Thompson Hoping To Peak In Time For Summer
After Inbee Park charged out in front with a stellar front-nine, Lexi Thompson’s Sunday charge looked like it was on the way when she birdied the 14th. But she bogeyed the very next hole. Again, it looked like she might charge when she birdied the 16th and then proceeded to stiff her approach on the par-3 17th to six feet. The putt slid by, though, and it was not to be Sunday for Thompson.
“I mean I left a lot of putts out there for birdies,” Thompson said. “I missed a few short putts. But yeah, I mean overall I struck it really well. I hit a lot of good iron shots, so I’m going to take positives out of the week. I’m happy with the finish, obviously. Not a win but Inbee played great, so.”
The 2-under 69 Thompson shot Sunday wasn’t a bad round by any stretch, but she knew she’d need more heading into Sunday with a crowded leaderboard and Park tied atop with her.
“It was funny because I think somebody asked me two days ago what I thought the winning score was going to be, and I was saying 14 or 15-under, so I knew I had to shoot four or five under at least today.”
But with four majors coming up over the next five months, Thompson’s pleased her game’s rounding into shape in time for the summer with Sunday’s tie for fourth being her best finish of 2015 to date.
“This is definitely a big confidence booster with a lot of majors coming up, the KPMG coming up and just a lot of good tournaments basically,” Thompson said. “But this was one of my favorites all year, so I mean I love coming here and playing in front of the fans.” out with the old, in with the old?
Each of the last three seasons, Inbee Park ended the LPGA season No. 1 in putts per green in regulation and in the top-five in putting average.
But Park is just 18th in putts per green in regulation this year (1.78) and 37th in putting average (29.84). So this week Park went old with the old putter and hopefully in with her old putting.
“I changed my putter this week, and a little bit of tweaks with the degrees of the putters and stuff like that,” Park said. “Just trying to make the ball go a little bit the way I want to go.”
The new putter brought back out the old Park on the greens. Inbee only needed 28.25 putts per round here this week, back to her normal levels of putts per round.
“The main key this week was my putting,” Park said. “That’s been something I’ve been struggling with the last couple weeks, in Hawaii and in San Francisco. I hit the ball great, but I just couldn’t putt. So I tried to give a little bit of change this week, and this week was totally different putting week for me. I putted really good.”
That may be frightening news for the rest of the Tour, but it’s certainly relieving to Park.
“I’m very happy to finally be really happy with the putter,” Park said. “Last couple of weeks I didn’t know what was wrong with my putter. And just I was really struggling. So yeah, just happy to find what was the problem and finally solved.”
Goals in the Distance
After Lydia Ko won a week ago, Park - No. 2 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings - didn’t have a chance to regain the No. 1 ranking, but she’s certainly put Ko on notice going forward that she wants her old moniker as the world’s top ranked player back.
“I don’t really try to think so much about the rankings. I think it’s just really out of my mind now,” Park said. “When I was No. 1, I probably looked at it a lot more often than what I am right now, but obviously eventually I really want to be back on the top again. But that’s not my only goal this year.”
It’d be gravy, obviously. She spent 59 weeks at No. 1 and wants to be the best women’s golfer on the planet. But more than that, she wants to have the moniker of career grand slam winner, and she can only get that later this summer with wins at the RICOH Women’s British Open and the Evian Championship.
“I’m just trying to play good golf every week and try to win every week and just play good golf,” Park said. “And hopefully if I can achieve the career Grand Slam this year, that’ll be my biggest goal.” drive for show, putt for dough It had been a disappointing start to 2015 for two-time LPGA winner Hee Young Park. She was only 62nd on the money list but cashed a check for more Sunday than she had made all year. Her tie for second is her first top-10 of 2015 and the $104,626 check vaults her up to _ on the money list
“Last two weeks I’ve been working on a lot of putting distance,” Park said. “I didn’t change any skill or stroke. Just keep practice with the distance and make sure past the hole, because previous round or before, I always above the hole, like short. So not even chance to, know, expect to make. So try to make a visual line past the hole all the time. I think that helped me. I think that was my key.”
Numbers to Know
2 - Inbee Park has now won this event two of the three year’s since its inception.
3 - 0 players age 40 plus had finished in the top 10 heading into this week. This week three did - Maria McBride, Juli Inkster, and Karrie Webb.
14 - Inbee Park’s 14 career wins ties her for 36th on the all-time wins list.
51 - Lydia Ko has made 51 consecutive cuts on the LPGA Tour
65 - Park’s final round 65 tied the second lowest round of the tournament
6,241 - The amount donated by Lydia Ko after her T41 finish.
All In For Nepal
Lydia Ko will write a check for $6,241 to the International Red Cross for relief efforts for victims of the Nepal earthquake. She was hoping she’d make more this week to donate but after an opening round, uncharacteristic 4-over 75, Ko was just glad she got a check to donate at all.
“I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make the cut or even make a donation from this event,” Ko said. “But luckily I was able to play all four days, but yeah, you know, the last three days was a lot of grinding, but I’m happy that I can contribute.
What Ko’s hoping is that her donation will spur more people into action, and that this week has brought more notoriety to the cause. She remembers seeing how New Zealand was impacted by an earthquake a couple years ago and the time and effort it takes to return things to normalcy.
“I mean it’s a very unfortunate thing that happened, and obviously the earthquake Nepal was heard all around the world,” Ko said. “But I hope that with what I did in my press with me donating, I wish other people will contribute also and just be more aware of the things that are going on there.”
Wounded Warrior Project Update
Ten eagles were recorded Sunday at the Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout Presented by JTBC. The ten eagles combined with one eagle on Saturday makes the weekend total eleven eagles, making this weeks donations $11,000. The season total amount of eagles is 93 and has now reached $93,000.
Wounded Warrior Project® Weekends is a season-long charity program that will be tied into the Race to the CME Globe. Each Saturday and Sunday at LPGA tournaments, CME Group will donate $1,000 to Wounded Warrior Project® for each eagle that is recorded. This amount will increase to $5,000 for each eagle during the weekend of the CME Group Tour Championship and a formal check will be presented to the Wounded War¬rior Project® during the trophy ceremony at the CME Group Tour Championship. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.
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