TWO DOWN, TWO TO GO

Lydia Ko took control over the battle of the LPGA’s season-ending awards after her second-round 67 and currently sits in solo second and two shots off the lead. If the event ended today, Ko would sweep all the awards. Here’s a breakdown through two rounds:

NO INTIMIDATION FACTOR

Most players would be intimidated playing with the No. 1 player in the world but for Ha Na Jang the pairing with Lydia Ko was a treat.

“It’s a really good playing together with Lydia and I.K. Kim today,” Jang said. “So very comfortable.”

Jang put on a show in front of her friend carding a 7-under, 65, to take the 36-hole lead.

“Really good today,” Jang said of her play. “Every hole that I’m talking to Lydia and then it’s no problem today.”

So what does one talk about with the youngest player to ever reach 10 victories on the LPGA Tour?

“Maybe first talking what did you eat last night? How do you feel this year? So Lydia, she say you come to America, where you living next year? So it’s pretty easy question for me.”

Ko gave Jang high praise after the round and tried to match her on the greens.

“She’s one of the best putters on Tour,” said Ko. “She’s definitely confident with that club in her hand. I know that if she is in birdie range, she 99% could be making it.”

QUOTABLES

“It’s always nice to go to the Rolex dinner and wrap up the year, see a lot of things that we did all year long. It’s definitely an extra motivation and inspiration to go out there and play well and obviously nothing was really decided. So it that’s a good motivation to play for.”

-Inbee Park seeing her 2015 highlights played at the Rolex Awards Celebration on Thursday night

“What makes it easier is that double, it sounds bad, but if I say I made two bogeys for the day or I ended up making three bogeys instead of one double and one bogey, it sounds better. So I’m just going to say I made three bogeys and I’d rather hear that than say I made a double.”

-Lydia Ko on how she mentally deals making double bogeys

“But we’ve got great leadership now with Mike. He does a great job with the tournaments and the sponsors and he’s just got an easy way about him. He inspires us to give back more and do better. He’s just a great guy. I think you are seeing the change in the Tour that he was expecting and now we’re all poised to be able to go to a higher level. It’s getting there, for sure.”

-Cristie Kerr on the Tour’s transformation under the leadership of Mike Whan

CONTINUED TO HAVE A WATCHFUL EYE

Two rounds separate Inbee Park from a million dollars and every major end-of-season award. Catch and pass Lydia Ko on the leaderboard on the weekend and all they all could be Park’s. But she has major work to do, trailing Ko by four shots for the weekend. Park needed to stay within a shot of Ko or better this week to hold onto her top spot in the Vare Trophy standings and Park needs to make up three points in the Rolex Player of the Year standings to tie Ko. She’d also need a win to overtake Ko for the top spot on the money list. But she didn’t make any progress in that regard in either of the first two rounds, and she admittedly saw Ko’s climb up the leaderboard while she was playing.

“Definitely watched the leaderboard a couple times when I’m playing,” Park said. “It seems like she’s doing really well out there today. I know she played well yesterday as well. She seems like she really likes this golf course. I’ve got to start liking it a little bit more for tomorrow.”

Park would like it a lot more if it didn’t have Bermuda greens. But this is Florida and Bermuda is the norm. Park’s won on Bermuda before but on Bermuda greens in Asia.

“It’s different to like Asia Bermuda greens and actual Florida, Bahamas, those greens are a little bit different Bermuda,” Park said. “Those are Bermuda greens, but they are not as grainy. Like Singapore, Taiwan, I’ve won. Those two weeks. Those were a lot less grainy, I think. They are a little bit thicker. A little bit different. Florida greens, I never won in Florida.”

Park’s not sure why Bermuda and her putting stroke don’t seem to get along. She’s arguably the best putting female player on the planet and the stats bear that out too with her current standing of third on the LPGA Tour in putts per green in regulation. But that hasn’t always translated to Bermuda and she needed 31 putts in the first round but was better on Friday with only 27 putts despite ending with a three putt on the 18th.

“It’s been very tough. Maybe it doesn’t really suit my putting stroke,” Park said. “I have got to hit it closer and try to tap in for birdie.”

NUMBERS TO KNOW

3 – Ha Na Jang has three runner-ups in her rookie season.

5 – With the 36-hole lead here, Ha Na Jang has now held at least a share of the 36-hole lead five times on the LPGA Tour this season.

5 – Lydia Ko trailed by five shots entering the weekend a year ago in her win here but trails by just two shots here.

65 – Ha Na Jang’s 7-under-par 65 Friday was the best round of the tournament thus far and ties the lowest round of her LPGA career.

1,000,000 – If the tournament ended today, Lydia Ko would take home the Race to the CME Globe’s $1 million prize for the second consecutive year.

34 - Number of events announced by Commissioner Mike Whan for the 2016 LPGA Tour schedule

$63.1 - Total official money for next year’s schedule - an LPGA record

6 - Weekends that the Tour will be featured on network TV next year, adding the RICOH Women’s British Open and the UL International Crown to NBC

ICHER PLAYING FOR FRANCE

France’s own Karine Icher is playing inspired golf this week and is honoring her home country.

“I mean, it’s a difficult time right now. All we can do is think of them and pray for them and that’s it,” said Icher. “It’s really sad, but, unfortunately, I think it’s only the beginning and it’s really scary, especially for us. We travel all over the world. It can happen anywhere, any time. It’s just like being in the wrong place at the wrong time and you are dead. It’s really scary. Before we try to be like together and help each other, which is great because we need that, but it’s sad that this happens with this country.”

Icher sits just four shots off the lead after 36 holes at the season finale after rounds of 71-67 and knows her first career victory this week in Naples would be a special one for more reasons than one.

“It would be nice just for France, for my country.”

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT

Commissioner Mike Whan addressed the media on Friday and announced the 2016 Tour schedule as well as a new event to be added in 2017. The 2016 schedule will feature 34 total events, a record in total official purse money - $63.1 million and over 410+ hours of television coverage including six events on network TV.

“I made this comment a couple years ago to my team, which is, it would be nice at some year in the future if the schedule announcement wasn’t so much drama,” said Whan. “Because when I find out when the PGA TOUR announces their schedule, sometimes it’s just an e mail. And it’s because people know that the schedule is going to be strong and stable and there’s not a whole lot of change.”

The Tour also announced the addition of the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, which is set to be played in the summer of 2017 at Thornberry Creek – the official golf course of the Green Bay Packers. Whan sported a cheesehead in the spirit of the announcement and welcomed the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin to the LPGA family.

“It is rare for me to sit here and talk about the 2016 schedule and introduce a 2017 event,” said Whan. “But the good news about the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin is there’s 17,000 of them. The bad news is we were afraid it wasn’t going to make it, because we’re all too excited and we’re starting to hear people back in Green Bay ask, is it true. So we said, we better just say it before the announcement of it is over.”

News and Notes: Rd.2 CME Group Tour Championship

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