LPGA Tour's streak of a different winner every tournament heads to Shanghai

The story all year on the LPGA Tour is parity like it has never seen in its 75 years. The LPGA has completed 25 official tournaments with different winners every week.

What has kept the streak going?

For starters, Nelly Korda has gone from a seven-win season in 2024 to still searching for her first LPGA win this year and running out of time. She was runner-up in the season opener.

And then there's Jeeno Thitikul, the new No. 1 player for a reason.

Go back to the Evian Championship in July when Thitikul appeared to be two putts away from winning her first major, and for the second time this year. Instead, Grace Kim chipped in from across a stream for birdie to stay alive in a playoff and eventually win.

That was one of four runner-up finishes for Thitikul this year, which is why the 22-year-old from Thailand has a substantial lead in the Race to CME Globe and the LPGA player of the year.

Even so, it's an astonishing streak that has a reasonable chance of being extended this week in the Buick LPGA Shanghai. Only 10 of the 26 winners — that includes two players from the Dow Championship team event — are in the 82-player field.

One of them is Thitikul, who is best poised to become the first multiple winner of the year. The list of champions include first-time major champions Mao Saigo and Miyu Yamashita of Japan, Japanese twins Chisato and Akie Iwai, and Lottie Woad, who didn't turn pro until July.

Robert MacIntyre of Scotland has not done enough to be considered the best player to have never won a major. That falls to the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay or even Tyrrell Hatton.

But the man from Oban has reached a level where winning a major is the next step.

The last 15 months have been the best of his career. MacIntyre held off Adam Scott to win the Scottish Open in July 2024, and he won again in his native country at the Dunhill Links Championship. In between was a 1-1-1 record at the Ryder Cup, where MacIntyre was verbally abused for his fair skin.

“It’s no secret now. A major championship is what I need or what I want,” he said. "But look, if I play every major for the next 10 years, it’s 40 chances. And I’m hoping one of them times I’m going to fall across the line, and if I do that sooner rather than later, we add to that.

“But I’ve got goals. I know I’ve got the game,” MacIntyre said. “It’s now just about piecing it all together.”

His victory Sunday moved him to No. 8 in the world, a career best. Only two other Scotsman, Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie, cracked the top 10 since the world ranking began in 1986.

The LPGA posted an update to the International Crown — players have been locked in since Aug. 4 after the majors were over — and it included a surprise. Nelly Korda has withdrawn with an unspecified injury and was replaced by Yealimi Noh for the U.S. team.

Korda has not spoken about a specific injury except to say last week in Hawaii that it's tough to find a balance between going full tilt and taking time to rest and recover.

“I would say by this time of the year my body is definitely worn down,” Korda said Sunday. “I do have some injuries I’ve had in the past that kind of linger that are never really fully resolved, that you still do ... therapy. So making sure you’re 100% with your body — or as 100% as you can be — is always the end goal going into kind of the first day of the event.”

The injuries are not believed to be serious but require time for rest and treatment so she can return at full strength. There is no timetable, though it's likely Korda will take off the entire Asia swing — Malaysia and Japan follow the International Crown — and return for the final two tournaments in Florida.

She is the defending champion at The Annika on Nov. 13-26, and the CME Group Tour Championship is the following week.

The Korn Ferry Tour has reached the final event with more pressure than ever. The top 75 players on the points list qualified for the season finale at French Lick Resort in Indiana, but only the top 20 after this week — down from 30 — get PGA Tour cards.

There's really only 12 cards available because the leading eight players already have clinched their spots among the top 20.

Among those on the bubble is Marty Dou, a runner-up last week in Oklahoma that moved him from No. 30 to No. 19, narrowly ahead — 1.813 points — of Sudarshan Yellamaraju of Canada.

The downsizing falls in line with the PGA Tour reducing the number of full cards from 125 to 100 for 2026. The reason was to give those with cards a full slate of tournaments instead of having to wait to see if there was room in the field depending on their status.

Fewer cards for Korn Ferry Tour players means they are assured of getting into all 17 tournaments that are not signature events, and four opposite-field events. That doesn't include the fall schedule, which has not been released.

Of the 30 players who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour last year, seven of them won on the PGA Tour. That includes Matt McCarty, who won last fall after the KFT season ended. Two of them, Ryan Gerard and Aldrich Potgieter, qualified for the postseason.

Through two fall events, Korn Ferry Tour graduates average just over 22 starts in 2025.

The PGA Tour is in Japan and the LPGA Tour is in Shanghai this week, meaning the live broadcast in the United States will be in the wee hours of the morning. Golf Channel will televise live the Baycurrent Classic in Japan, while live coverage of the LPGA is on the NBC Sports app.

Leave it to Hyo Joo Kim to consider the plight of her fans in South Korea.

“It was a shame that many Korean fans cannot actually watch other LPGA tournaments held worldwide because of the time zone and time difference,” Kim said.

Last week was an exception. The LPGA was in Hawaii for the LOTTE Championship, meaning it was broadcast in prime time in South Korea. “I think it's a great chance for our Korean fans to support our Korean women golfers,” Kim said.

She finished runner-up to Youmin Hwang of China.

Danny Walker made eight putts of 25 feet or longer in the Sanderson Farms Championship, the most in a PGA Tour event since ShotLink began tracking distances in 2003. ... Youmin Hwang of China won her first LPGA title in Hawaii as a sponsor exemption. Instead of taking up membership, she is deferring that until 2026 and will play next year as an LPGA rookie. ... Blades Brown, the 18-year-old who turned pro a year ago, earned the 75th and final spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. That gives him full exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for next year.

Steven Fisk became the first player this year on the PGA Tour to win after being outside the top 50 following the first round.

“I try to do the same thing every week, and it finally worked.” — Steven Fisk after winning on the PGA Tour for the first time at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Steven Fisk holds up his trophy after winning the Sanderson Farms Championship golf tournament, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Scotland's Robert MacIntyre on the 18th tee during day four of the 2025 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)