Blue Bay LPGA Top Storylines

THIS WEEK ON THE LPGA TOUR

Week of October 26, 2015
BLUE BAY LPGA
Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course
Hainan Island, China

(Note: Hainan Island is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time)

TOP STORYLINES

BACK TO PARADISE
The LPGA Tour hits its fourth of five stops in its fall Asian swing and still week will return to the picturesque Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course for the second staging of the Blue Bay LPGA. 15 of the top-20 players in the Rolex Rankings will be in action this week including the new No. 1 Lydia Ko who is coming off her 10th career LPGA Tour title last week in Taiwan.

PACE RETURNS FOR TITLE DEFENSE
South African Lee-Anne Pace won her first LPGA Tour title in brutal weather conditions at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course a year ago and needed five days to finish 54 holes. Pace finished her final five holes on Monday morning and held off a charging Caroline Masson for a three-shot victory.

Pace has one top-10 finish this year, a tie for sixth at the Evian Championship, and is coming off back-to-back top-25 finishes in her last two stops in Asia (T15 at KEB HanaBank Championship and T23 at Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship).

PARK BACK IN ACTION
Inbee Park did almost all she could do to keep her top ranking in the Rolex Rankings without being in Taiwan but her tie for second finish in the KLPGA’s event was not enough to hold off Lydia Ko’s nine-shot victory. In her last five starts dating back to her win at the RICOH Women’s British Open, Park hasn’t finished out the top-15 and has two additional top-10’s (T9 at Canadian Pacific Women’s Open and T10 at Evian Championship).

Just 0.3 average points separate the duo in the points rankings that were published Monday and the top spot will expectantly be up for grabs again this week with both players in the field in China. The projections will be made once first-round pairings are set on Tuesday.

Ko doesn’t expect the rivalry between the top-2 players in the world to get nasty. She commended Park for her kind demeanor and hinted that it’ll be all friendly competition as long as they’re both at the top.

“I think she’s nicer than me, first of all and she’s never going to give me any crap or talk behind my back,” said Ko.

LEADING LADY
Lydia Ko’s dominant performance in Taiwan last week for her 10th career LPGA Tour title pushed her to the top of the world rankings but also gave her a boost in nearly every statistical category including the season-ending awards for Rolex Player of the Year, Vare Trophy (low scoring average) and money title. In addition to her No. 1 ranking in the Rolex Rankings, Ko now leads in six other categories. She won the inaugural Race to the CME Globe and $1 million bonus check and is in good position to have the top-ranking heading into the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples in November.

WHAT A STRETCH
If you want to take notes on how to finish off a season on a high note, look no further than Lydia Ko.

In just her last five events, Ko has rewritten the record books, set personal bests and set herself up for sweeping the LPGA Tour’s season-ending honors. In her last five starts, Ko has three wins including her first major title when she became the youngest male or female in the modern era to become a major champ at the Evian Championship. She hasn’t finished worse than tied for fourth and has only failed to shoots a round in the 60’s twice in her last 20 rounds. Ko’s consistency is a thing of beauty and a scoring average of 67.35 over her past five events shows she’s on a roll that doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.