Until late last year, South Korean-born Amy Yang had won four times on the LPGA Tour, but never in the U.S., where she has lived for years. And despite being a U.S. Women’s Open runner-up in 2012, Yang, as she approached her 35th birthday, had never won a major.
Thoughts of retirement dashed through her head, but she never gave in to the noise – even when a late-season elbow injury in 2023 curtailed her golf for a few months. Yang stayed the course, and is thankful that she did. Last November, she won the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida, earning the LPGA’s richest payout ($2 million). Then, during a hard-fought week outside Seattle, she dared to reach higher, and succeeded in capturing the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club June 23.
In her 75th major start, Yang was a major champion. Finally.
More than a dozen players joined LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan to shower Yang with champagne on the 18th green, a sign that shows how beloved Yang is on tour. It was overcast, breezy, and the temps were dropping, but Yang, newly soaked, didn’t mind. She had been waiting years for such a moment.
“I always want to win a major, and I came close several times,” Yang said. “You know, at one point I thought, ‘Will I ever win a major championship before I retire?’ And I finally did it, and it’s just amazing.”
Yang finished 72 holes at 7-under 281 to beat a trio of younger players by three shots. Two of them were former World No. 1s, and the third is 22, and trying to get there. They were American Lilia Vu (final-round 71), who had won the previous week in Michigan after being out two months with back issues; fellow Korean Jin Young Ko (71), who, like Vu, is a former No. 1; and Miyu Yamashita (73) of Japan, who placed T-17 or better in her first three major starts in 2024.
Other players – including a resurgent Lexi Thompson, the tourney’s 18-hole leader – would make runs at the lead on a demanding golf course that sent the game’s top player, Nelly Korda, packing early on Friday. Korda opened with a 69 before shooting 81 in the second round, missing the cut after winning six times in 2024.
This became Yang’s championship to win as early as Friday afternoon, when the 17-year LPGA veteran went out in the day’s second-to-last group and was bogey-free, shooting 68 to join Arizona’s Sarah Schmelzel atop the leaderboard.
Yang tacked on a steady 71 Saturday and was in command throughout the final round, stretching her lead to seven shots at one point. Sunday, Yang made five birdies through 13 holes before giving three shots back with a late bogey and double at 16 and 17. The pressure was high, and her lead down to three, but she would be fine.
At one point, standing in the last fairway, Yang turned to her caddie, Jan Meierling, and told him this was the longest 18 holes of her life. She had a goal, and how long it took to get there did not matter. One thought kept resonating in Yang’s head: Finish the job. She would do that with a short pitch onto the green for her third at the par-5 18th and then two-putting for par, resulting in a well-deserved champagne shower.
Meierling figured Yang was headed for a good week when he saw how tight and difficult tree-lined Sahalee – affectionately called “Sa-hallway” by some – was going to play. There was no letup in the golf course, and green-light birdie opportunities were difficult to find.
“This course forces you to visualize shots, commit to those shots, and that’s essentially all she (Yang) really needs to do,” Meierling said. “She can get a little ‘space-cadety,’ if that’s a word. And this week, she can’t do that. That’s been the biggest thing.”
Yang earned $1.56 million for her victory just seven months after winning big at CME. Golf pays far better than retirement. In fact, with her KPMG payday, Yang vaulted to sixth all-time ($15,555,362) in LPGA career earnings, pasing this all-star lineup on the list: Lorena Ochoa, Suzann Pettersen, Stacy Lewis, Minjee Lee and Lexi Thompson.
Eight PGA of America and LPGA Professionals represented the Corebridge Financial Team at Sahalee Country Club. None of the eight made the cut (5-over 149) to earn their way to the weekend, but all valued the experience. PGA of America Golf Professional Kim Paez of Arizona was the top scorer in the group at 77-76.
Paez is the PGA Player Development Manager for Ping, and a PGA Coach at Cave Creek Golf Club’s Reid West Golf Academies in Phoenix. She played college golf at Cal-Irvine and won the 2008 Big West Conference Championship. Paez earned a spot into the KPMG with a fourth-place finish at the 2024 PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship.
“My biggest takeaway is just to know that I gave it my all. I fought until the very last putt,” Paez said. “I never gave up and I’m very proud of myself for that.”
This was the 10th playing of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship after KPMG, the LPGA and PGA of America joined together in a three-way partnership to rejuvenate the tournament. The tournament has bumped its overall purse more than 300 percent over that decade, moving from $2.25 million to $10.34 million in a decade, prompting other majors to follow.
The courses of the Championship have been a major upgrade, too. Sahalee was host to the second KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2016 – two 18-year-old rising stars, Brooke Henderson and Lydia Ko, went to a playoff, with Henderson prevailing – and this year’s edition marked the first time in the KPMG era a venue had been revisited. Next year, the Championship moves to the Home of the PGA of America, heading to Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas, for the first time.
Yang will be there. After her victory at CME, followed by a first major at Sahalee, her retirement plans are very much on hold. One more bonus came her way later Sunday. With her KPMG victory moving Yang up 20 spots, to fifth, in the Rolex Rankings, the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris now were on her schedule, too. The Republic of Korea’s team: Ko, Yang and Hyo-Joo Kim.
Earlier this season, Yang pulled Meierling aside and, even though she was struggling, told him if he ever heard her simply mention the “r” word, don’t believe a word of it. She wasn’t retiring. She had plans.
On the verge of 35, Amy Yang finally was fulfilling the promise she showed as a teen. The trophy beside her, she quickly glanced down the esteemed list of champions, and one name stood out to her.
“I see Se Ri’s name right there, 1998,” she said, referring to South Korea’s Se Ri Pak, one of her childhood heroes. “Yeah, I’ve always dreamed it, and so honored to have it.”