Players get to enjoy start of college football season

Perhaps one of the best things about this week being an off week for the LPGA is that it gives a number of Tour players a chance to watch their alma-maters play football.

It’s an exciting week on college campuses everywhere as the 2015 football season begins this week, and several Tour stars will have their eyes on television screens over the weekend while they prepare to travel to France for next week’s Evian Championship. Several LPGA stars come from big college football schools, so there’s no doubt they are excited about the kickoff of yet another thrilling season of gridiron battles.

Just looking at the LPGA’s top 50 players on the money list shows how deep the college ties run, and there are plenty of schools represented. From top-ranked Inbee Park, a former UNLV star, and No. 3 Stacy Lewis, an Arkansas Razorback, to Arizona State Sun Devils Anna Nordqvist (ninth), Azahara Munoz (23^rd) and Carlota Ciganda (50^th), the top 50 is littered with former college standouts.

No. 20 Brittany Lang will likely be interested in Duke University’s football team, while UCLA Bruins Alison Lee (21^st), Jane Park (40^th) and Mo Martin (42^nd) have high hopes for their squad as the season begins. Other schools represented in the LPGA’s top 50 are the University of Texas-El Paso (Gerina Piller, 22^nd), University of Southern California (No. 24 Lisette Salas and No. 36 Candie Kung), LSU (Austin Ernst, 27^th), Florida (Sandra Gal, 28^th), Florida State (Kris Tamulis, 31^st), Texas Christian (Angela Stanford, 34^th) and Oklahoma State (Pernilla Lindberg, 37^th).

Maybe, just maybe, one of those schools (or more) will advance to the second College Football Playoff at the end of the year (to join my Auburn Tigers, of course), and if that happens, there will be one heck of a happy LPGA star with hopes and dreams of a national title as the new year begins. But first things first.

The LPGA’s best will have plenty on their minds the next three months as the Tour season rolls on through its home stretch, but they will also have an eye on college football scoreboards as well. It’s a wonderful time of year to be a sports fan, and it is always fun to see professional golfers exalt and agonize over every win and loss the way they do with every birdie that drops or lips out.

It’s going to be a fabulous fall.