Women’s PGA Championship (Golf)

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      Women's PGA Championship: Nelly Korda and Michelle Wie West Have a Big Day

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      On a day when Korda shot a record-tying nine-under-par 63 to take the lead at the Women’s P.G.A. Championship, Wie West made her first cut at a major since 2018.ATLANTA — Michelle Wie West has repeatedly expressed gratitude about returning to the L.P.G.A. Tour in 2021 after chronic wrist injuries sidelined her for the better part of two years. But that doesn’t mean she is satisfied simply teeing it up.Wie West, 31, does not regard this season as one long Brené Brown workshop on courage.When someone said to Wie West this week that it must be great to play unburdened by the expectations that she shouldered as a teenage phenom, her inner warrior heard someone essentially discounting her ability to compete for more titles.“I still carry the same expectations for myself,” said Wie West, whose career goals haven’t fundamentally changed since her 2019 marriage to Jonnie West or the arrival in 2020 of the couple’s first child, a daughter they named Makenna.She remains intent on regaining the form that carried her to five L.P.G.A. tour titles, including the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open. To that end, Wie West saw plenty to smile about on Friday at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.She carded a three-under-par 69 for a 36-hole total of two-over 146 to make her second consecutive cut; the first came at the L.P.G.A. stop at her home course in Daly City, Calif., this month. It was also the first time she had advanced to the weekend in a major since the Women’s P.G.A. Championship in 2018.Nelly Korda made six straight birdies at the end of her round for a nine-under 63 that tied the tournament record and moved her to the top of the leaderboard at 11 under. The first-round leader, Lizette Salas, finished the day one stroke behind Korda, and Céline Boutier of France shot an eight-under 64 that vaulted her into contention at seven under for the tournament.Maria Fassi of Mexico, at three over, just missed the cut, shooting a 77 that included a two-stroke penalty for slow play.With groups routinely waiting to hit at every hole, and with rounds taking upward of five and a half hours, Fassi was bewildered. Like the driver pulled over for speeding on the Florida Turnpike, she wondered: With so many culprits, why target her?“Pretty frustrating,” said Fassi, who added: “Every L.P.G.A. player will tell you that we know who the slow players are, and the rules officials know who they are. And I’m not one of them.”After her first-round 77, Wie West was woebegone.“I was definitely moping,” she said.Then she phoned home to California and spoke with her husband, who had stayed behind with their daughter. As Wie West described it, he delivered a pep talk with a jab. She said he told her to get her head out of her bottom, except he used a coarser word.“So I did,” Wie West said with a laugh.Starting on No. 1, she played the first seven holes in four under to climb back into the tournament.“That was the first time since a really long time where I felt like every hole looked like a birdie hole to me,” Wie West said. “So that was a lot of fun, and I’ll just kind of build on that mojo.”She negotiated the back nine of the Highlands course in 36 strokes, seven better than on Thursday, leading her to laugh and say, “Most improved on the back nine today.”The joy emanating from Wie West this week is in stark contrast to her tearful appearance at this event in 2019. Placing ice bags on her wrists between shots to numb the pain, Wie West shot consecutive rounds in the 80s to miss the cut.After her opening 12-over 84 back then, she was disconsolate about her playing future. Her surgically repaired right hand was not getting better, she said at the time, and there had been so many injuries before that — to her neck, back, hip, knee and ankle — that she had lost faith in her body’s ability to function.“I’m glad we’re not back at Hazeltine, because that would have brought up some memories,” Wie West said Tuesday at a pretournament news conference.Wie West said last year that childbirth had restored her faith in her body’s resilience. By surviving the cut Friday, Wie West erased the scars of Hazeltine.“Very proud of myself for pushing through,” she said, “and hopefully I can shoot low this weekend.”Erik S.Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockWie West carried a crowd of spectators in her wake the first two days, including a woman on Friday who followed her while carrying a sign that read, “Michelle, I love you,” and was impossible for Wie West to miss.“It’s people like that that make me want to play golf and come back,” Wie West said.On the green at the par-5 18th, a baby in the gallery began to fuss, and Wie West immediately thought of her daughter and felt a huge jolt of guilt at being apart from her.“I felt myself tear up, and I was like, ‘Get yourself together,’” Wie West said.On this day, anyway, Wie West’s mind and body were in sync.“I know I’m on borrowed time,” Wie West said Tuesday. “I know that every shot matters to me more than anyone can ever imagine.” More

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      At the P.G.A. Championship, Lizette Salas Finds Her Groove

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      The leader after the opening round of the women’s major said talking about her anxiety had been more helpful than keeping it bottled up, and her game is starting to show it.ATLANTA — After an almost flawless opening round on Thursday at the KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship, Lizette Salas mentioned that she is reading “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.”The young adult novel, written by Erika L. Sánchez, reads like nonfiction to Salas. “I thought it was a biography of myself,” she said.Salas’s bogey-free round of five-under-par 67 at Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands Course was her lowest round ever in a major, and it looked effortless. But then Salas, 31, is so well practiced at performing like a well-oiled machine, no one would know of any issues under her hood.The California-born Salas, who was in the morning wave of players, led after the first round by one stroke over Charley Hull, who started in the afternoon. A stroke behind Hull was a group that included the Canadian Alena Sharp, whose seven one-putts, including a 39-footer for birdie on the penultimate hole of her round of 69, left her hopeful that she had conquered her recent putting yips.“I was feeling it a little bit last year, and then I didn’t really deal with it,” Sharp said. “I thought it would just go away.”But the putting woes persisted, prompting a frustrated Sharp to tear up on the greens at the first women’s major of the year, the ANA Inspiration.“My anxiety was so high at ANA,” said Sharp, who has focused the past two months on rooting herself in the present, instead of worrying about outcomes, by attuning her senses to birdsong and wind and the ground beneath her feet.Alena Sharp hit out of a bunker on No. 9 on Thursday. She bogeyed the par-4 hole.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockSalas said she had experienced anxiety and a general decrease in her mental health since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. During the L.P.G.A. tour’s five-month shutdown, Salas grappled with these existential questions: If she is not a professional golfer, what is she? What is her worth if she is not a Latina of influence on the sporting stage?“I really didn’t like myself in 2020,” said Salas, who added, “It was the accumulation of a lot of other things.”With Los Angeles-area golf courses closed because of coronavirus protocols, Salas settled in with her family. She spent two months home-schooling her nephew, who was in the second grade, and said nothing to her loved ones about her growing anxiety.Her silence, she said, was based on her belief that she had no reason to feel sorry for herself, not when she was surrounded by people who loved her and was succeeding in the career that she had set her sights on in high school.When the L.P.G.A. season resumed last July, Salas dismissed her heightened anxiety as nerves. But as the weeks wore on, she said, “It was so bad that the golf couldn’t help.”Salas made 10 of 12 cuts after the 2020 restart but never finished higher than a tie for 10th at the Women’s Australian Open that February, her lone prepandemic start of the season.“When I saw that I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, it ate me up,” Salas said.She added: “Instead of asking for help, I pretty much shut people out. That was not the right way to do it, and I acknowledge that.”Salas relocated to Dallas last year for a change of scenery, but the move was short-lived. She returned to Los Angeles, confided in her parents, trainer, coach and agent and found great comfort in discussing her mental health struggles.“I also learned when I can ask for help and when is it OK to be vulnerable and uncomfortable,” Salas said. “I just understand myself more, and I’m at a point where I like myself again, even when days aren’t as good as others.”Salas, a one-time L.P.G.A. tour winner, has two top-six showings in her past four starts. In her final tuneup for the Women’s P.G.A. Championship, she posted three sub-70 rounds to finish tied for sixth at the L.P.G.A. stop in Michigan last week.Upon arriving at the interview area on Thursday, the 5-foot-4 Salas waited as the microphone was lowered several inches. She laughed and noted, “It’s really not good for my confidence when they have to lower the microphone stand.”Salas had planned to speak about her mental health earlier in the year. “But I wasn’t ready,” she said, adding: “I’m not going to lie. I’m a little nervous even talking about it now, but it’s OK. And I’m in a much better place. Just happy to be here.” More

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      Women’s P.G.A. Championship Is Last Chance for Olympic Berths

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      This year, as in 2016, golf’s shallow roots in the Games are being exposed by the men’s limited interest. The women are a different story.ATLANTA — As the Olympic rosters for men’s golf were finalized on Tuesday, three top-12 invitees had respectfully sent their regrets. Joining the world No. 2, Dustin Johnson of the United States, who confirmed his decision in March, were the 11th-ranked Tyrrell Hatton of Britain and the 12th-ranked Louis Oosthuizen, the South African who finished second in the past two major tournaments. Oosthuizen said family commitments were partly responsible for his decision to bypass the Games, especially after his recent purchase of an 86-acre horse farm in Ocala, Fla.For Sophia Popov, family considerations explain an enthusiastic embrace of the chance to pursue a pandemic-delayed Olympic gold medal. Popov, 28, who holds dual American and German citizenship, has secured a spot in the 60-player competition, representing Germany and realizing a dream that, for different reasons, eluded her maternal grandmother, her mother and her older brother.“The Olympics is a huge deal for me,” Popov, the reigning Women’s British Open champion, said Wednesday.This year, as in 2016, golf’s shallow roots in the Olympics are being exposed by the men’s limited interest. The women are a different story, fiercely jockeying for spots in the field, which will be finalized after this week’s KPMG Women’s P.G.A. Championship. The top 15 players in the world are eligible for the Olympics, including up to four players from a single country. The rest of the field is filled according to the rankings, with a maximum of two players per nation.Because of the country caps, Popov, the 22nd-ranked player, is set for the Tokyo Games, while Ally Ewing, ranked 18th, is one of several Americans who could, with a victory this week at Atlanta Athletic Club, vault over the fourth U.S. player, Jessica Korda, who is ranked 13th, 10 spots behind her younger sister, Nelly. In between the Korda sisters are the Americans Danielle Kang at No. 6 and Lexi Thompson at No. 7.“It’s going to take good golf this week, but it would obviously be a huge honor,” said Ewing, 28, who won her second L.P.G.A. tour title last month. “I think one of the coolest things for me, aside from being an Olympian, would just be walking beside other Olympians like Allyson Felix and just people I’ve watched on TV for so many years.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Olympics will proceed in a severely stripped-down version, with limited crowds, no international fans and restricted movement between venues for athletes and other members of the Olympic contingent.“I think one of the big things is the experience of the Olympics and what I was able to do won’t be possible for guys this year,” said Rickie Fowler, who competed in the men’s event in 2016, when golf returned to the Games for the first time since 1904. Fowler, speaking Wednesday in a remote news conference from this week’s PGA Tour stop in Connecticut, added, “The Olympics in general are not going to be the same experience.”The women don’t care. They appreciate what the Olympics can deliver: the opportunity to compete in front of the largest global audience in sports.Shanshan Feng won the bronze medal four years ago.Ezra Shaw/Getty Images“I think it was a great chance for us to actually play on the same golf course as the men and just to show the world how good the ladies golfers are,” said Shanshan Feng, the 2016 bronze medalist from China.She added: “I think we should do everything that we can to support the game and ladies golf. I wouldn’t be surprised to see maybe most or even all of the ladies that get in go to Tokyo.”.css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Three weeks after the Olympic men’s golf competition at Kasumigaseki Country Club, roughly 23 miles north of Tokyo, the PGA Tour is scheduled to begin its three-tournament postseason offering a $60 million overall purse. The L.P.G.A.’s total purse for the 2021 season was expected to be $76.5 million.“Those players can retire when they’re finished with their careers,” said Australia’s Hannah Green, the 2019 Women’s P.G.A. champion, referring to her PGA Tour counterparts. But on the L.P.G.A. circuit, she continued, most of the players will retire to motherhood or some other full-time occupation.“That perspective is probably changed, playing for money versus for a medal,” said Green, who added that she would exchange her major title for a gold medal.“I think because it is so rare to get a gold medal — once every four years,” said Green, who added, “I think everyone would notice, not just the golfing world.”Popov grew up loving the Olympics. Her mother, Claudia Schwarzer Popov, was a standout swimmer at Stanford whose Olympic dreams were sidetracked in 1980 because of the U.S.-led boycott, and again in 1984 because of an elbow injury.Claudia’s mother, Sabine Schwarzer, qualified for the United Team of Germany in the high jump at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. But because of an injury and a move to the United States to join her fiancé, she did not compete.Popov’s brother Nicholas, who competed for the University of Arizona, swam in the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials in the 50-meter freestyle but did not advance out of the preliminaries.“He was kind of bummed,” said Popov, adding that her brother traveled to London to watch and to cheer for his friends who did qualify.“The reason I didn’t become a swimmer,” Popov said, “is because of all that heartbreak. My mom was like, ‘I want to teach you guys how to swim, but I wouldn’t be mad if you didn’t become swimmers because it’s a very unrewarding sport.’”Barring unforeseen circumstances, Popov will finally compete in an Olympics, though her family will not travel to Tokyo to share in the experience with her. It’s small consolation, but her mother and brother have joked about getting an Olympic rings tattoo, the must-have status symbol for all qualifiers.They said they would have “brother” or “mother” written underneath the rings, Popov explained with a laugh. “I was like, you can do whatever you want.”She said their experiences had added to her motivation. “I have two other people to represent,” she said, “that I feel like could have been there in the past.” More

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      Lydia Ko Is Winning on the L.P.G.A. Tour Again

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      Sean Foley, who coached Tiger Woods for four years, has helped Ko, a former world No. 1, connect her body with her mind. She’s playing her best golf in years.LOS ANGELES — Lydia Ko of New Zealand was strolling the beach at Santa Monica on Sunday when she said she was bitten by a sea gull that swooped in and stole the sandwich in her hand. All Ko could do was laugh. Her return to the top 10 in the women’s world golf rankings after more than three years of absence has much to do with her making peace with her ability to control only so much when she is in the sand.Or on the fairway.The day before, Ko, a former world No. 1, had ended a three-year title drought at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii, cruising to a seven-stroke victory fueled by her belief that the outcome was largely out of her hands.For Ko, who at 17 became the youngest player, male or female, to reach No. 1 and had 14 L.P.G.A. wins before she turned 20, the expectations had become a burden that she could no longer comfortably shoulder. So she recently decided to release them to the winds of fate, telling herself “the winner’s already chosen.”The mantra has freed her to play the best golf she’s capable of instead of expending all her physical and psychic energies on manufacturing success. The results have made her 2021 feel like 2015. Going into this week’s L.A. Open, the seventh-ranked Ko is 38 under par in her past five competitive rounds and has 16 subpar scores in 20 competitive rounds this year. She had one bogey and 39 birdies in her last 100 holes before Wednesday, when her hot hand went cold in a round where she shot a seven-over-par 78 at Wilshire Country Club. Ko was 14 shots off the pace set by Jessica Korda, who was in her group.Ko and Gaby Lopez, during the final round of the ANA Inspiration in April. Ko finished second at the major tournament.Ringo H.W. Chiu/Associated Press“It takes a little pressure off to think that what’s meant to be is going to happen,” Ko said Tuesday. “At the end of the day, you don’t control your outcome even though you would like to.”Ko, who turns 24 on Saturday, never went away, and yet her presence on the first page of leaderboards this year has the feel of a much beloved show returning after an interminable hiatus. After her Pro-Am on Tuesday, Ko was stopped by every player or caddie she passed as made the serpentine walk through a narrow tunnel and up a hill from the ninth hole to the practice putting green.Everybody had congratulations and kind words for Ko, who has been one of the more popular players on the tour since she burst onto the golf scene like a blast of puppy’s breath.In 2012, as a 15-year-old amateur, Ko became the youngest winner of an L.P.G.A. event, topping a field at the Canadian Women’s Open that included 48 of the top 50 of the year’s leading money winners. She won the event again before turning pro at 16. The L.P.G.A. waived its 18-year-old minimum age restriction to grant her membership and Ko continued her rocket ascent. She won her first event as a professional, won Rookie of the Year honors, and won and won and won.She was so consistent, she made the cut in her first 53 L.P.G.A. events. She was in such command of her game, she had won two majors and an Olympic silver medal before her 20th birthday.But then the unimaginable happened: Ko stopped winning. Not only did the victories dry up, but Ko struggled to advance to the weekend. In the 12 months before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the tour, Ko missed four cuts, including one by seven strokes at the Evian Championship, one of the five women’s golf majors. Ko’s struggles called to mind something JoAnne Carner, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, said in 2012 after watching Ko equal her 1969 feat of winning an L.P.G.A. event as an amateur.Ko at the 2014 United States Women’s Open Championship when she was 17 years old.Doug Mills/The New York Times“They tack a ‘professional’ after your name and all of the sudden you feel like you’re supposed to know everything,” Carner told The Times then. “There’s a lot more pressure and you try so hard and you put so much pressure on yourself.”Ko’s swing went south, but her smile never did, though at times both seemed equally mechanical. During her slump, Ko cycled through a series of swing coaches. One, David Leadbetter, who was fired at the end of 2016, was vocal in his belief that Ko’s biggest impediment to success was her overreliance on her parents. He told anyone who asked that she needed to take control of her career if she wanted to turn around her results.Last year, at the start of the pandemic, Ko made a pivotal phone call to Sean Foley, an instructor based in Orlando, Fla., where she lives, whose clients have included Tiger Woods.“I just felt like my swing was improving but I could do a little better,” said Ko, who began working with Foley during the months when the tour was shut down but the courses in Orlando remained accessible.Foley’s interest in his clients extends beyond the swing plane, and his whole-person philosophy clicked with Ko. More than any adjustment he has made to her swing, Foley has helped Ko sync her mind and her body.He reminded her that she can control only her effort, not the outcome. In the second event after the tour resumed last summer, Ko held a five-stroke lead with six holes to play. She took a one-stroke lead over a charging Danielle Kang into the final hole, a par-5, and made bogey to finish second. Just a bad day at the office, Foley told her. No big deal.Entering the final round in Hawaii with a one-stroke lead over Nelly Korda, whom she had finished second behind at the Gainbridge LPGA in February, she retrieved one final text from Foley before she teed off. It read: Trust and conviction.Ko won in Hawaii with a tournament record 28 under par.Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesShe wrote the words on her yardage book, then went out and played that way, closing with a 65 to clinch her first victory in 1,084 days.“I think that settled some of the doubts I had in myself,” Ko said Tuesday, adding, “I felt pretty calm playing. That’s where I feel like it should be. Like just because I shoot a 68 or 78, that shouldn’t dictate my mood and the way I am around the golf course.”Ko considered the win as much a validation of her parents, and their approach, as of her and her game. “For them to get criticism I thought was unfair because they’re just doing everything they can to wish me to be happier,” she said.Foley’s work with Ko is focused on finding that happiness, win or lose. For all her precocity — perhaps because of it — Ko had skipped over that lesson. She had to learn it the hard way. More