Wire-to-wire: Hyo Joo Kim brings home the ultimate win at 2026 LPGA Fortinet Founders Cup

“Wire-to-wire” – the phrase denotes the ultimate victory, in which a competitor takes the lead from the starting gun and never relinquishes it, leading the field from start to finish. A wire-to-wire win is what Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim was chasing in Sunday’s final round of the LPGA’s Fortinet Founders Cup tournament – and it’s what she ultimately got, but not without a fight.

Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim went wire-to-wire to win the 2026 LPGA Fortinet Founders Cup tournament at Sharon Heights G&CC in Menlo Park, California (photo credit: LPGA, Getty)

Kim served notice on the 144-player field on Day 1 when she opened with a 9-under 63 on the par-72 Sharon Heights course. Only a handful of players were within five or even six shots of her first-round tally, and though she fell off of her pace slightly on Friday with a two-under 70, her third-round 66 kept her firmly in control of the lead going into the final round.

It wasn’t as if she went unchallenged, though. Current World No. 2 Nelly Korda stepped up her game in even 2-stroke increments over the first three days of the event, carding rounds of 70-68-66–204 on her way to solo second at the end of the third round, five strokes back of Kim’s 17-under 199.

It is in the normal order of things in a golf tournament for players to move up and fall back through the opening rounds, with everyone working to put themselves into position to either be defending a lead, or challenging for a lead, on Sunday. At this level, rounds in the mid- to high-60s are common, and to be in contention for the win on Sunday certainly three rounds of par or better is almost a iron-clad requirement.

Of the top 13 players coming into the final round today, none had carded a round lower than par, and the majority of their rounds were in the range from 68 to 70.

Kim’s first-round 63 was boosted by a remarkable 22 putts, the lowest total of the round and the tournament overall through three rounds – an impressive feat anywhere, but especially on the remarkably subtle (if not downright devious…) greens at Sharon Heights.

Several players had been making moves before Kim and Korda stepped onto the first tee box, but all of those moves were background noise to the main attraction: World # 2 Nelly Korda chasing down H.J. Kim and her five-stroke lead.

Korda slipped a bit with a bogey on the par-4 second hole, but followed it up with birdies on five of the next seven holes, making the turn in 32 and closing to within a stroke of Kim, who could manage no better than an even-par 36 with offsetting pairs of bogeys (holes 2 and 8) and birdies (holes 6 and 7.)

After the turn, Korda tied it up with a birdie on the 10th hole to Kim’s par, but the Korean got the lead back with a birdie at 11 after Korda made a clutch par putt after wedging it close from the front-right greenside bunker.

It was a seesaw battle over the remainder of the back nine, but Korda seemed to have lost the edge that had allowed her to make up a five-stroke deficit earlier in the round. The most crucial moments were her missed birdie putt on 16 after Kim left her par putt well short and pulled a shortie for par, and then a weak birdie-putt effort on 17 which fell well short, followed by a spectacularly poor par putt that slid by on the right.

At the final hole both players took on the right-side fairway bunker on the scenic uphill par-five, and both fell short, in the sand. Korda had better position, further back and away from the lip, so was able to advance her second shot farther, and had a wedge into the final green, while Kim, at 194 yards out, pulled a 4-hybrid for her approach.

Kim found sand again with her third shot, this time in a left-side greenside bunker – her first greenside bunker of the tournament – and then fired a nicely played wedge shot, relatively low and running, to about six feet past the hole.

Korda, in the meantime, even with a wedge in her hands from less than 100 yards, flew her approach well past the hole and didn’t get the roll-back that she was hoping for. When she failed to make the 30-odd foot birdie putt she effectively handed the win to Kim, who had two putts to win – and took them.

It was a valiant effort by World #2 Nelly Korda, and an edge-of-the-seat back nine for her fans – an exciting finish for this event’s first outing at a new venue. Word around the clubhouse is that the Founders Cup will be back at Sharon Heights G&CC for at least the next two years, which will be a treat for Bay Area golf fans who are already missing the now-defunct PGA Tour event at Silverado Country Club & Resort that we have enjoyed for the past several years.

Also on the schedule for the Bay Area is the Hanwha World Crown team event, which will pit eight teams from individual nations against each other in fourball, foursome, and singles matches. It was last held in the area in 2023 at TPC Harding Park; it will return in 2027 to be played at nearby Lake Merced Golf Club, the erstwhile home of the Swinging Skirts and then Mediheal LPGA events, 2014-2017/2018-2021.

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.)

First round at a new venue for the LPGA Founders Cup

The first competitive round on a new course is a unique experience, even for seasoned professional golfers, and today, on the first day of competition at the 2026 LPGA Founders Cup at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club in Menlo Park, the ladies of the LPGA got their first taste of this classic Jack Fleming layout for real.

Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim leads after the first round of the
2026 LPGA Founders Cup with a 9-under 63 (Photo Credit LPGA/Getty)

Elevation changes are the name of the game on this 6,542-yard layout. Tucked into a hilly pocket of the Sharon Heights neighborhood in tony Menlo Park, CA, just up the road from the densest concentration of venture capital firms in the world, the course sits on 130 or so acres wrapped around two pockets of prime Bay Area residential property. If they gave names to the holes on this course the 407-yard par-4 first hole could easily be tagged “Black Diamond” for the 90-foot drop from tee to green; the 535-yard 10th hole has a maximum drop of 76 feet, with a long stretch of 25% slope mid-fairway, and similar profiles are found on the parallel sixth and 16th holes.

Bottom line: this course is a tough walk, and the caddies are really going to be earning their wages this week. On the plus side, the 18th hole, with a net rise of a little more than 60 feet over its 473-yard length, provides a sweeping end-of-round view as it rises back up to the upper level of the property, backdropped by the handsome Sharon Heights G&CC club house.

Weather – its always about the weather

As an outdoor game, golf is always affected by the weather. A month ago there was snow on the Bay Area hills as low as 1200 feet above sea level; now, in the final three days of the winter of 2025–2026 the San Francisco Bay Area, along with most of the western United States, is experiencing a record-setting heat wave. This week temps in the area hit the low to mid 90s, with 86ºF to 88ºF highs here at the course.

Early rounds today, with temperatures in the low 70s, saw seven players go out with scores of from five to three under par on both the front and back sides – but don’t think that this course is a pushover; scores as high as +7 were out there, too. As the day wore on the mercury rose, peaking at 88ºF around the time the TV coverage window opened at 3:00 PM.

Bay Area favorite has a rough day

Defending champion and Bay Area native Yealimi Noh, playing with current world #2 Nelly Korda and Japan’s Chisota Iwai, started her round at 12:48 p.m., teeing off at #1 just as the heat was tipping up into the low 80s. It was tolerable in the shade and when the occasional light breeze would waft by, but by the time the group got to the 9th green – a climb of 70+ feet with a long stretch of 10–12% grade – the temperature was 88ºF. The front nine here at Sharon Heights encompasses the greatest change in elevation on the course; the low point, in the 5th fairway about 100 yards short of the green, is 130 feet lower than the first tee.

Noh had her share of minor issues on the front nine, but was able to scramble her way out trouble – a tough lie in wood-chip landscaping short and right of the 5th green, and a deep lie in the rough left of the 7th fairway – to put together a clean-card front nine 36. She then opened her back nine with a birdie 4 on the 535-yard par-5 10th hole, a drop-away dogleg-right that turns hard about 230 yards from the tee, challenging players to hit a late-turning fade to catch the slope and run, bringing the possibility of a wedge or short-iron approach – and eagle – into play.

Unfortunately for Noh’s chances for a repeat victory, the birdie on #10 and a closing birdie on #18 bookended a string of three double-bogeys and a bogey on holes 12 through 15 and another bogey on 17, resulting in a final score of seven-over 79 which dropped her dozens of places down the leaderboard to a T140 finish for the first round. It will be a tough nut for the defending champion to crack to climb out of this hole and make it to the weekend.

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Among other players with connections to, or history in, the Bay Area, only Minjee Lee, who won the 2012 USGA Girls’ Junior Championship at Lake Merced Golf Club, and six years later battled Lydia Ko down the stretch in the Mediheal Championship on the same course (only to lose by a shot), made a strong showing, finishing the day today T8 with a 4-under 68.

Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim came out of the mix as the first-round leader, cementing her final-round 9-under 63 with a scorching birdie-eagle finish on holes 17 & 18. Dongeun Lee, also of Korea, tied down second place with a 7-under 65, and Polly Mack, a native of Berlin, Germany who played college golf at UNLV and Alabama, finished the day tied for third with Korea’s Jin Hee Im at 6-under.

In the final analysis, heat may have been a factor in the scoring today, as seven of the top 11 at the end of the day were players who started in the morning wave. Whether it was player fatigue from the heat or a change in conditions as the turf dried due to heat and low humidity there isn’t enough information to determine, but it will be worth watching the stats tomorrow, when the start times are switched, to see how this effect plays out.

The good news is that temperatures are forecast to be 10 to 12 degrees lower on the weekend for the players who survive these two first hot days to make the cut.

Wednesday at the 2026 Fortinet Founders Cup

Wednesdays at a professional golf tournament are not something that the fans usually experience. Before the applause and cheers of the competition rounds there is a buzz of activity and lots of quiet hustle and bustle. Players and caddies are arriving; if there is a pro-am event (an important networking and fund-raising activity, especially for smaller tournaments) there will be amateur players, local celebrities or business people, arriving for that – it’s a subtle, humming beehive of low-key activity, a prelude to the real thing.

Even after 14 years of attending a wide range of these events – from U.S. Men’s and Women’s Opens to USGA Junior Amateur championships, it’s always interesting to me to see the practiced, professional way that the people behind the event go about their business. Everything from course care and set up to catering, and everything in between: parking, hospitality, media infrastructure – it is a huge logistical undertaking. All of this activity is in support of a field of 144 players vying for a spot in the Top-65-and-ties field that plays the weekend for a paycheck, and the fans who come to watch them vie against the course and each other.

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This tournament has a special spirit, honoring as it does the thirteen original founders of the LPGA, the pioneering women who started it all in 1950, barnstorming across the country in their own cars, hustling up sponsors and venues, sometimes playing for prizes of canned goods and household items – a far cry from the cash purses of the current tour. Though worlds removed from the purses on the PGA Tour, the modern LPGA Tour has come a long way from the days of car caravans and playing for canned goods. In a quick press conference this morning after her nine-hole appearance in today’s pro-am event, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, when asked to comment on the meaning of the event and its recognition of the founders, said, “It’s our duty to carry the Founders’ spirit”, and characterized event honorees Meg Mallon and Juli Inkster as the “cool aunts” of the current generation of LPGA players. It is a special feeling that is unique in professional golf – the sense of gratitude and recognition that pervades the LPGA’s organization and membership.

The venue for this event, Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club in Menlo Park, is an attraction, too. Tucked away in the angle formed by I-280 and Sand Hill Road in the lower Peninsula, this private club and its hilly, circuitous golf course will be a new experience for the players, and is likely to be unfamiliar to the majority of the fans that come out to watch the event, too.

The course at Sharon Heights was designed in 1962 by well-known Bay Area/NorCal architect Jack Fleming*, a protégé of Alister MacKenzie. Extensive renovations in 2023, carried out by architect Todd Eckenrode and Origins Golf Design, removed hundreds of non-native trees, but the course still features MacKenzie-style bunkers, sweeping fairways with an abundance of challenging lies, and 18 subtly devious greens. The next four days will be a great test of the skill and endurance of the players in the field, and a testament to the enduring spirit of gratitude and recognition that the Founders Cup embodies.

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*(For more info on the Fleming family and their Northern California golf legacy, see https://blog.ncga.org/all-in-the-family

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.

Three share the lead after first round of LPGA Mediheal Championship at Lake Merced GC

The former GM of Lake Merced Golf Club, Donna Lowe, used to remind me to dress in layers when she knew I was coming up from the South Bay for a tournament or a media event at the club. This is tribal knowledge to a native of the Bay Area, a given when visiting San Francisco, and it is especially true in the area around Lake Merced—golf’s golden circle in San Francisco, home to Lake Merced Golf Club, the Olympic Club, TPC Harding Park, and San Francisco Golf Club. I like to tell people that I have experienced three seasons in a day on a summer’s day here, and none of them was summer.

That being said, Thursday at the LPGA Mediheal Championship was the kind of day that almost justifies the area’s sky-high property values: clear blue sky, light breezes, and temperatures that had me leaving my jacket in the media center. Lake Merced is a joy to walk on a day like today was. A tree-pruning program undertaken in recent years has left the course with fairways that are well-defined by lines of weathered and wind-knotted cypress and pines, while at the same time leaving an open, airy feel with great visibility from hole to hole, and open, sunlit greens.

Thursday was a day when many of the bigger names were lying low, with two-time major winner So Yeon Ryu (2011 U.S. Women’s Open, 2017 ANA Inspiration) being the most recognizable name in the Top Ten through the morning rounds.

Catching early-round leaders can be difficult at Lake Merced. The ubiquitous afternoon breeze is a chilly onshore waft that turns approach shots on east-facing holes into knuckleballs, and knocks down west-running shots short of the green, making a come-from-behind effort a tough proposition.

Of course, tough does not mean impossible, as was demonstrated by the Netherland’s Anne Van Dam, who overcame two bogeys in the first four holes to turn in two-under 34 after birdies at holes 5 and 9, and an eagle at the par-4 eighth hole. She continued her run on the second nine with a birdie on the 14th hole, and closing back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 for a five-under 67 and a share of the lead. This is the Dutch player’s first lead after any round in an LPGA Tour event.

While the top of the leaderboard was lacking in the more-familiar names, it did display the international flavor that characterizes the LPGA Tour, with nine countries represented among the top twelve players.

Among players with a Northern California connection, former Stanford Women’s Golf standout Mariah Stackhouse posted an even-par 72 and sits at T-23 after the first round. Monterey’s Mina Harigae carded a three-over 75 for T-88. Pleasanton’s Paula Creamer closed with a bogey six, after pulling her tee shot into tree trouble on #18 and rifling a low-running second shot over the back side of the green, for a four-over 76, and San Jose native Christina Kim, whose record for becoming the youngest player to reach $1 million in earnings (in 2004) was broken by Paula Creamer the following year, had a rough day on the course, carding eight-over 80.

The weather forecast for tomorrow’s second round is for continued sunny, and slightly warmer temperatures—another great day for golf.

Lydia Ko seals the deal as LPGA returns to the Bay Area

Bay Area golf fans have always enjoyed an abundance of opportunities to see high-level competitive golf. The PGA Tour visits twice a year, for the season-opening Safeway Open in October, and the venerable AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. The Champions Tour comes to Pebble Beach in September for the First Tee Open (now sponsored by PURE Insurance), the USGA visits fairly regularly for various championship events, and the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA) holds their championship events around the area every year.

Lydia Ko, winner of the inaugural LPGA Mediheal Championship, accepts the trophy from Mediheal Chairman, Oh-sub Kwon. This was Ko’s third win in four LPGA tournaments at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City. (photo by author)

What has been missing too often in recent years has been the consistent presence of professional women’s golf. From 1996 to 2010 a tournament known as the Twelve Bridges LPGA Classic, and later as the Longs Drugs Challenge and the CVS Pharmacy/LPGA Challenge was held on Sacramento–area courses before moving to Blackhawk Country Club in the East Bay for its last five years. After CVS dropped its sponsorship in 2010, Northern California entered a drought period—until 2014, when the Taiwanese golf association known as “Swinging Skirts” brought an LPGA tournament to Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City.

The new event was well received by players and fans alike during its three-year run, but the Taiwanese group pulled their support after the 2016 event, leaving Bay Area LPGA fans in the lurch again.

Fast-forward to late 2017, and the announcement of a new LPGA tournament, again at Lake Merced Golf Club—sponsor unknown—then, in March 2018, the official LPGA press release gave the name of the sponsor for the event, Mediheal, a South Korean maker of cosmetic facial mask products.

The players love coming back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and the fans love to see them. Often touted as a U.S. Open-quality course, Lake Merced Golf Club (which was considered for an Open in the past, but rejected for lack of room for infrastructure support) is a favorite among LPGA players, though acknowledged to be a tough layout. Hilly, with mostly small, diabolically contoured greens, LMGC also challenges with the changeable Peninsula weather.

Same course, new order

One change from the LPGA’s previous visits to Lake Merced is in the course’s order of play. I was told that the new sponsor wanted a new look to help differentiate the event from the Swinging Skirts event which was held here 2014-2016, also that television coverage was a factor. While the normal order of play yields a visually dramatic finish—the course’s 532-yard par-five 18th hole plays down to a valley from an elevated tee, then up to a two-tiered green overlooked by the clubhouse, but is a no-kidding three-shotter even for elite-level men—the new routing provides more potential for a dramatic finish.

The final trio of holes are, in order: a dramatic downhill 417-yard par-4, followed by a challenging par-3 that can play as long as 184 yards, and closing with a 518-yard par-5 that has the potential to be a two-shotter even for the mid–range drivers in the LPGA’s ranks. The 15th hole is a par–5 that is reachable for most of this field, adding another potential shot of drama to the closing holes.

The new event saw a pair of players separate themselves from the pack on Saturday, when Lydia Ko and Jessica Korda came in at –11 and –10, respectively, with Minjee Lee at –8, and a smattering of players at –6 coming up behind. Ko made an impressive move in the third round, posting a 5-under 67 to pass Korda for the 54-hole lead.

Players battle bright but breezy weather

Chilly, breezy conditions for the morning wave prevented any strong moves by the back-markers on Sunday—though it would have taken quite a jump to spring into contention from the even-par-or-worse territory inhabited by first 19 groups.

The second half of the field teed off under a blue sky scoured free of clouds by a brisk onshore breeze, and the final pairing of Ko and Korda immediately came back to the field by one, each dropping a shot on the par-4 first hole.

The final round turned into a horse race on the back nine as Minjee Lee, the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion on this course, was in red numbers for the round while Ko and Korda dropped shots and opened the door for their pursuers. Angel Yin posted a 5-under 67 to move to 8-under, moving up 11 spots to T-3, but ran out of holes before she could truly threaten for the lead.

Jessica Korda faded in the middle of the back nine, a cold putter resulting in bogeys at 10 and 12 and a drop to –8. A birdie at 15 moved her to –9, and put her in solo 3rd with three to play, behind Ko at –11 and Lee at –10. She failed to capitalize on a read from Ko’s putt at 16, missing high, and also missing a chance to pull  into a tie for 2nd with Minjee Lee.

Lee, in the meantime, hit her second poor iron shot in two holes when her 8-iron off the tee at the par-three 17th strayed right and and found the bunker, but she was redeemed by a chip-in for birdie – and was now tied for 1st with her antipodean rival, Ko.

New Routing Pays Off

The closing holes of the tournament highlighted the wisdom of the decision to swap the nines. Though less visually arresting than the usual 18th hole, with no clubhouse backdrop, and noise from the nearby freeway and BART intruding, the new closing hole left the door open for a dramatic finish that would not have been possible with the original routing.

Lee birdied the final hole to take the lead at -12, throwing down a gauntlet for Ko. Not to be outdone, the two-time champion at Lake Merced answered with a birdie of her own, setting up a playoff between two former winners on this challenging, windswept course.

Ko’s tee shot on the playoff hole showed her savvy and course knowledge. Laying her tee shot near the right side of the fairway, short of Lee’s drive but better placed, Ko laced a 234-yard 3-wood to within three feet of the front-right flag, throwing down a gauntlet of her own. Lee’s second shot finished in the rough short and right of the green—in almost identical position to her second shot on 18 in regulation—leaving her facing a chip-in from 20 yards to prolong the contest, but it wasn’t to be.

Lee’s penultimate shot rolled past, leaving an easy comebacker for birdie—but her opponent had a near kick-in for eagle, and the win.

It was almost anticlimactic. The newly minted 21-year-old took her time, stroked the putt – and sealed the deal for her third win in four LPGA tournaments at Lake Merced Golf Club.

“It’s a huge relief (to win after 43 winless starts), because people are saying ‘You’re not winning because of this, you’re not winning because of that,’ ” Ko said, “It was nice to be in the final group again, to be in the position to win again.”