“I’ve been donating less balls to the golf course”: Lydia Ko shares her thought on Chevron’s new major venue at Texas

Lydia Ko and other LPGA golfers are going to have to take part in a major tournament at a brand new venue. In Texas, Chevron is opening a new major venue that is significantly bigger than others.

It is a very big course, as the official yardage comes in at 6,824. Eventually, players will adjust, but for now, they're in awe of the sheer size of the venue. It's not often that golfers feel overwhelmed with a course, but so far, they're a bit shellshocked with this one.

Lydia Ko said via Golf Week:

“To be honest, I played a practice round on Saturday, and I had very — I thought I was going to run out of balls before my round ended. But I finished strong, and I’ve been playing a lot — I’ve been donating less balls to the golf course since then."

She continued:

“Yeah, it has kind of like a U.S. Open/KPMG kind of golf course style, mixed, very different. I do like that I think they have like a second tee option on 18 to kind of bring that tall tree into play, which is kind of what we had to deal with on the 18th at Mission Hills to make it like a reachable par 5.”

It took Lydia Ko a very long time to figure out how to play on the course. She lost a lot of golf balls in the process, but she's finally adjusting. In time, other golfers will, too. It won't feel like the world's biggest course forever.

---

Other golfers share Lydia Ko's sentiments on the new major venue

Star golfer and current world No. 2 Nelly Korda said that she knows this course will demand solid form:

“It’s a completely different layout. Water is way more in play this week I would say, completely different grass. This is a Bermudagrass. I don’t know exactly what the grass was in Palm Springs, but the rough isn’t as thick as it would be, let’s say, in Palm Springs. But it’s still a great golf course. You’re still going to have to play really well."

Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko discuss the new venue

She continued:

“I would say there’s more trouble off the tee and the greens are smaller, and if it gets firm, it’s going to play really tough because it is still long. But I can’t compare the two golf courses because they’re kind of so different.”

Stacy Lewis said:

“What it takes to win — I think it’s going to be great ballstriking. The greens are firm. They’re pretty small when you — the areas that you have to hit it to certain hole locations are pretty small, so you have to be pretty precise there."

She also added that the type of grass they've added makes it an interesting venue:

“Then I think you could look to anyone that grew up playing on Bermudagrass, and the chipping and the surrounds, I think that’s going to be a big factor this week of just knowing how to play those shots around the greens.”

Lydia Ko, Stacy Lewis, Nelly Korda, and others will take part in this course together soon.