NEWS
By KEVIN COWHERD | June 15, 2009
The McDonald's LPGA Championship said goodbye to Bulle Rock in improbable fashion Sunday, with a Swedish rookie named Anna Nordqvist earning her first tour victory on a sun-splashed afternoon in Harford County. But don't let all the hugs and champagne-popping scene on the 18th hole fool you. Women's golf is struggling. Forget the fact that the LPGA Championship still doesn't have a home for 2010. Forget that there are open dates on this year's schedule. Forget that major sponsors, whacked by the recession, are pulling out in droves.
NEWS
By Kevin Van Valkenburg | June 15, 2009
In general, it's pretty hard to figure out what's going on inside Anna Nordqvist's head. The 6-foot-tall, 22-year-old from Eskilstuna, Sweden, has what can fairly be called a stoic, Nordic personality. It's rare to see outward displays of emotion from her on the golf course, whether it's joy or frustration. Like a mannequin's in a department store window, her expression often seems frozen in thought, or fixed on the horizon. But in the closing holes of the McDonald's LPGA Championship on Sunday at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, little bits of life began to bubble to the surface.
NEWS
By Kevin Cowherd | June 15, 2009
The McDonald's LPGA Championship said goodbye to Bulle Rock in improbable fashion Sunday, with a Swedish rookie named Anna Nordqvist earning her first tour victory on a sun-splashed afternoon in Harford County. But don't let all the hugs and champagne-popping scene on the 18th hole fool you. Women's golf is struggling. Forget the fact that the LPGA Championship still doesn't have a home for 2010. Forget that there are open dates on this year's schedule. Forget that major sponsors, whacked by the recession, are pulling out in droves.
NEWS
By Ken Murray | June 14, 2009
Less than 24 hours after she struggled to avoid the cut, Irene Cho blistered Bulle Rock for a 7-under-par 65 on Saturday and climbed into contention for the McDonald's LPGA Championship in Havre de Grace. The fine line between failure and success, not surprisingly, was in her head. "I think I just tried to hit every shot the best I could, and if I did hit a bad shot, you've got to let it go," Cho, from La Habra, Calif., said of the difference in her play. Except for a bogey on the 18th on Saturday, Cho would have tied the course record of 64 set in 2006 by Nicole Castrale.
NEWS
By Kevin Van Valkenburg | June 13, 2009
Katherine Hull gets it. She understands the layman's perspective. She knows there are people watching the LPGA Championship who aren't rooting for players like her to win her first major. They want to see Michelle Wie or Natalie Gulbis or Paula Creamer in the mix, the tour's young and marketable stars who are expected to carry golf into the post-Annika Sorenstam era. But sports don't work that way. Endorsement contracts, swimsuit calendars and expectations don't hit the golf ball. That will forever remain up to the players.
NEWS
By Kevin Van Valkenburg | June 9, 2009
Golfer Paige MacKenzie was killing time on her Twitter page recently, taking a break from getting ready for this week's McDonald's LPGA Championship in Havre de Grace, when she noticed something fellow LPGA Tour member Jeehae Lee had written from the airport. Lee was hoping to fly to Baltimore, and was now hopelessly confused and seemed a little panicked. Is there a good reason why these people at the gate are saying baltimore, washington? Lee wrote. Am I missing something? Oh rookie, MacKenzie quickly Tweeted back, you're going to BWI-Baltimore/Washington.
NEWS
By Kevin Cowherd | June 8, 2009
Here's what you have to love about the LPGA: a player who stands 5 feet 2 and weighs as much as a Keebler elf is the talk of the tour this morning. This would be South Korean In-Kyung Kim, who is all of 20 and who won the State Farm Classic by a stroke over Se Ri Pak on Sunday, creating all sorts of buzz for this week's McDonald's LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock in Harford County. Did you see Kim's spunky performance? In only her second tour victory, she managed four birdies on the front nine and then birdied 11, 13, 17 and 18 to shoot a 7-under-par 65, no small feat given the gusty conditions and tricky greens at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Ill. And wonder of wonders, she actually seemed to be having a good time closing out the win, something we haven't seen since Rocco Mediate smiled and yukked it up at last year's men's U.S. Open, when he went head-to-head - and lost - against Tiger Woods.
NEWS
By Don Markus | June 9, 2008
As a relatively unknown teenager from Taiwan, Yani Tseng beat Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel to win prestigious amateur tournaments in successive years. It was merely a prelude to what happened yesterday at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace. Tseng, who joined the LPGA Tour earlier this year at age 19, won the McDonald's LPGA Championship, watching as Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam faltered down the stretch and then celebrating after Tseng beat Swedish veteran Maria Hjorth on the fourth hole of sudden death.
NEWS
By DAVID STEELE | June 9, 2008
So much for the orderly transfer of power. Late yesterday afternoon, Lorena Ochoa worked her way through the crowd that was cheering her and chanting her name as she headed off Bulle Rock's 18th green and to the scorer's trailer. About 15 minutes later, Annika Sorenstam made the same trek, except the crowds were cheering even louder. The cheers were not for the victor. The victor was still playing, heading back to the 18th tee for the playoff to decide the McDonald's LPGA Championship.
NEWS
By Don Markus | June 8, 2008
With two of the sport's biggest names in contention going into yesterday's third round of the McDonald's LPGA Championship, you would figure that either Lorena Ochoa or Annika Sorenstam would somehow find her way to the top of the leader board at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace. Ochoa and Sorenstam remain in contention, but they have some catching up to do. Jee Young Lee, 22, a South Korean with a string of top-10 finishes in major championships, followed a 7-under-par 65 by Maria Hjorth of Sweden with one of her own to reach 12-under 204 and take a one-stroke lead over Hjorth going into today's final round.