Latest news with #KiltedKoalas
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Aussie rookie Porter and Dryburgh lead Dow Championship
Cassie Porter drove the green on a reachable par 4 and chipped in to start a streak of three straight birdies, as the Australian teamed up with Gemma Dryburgh in foursomes to lead the Dow Championship. The duo dropped only one shot and finished with six straight pars for a four-under 66 and a one-shot lead over six teams, including Lexi Thompson and Meghan Kang, and Leona Maguire and Jennifer Kupcho. The Kilted Koalas keeping their cool at the Dow Championship 🐨 — LPGA (@LPGA) June 26, 2025 Defending champions Ruoning Yin and Jeeno Thitikul, both among the top five in the women's world rankings, are among those two shots behind at 68 in the LPGA Tour's only team event. Dryburgh is a 32-year-old from Scotland, while the 22-year-old Porter is enjoying her rookie season on the LPGA Tour. They carefully picked out which holes for the longer Porter to start at Midland Country on Thursday. "Cassie hits it further than me, and I'm nice and down the middle usually," Dryburgh said. "We kind of picked the right holes for each other, and I think we gelled really well. We complemented each other really nicely." Thompson, who has gone six years without an LPGA victory, and Khang had five birdies offset by two bogeys. "I knew coming out here for alternate shot that we just had to make a few birdies and pars were good," Thompson said. "Just tried to stay consistent and be patient." Maguire and Kupcho had an early bogey and then played bogey-free with four birdies over the final 16 holes to join the large group at 67. For an alternate-shot format that can be stressful, Maguire and Kupcho kept it simple. Both are rarely out of position and consistently good putters. "We don't get too aggressive on attacking pins," Kupcho said. "So we give ourselves lots of putts and kind of have our speed under control and kind of just make it easy on each other." Kupcho teamed with Lizette Salas to win the 2022 event. The beaut of a birdie putt from Karis Davidson puts her team in the red 💯 — LPGA (@LPGA) June 26, 2025 Australian Karis Davidson and Daniela Darquea (Ecuador) are tied eighth at two under. Robyn Choi, the only other Australian in the field, is tied 20th with American Jenny Bae after finishing with par. The format switches to fourballs on Friday, which yields lower taking the lowest score of each player.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Notable team names at LPGA's Dow Championship, including the leaders, who used ChatGPT
When it came time to decide on a team name, Dow Championship leaders Cassie Porter and Gemma Dryburgh consulted ChatGPT. The result: Kilted Koalas. "It was the first suggestion, and I was like, hey, that's great," said Porter, who hails from Australia while partner Dryburgh is Scottish. Advertisement "And ChatGPT came up with a really nice logo. And I don't know if you've seen them, but we have really cool shirts. We'll be selling merch at the end of the week if anyone is interested." Cassie Porter of Australia and Gemma Dryburgh of Scotland celebrate after Porter's putt on the fifth hole during the first round of the Dow Championship 2025 at Midland Country Club on June 26, 2025 in Midland, Michigan. Dryburgh and Porter opened with a 4-under 66 in the alternate shot format at Midland Country Club, recording three consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-16. Defending champions Jeeno Thitikul and Ruoning Yin opened with a 68 and were delighted to see a sign of support on the first tee. "It's very surprising, I would say, because I didn't expect that," said Yin, "like the fans can have the sign for us. But obviously, everyone loved Jin & Ronic." Advertisement Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang first played together – with much success – at the 2023 Solheim Cup. It was Thompson who came up with their team name this week, Biggie Smalls. There's nearly a foot difference in height between them. "I was on board from the jump,," said Khang in their pre-tournament press conference, though they hadn't yet worked out their walk-up song. (Though the artist should be fairly easy to work out.) Japanese twins Chisato Iwai and Akie Iwai are known as "Aki&Chizzy75," a nod to the 75th anniversary of the LPGA and their birthday, July 5. They'd be the second set of sisters to win the event, following Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn in 2021. Advertisement The first and third rounds of the event will be played in the foursomes format (alternate shot), and the second and fourth rounds will be played in the four-ball (best ball) format. The winning team receives a standard two-year winner's exemption on the LPGA priority list. Rolex Rankings, Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year points will not be allocated. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: LPGA Dow Championship 2025: How they picked their team names
USA Today
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Notable team names at LPGA's Dow Championship, including the leaders, who used ChatGPT
When it came time to decide on a team name, Dow Championship leaders Cassie Porter and Gemma Dryburgh consulted ChatGPT. The result: Kilted Koalas. "It was the first suggestion, and I was like, hey, that's great," said Porter, who hails from Australia while partner Dryburgh is Scottish. "And ChatGPT came up with a really nice logo. And I don't know if you've seen them, but we have really cool shirts. We'll be selling merch at the end of the week if anyone is interested." Dryburgh and Porter opened with a 4-under 66 in the alternate shot format at Midland Country Club, recording three consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-16. Defending champions Jeeno Thitikul and Ruoning Yin opened with a 68 and were delighted to see a sign of support on the first tee. "It's very surprising, I would say, because I didn't expect that," said Yin, "like the fans can have the sign for us. But obviously, everyone loved Jin & Ronic." Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang first played together – with much success – at the 2023 Solheim Cup. It was Thompson who came up with their team name this week, Biggie Smalls. There's nearly a foot difference in height between them. "I was on board from the jump,," said Khang in their pre-tournament press conference, though they hadn't yet worked out their walk-up song. (Though the artist should be fairly easy to work out.) Japanese twins Chisato Iwai and Akie Iwai are known as "Aki&Chizzy75," a nod to the 75th anniversary of the LPGA and their birthday, July 5. They'd be the second set of sisters to win the event, following Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn in 2021. The first and third rounds of the event will be played in the foursomes format (alternate shot), and the second and fourth rounds will be played in the four-ball (best ball) format. The winning team receives a standard two-year winner's exemption on the LPGA priority list. Rolex Rankings, Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year points will not be allocated.
