Three-time Canadian Pacific Women’s Open champion Lydia Ko is seeking to defend her title in this event for the second time in her career after winning in back-to-back years from 2012-13.
Since her first career LPGA victory in this event as a 15-year-old in 2012, Ko has earned 13 additional wins, including two majors, and climbed to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, a spot she has held for 44 consecutive weeks.
A win this week would give Ko the most wins all-time at Canada’s national championship, breaking a tie with Pat Bradley (1980, 1985, 1986) and Meg Mallon (2000, 2002, 2004).
Ko raved about her past experiences at this event during her press conference on Wednesday:
“I think my first year I played the Canadian Open was in 2012, and ever since then the crowds have been phenomenal. On that last day, that last hole, I thought it was just an army of people, and that was something I’d never experienced before. Everybody has been so sweet and welcoming. Even last year was great to go back to a course that I’d won before, and especially because it was the first time -- it was my first LPGA win.”
FROM RIO BACK HOME TO CANADA
Canada’s two Olympic representatives, Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp, will be back in their home country this week competing in the CP Women’s Open.
“It’s nice to be home right after the Olympics, to continue wearing the red and white this week and next week, for two weeks in a row,” Sharp said. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate being at the Olympics than playing in Canada two weeks in a row.”
The duo will be expecting a large following this week in Calgary.
“The CP Canadian Open is our national championship,” Henderson explained. “Having Canadians and people from all over the world kind of celebrate this national championship is really cool. Even this morning, I teed off at 8:00 in a pro-am on Wednesday, and there was people following me right from the start. My gallery kind of grew throughout the day, and as I finished my round, that was probably the longest autograph session that I’ve ever had just with pictures and people supporting me.”
LORIE KANE INDUCTED INTO CANADIAN GOLF HALL OF FAME
Twenty-year LPGA Tour veteran and proud Canadian Lorie Kane was inducted into Canadian Golf Hall of Fame on Tuesday evening. The 51-year-old native of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island has four LPGA victories in her career and 95 additional top-10 finishes, and sits at 28th on the career money list with $6,953,047 in earnings.
Kane is not done with her playing career, however, and will be competing in the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open for the 16th time this week where she has three top-10s (Best: T3, 2001).
“To be totally honest with you, it’s one of those things that I’m very honored to be able to say I’m going into the Hall, but at the same time something that I never -- I guess I’ve always thought of the Hall of Fame as something that happens at the end of your career,” Kane said Tuesday. “But I do know that in our sport, in golf, it’s a little bit different”
NUMBERS TO KNOW
- 3/4 - Lydia Ko has won 3 of the last 4 CP Women’s Opens
- 2 - Two players in the field Suzann Pettersen (2009) and Karrie Webb (1999) have won at Priddis before
- 1973 - The last Canadian to win the CP Women’s Open was Jocelyne Bourassa in 1973
- 17 - 17 Canadians are in the field this week
- 4 - Four Canadian Amateur Champions - Jennifer Kirby (2009), Rebecca Lee-Bentham (2011), Ariya Jutanugarn (2012), Brooke Henderson (2013) - are in the field. No Canadian Amateur Champion has won the CP Women’s Open
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I truly believe that, including the men’s and the women’s, that we did make a difference. I believe that people outside of the golfing industries, juniors in particular, would have looked and turned on the TV and said, wow, I want to be there for my country in something-something Olympics. I think that’s the difference we made.
The coverage we got and the interest we got, you can even see by the reaction of Inbee and Shanshan when they returned home, how much attention they got. It’s amazing how exciting it was.
Some people tell me, oh, golf is not fun; how can you be out there for five hours. I say, hey, I find it’s fun. But I think we really proved that. Six different country medalists, how exciting it was until the very last stretch, and even like in Inbee’s case, how there was a gold medal on the line and how solid you can continue playing even when there’s so much on the line at the end. I feel like it’s been an incredible two weeks for golf, and I truly believe that this has been a great step forward for the game.
If you talk to every single Olympian there that week, they would say the same thing, how much they enjoyed being there and how great that experience was.”
- Lydia Ko on what her message would be to the IOC on why golf is such a great Olympic sport
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