SAMMAMISH, Wash. – Any player expecting a warm greeting from Sahalee Country Club this week was hit with a bucket of ice water over their heads as they walked through the door. One by one, Sahalee – with its narrow fairways and greens that grow firmer by the day – spits out the best players in the world, doing so with the affection one receives from a pig’s hug.
Despite its stunning beauty, the (ITAL)Sa-hallway,(END ITAL) as some players call it, can back up and punch like Mike Tyson. Few made it through nature’s tortuous maze unscathed in the second round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on Friday. We could be in for a weekend of wear and tear.
Your KPMG co-leaders after 36 holes are Sarah Schmelzel, a slightly built golfer from Arizona who has yet to win on the LPGA, and Amy Yang, a more accomplished LPGA veteran from Korea who has not had a top-20 finish this season. . They both played amazing golf – Yang was bogey-free – and if she keeps winning, she’ll have earned every inch of it.
Schmelzel somehow found six birdies in the morning on Friday, including birdies on her final two holes (17 and 18), shot a day-best 5-under 67 and was the first to post a 6-under 138.
Yang, in her 17th LPGA season, was last year’s winner of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Florida.
Young, in the day’s second-to-last group, shot a solid 68. One shot with one hole to play, Young lay well short of the green, then chipped a wedge to hit the par at the -5 18th to get a share of the lead.
Three players sit two shots back, including former world No. 1 Jin Yang Ko of Korea (68). Lexi Thompson, who is 29 years old, plans to make the 2024 season her last as a full-time player. and the Japanese Hinako Shibuno. Thompson shot a 72. Shibuno, a former British Open women’s champion dubbed “the smiling Cinderella,” shot her second straight 70.
Thompson, seeking her second major title and first in a decade, played her first nine in 33 shots to get to 7 under but encountered a double and two bogeys. She was ready for a good fight and was encouraged by her position heading into the weekend. She hasn’t won on the LPGA in five years.
“Honestly, even par is a great score out here,” said Thompson, who fell just short of a playoff a week ago at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give. “I had a great front nine and it had some hiccups on the back nine, but it happens out there. He also made a lot of good saves, so we’ll really build on that.”
Perhaps most concerning in Friday’s action was the unexpectedly poor performance of world No. 1 Nelly Korda, already a six-time champion in 2024. Korda, 25, began the day tied for second at 3 under, trailing by Thompson for a shot. On Friday afternoon, he headed into the final few holes sitting right on the cutline, trying to avoid missing the cut for a third straight start.
By the time her second shot landed millimeters out of bounds at the par-4 15th, where she made double, Korda was in deep trouble and unable to recover. Korda opened the round with four straight bogeys to leave quick reds – she missed 3-footers on Nos. 2 and 4 – and shot a 42 on the front nine. Heading for her first birdie-free round since the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, Korda rose from a greenside bunker on the par-5 18th for her lone birdie and a round of 81. It left her at 6-over 150, one shot over from cutting. It was the first time in her career that Korda has missed three consecutive cuts.
“It’s just golf for me lately,” said a tearful Korda. “There are no words for how I’m playing right now. I’m just going to go home and try to bounce back.”
Schmelzel, 30, who earned an LPGA Tour membership in the inaugural LPGA Q-Series in 2018 but has yet to taste victory in this, her sixth LPGA season, knew she could play some serious golf – she had to just to see it. It had been a while.
After a hot start to 2024, Schmelzel has missed the cut in five of her last seven starts. Trainer Chris Mayson, who began working with Schmelzel last offseason, had some simple but impressive words for her as Schmelzel prepared to head to Seattle this week.
“I was kind of in that ‘perfection’ mindset,” Schmelzel said, “like, ‘What do I need to play well?’ He said, “You’re going to play well. Relax and it will happen. And believe it.”
Oh yes. Faith. It is a key ingredient in the mix. Schmelzel looked poised for a magical LPGA season in the early days of the year, finishing T8 in three different starts to post a career-best runner-up finish at the Blue Bay LPGA in China.
Schmelzel said she has relied on the team around her to remind her that golf is all about the process. it is not, and never will be, about trying to be perfect.
“They’ve been amazing in helping me keep working on the right things and encouraging me,” Schmelzel said. “I think they said it enough that I started to believe it.”
Schmelzel competed in gymnastics as a junior, a state high bar champion in Arizona, but her athletic direction would take a completely different path when her father showed up to dismiss her from school early to attend something special that was happening in her family. homework, Moon Valley.
It was 2001, and Annika Sorenstam was in the midst of shooting 59 that day, a record score that has never been met in women’s golf.
“I don’t remember much about it, other than the atmosphere,” Schmelzel said Friday. “But from that point on, I went to Moon Valley every year.”
She took up golf at age 5 and this week continues to pursue a dream. Schmelzel is 36 holes away from not only being an LPGA winner, but also a major champion. Obstacle: Amy Yang’s experience and a place called Sahalee.
Schmelzel will have her hands full. The good news; She is hardly alone.