Eight Australians are teeing it up in the third women’s major of the season, the KPMG LPGA Championship this weekend at Kemper Lakes Golf Club, north of Chicago, with Minjee Lee as the headliner.
Lee, 22, has already won a tournament this season and is ranked ninth in the world.
Although she has not performed to levels that she would expect in the majors – two top-10s in 21 starts, with a best of tied-third in the 2017 ANA Inspiration – she has plenty of time to correct the ledger.
Lee was tied-third last week in Arkansas, won the Volvik Championship in May and was pipped in a playoff by Lydia Ko in another event. Most importantly, her putting appears to have elevated itself to the level of her ball-striking, and she belongs in the top echelon of players in the world.
Veteran Karrie Webb is in the field this week and has the Karrie Webb Scholarship holders, Grace Kim from New South Wales and Becky Kay from Queensland as her companions for the week. It has become a ritual of the scholarship-winners that they spend a week working with Webb at a major, picking up on the methods and ideas of a seven-time major champion and Golf Hall of Fame member.
The other Australians in the field are Sarah Jane Smith, Su Oh, Katherine Kirk, Wendy Doolan, Rebecca Artis and Hannah Green.
The tournament is worth $US3.6 million – the third-highest of the season.
Kemper Lakes has a lot of water hazards, particularly down the closing stretch, but with 19 of the top 20 players on the world rankings in the field, low scores will be needed to win.
It was a point emphasised by America’s top-ranked player, Lexi Thompson, today. “The level of talent has changed a lot,’’ she said. “It's gotten a lot better, and it's super hard to win every week out here. You have to have your ‘A’ game and usually shoot around 20-under it seems like every week. I shot 15 … I don't even know what I shot last week, but I was in third place and I was seven, eight back.’’