CP Women’s Open

Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Aug. 25-28, 2022

Third-Round Notes

Aug. 27, 2022

Course Setup: 36-35—71, 6,065 yards (Scoring Averages: R1, 70.31; R2, 70.63; R3, 70.19)

Weather: Mostly sunny, with highs in the low 70s

Leaderboard

CHOI, AN TIED FOR LEAD HEADING INTO FINAL ROUND AT CP WOMEN’S OPEN

Six weeks ago, Narin An and Hye-Jin Choi played together as teammates at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. Tomorrow in Canada, they’ll again play together, but this time as leading competitors at the CP Women’s Open. An and Choi, both 2022 LPGA Tour rookies who have already tasted victory on the KLPGA Tour, are tied for the lead at -16 through 54 holes, both aiming to become the eighth Rolex First-Time Winner of the 2022 LPGA Tour season.

An, 26, shot a 3-under 68 on Saturday, carding four birdies on the day but also making her first bogey of the week on No. 13. This marks the first time she heads to the final round of an LPGA Tour event atop the leaderboard. “I didn’t like my play today as much as I did yesterday and two days ago. But I think not making any big mistakes is a positive to take away,” said An, who took medalist honors at the 2021 LPGA Q-Series to earn LPGA Tour Membership. ” What was different today was my shots were a bit shaky and some of the putts didn’t go in.”

Choi is not a newcomer at the top of an LPGA Tour leaderboard. As an amateur, she finished third at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open, and she lost in a playoff at the 2020 ISPS Handa Vic Open. Add two top-five finishes in 2022 major championships and it feels like the 23-year-old is due to finally grab her first LPGA Tour win. Her 5-under 66 on Saturday was tied for the low round of the day, despite opening with a three-putt bogey on No. 1.

“I got to the green in two on two par 5s, and felt comfortable getting low scores,” said Choi. “Early on today though, it was a bit shaky with the shot not feeling well, but in the latter half of the round, the same feeling when I was hitting well came back. Shots felt comfortable and I putted with more confidence and that led to a good result.”

South Africa’s Paula Reto continued her solid play on Saturday, shooting a bogey-free 67 to hold down solo third at -15. Like An and Choi, Reto is looking for the first win of her LPGA Tour career, but hers would come in her ninth season. “It was a good day today kind of overall, but I’m excited for tomorrow,” said Reto, who added that she worked on her putting with noted Canadian coach Gareth Raflewski this week. “I’m going to try to do the same routine.”

Americans Sarah Schmelzel and Nelly Korda are tied for fourth at -14. With a win, Korda is projected to move to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for the first time since Jan. 30, 2022, just before she was sidelined for four months due to a blood clot in her left arm.

A trio of players are tied for sixth at -12, including Danielle Kang, who is playing in her first event since June after undergoing treatment for a tumor on her spine.

Brooke Henderson said on Friday she needed to go low on Moving Day to have a chance to win her second CP Women’s Open. It looked early like she was well on her way, playing her first nine in 2 under. But a missed green at No. 12 led to her first bogey of the day, and on the next hole, Henderson made double bogey after finding water off the tee. A three-putt bogey at the par-3 15th gave the Canadian superstar a 2-over 73 on Saturday and dropped her into a tie for 60th at -3 overall.

“I feel like I’m hitting the ball well. Obviously made a couple mistakes that cost me big on the back nine today. But for the most part, giving myself so many birdie looks and the putter hasn’t been there. Some weeks are just like that,” said Henderson. “I’m honored to be out here in front of so many people and excited that they want to come watch me play golf. You know, hopefully I can just finish strong tomorrow.”

WITH A WIN

Narin An, Hye-Jin Choi, Paula Reto or Sarah Schmelzel would become the eighth Rolex First-Time Winner of the 2022 LPGA Tour season and the third consecutive first-time winner, following Ashleigh Buhai (AIG Women’s Open) and Maja Stark (ISPS Handa World Invitational)

If a Rolex First-Time Winner takes the title, it would be the first time the LPGA Tour has seen three consecutive first-time winners since 2008 (Yani Tseng, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship; Eun-Hee Ji, Wegmans LPGA; Inbee Park, U.S. Women’s Open)

Narin An or Hye-Jin Choi would become the fourth 2022 LPGA Tour rookie to win this season, joining Atthaya Thitikul (JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol), Ayaka Furue (Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open) and Maja Stark (ISPS Handa World Invitational)

Paula Reto would be the season’s second winner from South Africa, joining Ashleigh Buhai (AIG Women’s Open)

Nelly Korda would move to No. 1 in Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings; she must win to regain the top spot in the Rankings

THREE DAYS OF STEADY PLAY PUTS SARAH SCHMELZEL IN CONTENTION

As the saying goes, ‘slow and steady wins the race.’ If that race is the CP Women’s Open, then Sarah Schmelzel has the ‘steady’ part down. Over the first three rounds, she has quietly crept up the leaderboard to land in a tie for fourth, just two shots out of the lead, going into championship Sunday. After posting an impressive bogey-free 64 on Friday, the American found herself closer to the pinnacle of the leaderboard than she has been in a while. She bettered her birdie pace on Saturday with eight circles on the card, but she just couldn’t keep the bogeys at bay, finishing with a 5-under 66.

“Being a little closer to the lead than I have been in the while, I started off a little nervous but fortunately had a really long putt go in on 1, had another one on 2. I told my caddie on the fairway on 4, I’m pretty nervous right now, and he just kind of calmed me down,” she said, “From then he just said, it’s not over until it’s over. Even if I made a bogey I felt like I could birdie the next hole, which I kind of went back and forth a bunch on the back nine doing that.”

Her putter was clearly working for her on Saturday as she only needed 25 putts to finish the round, the fewest in the field. It’s a nice change of place, she says, to play well enough to be in contention. This season, her fourth on the LPGA Tour, has been average. She got off to a hot start with a solo third in the second event, the LPGA Drive On Championship at Crown Colony, and she has made 14 of 17 cuts, but it’s been less than ideal overall. Now she’s near the top of the leaderboard, and she believes that her attitude is everything.

“Obviously just a new position for me a little bit,” she said. “I’ve been middle of the pack for most of the year, so just kind of getting comfortable (is key). I think that was a big key today, was just keeping a positive attitude, trying to fight until the finish… Tomorrow, just try and be calm, play like I have nothing to lose.”

PAULA RETO FINDS A WAY AT CP WOMEN’S OPEN

Sometimes your game clicks on all cylinders. Every drive looks like it’s hugging the centerline and every iron shot feels flush the second you make contact. You see the lines on the greens as if they’d been painted for you, and your brain instinctively knows how hard to hit each and every putt. On those days you shoot career-low scores and course records, like the 62 Paula Reto fired on Thursday, the lowest score in her nine seasons on the LPGA Tour by a couple of shots.

But other days, you don’t feel it. Certain clubs seem like foreign objects in your hands and the fairways, once so easily found, look like bowling lanes.

It is those days when experience and determination make all the difference; when grinding out a good score requires a mixture of imagination and fortitude; when you have to keep your wits about you while searching for some feel, some key to get through your day.

That was Reto’s round on Saturday, a bogey-free 67 that looked, at times, like it could have been a couple of shots better and, at other times, looked like she could have gone sideways in a second.

“Obviously, like those times when you go low like that, it’s just the putts drop and everything you see goes in,” Reto said of the 62 early in the week. “Sometimes you’re trying to think that is good, but I need to stay patient. Not all the putts drop.”

For more, visit www.lpga.com/news/2022/paula-reto-finds-a-way-at-cp-womens-open

LINDY DUNCAN BREAKS COURSE RECORD, THEN PLAYS 18 MORE

Lindy Duncan had four holes to go on Friday when play was suspended due to darkness. A morning rain delay of nearly two hours forced players off the course during round two of the CP Women’s Open, and left 36 players, including Duncan, unable to finish before darkness descended. It was an unfortunate situation for the American, who was shooting a bogey-free, 6-under round when the horn went off. But she capitalized on the tough circumstances more than most, making birdies on three of those last four holes when play resumed Saturday morning. In doing so, she tied the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club course record, which had been set during round one by Duncan’s long-time friend Paula Reto.

“It was really tough because we had less than 12 hours between when we finished playing and then when we teed off,” Duncan explained. “I was pretty excited last night because I had played really well. But you just never know what each day will bring, so I tried to just calm down because there was still a long way to go.”

If four holes on Saturday morning was a long way to go, then 18 more in the afternoon must have felt like eons. Her second-round 62 put her at -11 overall and earned her a spot in the final group for the third round. But difficult pin positions and fatigue severely reduced the 31-year-old’s birdie output compared to her second round. Duncan sank just three birdies and made double bogey after sending her tee shot on the tricky par-3 13th into the water.

“That was a shot that I really needed to remind myself of a couple of my keys, my swing keys. I backed off my first attempt because I just wasn’t quite feeling it,” she explained. “Then usually when I do that I’m able to kind of like reset, and I thought that I did a good job of that. It’s just I didn’t do enough of my compensation, and that’s kind of the shot that I hit. And I knew it was going to come out. I was just like, dang it, not the hole with the water.”

Though her third round was less than ideal, Duncan is not totally out of contention yet. She sits tied for sixth, four strokes back heading into the final round. Another 9-under round could put her on top. But even a top-10 finish would be a game changer for her. In 2022, Duncan has only competed in two events and missed the cut in both. A good finish in Ottawa would give her some much-needed Race to the CME points before the second reshuffle of the season following next week’s Dana Open. In fact, Duncan isn’t even in the Dana field, currently sitting as the seventh alternate, but she could get in with a top-10 finish tomorrow. Those things weren’t on her mind after her third round, but they are now.

“Luckily I haven’t thought about that thus far,” she laughed. “It’s the reality of what it is. There is no getting around it. Yeah, if I can stick to the stuff that I’ve been working on, because it’s been doing good, then hopefully I’ll have a great day tomorrow.”

PLAYER NOTES

Rolex Rankings No. 24 Hye-Jin Choi (68-63-66)

• Choi hit 12 of 13 fairways and 16 of 18 greens, with 29 putts
• Choi’s second-round 63 is the lowest round of her LPGA Tour career; her previous best was 64 in the first round of the 2022 Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open and the second round of the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open
• Choi’s 131 is the lowest 36-hole score of her LPGA Tour career, besting the 135s she shot three times so far in 2022
• Choi’s 197 is the lowest 54-hole score of her LPGA Tour career, besting the 206s she shot four times in her career
• This is Choi’s first appearance in the CP Women’s Open
• Choi is a 2022 LPGA Tour rookie; she has made all 18 cuts so far this year, with a best finish of third at the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei and the U.S. Women’s Open presented by ProMedica
• Choi is an 11-time winner on the KLPGA Tour, including the 2019 CreaS F&C KLPGA Championship, one of the tour’s major championships
• 2018 KLPGA Rookie of the Year, and 2018, 2019 and 2020 KLPGA Player of the Year

Rolex Rankings No. 53 Narin An (64-65-68)

• An hit 13 of 13 fairways and 16 of 18 greens, with 31 putts
• An’s 129 is the lowest 36-hole score of her LPGA Tour career, besting the 133 she shot at the 2021 BMW Ladies Championship
• An’s 197 is the lowest 54-hole score of her LPGA Tour career, besting the 202 she shot at the 2021 BMW Ladies Championship
• This is her first appearance in the CP Women’s Open
• This is An’s rookie season on the LPGA Tour; she has made 11 of 16 cuts this year, with a season-best finish of solo third at the JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol
• An is a two-time winner on the KLPGA Tour with victories at the 2020 Autech Carrier Championship and the 2020 Hana Financial Group Championship; she earned two runner-up finishes in 2021 on the KLPGA
• An earned her 2022 LPGA Tour card by earning medalist honors in LPGA Q-Series in 2021

Rolex Rankings No. 142 Paula Reto (62-69-67)

• Reto hit eight of 13 fairways and 13 of 18 greens, with 26 putts
• Reto broke Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club’s course record with her first-round 62; the previous record of 63 was set by Brooke Henderson during the 2017 CP Women’s Open
• Reto’s first-round 62 is the lowest round of her LPGA Tour career; her previous best was a 64 which she shot at the 2016 ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer and the 2015 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship
• Reto’s first-round 62 also ties the low round overall of the 2022 LPGA Tour season and ties the lowest round in CP Women’s Open history.
• Reto’s 198 is the lowest 54-hole score of her LPGA Tour career, besting the 201 she shot at the 2014 Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic
• This is Reto’s sixth appearance in the CP Women’s Open; her best finish of T25 came in 2015 at Vancouver Golf Club
• This is Reto’s ninth season on the LPGA Tour; she has made 13 of 18 cuts this year, with a season-best finish of T9 at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play presented by MGM Rewards
• Reto represented South Africa in the 2016 Rio Olympics and finished T16
• Her best finish on the LPGA Tour is a solo third-place result at the 2014 Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic

SOCIAL MEDIA: #DRIVEON

Tournament: @CPWomensOpen (Twitter, Instagram), #CPWO

LPGA: @LPGA, @LPGAMedia (Twitter); @lpga_tour (Instagram)

TV TIMES (all times Eastern)

Sunday, Aug. 28 – 12:30-1:30 p.m. (NBCSPORTS app, GolfChannel.com and NBCSports.com)

Sunday, Aug. 28 – 1:30-3:30 p.m. (CBS, Paramount+)

TOURNAMENT SCORING RECORDS

18 holes: 62, Song-Hee Kim, second round, 2009; Mo Martin, fourth round, 2018; Paula Reto, first round, 2022; Lindy Duncan, second round, 2022

72 holes: 262, Jin Young Ko, 2019

COURTESY LPGA TOUR COMMUNICATIONS