TOLEDO, Ohio – When the LPGA first came to historic Inverness Club, tee times were posted outside the pro shop, and players were allowed to pull out their cell phones to check live scoring because there were no leaderboards on the course. Or fans. Or ropes.
Danielle Kang insisted that she wouldn’t take out her phone during the final round, but with three holes to play in the LPGA Drive On event last July, she ultimately couldn’t help herself.
Only five players broke par at Inverness when the LPGA returned from a months-long pandemic break. The No. 4-ranked Kang topped France’s Celine Boutier, setting up a preview of the showdown that was to come at the 17th Solheim Cup.
The Drive On event felt like a major in the quality of the course and the way it tested every part of the game. This week’s Solheim Cup at Inverness will feel like a major on steroids, with an electric atmosphere and a Donald Ross design that’s ready to shine.
Danielle Kang holds up the trophy after winning the 2020 LPGA Drive Championship at Inverness Club. Photo by Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports
“The energy here is incredible,” said Kang.
The course is a bit different too, given that it was wet and windy last summer.
“It was soft back then,” said Kang. “Right now it’s pretty firm.”
Kang said she gave someone on the grounds crew at Inverness a Scotty Cameron putter because she asked him to make the greens fast and he did.
“Talking to the maintenance crew, and that’s what I normally do in late afternoons,” said Kang, seeing how the greens are going to roll out, how much firmer it’s going to get, I think that’s the thing that I normally look out for.
“The golf course is a monster of a golf course.”
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Kang came into the media room with her pod: Lizette Salas, Austin Ernst and Jennifer Kupcho. Like Juli Inkster before her, U.S. captain Pat Hurst had players take a behavior profile and then from those results, the dozen players were broken into three pods.
“We’re called the star pod because we are so on different corners of that star,” explained Salas, “and our assistant captain, Angela Stanford, came up with that name, and that’s what makes us strong.
“We can adapt to each other, some better than others, but that’s what practice rounds are all about. We try to see what options we can get, and at the end of the day, we just want the strongest pairings.”
The pods are for playing. When they go back to the team room Ernst said, it shifts to 12 players hanging out.
“They do ask our input, they value our input,” said Salas. “I think they value our voice, which is fantastic, and that takes great leadership. You know, there was a few shifts after the first draft of the pods, and now we’re 100 percent comfortable with it, and we’re going to make the best out of it.”
Kang’s first Solheim Cup was in 2017 at a packed Des Moines Golf and Country Club, and she remembers there being so much red in the gallery that she couldn’t see the red flags on the course. Kang went 3-1-0 that year.
Playing at home, she said, adds more pressure, especially with Team USA vying to win the Cup back after the 2019 loss at Gleneagles. When asked if winning at Inverness gave her extra confidence this week, she said no.
“I’m just normally a confident person. … I’m still confident even if I fail,” she said. “That’s just how I am. Sometimes I fail confidently, and it’s OK. But all I can say is that I’m giving it 110 percent to be here, and I’m going to give it 120 if I can to this team. I’m really excited to tee it up on Saturday.”
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