NorCal golf fans can be proud of our 2021 Solheim Cup rookies

Despite the fact that the American 2021 Solheim Cup squad went down to a narrow defeat at Inverness Golf Club over the Labor Day weekend, two NorCal players who were making their first Solheim Cup appearances put up performances to be proud of.

Yealimi Noh of Team USA plays her shot from the fifth tee during her Monday Singles match against Mel Reid of England. (photo credit: 2021 Getty Images)

Mina Harigae of Monterey, and Yealimi Noh of Concord—the first a relative veteran and the other early in her career as a professional golfer—acquitted themselves well against a European squad that came to the event in fine form. Harigae is a four-time California Women’s Amateur champion (2001–2004), and Noh won the 2018 USGA Girls’ Junior Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Club, the home of the Northern California Golf Association.

Harigae, who turned pro in 2009, racked up a 1-2-0 record in her first Solheim Cup appearance. She and partner Lexi Thompson dropped their Saturday Fourball match to a dominating performance by Anna Nordqvist and Matilda Castern, and Harigae fell to experienced Solheim Cup hand Céline Boutier (4-0-0 in 2019) in the Monday singles, 4 and 3.

Noh, who is in her second year as a professional, having turned down a golf scholarship to UCLA to go pro at 18, finished the weekend 2-1-0. She was blanked in the Saturday Fourballs when she and playing partner Brittany Altomare lost a close match to Britain’s Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire of Ireland. Maguire dominated the event and set a Solheim Cup record by putting 4-1/2 points on the board for the European team in five matches.

The Monday singles saw Noh pitted against veteran UK player Mel Reid, a pro since 2007 who has played on three Solheim Cup teams: 2011, 2015, and 2017, coming into this year’s event with a 4-6-2 record. The 20-year-old from Alameda ran up an early lead, winning the first four holes against Reid, and fought off a late rally by the 33-year-old from Derby, England, winning the match on the 18th hole.

Harigae and Noh, paired together for a Sunday Fourball match, scored a win against Sophia Popov of Germany and Céline Boutier. The rookie duo established an early lead over their opponents, and were three up at the turn. Boutier and Popov, the 2020 AIG Women’s Open (Women’s British Open) winner, battled back to square the match at the 13th hole, but eventually fell to a renewed onslaught by the NorCal duo, who put up birdies on three of the last four holes against the Euro pair’s run of pars.

The Solheim Cup will return in 2023 at the Finca Cortesín Golf Club in Casares, near Málaga, Spain before switching back to an even-years rotation in 2024 to avoid conflicts with the Ryder Cup. Venues beyond 2023 have not yet been set.

Friday – Cut Day at the U.S. Women’s Open

For most folks Friday is a day to celebrate. The weekend is almost here, and we are looking forward to knocking off of work and having a couple of days to relax and have fun—maybe play some golf. For tournament golfers, though, Friday has an entirely different meaning—Friday is Cut Day.

They call Saturday “Moving Day”, the day when players put the pedal to the metal and try to move up the scoreboard to be in position to make a run at a win on Sunday, but to get to Moving Day you have to get past Cut Day.

While we recreational golfers pay to play, the pros play to get paid, and Friday is when it gets real. The field in most professional events—and USGA championships, too, though there are amateurs in the field—is around 150 to 156 players, and less than half of them get to play the weekend for a chance at a trophy and a paycheck (or just the trophy, in the case of the amateurs).

Friday is the day when you sink or swim. If you had a bad day on Thursday, in the first round, you had better step up on Friday; if you rocked the house in the first round, you better keep it up and stay in that Top-60-and-ties group.

Missing the cut was known as “trunk slamming” back in the days when Tour pros drove from tournament to tournament. I guess now they just slam the tailgate of the SUV courtesy car before they head to the airport—but it just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?

Who made a move today?

There were few big moves on Cut Day at the Olympic Club for the 76th U.S. Women’s Open—mostly just a lot of hanging on grimly to a position above the cut line.

Less than half of the players who occupied the top 20 spots on the leaderboard after the second round improved their scores from Thursday to Friday, and with few exceptions they improved, if at all, by one or two strokes.

Sarah Burnham, a second-year pro out of Michigan State, orchestrated a ten-stroke turnaround. After carding a 5-over 76 in the first round she came back and hammered out a 5-under 66 in the second. She turned her first round birdie/bogey of 1/6 count on its head, carding six birdies against one bogey and turning a T-84 and a likely missed cut into T-12 and playing on the weekend.

A little outside the Top 20, NorCal player Yealimi Noh, the winner of the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior at the NCGA’s home course, Poppy Hills, also made a dramatic move, as she went from a 5-over 76 in the first round to a 2-under 69 in the second. 

Noh’s seven-stroke turnaround came on the strength of five birdies against a bogey and a double, as opposed to her first-round count of three birdies against six bogeys and a double, floating her fifty-five spots up the leaderboard from T-84 to T-29.

San Francisco-born Danielle Kang made a four-stroke improvement from Round 1 to Round 2, obviously carrying no scar tissue from a triple-bogey 8—yes, the dreaded snowman—on the long par-five 16th hole in Round 1.

How did the rest of the NorCal players fare?

Between Danielle Kang at T-12 and Yealimi No at T-29, two more NorCal players made the cut. Lucy Li, the one-time girl wonder who qualified for the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at age 11, posted 73-71–144 for T-20, tied with Monterey native daughter Mina Harigae with 71-72–144.

Harigae, whose round I followed today, missed a much higher finish by a cumulative 18 inches or so, based on the number of close-call putts that just didn’t drop for her today. If she figures out the mysteries of the Lake Course’s greens over the weekend she could well be a contender for the title.

In other news…

In other second-round news, anyone who was waiting for the Megha Ganne bubble to burst was disappointed. The 17-year-old amateur, whose biggest success previous to this event was in Augusta National’s Drive, Pitch, and Putt competitions, matched three bogeys with three birdies to card an even-par 71 and hold on to her 4-under score. She was dropped out of her co-leading position when Yuka Saso of the Phillippines added a second-round 67 to her first round 69 to take over the lead, and Korea’s Jeongeun Lee6 moved to 5-under and solo second after posting 70-67–137.

Ganne shares third place with Megan Khang, an LPGA pro since 2016. Khang, of Rockland, Massachusetts, can call on a familiarity with the local conditions based on having played in the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, which was held at nearby Lake Merced Golf Club.

Reid and a surprise player hold co-lead after Day One of 2021 U.S. Women’s Open

When the men last played the national championship at the Olympic Club, in 2012, some British golf fans took umbrage at the USGA’s course setup, claiming that the event was “spoiled” by a course setup “designed to expose stars” and “humiliate our heroes”. Well, I hope those same blokes were watching the first round of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open from the Olympic Club, because one of the UK’s finest distaff players, Mel Reid, showed the fellas how it should be done.

Reid posted a 4-under 67 on the par 71 setup, with five birdies and a lone bogey on the par-4 eighteenth hole spoiling the fun, taking only 28 putts on greens which were running at 12 to 12-1/2 today.

Reid was chased down at the last by comes-out-of-nowhere amateur Megha Ganne, who carded 32-25–67 to tie for the lead in the clubhouse, while Canada’s Brooke Henderson sweated ice chips over a slippery 3-foot downhill putt on the 18th hole as the sun set into the Pacific, hoping to close her round as part of a three-way tie for the lead. She missed it, but sank the comebacker back to join the trio of Angel Yin, Megan Khang, and Lexi Thompson at 3-under, one off the lead.

Among the NorCal-affiliated players in the field Mina Harigae’s even-par 71 tops the list, with Lucy Li at +1 right behind. Danielle Kang survived a beating at the par-five 16th, holing out a chip to get away with only a triple-bogey eight, to finish the day at +2, and 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champ and new San Francisco resident Michelle Wie West came in at +4. Amateurs Rachel Heck and Claire Choi joined San José native Christina Kim at +4 on the day.

Some familiar—and not so familiar—NorCal-affiliated players in the field at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open

San Francisco’s Olympic Club is no stranger to USGA championship golf; the world-renowned golf club that sits between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean in the western reaches of the city has hosted five memorable U.S. Opens, two U.S. Amateur tournaments, three U.S. Junior Amateurs, and the inaugural Men’s Fourball Championship, in 2015. This week, though, the club records a first, as it hosts the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open on the challenging Lake Course.

While the field at the second USWO to be played in the Bay Area (the 2016 event was hosted by the CordeValle Resort in San Martin, south of San José) will be replete with world-class players, local fans may be interested in following the play of the even dozen golfers with Northern California connections who are listed below. They range from a high-school-age amateur to experienced professionals with major championship victories to their credit—including two who have hoisted the very trophy which will be awarded to the winner here on Sunday afternoon.

Will one of these twelve women, with their local knowledge and experience of NorCal weather and turf conditions, hoist the Harton S. Semple trophy on Sunday afternoon? 

Claire Choi (a)

Amateur competitor Claire Choi, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, is a rising senior at Santa Clara University and a graduate of Punahou High School in Honolulu, the alma mater of 2014 USWO champion Michelle Wie West.

Claire qualified for the 2021 USWO, her first, with a 4-over-par 144 at Oahu Country Club on May 10th—the day before her 21st birthday.

Paula Creamer

Pleasanton, CA, native Paula Creamer has been a well-known presence in LPGA fields since 2005, after a junior/amateur career that included 11 AJGA titles, selection to the 2004 Curtis Cup team and low amateur honors in the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open.

Paula took the 2010 USWO title, carding the only under-par total score over 72 holes at Pennsylvania’s Oakmont Country Club. Her USWO record includes 11 straight Top 20 finishes, and five Top 10s, from 2004 to 2014.

Mina Harigae

Monterey’s Mina Harigae made waves early in her golf career, winning the first of four consecutive California Women’s Amateur titles in 2001 at the age of 12. Other highlights of her amateur golf career include semifinalist finishes in the U.S. Girls’ Junior in 2003 and 2006, winning the 2007 Women’s Amateur Public Links at the age of 17, and representing the United States on the 2008 Curtis Cup team.

Mina turned pro after one semester at Duke University and has seven professional victories to her credit: three on the Symetra Tour, and four on the Cactus Tour in Arizona during the LPGA’s COVID-19 hiatus. This is her 11th U.S. Women’s Open appearance.

Rachel Heck

Currently the hottest amateur in the country, Stanford University freshman Rachel Heck took medalist honors at the May 3rd qualifier at Marin Country Club in Novato with an 8-under 136. Last August she was the stroke play medalist at the U.S. Women’s Amateur before being defeated in the Round of 16, and in 2017 was the youngest competitor in the field at the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing T-33.

Danielle Kang

SoCal-raised but born in San Francisco, Danielle Kang is making her 11th start in the U. S Women’s Open this week. Her best finish in the event is a solo 4th at Shoal Creek in 2018, but Kang is no stranger to the podium in USGA competition; she took back-to-back U.S. Women’s Amateur titles in 2010 and 2011.

Christina Kim

San José native Christina Kim has made 16 previous U.S. Women’s Open appearances, her highest finish being a T-8 in the 2010 event at Oakmont Country Club. She has one USGA championship title to her name—the 2001 U.S. Girls’ Junior. Kim has represented the United States on three Solheim Cup teams, and has racked up six Top-10 finishes in major championships, including a tie for third in the 2009 Women’s British Open.

Jaclyn LaHa (a)

Another Pleasanton native, Jaclyn LaHa, a 16-year-old rising high school junior, is the second-youngest competitor in the field of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open. LaHa shot a 7-under 137, including a 5-under 67 in the afternoon round, at Marin Country Club in Novato to take the second and final qualifying spot from that event.

Lucy Li

Making her third U.S. Women’s Open appearance this week, 18-year-old Lucy Li, of Redwood Shores, played in her first in 2014 at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. Li set a record for the youngest competitor in the history of the event at 11 years, 8 months, and 19 days, but shot a pair of 78s to miss the cut.

Other notable “youngest competitor” marks she has set include youngest match-play qualifier in U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links history at 10 years, 8 months, 16 days in 2013, and youngest U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier (10 years, 10 months, 4 days), also in 2013. Li played on the winning 2018 United States Curtis Cup team, and took medalist honors that same year in the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Yealimi Noh

Another native of the East Bay, Concord’s Yealimi Noh is making her second U.S. Women’s Open appearance. She contended for three rounds in last year’s late-season Open in December at Champions Club in Houston, Texas, but slipped to a tie for 40th after a final-round 80.

Noh is one of six Northern California natives to claim the U.S. Girls’ Junior title, at Poppy Hills in 2018, joining Pat Hurst (1986), Jamille José (1988), Dorothy Delasin (1996,) Lisa Ferrero (2000), and Christina Kim (2001) in that honor.

Kathleen Scavo

Benicia’s Kathleen Scavo joins the field for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open on the strength of a medal-winning 1-over 143 in the April 26 qualifier at Half Moon Bay Golf Links.

This is the second U.S. Women’s Open appearance for Scavo, a graduate of the University of Oregon; she qualified for the 2014 event but missed the cut on the challenging Pinehurst #2 course. Her resulyts in previous USGA championships include advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior, and advancing to the round of 16 in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Bandon Dunes, Oregon, with partner Lucy Li.

Michelle Wie West

A native of Hawaii who graduated from Stanford University and who now resides in San Francisco with husband Jonnie West and daughter Makenna, Michelle Wie West needs no introduction to golf fans.

A prodigy who qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at age 10, Wie West became the championship’s youngest winner at age 13, She showed showed major championship mettle in the 2003 Kraft-Nabisco Championship (now the ANA Inspiration), becoming the youngest player to make the cut, and playing in the final group on Sunday after a blistering 66 the previous day.

Wie West’s U.S. Women’s Open record over 15 appearances is a checkered one—it includes a win, in 2014 at Pinehurst; a T-3 finish in 2006 at Newport Country Club; a T-10 in 2018 at Shoal Creek; four MCs; and two WDs due to injury.

Rose Zhang

Set to join the Stanford Women’s Golf team in the fall of 2021, Irvine, California, native Rose Zhang is making her third U.S. Women’s Open start this week. Zhang is the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, and took low amateur honors at this year’s ANA Inspiration.

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.