Former world no. 2 and major winner Danielle Kang to play Australian Open

A six-time winner of the LPGA circuit will line up in what is shaping as a stellar Australian Open field on the Melbourne Sandbelt in December.

Former world no. 2 Danielle Kang says golf is “losing the beauty of the game” with such a focus on long hitting in both the men’s and women’s games.

The six-time winner on the LPGA tour and 2017 women’s PGA champion will head to Victoria in December to play the Australian Open on the Melbourne Sandbelt.

The American has played the Australian Open twice previously, both times in Adelaide, and said she was excited to head back here again for what she considers a quality championship.

“I’m looking for calibre tournaments,” Kang said.

Danielle Kang of the United States will play at the Australian Open in December. Photo: Getty Images

“The Open, to me, is a calibre opportunity. It’s your national open – and there’s pressure being an invite, not being able to disappoint the sponsors or showcase the best that I can showcase. “As long as I give it everything I’ve got, I’m always going to be proud of myself … but I’m just really thankful that I get that opportunity to compete when (most) tournaments are over (for the year).”

The owner of an outstanding short game, Kang hopes to thrive on the sandbelt courses at Kingston Heath and The Victoria golf clubs.

“Sometimes golf is becoming all about distance and I think that’s a little bit sad losing the beauty of the game,” Kang said.

“(There’s) so many different aspects of golf, right?

“Right now it’s all about ‘sending it’ – and I think that’s become cool in a send and I think it’s just losing a little bit of beauty.

“But I do believe that girls are hitting it further but their golf courses aren’t as long and you can make it a bit tougher by the green speed, by the rough length and tightening up the fairways, putting more OBs (out of bounds), things like that.”

Danielle Kang in action in South Korea earlier this month. Photo: Getty Images

Now ranked just outside the top 200, Kang, who took time off the tour in 2022 to battle a tumour on her spine, has had fewer opportunities than she would have liked to play in the bigger tournaments.

While she has some of the sport’s top trophies already in her keeping and was among the world’s top five for some time, Kang has little interest in looking back.

“Right now, I’m really focused on where I am, and it’s not placed where I used to be,” she said.

“But I’m not trying to get back to where I used to be. I want to be, if anything, better than what I used to be – that’s my goal and my strive to what I’m trying to be.

“If I keep looking back and comparing myself of what I what I used to do, who I used to be, it’s the most useless thing to do for me, because that person no longer exists.

“But I do look back and go wow, I’ve done a really good job. I became world number two. I was number one American golfer at one point … and that was a really good time.

“I’ve been told that most useless bees in the world are they used to bees, right? So I always tell people, it doesn’t matter what you used to do matters what you do now.”

Danielle Kang in action at the Australian Open at Grange Golf Course in South Australia in 2015. Photo Sarah Reed.

Kang says competing at the Open, which will have a field including world no. 5 Hannah Green and two-time defending champion, South African Ashleigh Buhai, is about opportunity – and that is something that is still attractive about heading to Australia.

“When people say, do you have to have top money to attract the most top players, it’s kind of a hit or miss for me,” she said of Australia regaining its place as an attractive option for the world’s best golfers.

“I believe every time I played Australian Open back in the day, it was a very great set of golf courses.

“The golf course was always difficult, it was you guys’ national Open.

“I get attracted by the way the golf course is set up, the way the difficulty gets up.”