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USA Today
13 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Here's why there were more doubles than birdies on the 18th at KPMG
Here's why there were more doubles than birdies on the 18th at KPMG FRISCO, Texas – They switched the ninth and 18th holes at Fields Ranch East for the KPMG Women's PGA. The move was made to accommodate the buildout for the championship. So instead of finishing with a par 5, as was the case at the Senior PGA, the layout this week ends with a par 4. But don't think that means there will be less drama. The par-4 18th had more double-bogeys (12) than birdies (7) in the opening round. Auston Kim thought for sure she was doing to make a double bogey after having to chop it out of the rough on the closing hole, but managed to make a solid bogey to shoot 1-under 71. What makes that hole so difficult? 'I think it's the fact that carrying that bunker is about 245 with a bit of crosswind today,' said Kim. 'For a lot of people, you can't really carry that with a 3-wood. I mean, I ended up hitting 5-wood today just because I was warm and sweaty and wind was kind of down. 'Ended up getting the worst break possible. It landed in the rough (on top of the bunker) and sunk down into like the base of the grass.' She didn't want to hit 3-wood off the tee, let alone driver, with the fairway ending 285 yards out. There's only about 40 yards left to try to stop a tee shot before finding the rough. 'One of my playing partners hit a really good drive, but it went out a little bit hot and ended up hitting the downslope and rolling through and she had to chop out backwards,' said Kim. Jenny Shin hit her drive on the 18th through the fairway into the right rough and then hit her second into a greenside bunker. After hitting her third shot over the green and into another greenside bunker, she closed with a double to shoot 72. The 18th was the fourth-hardest hole on the course, playing to a 4.391 average. 'I feel like 18, the way that it's set up this week, it could definitely make it more dramatic,' said Kim. 'Can you avoid a disaster?'
USA Today
a day ago
- Sport
- USA Today
KPMG Women's PGA live updates: Leaderboard, scores from LPGA major at Fields Ranch East
KPMG Women's PGA live updates: Leaderboard, scores from LPGA major at Fields Ranch East The 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship started at Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas, the home course of the PGA of America. The Senior PGA was held at Fields Ranch East in 2023, the women are on tap this week and the men make their way to North Texas in 2027. The best players in the world are battling it out with a major title on the line, including world No. 1 and past champion Nelly Korda, who remains in search of her first victory this season. Here's a look at the opening round of play from the KPMG Women's PGA: KPMG Women's PGA leaderboard Keep up with the latest scores on our USA TODAY Sports leaderboard. World's top 3 playing together It should be an interesting first two rounds as the world's top three players are paired together at Fields Ranch. How to watch KPMG Women's PGA Championship 2025 All times EDT Thursday, June 19 Golf Channel: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Featured groups: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, June 20 Golf Channel: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Featured groups: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, June 21 Peacock: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Featured groups: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ( PGA Champs App) NBC: 1:30-6 p.m. Sunday, June 22 Peacock: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Featured groups: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ( PGA Champs App) NBC: 3-6 p.m.
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Architect Gil Hanse on building a major a championship venue to test the best men and women
Architect Gil Hanse on building a major a championship venue to test the best men and women FRISCO, Texas – It's been a whirlwind stretch for architect Gil Hanse. From the renovations at Oakmont to his creation at PGA Frisco, Hanse's handiwork stands at the center of back-to-back major championships this month. The KPMG Women's PGA Championship marks the second major championship held at the PGA of America's sprawling Frisco campus, following the 2023 Senior PGA, staged shortly after the opening of Fields Ranch East. The course is scheduled to host a whopping 29 championships through 2034, including six majors. Golfweek caught up with Hanse on the eve of the KPMG, the third major on the LPGA's 2025 calendar. More: Golf architects Gil Hanse and Beau Welling like each other, and players will love what they've created at PGA Frisco Transitioning from old to new It's obviously very different from our full restoration of a golf course to a brand new golf course. I think my partner, Jim Wagner, and I love the idea that we're getting to show both sides. This golf course here, Fields Ranch East, is a lot more indicative of what we think of when we think of golf architecture – wider and angles are relevant here. We give you room to hit it off the tee, but if you're in the wrong spot, you're probably going to struggle with your second shot. Whereas Oakmont was just tight and difficult and that was the original architecture. Being able to show the ability to kind of live in the two different worlds of golf architecture is exciting for us, and it's tiring. (laughs) More: Cool things we saw in 2024: Frisco hot tub could be Ryder Cup hotspot Building for the best men and women in the world In a way, it's reminiscent of what we did in Rio for the (2016) Olympics, where we knew we were going to have multiple championships on that golf course, but we're also going to have men and women playing, so how do we set that up? We got a huge assist from Amy Alcott down in Rio and that kind of helped us understand a little bit more. Because a lot of people think, well, you just have to move the tees back and forwards and that's it, but if the women are hitting from the same landing areas as the men, the men are hitting 7-iron and they're hitting 5-iron, or maybe even higher. So you've got to get them to a place where it's commensurate with the shot values of the hole. One of the more interesting aspects of what we did in Rio and here was that we had multiple sets of bunkers or hazards, water hazards that are in play which would be in play for the women in the main landing area, but the longer men, Rory and Bryson, might hit it there. This golf course is all the same grass, with the exception of the greens, so we can manipulate the mowing lines any way we want to. So if we want to make it wider this week and narrow it for '27 (PGA Championship), we can do that, but we also had to figure out, we don't want to narrow it, have bunkers sitting 20 yards out in the rough that are irrelevant. So we had to kind of figure out how do we bunker one side of the hole that we can keep the fairway right up against them, and then bring it in from the other side, and then same thing with the multiple sets of hazards for different classes of player. So it's a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle in that regard, which was, to be honest, pretty exciting. The Amy Alcott influence There was a lot of conversations (in Rio) about those sort of landing areas, the angles and needing to make sure, you know, if we're asking a male professional golfer to hit a shot in, they're more than likely going to get much more elevation on the shot, and we needed to make sure that hole locations that were going to be tucked behind bunkers or behind ridges, etc., that we got the women golfers far enough up that the elevation of their shots could actually match and hold the green. So it's not only distance, but it was a lot of talk about trajectory. What the land provided This golf course is really divided. There are natural holes, so you go, you know, two, three, four, five, six, and seven are more natural. And then on the back line, it would be 13, 14, 15, and 16 are natural. All the other holes we just had to create, all totally artificial. We hope that we did enough earthwork, that we made them look natural, and the people wouldn't know, they would just feel as if it's the entire golf course, but the holes we had to manipulate were for two reasons: They were dead flat and not very interesting, but they were also in the flood plain. We had to elevate them to get them out of the 100-year flood plain, so that, you know, it looks like this week, touch wood, we're going to be dry. But in May, we get a lot of thunderstorms in this area and the creek floods pretty good. So we had to build these holes up. It was not an easy build, because the dirt here was really bad. The philosophy of 'ribbon tees' I mean, we've always been big believers in multiple options, and the ability to kind of move things around, and sometimes it's hard for people to understand or accept, because they think, well, I got to post a score. … We just want to create different options because it's super windy here. If the wind is blowing, you can always move tees up, and you're not limited to just the pods. You have a lot of flexibility in the setup of the golf course. You also feel like there's a way where you can correlate tee setup with hole locations. You can put a difficult hole location and move the tees up on that day. Or a benign hole location moving the tees back. So we just love the flexibility these ribbon tees give to you, and we also love the presentation. They just kind of feel as if they're extensions of the fairway, just kind of wander, ripple their way down.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Nelly Korda suffers neck injury at KPMG after hitting from the rough at PGA Frisco
Nelly Korda suffers neck injury at KPMG after hitting from the rough at PGA Frisco FRISCO, Texas – It's not Oakmont rough, but the penalty for missing a fairway at the KPMG Women's PGA is no joke. Nelly Korda hit a shot out of the rough on the front nine Monday and her neck went into full spasm. 'It's getting better,' said Korda, who had kinesiology tape stretched across the back of her neck on Tuesday. "But yeah, it was not very good yesterday.' Korda missed several events in the fall Asian swing last year after suffering from a neck injury. The world No. 1 travels with longtime physio Kim Baughman, who will no doubt be busy throughout the week at Fields Ranch East. It's worth noting, however, that the fairways are wide on the Gil Hanse design, though they have been narrowed since the Senior PGA two years ago. And no one on the LPGA drives the ball better than Korda. 'Obviously, with the injury that I had last year, every single time something kind of flares up in my neck now, I think I feel it a little bit more than what I used to,' said Korda. 'But I have a great physio who takes care of me. Trying to work through it, but I'll be ready by Thursday.' Korda tees off at 8:28 a.m. local time on Thursday alongside No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul and No. 3 Lydia Ko. When asked about the test Fields Ranch East provides, Korda said it's all 'pretty difficult' depending on the wind. 'All the par-5s are pretty much three-shot holes for me,' said Korda, 'so just dialing in. The downwind holes, I think, are going to play probably the hardest just because it's quite hard to hold the green, and if you do hit it a little bit short with that fluffy Bermuda, it kind of just stays, so you can't play for a run-up. 'I just think every hole looks really different. You just have to pay attention all 18 holes.' While Korda looks for her first victory of 2025, Thitikul looks for her first major championship title. The best player on tour without a major laughed when asked if she puts extra pressure on herself to win one. 'Every major, I just want to make the cut, to be honest,' she said with a big smile. 'It would be really great to win it.' Thitikul missed the cut at the U.S. Women's Open at Erin Hills but has seven top-10 finishes in 24 career major starts. She's had her coach with her since the Women's Open, and said they're tweaking but that it's 'not too much of a big deal.' Two years ago, the Thai star bought a home in the Dallas area, and she lives 25 minutes from Fields Ranch. She chose Dallas mostly because it's easier to travel the world from here, particularly to Asia. She likes the food and weather, obviously preferring heat and, with TPC Craig Ranch undergoing renovations, now plays out of Dallas Atlantic Club. While she lives close, Thitikul hasn't spent much time at the PGA of America's home. She came for the first time on Saturday to practice and played the course for the first time on Sunday. Wind, she said, will be key. 'Making par is not that hard,' she said, 'but like making birdie should be tricky.'
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Where to watch the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship on NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock
Where to watch the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship on NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock For those of you wanting more major championship golf after Sunday's thrilling U.S. Open finish, you don't have to wait long. The 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship begins Thursday at Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas, the home course of the PGA of America. The Senior PGA was held at Fields Ranch East in 2023, the women are on tap this week and the men make their way to North Texas in 2027. The best players in the world will battle it out with a major title on the line, including world No. 1 and past champion Nelly Korda, who remains in search of her first victory this season. Here's how to follow the action at week at the KPMG Women's PGA: Where to watch KPMG Women's PGA Championship 2025 All times EDT Thursday, June 19 Golf Channel: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Featured groups: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, June 20 Golf Channel: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Featured groups: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, June 21 Peacock: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Featured groups: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ( PGA Champs App) NBC: 1:30-6 p.m. Sunday, June 22 Peacock: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Featured groups: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ( PGA Champs App) NBC: 3-6 p.m.
