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.”