The following is an excerpt from the newest WGDN Newsletter.
Hello and welcome to another week here at the WGDN Newsletter and it is time for the JM Eagle LA Championship, kicking off today. Wednesday, I was lucky enough to have the chance to play in the pro-am, the fourth LPGA Tour pro-am I have played in, and it was a great day.
Myself and some other members of the Women’s Golf Daily News team were paired with defending champion Ingrid Lindblad as well as Perrine Delacour, who were both fantastic partners.
The format of the pro-am is a five-person scramble featuring four amateurs and two professionals. Each group of amateurs play with one pro on the front nine and a different pro on the back nine. This pro-am was all walking with caddies, but some of these events use carts for the amateurs.
El Caballero is a great venue for this event. While I do hope to see the JM Eagle return to Wilshire as soon as it can, El Cab is beautiful, winding up and down huge rolling hills and offering great mountain views, it brings that old school West Coast feel that Wilshire does, with a seemingly much bigger foot print. It doesn’t quite feel as classic Los Angeles, but it is a fun and dramatic track.
Team WGDN did pretty well going off in the early morning, shooting a solid -17 with 15 birdies, two pars and an eagle, provided by Delacour who hit what she had previously described as a “not makeable putt.” It was a putt of probably close to 40 feet with about 15 feet of break. After all the amateurs were made to look like fools by it, she stepped in and nailed it. On the following hole, Delacour nearly aced the par 3 17, so look out for her on the finishing stretch this week, where she should have some confidence.
While WGDN held the lead for much of the morning, thanks to some great putting by our fashion writer Vicky D’Orazio, it wasn’t enough in the end as we became the latest victims of Hyo Joo Kim’s incredible play, as her team snatched the lead in the early afternoon. In the end, WGDN finished in third behind the teams of Hyo Joo Kim and Cassie Porter and Megan Khang and Jin Young Ko.
The whole experience was fantastic, playing with the defending champion, Lindblad, was awesome as she recounted some stories from her thrilling 2025 win. Delacour was great as well and hit some really awesome shots late in the round. Look out for both of them this week.
The event was well run also, with included breakfast and lunch with drinks as well. There were a few stands out on the course with food like burgers, hot dogs and pizza. All around, it was a really great day with some of the most beautiful Los Angeles weather you could imagine.
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