Frisco, Texas – no LPGA player was more involved in the manufacture of KPMG Women’s PGA Championship that Stacy Lewis. In fact, when this championship met a decade ago for the first time, the former president of KPMG, John Veihmeyer, said that the involvement of the company would not have arrived if it had not established a relationship with Lewis.
Thus, when the double major champion and former n ° 1 offers critical comments on this week’s championship, Rass assures that she has thought about it a lot.
Tour 1 of the female KPMG PGA at Fields Ranch East took more than six hours for those who finished late during the day, including the Paon Lexi Thompson group, Yemimi Noh and Yuka Saso. There were 25 -minute expectations on the by 3, with several groups supported in numbers 8 and 13.
The slow gaming problem, says Lewis, is a configuration problem, and it was more at the same thing in the second round.
“Today, it was only hole locations, on the sides of the hills,” said Lewis, who will not play on weekends. “Then you throw the wind in there, there was no way to stop it again on n ° 8 today. We should play in front of this tee, probably 120 meters … I cannot hold green.”
Women played the eighth hole at 157 yards on Friday and less than 20% of the land struck him in regulation.
After Lydia Ko struck a beauty in the green on the n ° 8 Friday evening which did not stop, NBC analyst, Morgan Pressl, said that it was a configuration of a hole that had not rewarded good shots.
“Not my favorite thing to see,” she added.
Golf Channel analyst and PGA Tour Brandel Chamblee winner has long thought that LPGA configurations are far too long, noting several times on recent programs to Us Women’s Open. The famous accessible 5 which often causes a lot of drama in the male game – like the 18th in Pebble Beach – are often three stroke holes for women.
The average of 75.58 marked on Thursday was the fifth most difficult day during a major LPGA championship in the last 10 seasons. The average for Friday is now the highest average in majors in a decade.
As a player, Lewis does not really care if 12 under winning a major. What worries him is whether the golf course plays or not as it was designed to be played. So often, she believes that civil servants put the t-shirts to go to a total number of meters.
“Play almost back,” said Lewis about how it should be done. “You see a green, ok which club should we make them enter this hole, and let’s find a box of tee that brings us.”
She would also like to see the bunker in the middle of the fairway on the 18th being deleted. The hole, which gives an embarrassing tee shooting for players who cannot hit the TEE pilot without crossing the fairway but cannot bring the bunker to 237 yards with a wood of 3, gave more double than the birds the first two laps.
The officials had to change the ninth and 18th holes for the event to make room for hospitality. The PGA Senior 2023 ended on one by 5 feasible. The two nine will be completely switched to the PGA 2027 championship to accommodate hospitality in the section.
One of the unique aspects of Gil Hanse’s design, which opened in 2023, is that there are no traditional tee boxes. Hanse used what he calls t-shirts of ribbons, which offer a lot of flexibility because they are essentially extensions of the fairway. So much so that it can be difficult to find a flat place to assemble the ball.
Friday, Fields Ranch East was installed at 6,532 yards, when winds won up to 30 MPH and the temperatures increased in the triple figures. They will be able to withdraw it from 8,000 yards for men one day if you wish, a modern design at the home of the PGA in America which, as Jerry Kelly said during the PGA Senior 2023, is “to the test of the future”.
Madelene Sagstrom in Sweden said she had heard mixed criticism of players on Fields Ranch East, which will host the PGA championship in 2027 and the KPMG once again in 2031.
“I think you can be rewarded for good shots,” said Sagstrom. “You are definitely punished for bad shots, so it’s good. It’s in good condition.”
The rough of the Bermuda Northbridge is criminal. Lack a fairway by a few inches and it may be necessary to stop while the ball sinks out of sight.
The main champion Ashleigh Buhai said that his group noted that there were a lot of pins on Sunday Thursday, although she loved the challenge.
“I don’t mind,” said Buhai. “You have to think. I don’t mind using my brain and having to hit the different photos. Sometimes leaving it 30 feet is a good blow. ”
Angel Yin had a resolutely different catch, telling Scribes on Thursday that she thought it was quite boring.
“It’s just a little repetitive,” said Yin, “and there are challenges, but it’s very subtle.”
Lewis disagreed with Yin’s “boring” socket, but said she had heard a certain number of disappointed players.
“We had such a good race with this championship during very good golf courses, then we come here,” said Lewis, referring to recent sites such as Baltusrol, Atlanta Athletic Club, Congressional and Sahalee.
“The problem of this too is to make us look good,” she continued. “We are trying to bring more people to look at the female golf course, and to look at us playing golf, and configurations like this, they do not help us.
“And that’s when we have our biggest scenes, network television and all that, and we make very good silly players.”
