T05:40:00","slug":"women-ready-to-add-to-their-history-at-hazeltine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/women-ready-to-add-to-their-history-at-hazeltine\/","title":{"rendered":"Women ready to add to their history at Hazeltine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE – In this June 2, 2019, file photo, Jeongeun Lee6, of South Korea, chips to the 16th green during the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament, in Charleston, S.C. Hazeltine has a recent history of shockers, whether it was Rich Beem or Y.E. Yang winning the PGA Championship or the Americans winning the Ryder Cup. Now it hosts the Women’s PGA Championship, a major that is rising to the top with the courses it plays. Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6 will be part of a strong field that features 99 or the 100 on the LPGA money list. (AP Photo\/Steve Helber, File)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

CHASKA, Minn. \u2014 The LPGA Tour gets its crack at Hazeltine National, the course with a recent history of surprising outcomes.<\/p>\n

This is where Rich Beem, a former car stereo salesman, held off a charge by Tiger Woods in the 2002 PGA Championship. It\u2019s where Y.E. Yang became the only player to come from behind and beat Woods in the final round of a major at the 2009 PGA Championship.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s where the Americans actually won a Ryder Cup in 2016.<\/p>\n

Hazeltine also is an example of how much the second-oldest major in women\u2019s golf has risen in stature since the LPGA Tour and PGA of America became partners to stage what is now the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magnitude of this event has gone up so high, and it\u2019s neck and neck with the USGA and U.S. Open,\u201d said Danielle Kang, who won the Women\u2019s PGA two years ago at Olympia Fields, the course south of Chicago where Walter Hagen and Jim Furyk won majors. \u201cIt\u2019s just when you get here and people talk so much about the golf course. \u2018Oh, you\u2019re going to play Hazeltine.\u2019 They talk it up so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s time to play it.<\/p>\n

The field is the strongest of the year for the LPGA, with 99 of the top 100 on the money list. Sung Hyun Park won last year at Kemper Lakes (where Payne Stewart won the PGA Championship in 1989). The PGA of America has set it up at 6,741 yards on the card \u2014 long by LPGA standards \u2014 with plans at least once this week to play the signature 16th hole \u2014 with a green that extends into a lake \u2014 at 240 yards as a reachable par 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s actually harder as a drivable par 4 because you\u2019re putting the water into play a bit more on the right side,\u201d Nelly Korda said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s going to be a really cool hole and see how people play that down the stretch on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the fifth straight year, KPMG staged a women\u2019s leadership summit designed to inspire young women in the corporate world. Among the speakers this year was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, soccer star Mia Hamm and executives from Target and Bank of America.<\/p>\n

It sets up as a big week in a big year for the LPGA Tour, with the Solheim Cup scheduled for Scotland in September.<\/p>\n

And being at Hazeltine makes it feel bigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe name is obviously a big deal, I think more from a fan perspective and the attention of it that the guys have played here and people are familiar with this golf course,\u201d Stacy Lewis said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a property \u2026 you drive here and it feels big, from the clubhouse to the range to the practice areas. It feels like a major championship, and that\u2019s ultimately what we wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

When this LPGA Tour and PGA of America relationship began, the major was taken to Westchester, Sahalee, Olympia Fields and Kemper Lakes, all courses known to the golfing public from men\u2019s majors or big events. Next up is Aronimink and Congressional, two more storied courses that add to the cachet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think like any major championship, it\u2019s going to test everything that you\u2019ve got mentally and physically \u2014 shot making, everything \u2014 especially around here,\u201d said Brooke Henderson, whose victory last week in the LPGA Meijer Classic gave her a record nine LPGA titles by a Canadian.<\/p>\n

Lately, the LPGA majors have been more wide open regardless of where they\u2019re played.<\/p>\n

Ten women have won the last 10 majors dating to Kang\u2019s victory in the Women\u2019s PGA at Olympia Fields. Ko and Henderson are the only multiple winners this season.<\/p>\n

One of them is Jin Young Ko, who is No. 1 in the women\u2019s world ranking and won the first major of the year at the ANA Inspiration. Jeongeun Lee6 \u2014 known as \u201cSix\u201d because she added the numeral as the sixth player on the Korean LPGA with that name \u2014 won her first American title at the U.S. Women\u2019s Open three weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The last time South Koreans won the first three majors of the year was in 2013, when Inbee Park won them all.<\/p>\n

Hazeltine also hosted a pair of U.S. Opens and U.S. Women\u2019s Open, the last one in 1977 when Hollis Stacy beat Nancy Lopez. Inbee Park won the last LPGA major in Minnesota down the road at Interlachen in the 2008 U.S. Women\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

Hazeltine is a different test \u2014 big and mighty, with rough that his lush but playable.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing in here I\u2019m always so excited because the venues are so historic and so many great memories from them from other events,\u201d said Henderson, who won her Women\u2019s PGA at Sahalee, site of Vijay Singh\u2019s first major. \u201cThey\u2019re amazing golf courses. They always play long and I think being one of the longest hitters on the tour that can kind of be an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILE – In this June 2, 2019, file photo, Jeongeun Lee6, of South Korea, chips to the 16th green during the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament, in Charleston, S.C. Hazeltine has a recent history of shockers, whether it was Rich Beem or Y.E. Yang winning the PGA Championship or the Americans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 09:51:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}