Thursday & Friday are about a chance; Saturday & Sunday are about a paycheck

Every day at a professional golf tournament has its basis in drama: Thursday and Friday are about making the cut and getting to the weekend to earn a paycheck; once you have cleared that hurdle on Saturday and Sunday it’s all about how big that paycheck will be.

Because make no mistake, professional golfers play the game for the money. Sure, there’s a lot of talk about “the love of the game” and all that – but let’s face it, despite the pressure, the stress, and the uncertainty of life as a professional athlete, getting paid to play golf beats the hell out of selling life insurance, arranging home loans, driving a delivery truck, or doing any of a thousand other mundane jobs that the majority of people do to make their monthly nut.

A few years ago a friend of mine who was retired from a career as a professional golfer interviewed for a position at a golf-related business. When they asked what other job experience she had she paused, and then replied, “ None – all I’ve ever done is play golf.” How many of us wish that we could say the same thing – but how many of us are prepared to deal with the type of pressure that this profession entails?

During his retirement celebration years ago, Joe Montana, a San Francisco 49ers football legend and one of the professional athletes I most admire, was asked by a local newscaster what he felt that his football career had meant to his fans in the Bay Area. His reply: “Entertainment.”

Despite the fact that they play a game for a living, and are essentially entertainers, life as a professional golfer can be a stressful, pressure-packed way to make a living. There is no life-or-death component to it, as there is for medical professionals or public safety professionals, for example, but it is your livelihood, and your success is directly tied to your day-to-day performance in a way that isn’t found in many other professions.

Just ask Albane Valenzuela, the Swiss national and Stanford Women’s golf alumna. She saw her chance at a paycheck this week at the LPGA’s Founders Cup tournament slip away Friday afternoon as two double-bogeys and a pair of bogeys in her final nine holes dropped her from a somewhat precarious position a stroke or two above the even-par cut line to absolutely out of contention at five over par.

Or ask this tournament’s defending champion, Bay Area native Yealimi Noh, who saw her chances of defending her title effectively quashed even earlier, on Thursday, when a terrible run of bogeys and double-bogeys on her back nine dropped her from even-par to seven over, a deficit that she was unable to recover from as she struggled to a two-over 74 in her second round.

In some ways the weekend rounds might entail less pressure than Thursday and Friday rounds, because a paycheck of some kind is assured, but then both pride of accomplishment, and the desire (and/or need) to maximize income come into play. There’s definitely a different vibe around the course on the weekend than on Thursday and Friday, but it is all part of the attraction of the game, the larger dynamic that brings back fans – and golf writers – week after week.

A psycho scorecard and the cut-line dance: Friday at the Founders Cup

When spring rolled in this morning at 7:46 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, three groups of golfers had already teed off from both the 1st and 10th tee boxes at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club. It’s Friday, sometimes referred to as “moving day” – the day in a golf tournament when things get real, and the cut line on the scoreboard is watched with eagle eyes by players, caddies, friends, family, and fans.

If a player had a good day on Thursday, they want to keep it going; if not, they are grittily determined to step up their game and improve their position and climb higher in the standings – especially if their name is sitting below that dreaded line at tee time.

The Cut-line Dance/Moving Day

When play opened this morning six players with Bay Area connections were at or above the cut line: Minjee Lee (winner of the 2012 USGA Girls’ Junior Amateur at Lake Merced Golf Club) at -4; Stanford alumna Aline Krauter at -2; Lydia Ko (part-time SF resident and 3-time winner of the former LPGA event at Lake Merced) and Stanford alumnae Albane Valenzuela and Rose Zhang at -1; Lucy Li of Redwood Shores and Natasha Oon (LPGA rookie and San Jose State alumna) at even par.

After sitting at even par all morning, in the early afternoon the cut line moved to 1-under, dropping Bay Area native Lucy Li and a slipping Aline Krauter from the weekend field, and putting Lydia Ko in a precarious position. An hour or so later the cut line was back to even par; this is the cut-line dance that drives players – and golf writers who are pre-positioning their stories – crazy.

By the end of the day, though, things had changed a bit, and not everyone went home happy.

Minjee Lee balanced six birdies, including a run of four on holes 14 through 16, against four bogeys to card a two-under 70 for a solid T-3 finish on the day.

Natasha Oon posted a psycho scorecard with one double-bogey, five bogeys, seven birdies, and an eagle (that’s right – only four pars) for a two-under 70, moving up 30 spots to T-30 and a chance to play for a paycheck in her first round as an LPGA rookie.

Lucy Li, Lydia Ko, Rose Zhang, and Aline Krauter hung on just above the cut line at even par to survive to play the weekend, while Albane Valenzuela faded in the home stretch – after an even-par 36 going out (two birdies, two bogeys), she came home in 42 with two bogeys and two doubles to fall below the cut line.

Sadly, Concord native Yealimi Noh, the 2018 U.S. Girls Jr Amateur champion at Poppy Hills and the defending champion in this event, suffered a meltdown on the back nine yesterday and finished the first round at 7-over. That scoring hill proved to be a more difficult climb for her than the physical hills on the course – Noh would eventually close out her 36-hole run at a trunk-slamming (1) nine-over, well below the final cut line.

And, as if to justify the “moving day” moniker for the Friday round, here are some big positive moves that were recorded today:

• Jeeno Thitikul and Aditi Ashok each moved up 57 spots to join Nelly Korda and Karis Davidson (25 spots) in the T-3 logjam with Minjee Lee and three other players.

• Miyu Yamashita moved up 49 places on the leaderboard to T-11 (5-under.)

• Germany’s Helen Briem posted the second-best round of the day, a 5-under 67 (an eight-stroke improvement on her first-round 75), to jump a nose-bleeding 79 spots from below the cut line to T-30 and a spot in the field for the weekend.

With more comfortable temperatures in the mid- to high-70s forecast for the weekend it’s reasonable to predict a continued high level of play along the lines of what was seen today – which should be a treat for fans on course and watching from home.

1 (For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, “trunk-slamming” is a somewhat outdated reference to the move of the player who has missed the cut and can be found in the parking lot tossing their golf bag into the trunk of their car for the drive to the airport or the next event.)

LPGA returns to the Bay Area March 19–22 with tournament honoring Tour founders

The LPGA is returning to the Bay Area March 19–22, after an absence of five years with The Founders Cup, a tournament honoring the 13 founding members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.

The 15th edition of this tournament, which is second only to the five majors on the LPGA schedule, has a new sponsor—Sunnyvale-based Fortinet, a leading cybersecurity firm, and a new venue—Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club, in Menlo Park.

Bay Area golf fans have been lacking the spark of the distaff tour since 2021, the last year that the Mediheal LPGA Championship was played at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City. Not only is ladies’ professional golf returning to the area, but a bevy of players with Bay Area connections will be in the field, including Concord native Yealimi Noh, the defending champion in this event.

Noh notched her first win on the LPGA Tour at the 2025 edition of The Founders Cup at Bradenton Country Club in Bradenton, Florida. Bay Area fans may remember her as the winner of the 2018 USGA Girls’ Jr Amateur Championship at Poppy Hills, the home of the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA), in the Del Monte Forest near famed Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Other players in the field who have Bay Area links include Lucy Li, of Redwood Shores, San Jose State standout Natasha Andrea Oon, who is making her first appearance as an LPGA member in this event, and Stanford alumnae Aline Krauter, Albane Valenzuela, and Rose Zhang.

Li came to national attention in 2014 as the youngest player, at age 11, to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open. Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2023, Lucy has notched six career Top 10 finishes and 20 Top 25s. Rose Zhang, who also joined the Tour in 2023, was the 2024 champion in this event, and also put up a W in her first year out, at the 2023 Mizuho Americas Open.

Another notable name in the field that Bay Area golf fans with long memories might recall is Minjee Lee of Perth, Australia, who won the 2012 U.S. Girls Jr. Amateur at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City.

Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club is tucked into a scenic corner of the mid-Peninsula where Sand Hill Road meets I-280. The course plays at around 7,000 yards from the tips; not long by many standards, but it is a strategic course which will challenge the players this coming week with right- and left-hand doglegs, uphill and downhill fairways and wickedly subtle greens.

First-round play opens Thursday, March 19th with 7:25 a.m. tee times. Tickets are available at https://seatgeek.com/fortinet-founders-cup-tickets.