RIYADH: Englishwoman Charley Hull moved back into contention in the Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by PIF with a 4-under-par 68 on Saturday, despite her hotel room flooding during the night.
The world No. 8 ended the day in a share of third on 7 under for the tournament.
But it was not all plain sailing for the Solheim Cup heavyweight after heavy rains and thunderstorms disrupted her sleep and morning preparations.
“I had to have plumbers in from 1 a.m. until 3:30 a.m. in the morning,” she said. “After that I didn’t really fancy getting up to do too much of a workout, but I’m certainly much more awake now after that round.”
Hull recently introduced a new fitness regime as she chases her first major.
Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit completed a calm and composed round of 3 under to maintain her position at the top of the leaderboard at 11 under, three strokes clear of Germany’s Esther Henseleit.
Now in a prime position to secure her first win since the 2021 ANA Championship, the Thai star was clear on what she had to do.
“You’re thinking about it, so what are you going to do about those thoughts? Tomorrow, all I want to do is make the right choices for each and every shot. Whatever it is that I’m going to face, I’m up for it,” she said.
Henseleit jumped into second place on the leaderboard with a blistering round of 7 under, outplaying her compatriot Alexandra Forsterling, who shot five under to end the day in a share of 15th.
Heinseleit thanked her coach, and fiance, Reece Phillips for his role in her ongoing development.
“He’s been helping me a lot with my swing over the last three years and it looks completely different now,” she said. “We have a good system now out there and it’s good to have someone like that on the bag.”
Former event champion Emily Pedersen shot 6 under on Saturday to move into a tie for third with Hull. The Danish No. 1 said she was hoping to make the most of the opportunity she had created.
“It was special for me to win (in Saudi Arabia) five years ago, so it would mean a lot to win again and, obviously, that’s what I’m here for,” she said.
Another former event winner, Georgia Hall, shot 3 under on Saturday to end the day in a tie for seventh place.
With plenty of big names still in the running for the largest prize fund of any Ladies European Tour event outside the majors everything looks set for a grandstand finish on Sunday.
Floods fail to dampen Hull’s performance at Aramco Saudi Ladies International
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Floods fail to dampen Hull’s performance at Aramco Saudi Ladies International
- Englishwoman shoots 4-under-par 68 to move into 3rd despite sleepless night
- Thailand’s Tavatanakit tops leaderboard, as Henseleit moves into second
Nelly Korda leads Americans to a record-setting 6-2 margin on first day of Solheim Cup
- Korda has never won a Solheim Cup in three tries, but she put the US in a strong position to end that drought by winning the leadoff match of each session Friday
- The US also led 6-2 in the inaugural event in 1990, when the first eight matches were played over two days
GAINESVILLE, Virginia: Nelly Korda danced at the urging of teammate Megan Khang as they walked off the first tee together at the Solheim Cup after a pep talk from former President Barack Obama. Then she let Khang raise her arms to pump up the crowd as they walked to the 12th green following another sterling shot from the world’s top-ranked player.
Korda has never won a Solheim Cup in three tries, but she put the US in a strong position to end that drought by winning the leadoff match of each session Friday while helping the Americans to a 6-2 lead over Europe at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.
A Solheim Cup that began with an unforced error by organizers, who didn’t have enough shuttle buses to transport fans to the course in the early morning hours, concluded its first day with the largest single-day lead by either team.
The US also led 6-2 in the inaugural event in 1990, when the first eight matches were played over two days.
“We played opponents that are playing fantastic golf, that’s No. 1. Sometimes we almost invite them to play even better,” European captain Suzann Pettersen said. “At the same time, we have to face reality, and we have a massive job to do.”
In her better-ball match with Khang, Korda played 14 holes in 8 under and made two eagles on the back nine, the first after her 5-iron approach on the 480-yard, par-5 12th settled 2 feet away. Europe’s Georgia Hall conceded that putt, and Korda holed a 10-footer for eagle on No. 14 to close out a 6-and-4 victory over Hall and Leona Maguire.
A six-time winner on the LPGA Tour this year, including her second major championship, Korda came into the Solheim Cup with a 7-4-1 record. But Europe captured the trophy each time, winning in 2019 in Scotland and 2021 in Ohio before retaining the Cup last year with a draw in Spain. Neither side has captured the Cup four times in a row.
Korda can’t win it on her own — the US needs 14 1/2 points over three days — but she’s certainly a key figure for captain Stacy Lewis on a PGA Tour-tested course that favors power and appears to suit her eye. Korda won 16 holes in her matches, the most by one Solheim Cup player in a single day since 2015.
She knew she could play aggressively with the accurate Khang as her partner.
“When you have a teammate who’s so pure off the tee, you never have to worry. You just kind of send it,” Korda said. “So that was kind of the motto, is I was going to go first and send it.”
Lewis also got strong contributions from her two rookies, sending Lauren Coughlin and Sarah Schmelzel out for both sessions and watching them win three points. Coughlin and Rose Zhang beat Celine Boutier and Albane Valenzuela 3 and 2 in alternate shot, while Schmelzel and Lilia Vu topped Linn Grant and Carlota Ciganda by the same score. The rookies paired up for better ball and beat Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark 3 and 2.
“I don’t think, at least to me, it was a surprise that we played really well, because we’ve been doing it all year,” said Coughlin, a two-time winner this summer.
Zhang, winless in her debut last year, went 2-0 on Friday. She teamed in the afternoon with Andrea Lee, whose approach on the 14th grazed the cup — just missing an albatross — to close a 5-and-4 win over Grant and Charley Hull.
“Things went according to plan today,” Lewis said.
Meanwhile, Pettersen got nothing from her best two players. Boutier, the top-ranked European at No. 10 in the world, was rested after her morning loss, and No. 12 Hull went 0-2.
The matches began quietly under overcast skies, with half-empty grandstands surrounding the first tee when Europe’s Esther Henseleit struck the opening tee shot at 7:05 a.m. Fans complained they were stuck for hours with no access to restrooms while waiting for bus rides to the sprawling property about 40 miles west of Washington, D.C., prompting an apology from the LPGA Tour.
Teamed with Allizen Corpuz in the opening alternate-shot match, Korda was steady on the back nine while German rookie and Olympic silver medalist Henseleit faltered. The Americans won the 14th and 15th holes with pars and then closed out Henseleit and Hull 3 and 2 when Korda hit her approach to 5 feet on the par-3 16th.
Korda and Corpuz became the first American duo to win three straight alternate-shot matches after they went 2-0 in the format last year.
The grandstands were full when the afternoon matches began, and the crowds tried in vain to urge on Lexi Thompson in what’s likely her final Solheim Cup as a player. Thompson and Alison Lee lost their better-ball match 6 and 5 to the Swedish duo of Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom, who wore matching bucket hats and had Sagstrom’s new husband, Jack Clarke, carrying Nordqvist’s bag.
Nordqvist, an assistant captain for Europe who is playing in her ninth Solheim Cup, made six birdies through 13 holes as the pair never trailed.
“I feel like I’ve been the wedding crasher lately. I crashed her wedding last week, and this week I’m crashing her and my caddie Jack’s honeymoon,” Nordqvist said. “We just had a lot of fun out there together.”
LIV golfer Jon Rahm appeals European tour fines and is clear to play in the Spanish Open
- Rahm’s formal appeal was a pivotal move because it allows him a chance to reach the minimum four European tour starts required to be considered for the Ryder Cup next year
- European tour: Jon Rahm has a pending appeal against sanctions imposed on him and in accordance with the DP World Tour’s Regulations, he is eligible to participate in the (Spanish Open) later this month
NEW YORK: Jon Rahm on Thursday appealed the European tour sanctions against him for playing the LIV Golf circuit, allowing him to play the Spanish Open and other European tour events until an independent panel decides if he must pay fines.
Rahm’s formal appeal was a pivotal move because it allows him a chance to reach the minimum four European tour starts required to be considered for the Ryder Cup next year.
Rahm, a former Masters champion and world No. 1, joined the Saudi-funded league late last year for a signing bonus reported to be in the $300 million to $400 million range.
Other players who defected to LIV, Tyrrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk, are going through the same appeal and are allowed into tournaments as the process plays out.
Hatton played the British Masters two weeks ago. Both are entered in the Spanish Open.
The European tour said in a statement, “Jon Rahm has a pending appeal against sanctions imposed on him and in accordance with the DP World Tour’s Regulations, he is eligible to participate in the (Spanish Open) later this month.”
The DP World Tour is the commercial name of the European tour.
“I don’t intend to pay the fines, and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen,” Rahm said on Wednesday from LIV Golf Chicago, where he is battling Joaquin Niemann for the individual title worth $18 million to the winner.
Rahm said he has entered the Dunhill Links Championship and the Andalucia Masters. That would give him four starts because the Olympics counts toward the minimum.
The appeals process is the same as it was when several Europeans first joined LIV Golf in the summer of 2022. An independent panel, Sport Resolutions, ruled in April 2023 the players committed serious breaches and the European tour was within its rights to penalize them.
“I’m glad Jon decided to appeal and he can play his events in which he wants to play and be eligible,” European captain Luke Donald said Thursday from the Irish Open. “I know the Ryder Cup means so much to him, and I’m sure that was a massive factor in his decision.”
Rahm is primarily opposed to being fined for playing LIV events opposite tournaments he had never played or did not intend to play. Among European tour events opposite LIV this year were stops in Bahrain, South Africa, Japan, China and the Czech Republic.
“He has his thoughts and he doesn’t agree with the fines and paying fines, especially for events that he would never have played on the DP World Tour. But those rules are the rules, and they were certainly in place when he signed with LIV,” Donald said.
Donald said he hoped golf’s landscape would be different before the September 2025 matches at Bethpage Black. Executives with the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia met this week in New York to continue negotiations about PIF becoming a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises and what that would mean for players on both sides.
The tour and PIF first had a framework agreement announced in June 2023.
“I’ll take today as a nice little victory for me personally to know that Jon is eligible and can play his three events now,” Donald said. “What happens in the future, I can’t tell. What happens in 15 months, I think all of us thought something more would happen.”
Revered by teammates, captain and US fans, Lexi Thompson hopes for a win in her final Solheim Cup
- Thompson and Alison Lee are the only players on the American squad who’ve won a Solheim Cup, which the US last captured in 2017 in Iowa
- The US is favored statistically, with the top two players in the world in Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu and an average world ranking of 26.75 to Europe’s 40.5
GAINESVILLE, Virginia: Lexi Thompson worked her way down the rope line between the second and third holes at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on Thursday, signing dozens of hats, flags and golf balls. The fans on the other side, worried they would miss their chance with the US Solheim Cup team’s most popular player, began chanting, “Lexi! Lexi!”
Thompson obliged, finally informing her still-waiting supporters, “Sorry, guys, I’ve got to go hit, OK?” There was a practice round to play, after all. But then she stopped again to sign the hats of two school-age girls and the vest of a service dog.
“We’re excited for you, and we’re excited for your retirement,” one fan told Thompson. “Enjoy life.”
The Solheim Cup begins Friday at this battle-tested venue about 40 miles west of Washington, D.C., that has hosted four Presidents Cups. And if it’s truly Thompson’s last as a player, she’s going out on top — at least in the eyes of American fans, teammates and captain Stacy Lewis.
There was never a doubt that Lewis would select Thompson to play in her seventh consecutive Solheim Cup. Although the 29-year-old hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour in five years, she brings power, proficiency in the tricky alternate-shot format and — rare on this US team — memories of hoisting the trophy in the biennial team competition against Europe.
Thompson and Alison Lee are the only players on the American squad who’ve won a Solheim Cup, which the US last captured in 2017 in Iowa. Europe won in 2019 in Scotland and 2021 in Ohio and retained the cup last year with a 14-14 draw in Spain. The event returns a year later — with Lewis and European captain Suzann Pettersen reprising their roles — to move back to even-numbered years and avoid the Ryder Cup.
The Solheim Cup dates to 1990, and no team has captured it four straight times. Also, neither side has won twice in a row on foreign soil.
The US is favored statistically, with the top two players in the world in Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu and an average world ranking of 26.75 to Europe’s 40.5. While Europe’s biggest margin of victory in the past three events was two points, it has gotten strong contributions from the likes of Carlota Ciganda (4-0 last year) and Leona Maguire (7-2-1 in the last two).
“The US team, they’ve been playing better than us on paper,” Ciganda said. “But I think this week is different.”
Lewis made “Unfinished Business” her team’s motto this year, and Pettersen, too, has tweaked her approach after neither side was fully satisfied with its performance in Spain. The US got off to a strong start in alternate shot, typically a strength for Europe, but was unable to maintain that advantage.
“We put a lot of emphasis last year on alternate shot, which you guys saw in the result,” Lewis said. “Looking back, was it maybe too much? Probably.”
Lewis shook things up with her foursomes pairings for Friday morning’s opening session. She announced Thursday she would send out rookies Lauren Coughlin (with Rose Zhang) and Sarah Schmelzel (with Vu) and bench Thompson, who is 9-7-7 overall in six Solheim Cups and 5-2-1 in alternate shot. Korda was tapped for the leadoff match alongside Allizen Corpuz, with Charley Hull and rookie Esther Henseleit as Europe’s opening team.
Four better-ball matches will be played Friday afternoon, with more alternate-shot and better-ball matches on Saturday and 12 singles matches on Sunday. Europe needs 14 points to retain the cup, while the US needs 14 1/2 to win it.
Lewis said finding alternate-shot duos who use the same or similar golf balls was important — even though the brand of ball doesn’t seam to matter to Thompson.
“She’s one of those you could literally pair with anybody, and she’s like, ‘I’ll figure it out,’” Lewis said. “She was testing a golf ball the other day that was going like 7 or 8 yards shorter with the wedge. She’s like, ‘It’s OK, I’m just going to get my numbers, it’s good.’ Where anybody else would just be freaking out.”
Thompson’s career could be remembered just as much for near-misses in major championships as for her 11 LPGA victories and one major. As generous as she can be with fans and sponsors, she is in some ways a reluctant star. Guarded with the media, she declined again this week to detail her plans for the semi-retirement she announced earlier this year.
“I’m just going to take it day by day, take some time for myself, and see how I feel after that,” Thompson said.
The team format, where success isn’t measured by individual strokes and she can contribute to others’ success, brings out the best in Thompson.
“I think it is her legacy, is her and the Solheim Cup. Just the way she is with the crowd and the fans, this event is Lexi to a T. ... She plays better golf here,” Lewis said. “She’s going to do whatever it takes to win, and I wish I had 12 of them.”
Yang wins first PGA Tour Champions title in a playoff over Langer. Wallace wins in Switzerland
- Matt Wallace of England won his first European tour title in six years when he closed with an even-par 70
ST. LOUIS: Y.E. Yang forced a playoff with a 6-foot par putt for a 5-under 66 and made a 10-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole against Bernhard Langer to win the Ascension Charity Classic on Sunday for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
The 67-year-old Langer was trying to win for the 18th consecutive season on the 50-and-older circuit and nearly did. He hit a shot out of the rough to 15 feet on the 18th hole at Norwood Hills and made birdie for a 64.
They finished at 13-under 200.
Yang’s par putt sent them to a playoff at 13-under 200.
Missing from the playoff was Stewart Cink, going for his second straight win on the PGA Tour Champions. He had a one-shot lead until a bogey on the 17th hole, where Yang made birdie for a two-shot swing. Cink shot 67 and finished third.
European Tour
Matt Wallace of England won his first European tour title in six years when he closed with an even-par 70 and made an 8-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat Alfredo Garcia-Heredia in the Omega European Masters.
Garcia-Heredia birdied the 18th hole for a 66 to make up a four-shot deficit against Wallace.
They finished on 11-under 269.
Wallace, who won in the Dominican Republic on the PGA Tour last year to end a five-year drought, picked up his fifth career European tour title.
Andrew “Beef” Johnston had two straight birdies and pulled within one shot until he had to settle for three pars at the end for a 66 to finish alone in third, his best finish in four years.
Other tours
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark earned an instant promotion to the European tour when he won his third Challenge Tour event of the year, closing with an 8-under 64 to rally for a one-shot victory over John Axelsen in the Big Green Egg German Challenge. ... Kensei Hirata won for the second straight week on the Japan Golf Tour, this one over 72 holes, as he closed with a 6-under 66 for a one-shot victory over Travis Smith in the Shinhan Donghae Open. The tournament was tri-sanctioned with the Asian Tour and Korea PGA. Hirata won last week in Japan in a tournament shortened to 36 holes by bad weather. ... Fatima Fernandez Cano of Spain closed with a 5-under 67 for a one-shot victory Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden in the Guardian Championship on the Epson Tour. ... Will Cannon birdied the par-5 18th for a 1-under 69 and a one-shot victory in the Fortinet Cup Championship on the PGA Tour Americas in Canada. ... Rio Takeda held off a late charge from Miyu Yamashita and closed with a 3-under 69 for a one-shot victory in the Sony JLPGA Championship on the Japan LPGA. Yamashita birdied three of her last five holes for a 66. ... Hyunjo Yoo closed with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory in the KB Financial Group Star Championship on the Korea LPGA. ... Greig Hutcheon of France rallied with a 64 for a two-shot victory in the Legends Open de France, is first title on the European Legends Tour.
Scheffler and DeChambeau part of PGA Tour-LIV Golf match in Las Vegas, report says
- Blake Smith of Hambric Sports, who manages Scheffler and Koepka for Hambric Sports, confirmed their appearance and said both were “excited to be part of this unique event”
- Golfweek said the match would be televised by TNT, which previously broadcast nine editions of “The Match”
NEW YORK: Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will take on LIV Golf stars Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas, Golfweek reported Wednesday, the first time outside the majors top players from each circuit will compete against each other.
Blake Smith of Hambric Sports, who manages Scheffler and Koepka for Hambric Sports, confirmed their appearance and said both were “excited to be part of this unique event.”
Among details still to be announced were when in December the match would be held and on which course.
The foursome combined for 13 majors over the last decade. More compelling is that the match brings together players from the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which happens only at the four majors and the Olympics.
The PGA Tour is still negotiating with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — the financial provider of LIV — as a minority investor. There is no indication a deal is close, and it would remain subject to US Department of Justice review. The PGA Tour confirmed last week that anyone competing with LIV is not eligible for a tour event for one year after his last appearance.
Golfweek said the match would be televised by TNT, which previously broadcast nine editions of “The Match.” That was a series of matches that began with Tiger Woods against Phil Mickelson.
McIlroy said in a text to Golfweek the match was “designed to energize the fans.”
“We’re all here to put on a great show and contribute to a goodwill event that brings the best together again,” McIlroy said.
Once the strongest critic of LIV, McIlroy has been lobbying to bring both sides together. He is on a committee negotiating with PIF.
“I get the argument that these guys left and that was their choice and whatever,” McIlroy said, referring to DeChambeau, Koepka and others defecting to Saudi-backed rival league. “I just think that it’s gone on long enough. I think everyone is trying to find a solution. It’s just a solution is hard to get to.”
Golfweek cited two sources saying players will receive an appearance fee but not prize money.
