BACK TO PARADISE
The Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic returns to beautiful Paradise Island for the fourth year. The season-opening event comes after the co-sponsors of this event, Pure Silk and the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, signed a three-year extension of this event that will see it take place at Paradise Island through at least 2018.
COUNTRY PRIDE - SEARCHING FOR A CROWN AND GOLD
It’s not quite as intense as the race for Rolex Player of the Year honors are sure to be but there are a few races in golf with more on the line right now than the battle to make South Korea’s four-player team for the UL International Crown and the Olympic field this summer. With six players in the top 10, there’s little doubt that when the Crown deadline hits at the conclusion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the Olympic team is finalized in July that four South Korean players will represent their country.
The only question is which ones?
Currently, there are seven players in the Rolex Rankings’ top 15 but only four of those will make the Olympics. Inbee Park seems all but a lock but the rest of the spots are up for grabs. So Yeon Ryu, Sei Young Kim and Amy Yang currently make up the final three spots but In Gee Chun and Hyo Joo Kim are in the spots right behind them in the Rolex Rankings at Nos. 9 & 10 respectively and this will surely change between now and this summer.
The Americans have a fierce battle on their hands too. What seemed like a lock that the Americans would have four players guaranteed for the Olympics doesn’t look to be the case anymore. Currently, only three Americans - Stacy Lewis, Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr - would make the Olympics if the cutoff was today with Brittany Lincicome just one spot out of the top 15 guarantee at 16th. However, Lincicome is firmly in the final spot on the United States UL International Crown team but there are a number of players - Alison Lee, Morgan Pressel, Jessica Korda, Gerina Piller, and Michelle Wie - that are all within 15 spots of Lincicome in the Rolex Rankings. Surely each has it on their mind to fight for a chance to represent the USA at the second edition of the UL International Crown outside Chicago and a month later in Rio at the Olympic Games.
WHAT’S BROOKE HENDERSON GOT PLANNED FOR HER SECOND ACT?
When Brooke Henderson cruised to a dominating eight-shot victory at the Cambia Portland Classic last August, she assured herself LPGA membership. But due to how late in the season she claimed membership, Henderson only was in action in three more events in 2015. This year should be an exciting full-season view of what this uber-talented Canadian prodigy can do.
Henderson not only joined Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson as the only three players to ever win before their 18th birthday, but she also posted two top-five finishes in major championships and held the 54-hole lead at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, which annually has one of the strongest fields in women’s golf. As a result, Henderson’s has already climbed up to 17th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, and based on her play in 2015, that ascent is just beginning.
QUEEN OF THE ISLANDS
Whether it’s simply finding a solution for the wind or just the good vibes the islands bring, no one crushed it in paradise more than Sei Young Kim in 2015. Kim posted victories in 2015 at each of the LPGA’s three island stops, winning the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic and LOTTE Championship both in playoffs and then taking down the Blue Bay LPGA in October to conclude a magical rookie season in which she finished fourth on the money list and earned the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award.
Making only her second start as a rookie here a year ago, Kim rebounded from a missed cut the previous week to post rounds of 70-68-72-68. A birdie on the final hole got her into a playoff with Sun Young Yoo and Ariya Jutanugarn and another birdie on the first playoff hole gave her the first of three wins in 2015.
That win here a year ago proved a prescient glimpse into Kim’s clutch genes that LPGA fans saw the rest of the year as Kim holed a chip at the 18th in Hawaii to force a playoff with Inbee Park then proceeded to dump her 152-yard, 8-iron approach from the fairway for eagle at the first playoff hole to complete one of the most thrilling finishes in LPGA history.
LEXI’S CAREER YEAR
Lexi Thompson didn’t win a major in 2015 like she did in 2014 but there’s no question that last season was her best year on the golf course. The 21-year-old bomber won twice in 2015, posted a career-high 13 top-10s and three top-10s in major championships on her way to a third place finish in the final Race to the CME Globe standings. She also ended the season with her highest ever slot in the Rolex Rankings at No. 4 and appears poised to give Stacy Lewis a run for her long-held spot as the top-ranked American player.
There’s no question where Thompson needs to make a jump to take the next step. She finished No. 1 on the Tour in 2015 in greens in regulation at 77.23% but will need to be better with the flatstick where she ranked 114th in putting average (30.58) and 37th in putts per GIR. This is a huge year for Thompson, too. She’s adamant that she’d rather win the Olympics than win a major championship this year and the opportunity of playing for her country for the first time in the Summer Olympics isn’t lost on her.
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