This post summarizes round 3 of my APBA Golf replay of the 2022 Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club (Metro D.C.), par 72. Previous posts described the replay setup based on conditions for the actual tournament, the results of round 1, and the results of round 2. The entire replay is being conducted using Game Caddie 6.1.
Actual Event
On Moving Day, In-gee Chun, the first and second round leader, opened the door a bit by shooting a 3-over par 75. Nevertheless, Chun, at 8-under par for the tournament, still retained a 3-stroke lead over Hye-jin Choi (70), Sei-young Kim (71), and Lexi Thompson (70), who all finished tied for second place at 5-under par. The top of the round 3 leaderboard for the actual event is provided below.
In round 3 the field of qualifiers averaged 73.6 strokes, which was 2.7 strokes higher on average than in round 2 (70.9). Only 14 of the 71 qualifiers broke par.
Atthaya Thitikul (68) had the day’s best score and moved up into a four-way tie for sixth place on the leaderboard. With a score of 69, Jenny Shin (not carded) finished second for the day and was even par for the tournament, yet did not break into the top 10 on the leaderboard. Though only 2-over par after round 2, Maude-Aimee Leblanc (not carded), shot the day’s highest score (84). Leblanc would eventually finish the tournament in last place (rank #71).
Replay Event
To maximize the number of qualifiers for the replay, all 42 golfers from the first two replay rounds were deemed eligible for round 3. The pin was located at position 6, the wind was Calm, and the course conditions were Normal (no FW or Green roll adjustments). The hole distances for pin placement 6 resulted in the 6900-yard layout provided below.
The average replay score climbed 0.8 strokes between rounds 2 and 3, increasing from 72.7 strokes in round 2 to 73.5 strokes in round 3. The replay average score for round 3 of 73.5 strokes closely matched the actual round 3 average score of 73.6 strokes for the qualifiers. The top of the replay round 3 leaderboard is provided below.
Differences in average number of putts per player explain 0.5 strokes (of the 0.8) increase in scoring averages between the last two replay rounds. In round 2, the average number of putts was 30.8; in round 3, the average was 31.3.
Recall in the earlier post on the replay’s setup that the pin 6 location was chosen to increase the overall difficulty of putting. The degree of relative difficulty was estimated using a formula based on the pin location’s distance from the centerline and closeness to the edges of greens. (The thinking is that pin locations farther from the centerline and closer to the edge of the green are harder to get close to, and therefore, are likely to result in more putts.)
In round 2 the percentage of greens hit in regulation was 68.1%; in round 3 the percentage fell to 66.5%. More extreme pin locations can also encourage more risk taking for players trying to climb up the leaderboard. That may reward players who pull off the more difficult shot but may also increase scores for those who miss the green on an otherwise good, but less than perfect, shot. While I haven’t done an assessment of the effects on score of chipping vs. putting from various distances, I have discussed the effects of initial putting distances in a separate post.
Best and Worst Round 3 Replay Performances
Brooke Henderson (68) posted the day’s top score and moved up from T17 in round 2 to fourth place in the relay rankings. The next best score was 69, shared by four players who advanced in rankings as follows: Carlota Ciganda (from T28 to T14), In-gee Chun (from T17 to T5), Lydia Ko (from T20 to T9), and Nelly Korda (from 2 to 1).
After the third round of the replay, Nelly Korda is the 54-hole leader. In March of 2022, she underwent surgery in her shoulder for a blood clot and finished the actual event at T30. Nelly was the #1 World Ranked player in 2022, with a scoring average of 69.7 and was the defending champion of this event from 2021.
For the replay Korda was not recovering from injury, of course. Her APBA card reflects her full 2022 accomplishments, including her driving and iron play strengths offset somewhat by a few weaknesses with scrambling and on the green.
In summary, at this point in the replay, Nelly Korda, at 8- under par, leads by 2 strokes over Lilia Vu (72), and by 3 strokes over Nasa Hataoka (70), who moved up from T5 to third place in the tournament.
Ally Ewing (82) had the day’s highest score and took possession of last place in the replay tournament. Ewing hit only 5 fairways, 9 greens, and racked up 36 putts.
How the actual, final tournament’s top-three leaders finished round 3 in the replay follows: In-gee Chun (69) moved up in rank from T17 to T5; Lexi Thompson (70) continued her move up in rank from T34 to T21; and Mingee Lee (77) moved down from T9 to T21. Of the three, In-gee Chun was the only one of the three leading final competitors under par after 54 holes in the replay.
Round 3 highlights include:
- Lydia Ko eagled no. 9
- Andrea Lee hit 13 of 14 fairways (Avg. = 9.4)
- Lexi Thompson hit 16 of 18 greens (Avg. = 12.0)
- Nanna Madsen led the field in longest average driving distance at 272 yards (Avg. = 251)
- Carlota Ciganda tied Madelene Sagström (R2) and Sophia Schubert (R2) for the longest drive at 340 yards
- Charley Hull sank the longest putt for this round from 67 feet (Hole no. 12)
- Gaby Lopéz and Hyo-Joo Kim tied with fewest putts at 27 (Avg. = 31.3)
- Anna Nordqvist took the most putts at 37
- Hannah Green, at 166 ft, recorded the longest total distance of putts made (Avg. = 88.6)
- Jodi Shadoff (no. 2), Hyo-Joo Kim (no. 17), Sophia Schubert (no. 1), Minjee Lee (no. 7), and Jennifer Kupcho (no. 12) each 4-putted
The full set of results after the completion of round 3 can be viewed by clicking in the upper righthand corner of the PDF document below: