The vacations are over.
It’s the final week in January, and that means it’s time for the LPGA Tour to kick things off for another year. This week’s $1.4 million Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic in Paradise Island is a picturesque way for the world’s best female professional golfers to begin yet another year.
With ocean breezes flowing through the palm trees and sun shining down, the LPGA’s best return to action with a 72-hole affair that will set the tone for the season. Republic of Korea’s Sei Young Kim – who won three times en route to Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year honors last year – returns to defend her title against a strong field of players hungry to begin the season in a big way.
World No. 1 and reigning Rolex Player of the Year Lydia Ko is beginning her year next week in Ocala, Fla., so the door is open for Kim and others to get the jump on the superstar teen. Inbee Park, a five-time winner in 2015 who finished three points behind Ko for Rolex Player of the Year honors, is teeing it up at the par-73, 6,625-yard Ocean Club Golf Course this week and will be one to watch on Golf Channel.
Other 2015 tournament champions in the field include two-time winners Cristie Kerr – who won the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship – and fellow American Lexi Thompson. Hyo Joo Kim, Brittany Lincicome, Minjee Lee, Anna Nordqvist, Chella Choi, Brooke Henderson, Kris Tamulis and Jessica Korda all won tournaments a year ago and would love to keep their streak going into another season with a victory in the Bahamas.
Sei Young Kim needed an extra hole to separate herself from Ariya Jutanugarn and Sun Young Yoo in last year’s event after the trio finished 72 holes tied at 14-under-par. Korda won the tournament in 2014, while Ilhee Lee – who is playing this week – won a monumentally rain-shortened affair in 2013, the year the event debuted on the LPGA Tour.
Players like two-time Rolex Player of the Year Stacy Lewis, 2015 and 2017 U.S. Solheim Cup Team Captain Juli Inkster, Morgan Pressel, Azahara Munoz, Beatriz Recari, Paula Creamer, Sandra Gal, Yani Tseng and Michelle Wie add a considerable amount of depth to the field, so it should be an interesting weekend in paradise.
Who is ready after the time off, and who will strike first in what should be an LPGA Tour season for the ages. It’s a season that will include five majors, the second staging of the UL International Crown, a dozen events held outside North America and the debut of Olympic golf at the Summer Games in Brazil, and it all begins this week.
Ladies, you’re next on the tee.
)
)
)
)
