Three Notes on the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

If you caught any of the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship this weekend, you probably came away thinking Sahalee presents beautifully on television, showing up there with a two-way miss would be a great recipe for a bad time on the golf course, and that Nelly Korda is on a very tough run of form. Here’s what else happened, too:

Amy Yang’s Day – The 75th time was the charm for Amy Yang, who can finally say she’s a major champion after a three-stroke victory at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. While it seemed like every one of her perfect tempo swings ended up in the fairway, she actually ranked 74th in fairways hit.

Amy Yang is inching closer and closer to her first Major win!

Watch LIVE on NBC!#KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/C67aEIfpSR

— KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 23, 2024

She more than made up the difference via her short game, with a 76% scrambling rate helping her finish second in Strokes Gained: Around the Green. The win caps off a 17-year professional career, which has included a dozen top-five finishes at majors. Trying to add a major win to her resume was the main reason she’s still competing after many of her original peers have retired. Surely this was worth the wait.

Olympic Push – A handful of Americans entered the week with one last chance to move into the top-15 of the Rolex Rankings and grab the fourth and final spot at this summer’s Olympics. Prior to play, the LPGA projected that Megan Khang needed to finish solo 31st or better to move from 16th to 15th, and Ally Ewing and Alison Lee needed at least solo-fifth finishes to jump multiple players. Khang and Lee spoke to Sunday TODAY a few weeks ago about potentially becoming Olympians, with Lee commenting that, “It would literally mean the world to me.” But Sahalee’s claustrophobic setup combined with the added stakes of the week did a number on Khang and Lee, who both missed the cut and won’t be making the trip to Paris. Ally Ewing, however, continued her sprint to the qualification deadline. Her T-5 finish was her third straight top-five result, and when new rankings come out on Monday morning Ewing should have done enough to join Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, and Rose Zhang on Team USA.

Sa-hallway – The season-long average for fairways hit on the LPGA tour is 72% (courtesy of Justin Ray). Of the 458 rounds played this week at Sahalee, only 17% (79 rounds) exceeded that average. Sahalee tested the precision of the top players in the women’s game in a way that’s rarely been seen before. While the trees were visually stunning, the outcome of missing fairways was almost always some sort of a punch out, making things feel one-dimensional by week’s end. A special shoutout to Miyu Yamashita, who hit a whopping 84% of fairways en route to finishing tied for second.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.