MAJOR KEY
All three major championship winners in 2016 will tee it up this week at the Marathon Classic Presented by Owens Corning and O-I. Lydia Ko (ANA Inspiration), Brooke Henderson (KPMG Women’s PGA Championship) and Brittany Lang (U.S. Women’s Open) have combined for six tournament wins and 26 top-10 finishes so far this season.
Lang will play at Highland Meadows Golf Club less than a week removed from winning at CordeValle in the season’s third major. Tuesday morning was the first time that the No. 20 player in the Rolex Rankings (moved up 20 spots from No. 40 after her win) heard the term “major champion” used in front of her name.
“The first time I heard it was this morning, and I was smiling so big,” Lang said in her Wednesday press conference. “They said, you know, Solheim participant, winner, and then Manulife winner, and then they said major champion, and I was smiling teeing off. It was a dream come true. It’s pretty special.”
With two wins in her last five starts including her first major, world No. 2 Brooke Henderson will be playing in this event for the first time. The 18-year-old Canadian attempted to Monday qualify for this event last season but wasn’t able to make it into the field.
Henderson leads the LPGA in events played (19) and rounds played (73) and this year’s Marathon Classic will be her ninth consecutive LPGA start in as many events.
“I like that, and I’ve actually squeezed in another event in between all of those,” Henderson said of her recent schedule. “Technically this could be my 10th week in a row because I went to Rhode Island to play a charity event two days. But it’s a lot of fun. I love to play, and I feel like my game just keeps on getting better the more I play.”
Now a two-time major champion, Lydia Ko should feel confident this week as she won this tournament in 2014 and has never finished outside of the top-7 in her three starts at Highland Meadows. Ko said the weather, much like her golf game, has been consistent here year-to-year since 2013.
"I mean, it's always been super hot here, so that's one thing that hasn't changed in the four years that I've been here," Ko said.
PRIDE OF OH-IO
Toledo native Stacy Lewis always has a busy week when she returns to Northwest Ohio but her Wednesday this week was a little more hectic than usual. Lewis was paired with the Ohio State Football Head Coach, Urban Meyer in the pro-am and saw some things she’s never seen before plus some of the largest crowds she's seen for a pro-am.
“Yeah, I saw a guy carrying three football helmets around,” said Lewis.
The 31-year old said that she was impressed with Meyer keeping his word about playing this year after having to skip out last year due to the ESPYs.
“His game is pretty good. He actually started out pretty good, and I think we all got a little tired because we were out there for so long, but he made a couple putts there at the end,” said Lewis. “He was awesome, though, just great with all the people, made sure he went up and found every kid and signed everything for all the kids. The coolest part I thought was every kid he asked what their name was and personalized everything and took time to do it. He didn’t have to do that.”
HIGH-QUALITY RESUME
When Lydia Ko comes to Highland Meadows, she seems to have it all under control. The now two-time major champion has to be the favorite this week based on her impressive play so far this season (3 wins and seven additional top-10s) and her record at this event.
Ko has never finished outside the top-7 in her first three appearances here and said she has always had positive vibes in Northwest Ohio dating back to her 2012 U.S. Women’s Amateur win at The Country Club in Cleveland. She said her most vivid memory of her Marathon win was how she bounced back from a bad final round at the British the week before.
“I had such great memories in Cleveland, Ohio, with the US Women’s Amateur, so a lot of people actually mentioned to me about, ‘hey, I remember Cleveland, remember this, so that was just really cool to reflect back to that,” said Ko. “You know, I had one of my worst professional rounds the tournament before at the British Open on the last day. I think I shot 80, and then I came here and won the week after. I always say, week in, week out, every round is different. It was really cool to kind of have a quick turnaround and play well after a not-so-good finish.”
She received a sponsor exemption to this event as an amateur in 2013 and tied for seventh. She followed it up with her fourth career win and second as an LPGA member the next year in 2014. Last year she tied for third after rounds of 71-66-67-67. The 19-year old is trying to become the first player this season to reach four wins.
“It’s always nice to be back at a place you’ve played well at and where you also have won it, but Marathon, and Judd, the tournament director, has been really nice to me,” said Ko. “They gave me a sponsor’s invite when I was an amateur, and I did well there that year. It’s always nice to come back to a place where they’ve welcomed you and the sponsor has been fantastic. I love coming here.”
LYDIA KO - RECORD AT THE MARATHON CLASSIC
Year Scores Finish
2015 71-66-67-67=271 (-13) T3
2014 67-67-70-65=269 (-15) WIN
2013 69-67-71-68=275 (-9) T7
*Received a sponsor exemption in 2013
VETERAN SAVVY
Brittany Lang’s win at the U.S. Women’s Open made her the oldest player to win on the LPGA Tour in 2016 at the age of 30. Through 20 tournaments, the average age of winners this year is 21.5 and eleven events have been won by players 21 and under. Like many, Lang is amazed by the success of the Tour’s young talent.
“That's really hard to believe,” Lang said of being the season’s oldest winner. “I'm 30 years old. I'm the oldest winner. But yeah, I mean, the girls out on Tour, they just keep getting younger and younger and better and better, and you've got to keep making changes to get better because they're fearless and they're young and they're really good.
SENT OFF IN STYLE
With Monday’s announcement of the Final Olympic Golf Rankings, Brooke Henderson has officially punched her ticket to represent Canada in next month’s Olympic Games. Before she heads to Rio, Henderson will host a tournament at Ottawa Hunt Club that will raise money for charity and serve as a send-off for the 18-year-old Olympian.
“I was recently given honorary membership to the Ottawa Hunt Club, which is going to be home to the 2017 Canadian Women’s Open, which is a huge deal” said Henderson. “It’s an amazing club, pretty close to downtown Ottawa, and on August 5th we’re going to have an Olympic send-off for me and make some money for charity and just have a lot of fun with tons of people coming up to watch and some people are playing. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
QUOTABLE
“I’ve been with Marathon now for a few years, and they’ve continued to grow with this tournament, and you can see kind of by what they’re doing on the golf course. There’s been more stands every year, just more things going on. For me it’s been pretty cool to see the way that the company has kind of embraced the LPGA. They love this week. They love everything about it, and they want to get record crowds here on Sunday.”
-Stacy Lewis on her relationship with Marathon and being a brand ambassador
NUMBERS TO KNOW
16 - 16-of-20 tournaments in 2016 were won by players in this week’s field
3 - All three of this season's major champions are in this week's field
12 - Number of players who have won a major championship in their career in this week’s field
5 - Number of former Marathon Classic champions are in this week's field
23 & 17 - 23 players from 17 countries in this week's field qualified for the Olympics in the Final Olympic Golf Rankings
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