After taking time off to recharge and celebrate her birthday, Malaysian ladies No 1 Kelly Tan is all pumped up as she gets back to the grind for the final stretch of the 2020 LPGA Tour.
After a three-week break, the 2020 season resumes with the Pelican Women’s Championship at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida on November 19-22. The abbreviated schedule then concludes with three successive events in December – the Volunteers of America Classic (Old American Golf Club, The Colony, Texas / Dec 3-6), US Women’s Open (Champions Golf Club, Houston, Texas / Dec 10-13) and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship (Tiburon Golf Club, Naples, Florida / December 17-20).
“The first week off I took it easy and the other two weeks I’m going to train pretty hard with my trainer, to make sure I’m physically ready for the rest of the season,” said Kelly, who turned 27 on October 26.
“I celebrated my birthday with my caddie John Wilkes and his family in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he lives. We had a great time, going for a nice dinner, followed by a nice big ice cream cake!”
Kelly has been in great form since the LPGA Tour resumed in late July after a five-month break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, chalking up a number of strong performances highlighted by a T13 finish in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last month – the best-ever finish by a Malaysian of either gender in a Major. She is currently in 36th place on the LPGA’s season-long Race To CME Globe standings and has amassed US$189,272 in prizemoney so far this year, which is already the most she has earned in a single season since starting her LPGA career in 2014.
Kelly noted that she is particularly looking forward to the 75th anniversary US Women’s Open, which will mark her 16th Major start and third in the event. She missed the cut on debut in the 2014 US Women’s Open at Pinehurst in North Carolina and finished T32 in the 2016 edition at CordeValle Golf Club in California.
“The US Open is the Major that I really look forward to as it always seems to have the strongest field, with all the top players and leading amateurs competing,” said Kelly.
Conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), the US$5.5 million US Women’s Open was originally scheduled for June but was moved to its current date after the LPGA Tour revamped its schedule. To account for reduced daylight in December, the first two rounds will be played over both courses at Champions Golf Club – the Cypress Creek Course and Jackrabbit Course. The final 36 holes will be staged at the Cypress Creek 18, which was originally slated to host all four rounds.
Having never played at Champions Golf Club before, Kelly noted that she will try to get in a few rounds before the week of the event.
“I’m going to try and sneak a few rounds in earlier, so I don’t tire myself out trying to learn about the two courses during tournament week,” she said.
With no qualifying tournaments for this year’s event due to Covid-19, the 156-player field consists entirely of exempt players as decided by the USGA. Kelly was among 10 players announced last week as having earned starts through the current LPGA Tour money list, as one of the top 10 not previously exempt following the LPGA Drive On Championship.
