When it came time to decide on a team name, Dow Championship leaders Cassie Porter and Gemma Dryburgh consulted ChatGPT.
The result: Kilted Koalas.
“It was the first suggestion, and I was like, hey, that’s great,” said Porter, who hails from Australia while partner Dryburgh is Scottish.
“And ChatGPT came up with a really nice logo. And I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but we have really cool shirts. We’ll be selling merch at the end of the week if anyone is interested.”
Dryburgh and Porter opened with a 4-under 66 in the alternate shot format at Midland Country Club, recording three consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-16.
Defending champions Jeeno Thitikul and Ruoning Yin opened with a 68 and were delighted to see a sign of support on the first tee.
“It’s very surprising, I would say, because I didn’t expect that,” said Yin, “like the fans can have the sign for us. But obviously, everyone loved Jin & Ronic.”
Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang first played together – with much success – at the 2023 Solheim Cup. It was Thompson who came up with their team name this week, Biggie Smalls. There’s nearly a foot difference in height between them.
“I was on board from the jump,,” said Khang in their pre-tournament press conference, though they hadn’t yet worked out their walk-up song. (Though the artist should be fairly easy to work out.)
Japanese twins Chisato Iwai and Akie Iwai are known as “Aki&Chizzy75,” a nod to the 75th anniversary of the LPGA and their birthday, July 5. They’d be the second set of sisters to win the event, following Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn in 2021.
The first and third rounds of the event will be played in the foursomes format (alternate shot), and the second and fourth rounds will be played in the four-ball (best ball) format.
The winning team receives a standard two-year winner’s exemption on the LPGA priority list. Rolex Rankings, Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year points will not be allocated.
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