Megan Khang is the new Captain America

I took a 30-hour road trip down to Pine Valley to watch the final matches of the Crump Cup. Hit the road at 6 am on Sunday and got home at noon on Monday. What a treat to walk the course. I was the only media member there. I was really the only “outsider” there. The club allows staff to watch the final match. So it was me, the members, the golfer, and the staff. I wrote a blow-by-blow of the match between Andrew Price and Jimmy Ellis. You can read it on AmateurGolf.com.

On my drive back on Monday, I swung through Whitinsville to get some photos and videos of Whitinsville GC with my drone. Was very cool to be out there with just the maintenance staff, as the course is closed on Monday mornings for them to dial in the setting for the week.

Two golf courses, and I didn’t hit a single shot. I didn’t even have the clubs in the trunk.

News and Notes:

• Thorbjornsen struggles on Sunday: The Wellesley native shot 78 on Sunday in the Procore Championship out in Napa, California. He started the final round T14, but the poor closing round cost him 36 spots in the standings. Knowing he’s had some health issues, that was my first reaction to that score. The next PGA Tour event is the Sanderson Farms on October 3.

• Four Bay Staters inside the Korn Ferry top 75: Davis Chatfield, Richy Werenski, John VarDenLaan, Robbie Oppenheim will all move on to the penultimate Korn Ferry Tour event in Columbus, Ohio. Following that event, the Top 75 in the season points qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Indiana from Oct 3-6.

• Megan Khang helps Team USA win Solheim Cup: Khang might be the perfect golf teammate. Incredible energy and positivity. She brought Nelly Korda out of her shell and she even managed to get caddies to rip off their shirts when Alison Lee holed out for eagle on Saturday.

• Weston Jones looking for a college win: Jones (Sudbury, Mass.), a senior at Rutgers, shot 68-68 and is T2 heading into the final day of the Canadian Collegiate Invitational. Live Scoring.

• Women’s Mass Mid-Am starts Wednesday: Shannon Johnson and Megan Buck have a leg up on the competition as they are both members of the host course, Thory Lea. Live Scoring

• New England Senior Amateur starts Wednesday: A strong field out in Quinnatisset Country Club. Live Scoring.

• U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship: Friday’s newsletter will have some stuff on the 10(!) Massachusetts golfers in the Mid-Am field at Kinloch in Virginia. It’s the final USGA event of the championship season.

Megan Khang is the new Captain America

Megan Khang (Rockland, Mass.) has played in two Solheim Cups and never lost a match. The 26-year-old made her Solheim Cup debut in Spain and went 3-0-1, earning 3.5 of Team USA’s 14 points. This week in Virginia, she went 3-0-0. Three more points, and this tie, Team USA won 15.5 - 12.5.

The Captain America label was most recently given to asshat Patrick Reed (has anyone heard from him lately?). Reed’s battle with Rory McIlroy at Hazeltine and general success in team events earned him the moniker.

The two golfers are diametrically opposed, though, because Reed is, like I said, an asshat who didn’t really blend the winning with any sort of national or team spirit. Reed grimaced and challenged the crowd in his typical sour nature.

On the other hand, Khang is a bubbly, energetic personality who seems to bring out the best in others, which in turn brings out the best in her.

“I mean, the atmosphere is just electric. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting the crowd very much involved.”

RTJ was not a course that fit Khang’s game, and Stacy Lewis told her that in the lead-up to the event. The course is long, and Khang’s game is predicated on hitting fairways and greens. She’s deadly accurate but doesn’t hit it very far. She’s 98th in length at 256 yards per drive and 4th in accuracy.

“Honestly, Stacy told me that probably at the beginning of the week I was probably only going to be playing best ball just because we had so many great ball strikers this week,” Khang said. “I told Stacy, I'm doing what's best for this team. You're the captain. You tell us what's best. She said, ‘prove me wrong,’ and I'd like to think I tried my best to do so.”

Remember when Reed demanded to play with… Tiger Woods? And then blamed him for the loss?

In 2014, Reed said, “My wife actually calls him my twin star. I am reckless like he is. I like to go for everything. But at the same time, that's how we win events, that's also how we lose events. It's one of those things that we don't play scared. That would be pretty fun."

Remember when Reed then complained about playing with Woods in France in 2018 instead of Jordan Spieth?

Sheesh. That was our Captain America?

On Friday afternoon, Khang went out with her friend, Nelly Korda, in the first match of Foursomes. The No. 1 player in the world had a very different attitude than during a normal week on tour. She was jumping around, even skipping, to the tee boxes.

“Nelly and I, our friendship goes back to Junior Solheim Cup days; that's how we got really close,” Khang said. “Ever since that pairing back then I know we wanted to play on the actual Solheim Cup team as partners.”

They ginned up a handshake that was inspired by a show they watched as kids: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

“Honestly, we've been asking for this pairing for quite a while. When Stacy told us we got it, we were pumped,” Khang said. “If you couldn't see it on the golf course, you must have been blind. We had so much fun out there.”

Not sure how much fun people had playing with the other Captain America…

Korda and Khang boat raced the European team of Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire 6&4. Maguire wouldn’t hit another shot until Sunday single.

Khang’s attitude freed up Korda, but so did Khang’s style of play.

“When you have a teammate who's so pure off the tee, you never have to worry. You just kind of send it,” Korda said. “So that was kind of the motto, is I was going to go first and send it. If I sent it in the wrong direction, I knew had a really good partner that was going to go next?”

Now, the Europeans might bristle at this title for Khang, who was part of the shirtless caddie celebration on Saturday. The story goes that a $500 bet was suggested for any hole-outs during the round on Saturday with Alison Lee. Khang instead said the caddies have to take off their shirts.

30 minutes later, both caddies were shirtless after Lee jarred her approach shot on the 2nd hole.

Was it a little over the top? Sure.

Is it something that any other American player would have made happen? I’m not so sure.

Captain America.

The 2023 Solheim Cup didn’t go as planned. Even with Khang’s great performance, the 14-14 tie (yuck) meant that the Solheim Cup would remain with the Europeans, who won it in 2021.

That was extra motivation for Khang and the team.

There were some serious vibes out there. Khang even went so far as to say, “the vibes were immaculate.”

Put that on a T-shirt.

At such a young age, Khang will hopefully be a part of more Solheim Cup teams in the future. One would have to imagine that in the far future, she might actually become the Captain of a Solheim Cup team.