Kris Tamulis may want to keep playing this week, but she will have to wait to tee it up again as the LPGA takes another breather before a big trip abroad.
The 10-year Tour pro fired a final-round 65 on Sunday to become a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala., and no doubt would love to keep the momentum going this week. Instead, she will be using the time to enjoy the win – and $195,000 first-place check – while taking time to rest after playing 29 holes on Sunday.
Tamulis is one of a number of players who have stepped up their games in recent weeks, and it will be a true test to see if they can continue the stellar play in the coming weeks. Maintaining a high level of execution is one of the most difficult feats in sports, and Tamulis and others will be looking to do so with the intensity ratcheted up a notch.
Many players will be packing their bags and traveling to France for next week’s major, The Evian Championship, as the LPGA wraps up its 2015 major championship schedule. The scenic locale will be in focus in the golf world next week as players make one last attempt to become a major champion this season at the $3.25 million event.
Hyo Joo Kim, who already has a win this year, is the defending champion, having won the tournament as a non-member last summer. She will be back to try and become the tournament’s first back-to-back winner.
The following week, all eyes will be on St. Leon-Rot, Germany, for the 14th staging of the Solheim Cup. Juli Inkster will lead her U.S. squad against the Carin Koch and the Europeans as they look to end Team Europe’s two-event winning streak.
The Tour’s Alabama event was the final domestic tournament until the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., Nov. 19-22, so players will need to adjust their time schedules to get in synch with different time zones across the pond. The Solheim Cup precedes the LPGA’s final off week of the year before seven consecutive weeks of action to finish the 2015 campaign.
It’s been a hot and hectic summer, and now gears will shift as the season’s stretch run begins in earnest. A week full of travel, practice, rest, taking care of odds and ends and preparing for a major challenge awaits, and then it will be time to focus and hunt pin flags in Europe.
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