Whenever you turn out to be a Rolex First-Time Winner and main champion, then win two extra titles inside only a few months of one another, the expectation to maintain acting at a excessive stage could be tough to handle. Simply ask Jennifer Kupcho, who has seemingly achieved all of it in 2022 however remains to be desirous to for extra because the season involves an finish. The 25-year-old gained The Chevron Championship in March, the Meijer LPGA Basic for Merely Give in June and the Dow Nice Lakes Bay Invitational with associate Lizette Salas in July, however her final a number of weeks on Tour have been lower than ideally suited by her requirements.
“I believe it is onerous, particularly being within the highlight after getting lots of consideration this 12 months. Coming off a pair dangerous weeks, it is onerous,” mentioned Kupcho, who has missed the reduce in every of her final two begins. “Golf is a tough sport. It is psychological already. Then to not trust going into every week is basically onerous. So actually simply working with my swing coach, who’s additionally my psychological coach, simply getting via it and realizing that I’ve put within the work, that it will repay.”
That work appears to be paying off this week as Kupcho sits simply two strokes out of the lead on the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship offered by P&G. On Saturday, the American went bogey-free to shoot a 5-under 65, transferring to -10 general after her first-round 67. Kupcho, who hit 11 of 13 greens and 17 of 18 fairways with 31 putts, mentioned it was a mix of stable placing and ball putting that led to her second-round success.
“I am hitting the ball fairly effectively this week. I got here off a pair tough tournaments, so actually simply making an attempt to get my confidence going early within the spherical, and that is what I did,” she mentioned. “It is good to see the ball stepping into. I’ve positively been trimming the perimeters a bit bit the final couple weeks, so to see them truly fall, and see the onerous work that I have been placing in truly repay, is very nice.”
With 18 holes left at Pinnacle Nation Membership, Kupcho will vie for her fourth title of the season in addition to the fourth win of her profession. The final participant with 4 wins in a single season on the LPGA Tour was Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Jin Younger Ko in 2021. However, no matter whether or not she wins or not, Kupcho mentioned she is proud of the season she’s had, by no means in her wildest desires imagining she would obtain what she has already in such a brief period of time.
“It is so onerous to win out right here, so to get all of them so rapidly in a single season is fairly superb,” she mentioned. “So I am simply blessed to be out right here taking part in.”
