Malaysia’s Kelly Tan is pumped up and raring to go in her 16th Major appearance at the US Women’s Open, which tees off on Thursday at Champions Golf Club in Houston.
“What a great golf course … the course is in great shape, the weather looks great. I’m just excited to get the week started,” said the in-form Kelly.
This year’s 75th edition is being played in an unfamiliar December slot instead of mid-year, due to the suspension of the LPGA Tour from mid-February to late July. The championship will also see another new element in that it will be played on both Champions Golf courses – Cypress Creek and Jackrabbit – for the first 36 holes to account for reduced daylight this time of the year. The last two rounds will be contested on the Cypress Creek 18.
In her two previous US Women’s outings, Kelly missed the cut on debut at Pinehurst in 2014 and mustered a T32 finish at CordeValle in 2016. Coming off a T11 at last week’s Volunteers of America Classic, she will be eager to better her previous best Major finish of T13 in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in October.
However, Kelly noted that playing two courses over the first two days will be quite a challenge.
“I just played the front nine of Cypress today. I think it requires a lot of placement off the tees; definitely have to hit your driver well and probably have to pick which side of the fairway you want to be in to get yourself a good angle, because the greens are just so huge.
“With the greens being huge, you have to almost divide them into quarters to try to hit it to the sections … if the pin is on the back left corner, probably better to hit it to the back left corner so you don’t have like a 60, 70 feet putt coming back to the hole,” Kelly noted.
“I think on Jackrabbit the greens are definitely smaller but trickier, they’ve got more undulations,” she added.
Last month, Kelly took a week off to play both courses with an old friend from Malaysia, Joshua Gibbons, who now lives in Houston and is a member of Champions Golf Club. “Joshua’s a great player, so he told me where he thinks the pins will be, you know where the misses should be, just some little local knowledge and I think it definitely helps,” she said.
Kelly noted that the US Women’s Open course set-up demands that all elements of the game work well. “If you’re going to miss it, you definitely have to miss it on the right side. I think lag putting is definitely number one, try and get those 50, 60-footers dialed in, hitting your driver well … overall you have to have every shot in your bag when you come to the US Open.”
Apart from the tough course set-up by the United States Golf Association (USGA), Kelly cites the strong and diverse field as the other main reason she enjoys playing in the storied Major.
“I just feel like the US Open always has a tough field; it’s one of those events which is really hard to get into; whether it’s qualifying at a site, they only pick like two or three spots, they just have the best players in the world on the Rolex Rankings and good amateurs who play in it. Great golf courses and they’re always set up hard and fast and just super challenging, so I just love coming to the US Open,” Kelly explained.
Despite the watered-down schedule due to Covid-19, 2020 has been a great comeback year for Kelly after losing full status on the LPGA Tour the previous two seasons. Competing mainly on the second-tier Symetra Tour in 2018 and 2019, where she won the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic last March for her first international professional title, Kelly managed to regain her full LPGA card through the gruelling Q-Series late last year.
The 27-year-old credited her resurgence to self-confidence, catalysed by the trust that her support team had in her. “I give a lot of credit to my team – my coach, my trainer, my caddie, my family – we’ve been through a couple of tough years, all of us together. It’s just great to see that I’m on my feet again, it’s a great feeling.
“I’d say confidence is my number one friend. When I first started with my coach Gary (Gilchrist), I was probably at the lowest spot in my career. He pretty much told me that I’m swinging it great, you know you’re a good player, which got me to where I am.
“We just kept working on the little things day by day, just trying to gain confidence through that; I think he really helped me get to where I am today and I’m just really grateful,” shared Kelly.
Kelly tees off in tomorrow’s first round of the US Women’s Open at 9.31am (11.31pm Malaysian time) off the 10th tee of Cypress Creek, grouped with Frances’ Perinne Delacour and Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn. The tournament will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 2 [Astro – CH836 (SD) CH816 (HD) / Unifi TV – CH707 (HD)].
The interview with Kelly Tan was conducted with the assistance of the USGA media team onsite at Champions Golf Club for Episode 16 of The Sweet Spot, a Facebook Live show by Gila Golfers in collaboration with ParGolf. Snippets of the show are embedded below.
