RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Danielle Kang admits the closest she has ever come to even thinking about taking a victory plunge into Poppie's Pond surrounding the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club was during the ANA Inspiration pro-am tournament two years ago.
She was playing golf with amateur Abby Wambach, the ultra-competitive retired American soccer star who anchored two gold-medal-winning Olympic teams and won the World Cup in 2015. Their group needed to make an eagle to win the pro-am event. Wambach told Kang if she chipped in for eagle, she would jump into the pond.
"I chipped in, and she ran with the ball and jumped into Poppie's Pond," Kang said, laughing as she stood only a few hundred yards from the famous water hazard after Saturday's third round. Kang did not enter the water that day.
By the time she told that story to waiting media Saturday afternoon, Kang had moved into a tie for third in the 2019 ANA Inspiration alongside Mi Hyang Lee, both at 5-under 211.
Lee scored a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th hole to leapfrog onto the leaderboard with a third-round score of 4-under 68.
And Kang, like many others watching the leaderboard throughout the round, wondered if tournament leader Jin Young Ko was going to run away with the championship as she built a four-stroke lead late into the round.
Seemingly on cruise control as she stepped onto the 14th tee, Ko made an uncharacteristic mistake on the 148-yard par-3 hole when her tee shot sailed into a greenside water hazard. Following her drop, Ko's chip left her with a long putt above the hole for par, which she failed to convert. The resulting double-bogey sliced her lead to two strokes, with four holes to play.
The player from Korea lost yet another stroke with a bogey on the 15th hole, which opened the door for the rest of the field. Ko birdied the par-3 17th and finished at 8-under 208. She managed to hang onto a one-shot cushion over In-Kyung Kim, who birdied the final hole to slide into second at 7-under 209.
After the erroneous stroke on No. 14, Ko responded to her caddie, who asked if she was OK. "It's OK. I'm not a robot. I'm human," she told him. "Don't think about bad things."
And according to Kang, that's the mentality needed at major championships on difficult golf courses. Kang knows that all too well at a tournament where she has missed the cut twice and posted a finish no better than a tie for 26th.
"I haven't played that great here in previous years, but this is the place where I've always wanted to win and play well," Kang said. "It's a historical place, and this golf course sets up really well for me."
Kang's 2-under 70 on Saturday wasn't spectacular, but it was sufficient to move her along steadily and put her in the right position when Ko's wheels started wobbling late in the round. The Californian, who now lives in Las Vegas and works with golf coach Butch Harmon, was admittedly watching the leaderboard when that happened.
"I saw somebody was 10 under [and] I know I was at 5 [under] ... but every hole, you can't lose your focus," said Kang, who has two career wins, including a major at the 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship.
Kang escaped trouble on more than one occasion, finding the green in regulation from the thick rough and managing par.
"To be honest, I was getting a little bit greedy," she said. "I definitely hit some incredible shots coming in. I wanted those putts to drop."
Kang began working with Harmon because of her friendship with PGA Tour winner Dustin Johnson. And because she has spent time with both the legendary teacher and the PGA star, Kang said she arrived at the LPGA's first major this week with a different approach from previous years at the ANA. She drew on input from Harmon, Johnson, her caddie and friends.
"It's different in the way I've mapped out the golf course, the way I'm approaching the pins, the way I've practiced out here and the way I've warmed up, as well as the different shot shapes I'm hitting," Kang said of her new game plan at this year's championship.
"I felt really great about this week, and I'm hitting the ball great, so it's not a risk to come here with a different game plan," she added. "You change things for a reason. If you keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, that's just the definition of insanity."
When asked how Harmon was directing her this week, Kang shrugged.
"I talk to him every day," she said. "He told me I was hitting the ball great and said, 'This is how I want you to play golf.'"
Asked what she has learned from playing golf with Johnson, Kang said she has learned there are different ways of thinking and approaching shots.
"I'm just trying to find my own formula and find a way using the tools I have to make my game better," she said.
At one point in her round, on the third hole, Kang was seen cringing after a shot out of the thick rough at Mission Hills. She downplayed the reaction, calling it a "muscle twitch" and said the rough is punitive, both on shot-making and her body.
"I love that it's playing this tough and giving players challenges," she said. "If you hit a bad shot, you get penalized. That's the beauty of major championships. It's all about patience."
Will it help on Sunday that she already has won a major championship?
"It's really hard to win a golf tournament," said Kang, who tied for second at last week's Kia Classic just over the mountain in Carlsbad.
"It helps that I have won a major before, but putting that all aside, I just want to stick with the process. You can't help yourself if you're trying to hunt the leaders down."
Lisa D. Mickey has covered golf for Golf World, Golf For Women, The New York Times, the U.S. Golf Association, LPGA.com, Virginia Golfer Magazine and for various other publications and websites. She is based in Florida.
