Sharon Heights Delivers on Promise, but Jeeno’s Stumble Raises Questions About Women’s Golf’s Power Dynamic

There’s something quietly significant happening this week at Sharon Heights Golf Club in Menlo Park, and it’s not just about Hyo Joo Kim’s flawless 63. After 35 years covering professional golf—and having stood in enough fairways to know the difference between a course playing fair and one playing tricks—I can tell you this inaugural LPGA stop in Northern California is revealing something important about where women’s professional golf stands in 2026.

It’s showing us that depth matters more than starpower right now.

When the Morning Wave Dominates

Let’s start with what jumped out immediately: the scoring window. Kim’s eagle-punctuated 63 came during the morning wave when Sharon Heights was still giving up birdie looks. By afternoon, the greens firmed up and fired back, reducing the field to mere mortals. This is textbook course management, and I think it tells us the LPGA is learning what the PGA Tour figured out decades ago—morning tee times at a new venue are valuable real estate.

What strikes me most, though, is how Kim herself framed her round. Here’s a player who just shot nine-under par, holed out for eagle on 18, and her takeaway was about what she *didn’t* do:

“I am just so satisfied I had no bogeys. I had some mistakes in the beginning, but I was able to save them. He ended with an eagle, so I ended pretty happily.”

That’s championship golf thinking. In my caddie days with Tom Lehman, I watched him do the same thing—win tournaments by what he eliminated rather than what he added. Kim’s eagle was the highlight reel moment, but her bogey-free card was the foundation. The casual fan sees the eagle and goes home happy. The pros know the real victory was never giving the course a free hole.

The Polly Mack Blueprint

Now, Polly Mack sitting just three shots back at 66 interests me for different reasons. The Alabama product is doing something that’s become increasingly rare in women’s professional golf: she’s grinding through imperfection and still posting quality scores. Yes, she double-bogeyed the 10th hole—that’s a real mistake—but look at her solution set:

“Hit a lot of fairways and greens and left myself with a lot of birdie chances. Had a lot of wedges into greens, and that’s what I’ve been working on the most this offseason. It’s good to see that coming into play and really coming along and seeing that progress.”

This is a player who’s identified a specific weakness (short-game positioning and wedge play), spent offseason time fixing it, and now we’re seeing the payoff in real tournament conditions. That’s not flashy. That’s not going to go viral on social media. But it’s exactly how you build a sustainable career on tour. In three decades of watching this game, the players who last—who really last—are the ones constantly refining their weaknesses rather than chasing the next equipment upgrade.

The Elephant in the Clubhouse

Here’s what bothers me, though, and it’s worth saying out loud: Jeeno Thitikul, the world’s No. 1 player, shot 72. The defending champion, essentially, fired an opening round that puts her seven shots behind Kim with 54 holes to play. Nelly Kord, one of the most dominant players on tour, posted a 70 after sitting out the Asia swing.

I don’t think this is about Sharon Heights being too hard or too soft. I think it’s about something more fundamental. When your best players aren’t playing their best golf in the same week, it suggests inconsistency at the elite level. In my experience covering 15 Masters Tournaments, the difference between a dominant era and a competitive-but-fragmented era often comes down to this exact metric: Can your top-ranked player go low when conditions allow it?

Jeeno has been the story of women’s golf for the last 18 months. But stories need chapters. If she can’t produce opening rounds like Kim’s at a course like this, the narrative potentially shifts. That might not happen this week—she’s got 54 holes to correct course—but it’s worth monitoring.

What Sharon Heights Means for the Tour

Let’s not overlook the positives here, because they’re legitimate. The Fortinet Founders Cup moving to Northern California and drawing eight of the top-10 players in the world ranking? That’s strength. That’s a tour confident enough in its scheduling and venues to attract its best talent consistently. The course is delivering drama—firm greens, challenging angles, rewards for precision—without being unfair.

And the depth on display through four players within three shots is exactly what professional golf needs right now. I’ve covered enough lean years for both men’s and women’s tours to know: depth is what separates a sustainable product from a one-player sideshow.

Hyo Joo Kim’s 63 will be the highlight reel moment. But Polly Mack’s intelligent 66, built on offseason preparation and wedge work, might be more revealing about where this tour actually stands. Both matter. Both tell a story.

I’ll be watching to see if Jeeno and Nelly can climb back into this conversation by Friday afternoon. That answer will tell us more than any opening round ever could.