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.

Danielle Kang
Kang at the 2013 Women's British Open
Personal information
Full name	Danielle Grace Kang[1]
Born	(1992-10-20) October 20, 1992 San Francisco, California
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Nationality	United States
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada
Career
College	Pepperdine University (two years)
Turned professional	2011
Current tour(s)	LPGA Tour (joined 2012)
Professional wins	5
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour	5
Best results in LPGA major championships (wins: 1)
ANA Inspiration	T6: 2019
Women's PGA C'ship	Won: 2017
U.S. Women's Open	4th: 2018
Women's British Open	T41: 2019
Evian Championship	T18: 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."[2][3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

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.[6] Kang entered the 2011 LPGA Qualifying School. She survived Stage II, shooting [phone]=293), just above the cut line to qualify for the final stage.[7] 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[8]

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.[9] In October 2019, Kang repeated as champion of the Buick LPGA Shanghai.

On August 2, 2020, Kang won the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness Club in Ohio. This was the LPGA's first tournament back after a six-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[10] One week later, Kang won her 5th LPGA Tour event at the Marathon Classic.

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.[11] In 2019, she began a relationship with professional golfer Maverick McNealy, who also lives in Las Vegas.[12]

Professional wins (5)

LPGA Tour wins (5)

Legend

LPGA Tour major championships (1)

Other LPGA Tour (4)

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
4	Aug 2, 2020	LPGA Drive On Championship	−7 (66-73-70=209)	1 stroke	Celine Boutier
5	Aug 9, 2020	Marathon Classic	−15 (64-67-70-68=269)	1 stroke	Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Lydia Ko

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner-up
2017	Women's PGA Championship	Tied for lead	−13 (69-66-68-68=271)	1 stroke	Brooke Henderson

Results timeline

Results not in chronological order before 2018.

Tournament	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
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

Tournament	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top-5	Top-10	Top-25	Events	Cuts made
ANA Inspiration	0	0	0	0	1	1	8	5
U.S. Women's Open	0	0	0	1	1	3	11	7
Women's PGA Championship	1	0	0	2	2	4	9	7
The Evian Championship	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	4
Women's British Open	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	4
Totals	1	0	0	3	4	9	44	27

• 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

Year	Tournaments played	Cuts made*	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top 10s	Best 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[13]

* Includes matchplay and other events without a cut.

World ranking

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

Year	Ranking	Source
2010	404	[14]
2011	341	[15]
2012	106	[16]
2013	97	[17]
2014	111	[18]
2015	98	[19]
2016	68	[20]
2017	21	[21]
2018	18	[22]
2019	4	[23]

Team appearances

Amateur

• Espirito Santo Trophy (representing the United States): 2010

Professional

• Solheim Cup (representing the United States): 2017 (winners), 2019

Solheim Cup record

Year	Total 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. 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.
3. "5 things: Grades to keep Kang from postseason". Golfweek. May 4, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
4. "2011 Wegmans LPGA Championship" (PDF). LPGA. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
5. "Danielle Kang Defends Women's Amateur Title". USGA. August 14, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
6. "Yani Tseng putting together a special year". ESPN. September 12, 2011. Archived from the original on September 22, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
7. "LPGA Qualifying Tournament Stage II Final Round Results". LPGA. September 30, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
8. "LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament: Final Results". LPGA. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
9. Levins, Keely (October 21, 2018). "Danielle Kang wins Buick LPGA Shanghai by two, her second career victory". Golf Digest. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
10. "Danielle Kang closes with 70 to win LPGA's return". ESPN. Associated Press. August 2, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
11. "Golf: Alex Kang". San Diego State athletics. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
12. "Golf's newest power couple: LPGA's Kang, Web.com Tour's McNealy". Golf Channel. January 19, 2019.
13. "Danielle Kang results". LPGA. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
14. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 28, 2010. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
15. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 27, 2011. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
16. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 31, 2012. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
17. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 30, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
18. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 29, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
19. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 28, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
20. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 26, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
21. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 25, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
22. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 31, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
23. "Women's World Golf Rankings". December 30, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2020.

External links

• Danielle Kang at the LPGA Tour official site
• Danielle Kang at the Futures Tour official site
• Danielle Kang at the Women's World Golf Rankings official site
• Danielle Kang results at Yahoo! Sports
• Profile at Pepperdine Athletics site
• Profile at Pepperdine Golf site