Inbee swinging for 3rd U.S. Women's Open crown

It has led the Korean star to 20 LPGA titles and a handful of victories between the LET, JLPGA, KLPGA and ALPG Tours.

Her swing was even a topic of conversation with PGA Tour star and former World No. 1 Adam Scott in August ahead of The Northern Trust.

“It’s so slow and deliberate,” said Scott. “To me, that’s the extreme opposite of what I feel when I’m not swinging well. I focus on having the slowest backswing possible. I’ve kind of kept returning to this very deliberate backswing to keep the pace off the ball slow.”

For someone with a steady, beautiful swing of their own, Scott’s admiration means a little extra for Park.

“When I was growing up, I always thought that Adam Scott was like an idol for having a great swing. He has always had a great swing and he is a great golfer,” said Park. “It’s always an honor to get a compliment like that. The rhythm that I have since I was a little kid, I haven’t really changed. It is kind of a natural thing for me.”

Park will be swinging purposefully this week at Champions Golf Club with ambitions of becoming just the seventh player in championship history to capture the Harton S. Semple Trophy three or more times. She begins the quest at 10:59 a.m. CT tomorrow off No. 10 tee of the Jackrabbit Course with good friend So Yeon Ryu and Ariya Jutanugarn.

“I have played with So Yeon in practice rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we played Sunday [in Dallas] together. I told her we’re playing six days in a row together and I know you missed me, but I think that should be enough of us,” Park said laughingly. “Anyway, it’s just fun to play with a best friend and obviously playing with Ariya is always fun. It’s a good group.”

LEXI THOMPSON ARRIVES AT 14TH U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN WITH A COUPLE CHANGES
In the blink of an eye, Lexi Thompson has gone from the youngest to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open in 2007 at age 12 (a mark since broken by Lucy Li) to preparing for her 14th career appearance in the hallowed championship. She will look for a third straight top-five performance in the U.S. Women’s Open this week at Champions Golf Club.

“It usually plays very long and very tough, it’s a mentally draining week but that’s as major championships are,” said Thompson, who secured a career-best U.S. Women’s Open result of tied for second in 2019. “There will be difficult shots out there and some bogeys, but you just have to continue with a positive attitude going into the next hole and know that you can birdie a few out there.

“My first U.S. Women’s Open I couldn’t reach a lot of the fairways, so it was a lot different than I’m sure for a lot of these first-timers out here this week.”

Thompson does come to Houston with a couple new assets to her game. She has a new putter in the arsenal and a fresh face on the bag in Tim Tucker, the full-time caddie for PGA Tour pro and 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau.

“I’ve switched a few this year, maybe two or three. Trying to find something that I am very comfortable with,” Thompson said. “I’ve never used a [TaylorMade] Spider before, and I think I’m better with a bit more of a mallet in reducing face rotation. I changed a little bit of my setup, as well. Just moved a little closer to the ball.

“And Tim is great. He’s used to a whole different player. I don’t carry a yardage book so I usually just ask for the pin number and where I should land it, that’s about it. I like to simplify things. The first day that we went out, he has the air density and all that factored in. It was unbelievable. The first two holes he said it is going to play this number and I trusted it and hit it so close, it was a perfect number. I am truly amazed. Very talented and happy to have him out there helping me.”

For the first and second rounds of competition, Thompson will be joined by Nelly Korda and Heejeong Lim. The grouping will begin on No. 1 tee of the Cypress Creek Course tomorrow at 10:59 a.m. CT.

ANGELA STANFORD ON CLOUD NINE BACK HOME IN TEXAS
“I'll never get this chance again, and I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can.”

 

Those words from Angela Stanford explain the massive smile plastered on her face this week. The native Texan comes to the U.S. Women’s Open fresh off her seventh career LPGA Tour win at last week’s Volunteers of America Classic, not far from her home in suburban Dallas. Now just 250 miles down the road, and with her parents again outside the ropes, the 20-year LPGA Tour veteran is basking in the experience of playing for a national championship in her beloved home state.

 

“Everybody wants to play well leading up to an Open, no matter if it's May, June, or December. To start to really get my short game going last week and then kind of hit it better on Sunday, but I need to kind of work on that right now,” said Stanford, who will hit the championship’s first tee shot on the Cypress Creek Course at 9:20 a.m. CT, playing with Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Nicole Broch Larsen. “It's a dream to even play in Texas for an Open. I think that's helped my expectations this week.”

 

This is not the first time Stanford comes to the U.S. Women’s Open off a big win. In 2003, one week after capturing her first LPGA Tour title at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Stanford fell to Hilary Lunke by one stroke in an 18-hole playoff at Oregon’s Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. So when asked her advice to the championship’s 41 first-time competitors, Stanford spoke from experience.

 

“I would tell them do not leave discouraged because there's a good chance you're not going to play the way you want to play, because I remember my first one, I was so disappointed. But looking back now, I wish I would have enjoyed it more on the tail end,” said Stanford. “The beginning of the week I loved it. I was in heaven. But then you don't play good and you're like, dang. So, I hope they leave knowing that it's just a big experience, and they need to remember that and just try to enjoy it on the tail end of it.”

TEXAN PLAYERS HOPING FOR MORE THAN JUST A TEXAS TWO-STEP
With the USGA hosting the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston, the LPGA Tour built its own Texas Two-Step into the schedule with last week’s Volunteers of America Classic in suburban Dallas. This is just the second time that the United States national championship will be held in the Lone Star State, joining the 1991 championship at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. This is also the first time since 1978 that the state has held at least two LPGA Tour events.

 

For local favorite and 2014 U.S. Women’s Open runner-up Stacy Lewis, that’s just not enough.

 

“You've got all these energy companies in this area, and I just make a pitch to anybody that is supporting women in their organization and in their company to want to come out and to see this and to see the best in the world,” said Lewis, who grew up in The Woodlands, just 20 miles from Champions. “Maybe they can do something to help within the tournament to help their business, so it's a win-win for both. It usually just takes one person believing in us and having the idea.”

 

“I think this week will just show everyone just how good golf is in Houston and just Texas in general, and you can play all year round,” added Cheyenne Knight, who was born in The Woodlands but moved to Dallas as a teenager. “I never watched an LPGA tournament when I was growing up. I never got to go to one. I think if there is one, a local stop, and how big junior golf is here, just getting little girls to see their idols would be really cool.”

 

ALLY EWING SEES THE GAME DIFFERENTLY IN HER LAST COMPETITIVE WEEK OF 2020

It’s her last week of the year, the final competitive shots in what has been a breakout season. And as the first round of this 75th U.S. Women’s Open inches closer, Ally Ewing is as confident as anyone in the field.

 

There’s good reason. The one-two punch she put together at the Drive On Championship at Reynold’s Lake Oconee, which she won, and the Pelican Championship in Tampa, where she finished runner-up to Sei Young Kim, moved Ewing into the top five in Race to CME Globe points and the top-10 on the LPGA Tour money list. It also confirmed that she is one of the hottest players in the game entering golf’s final major.

 

But there’s more to it than the numbers. Sometimes players just see things differently. Like a batter seeing the stitches on a fastball, Ewing is experiencing the game at a slower speed than everyone else. The pictures are clearer and the lines straighter. The mental windows great players see their shots flying through are smaller when you’re playing the way Ewing is at the moment. Others pick a number and a line. She’s seeing the blades of grass where she wants her shots to land.