Golf stars shocked by rough state of greens at LPGA event in Shanghai
Scoring has been very good over the first two days of the Buick LPGA Shanghai despite some rough looking greens at Qizhong Garden Golf Club.
The talk of the Buick LPGA Shanghai this week has been mainly on the state of the golf course rather than some excellent scoring, given the conditions.
The greens at Qizhong Garden Golf Club appear to be some of the roughest ever seen at a professional golf tournament.
Extreme heat in the region has caused huge problems for the greenkeeping staff at the venue, and several pictures of rough, patchy greens have been posted on social media.
Many of the images appear similar to the state of the greens at Chambers Bay during the US Open in 2015, when players described the putting surfaces as similar to broccoli, ryvita biscuits and cauliflower!
Michelle Wie West's former caddie Matthew Galloway posted a photo of a damaged green in Shanghai on X earlier this week and said: “Safe to say you can throw the putting stats out the window this week in Shanghai for the LPGA players.”
And Leona Maguire uploaded images of a wide-angle shot and a close-up of another green on her Instagram account with the comment "Instagram vs reality", adding a laughing emoji.
Safe to say you can throw the putting stats out the window this week in Shanghai for the LPGA players pic.twitter.com/X801EwLvQn
— Matthew Galloway (@matthewgalloway) October 8, 2025
The speculation over why the greens were in such bad shape prompted the LPGA to release a statement explaining what the staff at Qizhong Garden were dealing with.
"We are aware of the course conditions at the Buick LPGA Shanghai," a spokesperson said. "The golf course superintendent, tournament team and the LPGA rules officials have worked diligently against extreme heat conditions this season in preparation for this week's event.
"We will continue to monitor the situation and care for the course appropriately throughout the week."
But the course conditions coupled with high heat and humidity have not stopped the field from producing low scores, with Minami Katsu storming into the halfway lead after a second-round 61.
Katsu broke the course record with her amazing 12-birdie round as she will take a two-shot lead over Ina Yoon into the weekend.
"It was pretty flawless round," Katsu said. "My career-best was 10-under, so new record today.
"Honestly I'm very happy with the record that I made today. Obviously we still have two more days to play, so probably no celebration. I'll try to keep it simple."
Keith Jackson joined GolfMagic's content team during the summer of 2025.
He has over 25 years' experience in the sports journalism industry, with almost 20 of those spent in digital media at Sky Sports, including seven years as digital editor for golf content.
