As a host of prodigious teens seemingly surround Brittany Lincicome on leaderboards these days, the former teen prodigy is enjoying a career year in her 11th season on Tour. Lincicome posted top-15 finishes on the money list in back-to-back years as a 20 and 21-year-old, but even she hasn’t had a start to the season quite like this. She not only won the ANA Inspiration in April, but she followed up her second major title with a fourth-place finish at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship to storm into the lead of the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award with 74 points. With three majors left on the schedule, Lincicome is just 10 points shy of Michelle Wie’s winning total from a year prior.
Lincicome’s posted back-to-back top-five finishes in a major championship for the first time in her career and has vaulted into 8th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and she’s up to fifth on the LPGA’s Official Money List, which if she were to end the year there would be one spot higher than her previous best finish of sixth in 2011.
Perhaps, even more importantly than the back-to-back top fives is the impact these two finishes could have for 2016. After entering the major championship season ranked No. 18 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and as the fifth American, she’s since jumped into the second spot for Americans. That would enable her to reach her major goal of donning the red, white and blue in the 2016 Olympics, a contest a max of four players from each country can participate in.
But to hold on her spot on the United States team and her grasp of the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award, Lincicome will need to continue to shine in the major championships in 2015. Next up is the U.S. Women’s Open – a championship she has finished in the top-25 five of the last six years and has posted three top-10 finishes in X appearances but has never won. Either way, no one will find Lincicome beating at balls on the range
“I had talked to my caddie before I won the ANA and I said, if I actually dedicated -- because obviously I'm getting married at the end of the year, going to start a family eventually. If I kind of put in a real good couple years before I maybe retire or backed away a little bit, do you think I could be better, could be No. 1?” Lincicome said. “And then I won ANA and so I was like, maybe that doesn't work for me because I didn't do anything different the week before I won ANA. I think it's just the way I play. If I hit too many balls, I don't feel good. It's more like the time, hitting ten balls is better than hitting like a hundred because my concentration, I'm like a social butterfly and I lose concentration.”
While Lincicome’s a free-swinging natural, Inbee Park, who is hot on the heels of Lincicome in her bid to become the second ever holder of the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award, has quietly established herself as the greatest Asian-born player of all time before her 27th birthday. And she translates that directly back to a major swing change that she worked on with her husband after struggling to follow up her win at the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open as a 19-year-old.
“Since I met my husband and really gone through major swing changes, my ball-striking's been improved probably 300 percent better than what I'm used to,” Park said. “So he's been really the key factor, and the ball-striking has been really the key factor for my career. My swing change obviously was the best thing that I've ever done.”
What’s followed since has been one of the greatest stretches in major championships in golf history with five major championship victories in the last 12 majors.
But, surprisingly, Park didn’t win one title associated with major championships, finishing second a year ago to Michelle Wie in the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award standings, but she quietly issued her warning that that might change this year by winning the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in record-setting fashion Sunday. And no one has a history over the last eight years at the U.S. Women’s Open quite like Park. In eight appearances, she’s won the championship twice and posted four additional top-10 finishes. Despite three consecutive wins at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Park actually has more top-10s at the U.S. Women’s Open than any other major, and she did her homework on Lancaster when she went to do her homework on Westchester Country Club.
“Yeah, three weeks before Atlantic City, we came here and played a couple times here [at Westchester]. Obviously being a first-time golf course, I thought, you know, because we were on this side of the town, we thought we should just go visit here and go visit a couple times in Lancaster where we are going to play the U.S. Open,” Park said after her win. “We did two rounds here and there. Knowing it I think is very important. You're on this side of the town; why not look at the course more times and try to look at every break or look at everything that you have to avoid.”
Both Lincicome and Park – the only two players eligible at this point for the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award with their wins in major championships – are looking to hold off a host of talented suitors for the hardware given out at the conclusion of the Evian Championship. Specifically, rookie Sei Young Kim, who has shown a liking to major championships so far. The 22-year-old South Korean had only played two major championships before 2015 with her best finish being a T46 at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open but Kim has since reeled off back-to-back top-five finishes at major championships to surge into third in the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award standings. She led heading into the final round of the ANA Inspiration before finishing in a tie for fourth, and she battled Park Sunday in the final round before a couple missed putts midway through cost her a chance at the title, leaving her four shots back of Park as the runner-up.
“I felt that I'm in the right place right now, but I believe that with my ability, I could be better,” Kim said. “I could be better, so I will try hard to get close to No. 1.”
Lexi Thompson and Morgan Pressel, both past major champions, sit just behind Kim in fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award standings and could move into contention with a victory in each of the three major championships taking place within the next three months.
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