Danielle Kang

Danielle Grace Kang (born October 20, 1992) is an American professional golfer currently playing on the LPGA Tour. As an amateur, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur twice, in 2010 and 2011. She won the 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, an LPGA major. She also has two other LPGA tournament wins, both at the Buick LPGA Shanghai in China.[2]

Danielle Kang
Kang at the 2013 Women's British Open
Personal information
Full nameDanielle Grace Kang[1]
Born (1992-10-20) October 20, 1992
San Francisco, California
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Nationality United States
ResidenceLas Vegas, Nevada
Career
CollegePepperdine University
(two years)
Turned professional2011
Current tour(s)LPGA Tour (joined 2012)
Professional wins3
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour3
Best results in LPGA major championships
(wins: 1)
ANA InspirationT6: 2019
Women's PGA C'shipWon: 2017
U.S. Women's Open4th: 2018
Women's British OpenT41: 2019
Evian ChampionshipT18: 2017

College and amateur career

Born in San Francisco, Kang grew up in Southern California, and qualified for the U.S. Women's Open as a 14-year-old in 2007. She began high school at Oak Park High School and later transferred to Westlake High School early to begin college at Pepperdine University in Malibu in the spring of 2010. Kang played extensively as a junior golfer with the Southern California PGA Junior Tour alongside fellow SCPGA alumni such as Lizette Salas and Brianna Do.

She played on the Pepperdine golf team through the regular season in the spring of 2011. She was ruled academically ineligible to compete in the 2011 NCAA post-season and stated that she was not disappointed because "Pepperdine is in the past for me. I'm focusing on the future. Turning pro after the U.S. Women's Amateur."[3][4]

Kang won the U.S. Women's Amateur in 2010 and competed in all four majors as an amateur in 2011. She made the cut in three of the majors, including the LPGA Championship, where she was the only non-professional in the field.[5] Kang was the low amateur at the Women's British Open, finishing in a tie for 49th place. She repeated her win at the U.S. Women's Amateur in 2011 in August to become the first player in 15 years to win consecutive titles.[6]

Professional career

Kang played her first tournament as a professional at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, in September 2011. She entered on a sponsor's exemption and missed the cut.[7] Kang entered the 2011 LPGA Qualifying School. She survived Stage II, shooting +5 (73-74-71-75=293), just above the cut line to qualify for the final stage.[8] She finished the final stage, Stage III, of Q-School tied for 39th. This gave her conditional status (Priority List Category 20) on the LPGA Tour for 2012[9]

She played 19 events on the LPGA Tour in 2012, making 13 cuts and finishing the season with $239,184 in earnings, putting her 52nd on the official LPGA season-ending money list. This qualified Kang for full status on the LPGA Tour in 2013.

Kang earned her first LPGA Tour win, 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, in her 144th LPGA Tour start. On October 21, 2018, Kang won the inaugural Buick LPGA Shanghai tournament by two strokes to earn her second career victory. The tournament was held at Qizhong Garden Golf Club in Shanghai, China.[2] In October 2019, Kang repeated as champion of the Buick LPGA Shanghai.

Personal life

Kang is a Korean-American born in San Francisco, California, to South Korean parents K.S. Kang and Grace Lee. Her brother Alex played golf for San Diego State.[10] She began a relationship with Web.com player Maverick McNealy, who also lives in Las Vegas.[11]

Professional wins (3)

LPGA Tour wins (3)
Legend
LPGA Tour major championships (1)
Other LPGA Tour (2)
No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner(s)-up
1 Jul 2, 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship −13 (69-66-68-68=271) 1 stroke Brooke Henderson
2 Oct 21, 2018 Buick LPGA Shanghai −13 (67-68-71-69=275) 2 strokes Marina Alex, Brittany Altomare
Ariya Jutanugarn, Kim Sei-young
Lydia Ko, Liu Wenbo
Annie Park
3 Oct 20, 2019 Buick LPGA Shanghai (2) −16 (69-67-66-70=272) 1 stroke Jessica Korda

Major championships

Wins (1)
YearChampionship54 holesWinning scoreMarginRunner-up
2017Women's PGA ChampionshipTied for lead−13 (69-66-68-68=271)1 stroke Brooke Henderson

Results timeline

Results not in chronological order before 2018.

Tournament2007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
ANA Inspiration CUT CUT T61 T26 T26 T47 CUT T6
U.S. Women's Open CUT 64 T68 T14 CUT T59 T47 T17 CUT 4 CUT
Women's PGA Championship T50 CUT T22 T25 CUT T46 1 T33 T5
The Evian Championship ^ T31 CUT T59 T30 T18 CUT CUT
Women's British Open T49 CUT T42 CUT T56 CUT CUT CUT T41

^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013.

  Win
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut.
T = tied

Summary
TournamentWins2nd3rdTop-5Top-10Top-25EventsCuts made
ANA Inspiration00001185
U.S. Women's Open000113117
Women's PGA Championship10022497
The Evian Championship00000174
Women's British Open00000094
Totals1003494427
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 6 (2015 U.S. Open – 2016 U.S. Open)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (four times)

LPGA Tour career summary
YearTournaments
played		Cuts
made*		Wins2nd3rdTop 10sBest
finish		Earnings
($)		Money
list rank		Scoring
average		Scoring
rank
2007 1 0 0 0 0 0 MC n/a n/a n/a n/a
2010 1 0 0 0 0 0 MC n/a n/a n/a n/a
2011 5 3 0 0 0 0 T49 0 n/a n/a n/a
2012 19 13 0 0 1 1 T3 239,184 52 72.39 50
2013 24 17 0 0 0 1 T5 221,649 57 72.18 54
2014 27 21 0 0 0 2 T5 316,239 55 72.46 82
2015 26 23 0 0 0 1 T5 292,579 62 71.72 44
2016 27 23 0 0 0 3 T4 505,199 36 71.12 31
2017 25 16 1 1 0 6 1 1,005,983 17 71.05 42
2018 25 15 1 1 1 8 1 1,135,441 11 70.85 27
2019 21 17 1 3 1 11 1 1,511,443 9 70.07 13
  • official as of the 2019 season[12]

* Includes matchplay and other events without a cut.

World ranking

Position in Women's World Golf Rankings at the end of each calendar year.

YearRankingSource
2010404[13]
2011341[14]
2012106[15]
201397[16]
2014111[17]
201598[18]
201668[19]
201721[20]
201818[21]
20194[22]

Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

Solheim Cup record
YearTotal
matches		Total
W–L–H		Singles
W–L–H		Foursomes
W–L–H		Fourballs
W–L–H		Points
won		Points
%
Career 8 4–4–0 1–1–0 1–2–0 2–1–0 4 50.0
2017 4 3–1–0 1–0–0 def. E. Pedersen 3&1 1–1–0 won w/ L. Salas 1 up,
lost w/ M. Wie 2&1		 1–0–0 won w/ M. Wie 3&1 3 75.0
2019 4 1–3–0 0–1–0 lost to C. Ciganda 1up 0–1–0 lost w/ M. Khang 4&3 1–1–0 lost w/ L. Salas 4&2,
won w/ L. Salas 2&1		 1 25.0

References
  1. California Birth Index
  2. Levins, Keely (October 21, 2018). "Danielle Kang wins Buick LPGA Shanghai by two, her second career victory". Golf Digest. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  3. Miller, Eli (May 2011). "Report: Kang will turn professional after 2011 U.S. Women's Amateur". Southland Golf Magazine. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  4. "5 things: Grades to keep Kang from postseason". Golfweek. May 4, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  5. "2011 Wegmans LPGA Championship" (PDF). LPGA. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  6. "Danielle Kang Defends Women's Amateur Title". USGA. August 14, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  7. "Yani Tseng putting together a special year". ESPN. September 12, 2011. Archived from the original on September 22, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
  8. "LPGA Qualifying Tournament Stage II Final Round Results". LPGA. September 30, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
  9. "LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament: Final Results". LPGA. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  10. "Golf: Alex Kang". San Diego State athletics. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  11. "Golf's newest power couple: LPGA's Kang, Web.com Tour's McNealy". Golf Channel. January 19, 2019.
  12. "Danielle Kang results". LPGA. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  13. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 28, 2010. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  14. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 27, 2011. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  15. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 31, 2012. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  16. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 30, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  17. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 29, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  18. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 28, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  19. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 26, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  20. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 25, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  21. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 31, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  22. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 30, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
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