Normally when we look back at golf tournaments, we focus on the champion. However on the LPGA Tour this past Saturday, what we saw from Lauren Coughlin of Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship was extraordinary.
Coughlin birdied all nine holes on the back nine to begin round two. She went from two over par to seven under par. The 10th, 12th, 13th, and 16th holes were par fours, the 11th, 15th, and 17th holes were a par three, and the 14th and 18th holes were a par five. Note that the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship is unique because it is only 54 holes rather than 72 holes.
Coughlin’s second round score was an impressive 61, but it only led to a total three-round score of -13 and a tie for 12th place. It was actually a dominant tournament by Yuna Nishimura of Japan, who won the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship with a score of -21. Nishimura defeated fellow Japanese golfer Akie Iwai, In-gee Chun of South Korea, and Chanettee Wannasaen of Thailand by five strokes. Iwai, Chun and Wannasaen finished in a three-way tie for second place at -16. Chun is a three-time major champion as she won the 2015 United States Women’s Open, the 2016 Evian Championship and the 2022 Women’s PGA Championship.
Getting back to Coughlin, we need to put her accomplishment this past week into perspective. According to the Associated Press, she became the first LPGA golfer ever to begin a single round with nine straight birdies. Coughlin also moved up an extraordinary 106 spots up the leaderboard. She went from 127th place to 21st. However, even though Coughlin had a great round two, she was still eight strokes back of Nishimura.
