Danielle Kang is mounting a serious charge at Rolex No. 1 Jin Young Ko and Ko in the Rolex women’s world rankings.
With consecutive wins, Kang is giving herself the chance to become only the third American to rise to number 1 in the world since the rankings were established in 2006.
With her victory at the Marathon Classic on Sunday, Kang remained No. 2 in the chart release on Monday, but is substantially closer to Ko than it was two weeks ago, when the LPGA tour resumed amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
How important is reaching number 1 for Kang?
“Definitely my goal,” Kang said. “I’ve been fighting for this my entire career.”
Ko, who has reigned at number 1 for 67 weeks, the last 55 in a row, has yet to start an LPGA this year. She stayed in her homeland to play the Korean LPGA in the midst of the pandemic. Ko is not scheduled to play this week’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open or next week’s AIG Women’s Open at the Royal Troon, the LPGA’s first major of the year.
Kang will play both events in Scotland.
Kang went from No. 4 in the world, averaging 2.94 points in the world rankings behind Ko two weeks ago, at no. 2, averaging 1.55 points in the world rankings behind Ko this week.
The Rolex world ranking and its 104-week rolling window were temporarily changed during the coronavirus pandemic to focus more on an individual’s play schedule rather than the actual calendar. The rankings for an athlete continue to be calculated over a period of 104 consecutive weeks, but that 104-week period differs based on how much an athlete plays while the change is in progress. The weeks in which an athlete does not compete do not count towards his individual period of 104 weeks in rotation. His individual points, midpoints and dividers will neither change nor age when he’s not playing.
Fourteen players have reached Rolex number 1 in the world in the 14-year history of the ranking, only two of them Americans, Cristie Kerr and Stacy Lewis.
“Moving to number 2 was definitely a confidence boost,” Kang said. “I played really great, consistently, before and after the quarantine.”
Kang has been working with Butch Harmon as his swing coach since the fall of 2018.
“Butch always tells me, ‘Good golf takes care of everything,'” Kang said. “I’m really trying to focus on my game.”
Kang, 27, was a star coming out of Pepperdine, with consecutive US Women Amateur titles on her resume, but expressed frustration at the start of her professional career, failing to win in her first five LPGA seasons. He has more than done with his own, with five LPGA titles, with at least one in each of the last four seasons. Her groundbreaking LPGA title was a big one, the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“I think an important part of how I approached the game of golf is that I’m not really focused on a lot of other things, other than just improving the things I want to improve at,” said Kang. “We always have room for improvement, and that’s the beauty of golf.”
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