Tour Confidential: A new major winner, Michelle Wie’s legacy, LPGA yardages

Verify in each week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the most popular matters within the sport, and be part of the dialog by tweeting us @golf_com. This week, we focus on Allisen Corpuz’s U.S. Girls’s Open win, Michelle Wie’s legacyLPGA par-5 yardages and extra.

American Allisen Corpuz shot 69 within the last spherical of the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beachending at 9 beneath general and besting Charley Hull and Jiyai Shin by three. It’s the first career victory for the 25-year-old pro. What caught out to you about her triumph?

Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): She missed two fairways all day, which at a U.S. Girls’s Open is the important thing to maintaining your self in it, and whereas she solely hit 11 greens her proximity to the opening ranked fifth. However these are simply stats. In the event you watched, she simply seemed so composed for somebody who had by no means received on the LPGA. Her pre-shot routine was deliberate, nevertheless it additionally seemed relaxed, like she was enjoying a follow spherical. She wasn’t afraid of the second. Spectacular stuff.

Jack Hirsh, assistant editor (@JR_HIRSHey): Her sport was completely unflappable on the again 9 Sunday. She was lacking it the place she needed to and making the entire putts she wanted to. It was a reasonably boring spherical, however that’s the kind of golf that wins majors, particularly, U.S. Opens. She performed Pebble’s tougher aspect, the again which performed fully into the win, three beneath for the week whereas the remainder of the sector averaged greater than two strokes over every spherical. It’s additionally fairly an excellent recipe for profitable when she was No. 1 in proximity for the week and No. 6 in strokes gained: placing (Thanks Shotlink!).

Jonathan Wall, managing tools editor (@jonathanrwall): I’m with Josh and Jack. To look that relaxed on the again 9 at a significant — enjoying at Pebble Seaside(!!!) — was loopy spectacular. And it simply so occurred to be her first win. The perfect golfers on the earth are practically inconceivable to beat when they’re hitting it shut and making putts. She managed to do each all week, even when the stress was cranked up on Sunday. I absolutely anticipated Charley and Jiyai to get a gap — and it didn’t occur. Her spectacular all-around efficiency makes the win that a lot sweeter.

Whereas Corpuz had her huge second on Sunday night, Michelle Wie West had her time on Friday, making an extended putt for par on the 18th gap and primarily saying goodbye to skilled golf for good. What sort of legacy will Wie West go away behind?

Berhow: I don’t suppose it’s a stretch to say most individuals, in all probability herself included, thought she would have received extra, however a kind of 5 victories was a U.S. Girls’s Open (and at Pinehurst No. 2!), and nobody can ever take that one away. I can also’t think about the stress she handled and the stress she felt making an attempt to satisfy everybody else’s expectations of her. She was always within the highlight. But regardless of the win complete, her impression was nonetheless large. She introduced eyeballs to the sport — each when she performed with the lads and on the LPGA Tour — and impressed numerous younger women to choose up the game. I’ve all the time thought a great way to measure the star energy of a participant is that if their identify alone was sufficient so that you can open up a leaderboard in your telephone and search particularly for his or her place. That’s one thing you probably did for Tiger. One thing you continue to may do for folks like Rory, Brooks or Spieth. You’d try this for Wie, too. Wins for them are huge. And her impression on the game is in no way over. She’s the model ambassador of the Mizuho Americas Open, which is without doubt one of the coolest new occasions on any professional tour. Wie West hasn’t been an everyday on the LPGA Tour for a few years now, however her presence will certainly be missed.

Hirsh: I don’t suppose the story of her legacy has been written but. I noticed photos of her carrying a bucket hat, joggers, high-top golf footwear and an enormous Nike emblem throughout her sweatshirt earlier within the week. I assumed to myself, “Michelle Wie simply has a swag that basically nobody else has.” The sport completely wants extra of that. It’s probably, now that she has stepped away fully from competing, she will be able to focus extra on rising the sport by way of her internet hosting the Mizuho as Josh talked about, by way of her relationship with Nike, and many others. Even in retirement, Michelle Wie nonetheless has the facility to vary the sport for the higher and that could be extra of her lasting legacy than what she ever completed on the course.

Wall: I feel her legacy is in the entire younger Tour professionals who probably used her because the measuring stick rising up. She gave girls’s golf a coolness issue with a contemporary swagger that helped take the LPGA to new heights. Some will level to the very fact she solely received 5 instances throughout her profession and say she fell in need of the lofty expectations that have been bestowed upon her at a younger age. Enjoying in a PGA Tour occasion at 14 will try this to you. As an alternative of specializing in the enjoying resume, I select to take a look at all the ladies she helped introduce to the game. With out Wie West, I don’t suppose the LPGA Tour is within the place it’s at present.

Brandel Chamblee and LPGA participant Mel Reid, on Golf Channel’s Dwell From, expressed their frustration with par-5s being too long on the LPGA Tour (and at this week’s U.S. Girls’s Open). Reid referred to as it irritating, whereas Chamblee mentioned it robs the tour of that added pleasure. Have they got some extent? And why hasn’t there been a change?

Hirsh: Sure, I feel they completely have some extent. If the most effective (and longest) males on the earth can attain the 18th at Pebble Seaside in two frequently, why shouldn’t the most effective (and longest) girls on the earth do the identical? The explanation nothing has been achieved about it’s as a result of there may very well be a worry that if programs are too brief, it will discredit the setup. This sport is obsessive about size and shortening programs is counterintuitive. Nevertheless, the ladies’s sport isn’t seeing the dramatic distance video games the lads’s sport has. I do take concern with Brandel’s concept that we must always shorten holes primarily based on the hole between the shortest and longest gamers on the PGA and LPGA excursions — it needs to be primarily based on the share hole. If the longest LPGA participant hits it 85% so far as the longest PGA Tour participant, then that’s how lengthy the par-5s needs to be. To present you an instance, if we use 85 p.c, Pebble’s 18th, frequently reachable on the PGA Tour at 540 yards and enjoying round 510 this week, needs to be enjoying round 460 yards.

Berhow: It might positively make tournaments extra thrilling, nevertheless it’s not like the lads made dozens and dozens of eagles right here through the 2019 U.S. Open. They made 28 on three par-5s, whereas this yr the ladies made 16 on 4 of them. An enormous distinction was the closing gap, the place the lads made six eagles to the ladies’s one. So, sure, let’s discover the suitable distance the place having the ability to go for the inexperienced in two is feasible however not a norm. I don’t have a lot of an issue with how the course performed this week.

Wall: It’s an important query. I don’t suppose there’s something flawed with having a pair brief par-5s to entice gamers to take an opportunity. Once you stretch the holes to the purpose the place they’re primarily a three-shotter for practically everybody within the subject, it makes them bland and easy. Then once more, did we actually count on the USGA to throw the gamers a bone? It’s the U.S. Girls’s Open. On the LPGA Tour, I feel it’s one thing they need to strongly take into account for normal occasions. However I’m undecided the identical guidelines (or course setup) ought to apply for a significant.

In an interview with Sports activities Illustrated, Brooks Koepka, the workforce captain of LIV Golf’s Smash GC, ripped teammate Matthew Wolff, saying “I’ve basically given up on him. Quite a lot of expertise, however I imply the expertise’s wasted.” Wolff has struggled a lot of the final handful of months, and he withdrew previous to the ultimate spherical in a Could occasion wherein he was forty sixth out of 48 gamers. What are your ideas on Koepka’s harsh public criticism?

Berhow: Saying you might have given up on somebody is a fairly robust assertion, and including a jab about wasted expertise is like including salt to the wound. I received’t act like I’m within the Smash GC interior circle right here and know what goes on, however I can also’t assist however consider Wolff’s two-month go away from the sport in 2021 as a consequence of psychological well being points when studying these feedback. It’s bizarre, as a result of in a means, isn’t this the kind of controversy that was speculated to make LIV Golf’s workforce format compelling? Groups combating, arguing, altering gamers, and many others. We don’t see that in 72-hole particular person stroke-play occasions. Koepka might even have been making an attempt to encourage Wolff, nonetheless simply 24, who hasn’t completed within the high 30 in his final six occasions, however this actually wasn’t very delicate.

Hirsh: Yikes! I assumed the workforce facet was speculated to make LIV extra enjoyable? Can’t actually fault Brooks for calling out his teammate who contributes to his pursuits. I’ve to think about this was a way of making an attempt to mild the fireplace beneath Wolff, however Wolff’s response would appear to point in any other case. Extraordinarily sudden sequence for positive.

Wall: Golf is a person sport. Sure, they’re on the identical workforce. However everybody has to drag their weight. Wolff wasn’t and Brooks referred to as him out. I’ll latch onto what Jack say and select to imagine it was his means of getting Wolff to refocus. It ended up having the other impact and have become a headline. Wolff earned a fats verify when he signed with LIV, so I’m undecided he’s shedding sleep over Brooks’ feedback.

Cameron Smith received LIV Golf’s London occasion on Sunday, that means he’ll head into his Open Championship protection every week from now coming off a victory. If you’re taking one LIV participant to win The Open, is he your man?

Berhow: I feel Cam Smith is in a very great spot getting into Hoylake, so I might say the reply to that is sure. After profitable The Open final yr he received his second LIV occasion two months later, however he had a fairly sleepy stretch after that to finish 2022 and start 2023. He had only one high 20 in a five-start span, and he wasn’t notably spectacular on the Masters. However in his final six LIV begins since Augusta, he hasn’t completed worse than twelfth, and he top-10’d in each the PGA and U.S. Open. I additionally suppose, for a man like Cam, who’s in his prime, he’s going to haven’t any hassle getting motivated for majors, particularly for the reason that LIV fields aren’t nearly as good as high PGA Tour stops. That mentioned, Dustin Johnson has quietly completed within the high 10 in every of his final two Open appearances and may very well be in line for one more good end two weeks from now.

Hirsh: No. If I’m taking a LIV man, it’s Brooks and it’s actually not a tough resolution for me.

Wall: I’d like to see an in-form Cam Smith try to go back-to-back on the Open, however I feel the one reply right here is Brooks Koepka. As soon as once more, he’s a person on a mission on the majors. You’d be loopy to choose anybody else on the LIV roster in the intervening time.