News

Five Things we Learned: Thursday at the Women’s PGA Championship

Published

2 months ago

Jun 20, 2025

As major championship golf continues its geographic shift from the northeast USA to other regions, the PGA of America looks to make a statement with its selection of sites. The men’s tournament, now in May, certainly needs sites with less weather impact, and looks south and westward. The women’s tournament is a bit freer, as it takes place in mid-June.

One site that both will utilize is the PGA of America’s new, two-course headquarters, Fields Ranch in Frisco, Texas. The East course, a Gil Hanse design, will host six PGA majors in the next dozen years. The men and the senior men will visit the course twice, but it is the women who christen the course this week, with their PGA Championship. Fields Ranch plays a bit like a Scottish links, a bit like west Texas hardpan, and it will take creativity and patience to have yourself a week.

It is appropriate that the ladies should usher in a new era of PGA Championship golf, and we are happy to share the five things that we learned on Thursday at the Women’s PGA Championship 2025.

1. We’ve been expecting you

There are four players, tied for third place at two-under par, who merit our attention. Hae Ran Ryu has LPGA wins each of the past three seasons. Rio Takeda has wins in 2024 and 2025. Yealimi Noh has one LPGA win, and Somi Lee has yet to ascend the victor’s podium. Each must be considered for contention, as each navigated her way around a course that beguiled some, frustrated others, and conquered more.

Takeda, Ryu, and Noh each amassed four birdies against two bogeys, while Lee posted three against one. What this tells us is … very little. None of the four demonstrated the potential to light up the course with a low-60s round. Until they get to know the course, the competitors will need to be content with strategic strikes, and not an all-out assault. Too many hazards and too much rough lay in wait for the risky plays.

Somi Lee goes back-to-back with birdies on 7 & 8!

Scoring: https://t.co/bjEQKZhEU2 #KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/KzKRhgvyRo

— KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 19, 2025

2. Scratching our heads

Not everyone with pedigree found Fields Ranch East to their liking on day one. Lydia Ko, the superstar of 2024, opened with a birdie, then played the rest of the round in +4. She was joined at 75 by Maja Stark, winner of the US Open earlier this month. Stark was plus-five after six holes, including a triple bogey at the second. She clawed her way back, making four birdies against two bogeys over the final segment of the course.

Joining them in the What Happened? echelon are Celine Boutier and Jennifer Kupcho (+4), Patty Tavatanakit and Nasa Hataoka (+5), and Lilia Vu and Charley Hull (+6 and beyond.) Fields Ranch East is precisely the sort of course that asks you to limit miscues and bad judgment. It offers a few birdie opportunities, but essentially demands a healthy respect for regulation figures and Grandma Par.

3. Pleased to meet you

Take your pick of the following names: Yuna Nishimura; Peiyun Chien; Chisato Iwai; Kumkang Park; Shinsil Bang. If you aren’t familiar with one or more of them, welcome to the LPGA and its constant and consistent influx of new talent. Two of the aforementioned quintet are from Japan, one from Chinese Taipei, and two from Korea. All have a score of 71 in common, after one day of the 2o25 Women’s PGA Championship. None of them should be in contention, but here they are, three shots behind the leader.

As with all the other segments of this installment, none of the fivesome signed for an extraordinary number of birdies. The common thread throughout the first day was: limit the bogeys, avoid the big numbers, and make a few birdies to stay in red figures. I’ve a feeling that at least two of these five will be inside the top seven after day two of this championship.

4. Minjee Lee

Minjee Lee began and ended round one with a bogey. The two-time major champion added another pair of whoopsies along the way, but managed to scratch seven birdies from the firm fairways and greens north of Dallas. On the opening hole, Lee was forced to pitch out from the rough after her tee shot strayed left. A wayward third left her scrambling, and her fourth sailed past the hole by sixteen feet. That bogey ignited something, as Lee made five birdies from holes three through ten. Her march to the finish was checkered, with a bit of everything. Three pars, two birdies, and three bogeys brought her to the clubhouse at three-under par, good for solo second after one round. She enters day two one shot behind the leader.

Minjee owns an Evian and a US Open, and a third, unique major would elevate her to a new level of champion. We’ve seen the necessary game, and we believe that she might have it this week. Does she believe it? Does she have faith?

The best shots from PGA Frisco, at your fingertips, on Champcast.
@TMobile | @KPMG pic.twitter.com/QujScR95P3

— KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 19, 2025

5. Jeeno Thitikul

If Minjee’s round was filled with excitement and drama, Jeeno Thitikul provided the counterpart. After four pars to open her round, Thitikul fired a loose drive into the right-side hazard on number five. Four swings later, she had a mind-numbing double. She did not cave. At seven, she began a string of five consecutive birdies, to reach three-under par. Over the final stretch, Thitikul was rock-solid, posting one birdie and five pars to close her day.

One might extrapolate that LPGA stands for Ladies Parity Golf Association, as no one dominates the tour and its majors for more than one or two years. Of the younger players, Jeeno Thitikul certainly has the game to put together a 4-5 win season, with two majors. The question is, what will it take to awaken that dominance? Perhaps this week, we’ll find out.

Bonus

It’s the scrambling (and the need to do so) that will ultimately determine the winner of the 2025 Women’s PGA Championship. Fields Ranch East is a bump-and-run Elysian Field around the putting surfaces. Bunker floors are situated well below green surfaces, and all recovery shots will need room to run out. It’s quite easy to seep five to ten feet past the hole, forcing a par-saving putt from beyond tap-in distance.

News

Tour Rundown: Bend, but don’t break

Published

3 weeks ago

Aug 4, 2025

Ronald Montesano

I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear

OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.

LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break

Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.

Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.

On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.

On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.

On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.

PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home

Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.

On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?

Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.

Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?

PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates

Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.

Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.

Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.

Card III and Bacha both miss their birdie tries on the first playoff hole.

We’ll play 18 again @OspreyOpen. pic.twitter.com/vNpHTdkHDg

— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) August 3, 2025

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

Published

4 weeks ago

Jul 29, 2025

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.

Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

News

BK’s Breakdowns: Kurt Kitayama’s Winning WITB, 3M Open

Published

4 weeks ago

Jul 28, 2025

Brian Knudson

Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX

3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX

7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0PT

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)