Inbee Park has had a solid track record at the Manulife LPGA Classic the first three years of the event while it was held at Grey Silo Golf Club and didn’t finish outside the top-15 in three starts. Park’s finishes the past three years: T2 (2012), T14 (2013) and a win (2014). The defending champ said she was a bit sad to hear they would be relocating course because of her past success there but is open to the new challenge at Whistle Bear.

“It’s always a little bit sad to move to another golf course from the golf course you really liked, but obviously you’ve got to get used to new golf courses,” said Park. “I think it’s another challenge. And no one knows this golf course, so maybe it will suit me better so we’ll see this weekend.”

Park said she wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the talented rookies to do well this week. She thinks the young players may have more of an advantage this week since everyone is coming in on a clean slate.

“Maybe it gives rookies a little bit more advantage because obviously a lot of the girls, the veteran players that was on the tour play most of the golf courses many, many times and they know the golf course so well,” said Park. “But the rookies, they’re pretty much new to every golf course. Maybe a new golf course can probably put everybody in the same starting line I would say. So yeah, but I mean it’s not exactly you play well because the you know the golf course well. I mean, you never played that good on your home course all the time. So I think it’s just your body condition and your game strategies. I think yeah, I don’t know how it’s going to play out, but I think it’s a great looking golf course.”

FUN NOT IN THE SUN

Rolex Rankings No. 1 Lydia Ko planned on relaxing in the sun during her two-week break from Tour action but the 18-year old instead took a hibernating approach to her time off. Aside from making trips to Westchester Country Club and Lancaster Country Club for scouting opportunities for the Tour’s next two majors, Ko said her lazy two weeks were much needed.

“I was planning on sitting outside by the pool, maybe fixing my golfer’s tan, but I ended up just lying in bed, you know, doing a couple assignments, watching TV, being pretty lazy,” said Ko. “So I really didn’t see the sun for a couple days.”

Ko said she didn’t practice nearly as much as she usually does and instead caught up on some school work toward her psychology major at Korea University. She said some of the assignments included self-reflection in which she gave her own title:

“Yeah, case study of Lydia Ko by Lydia Ko,” she said.

The Kiwi said she enjoys those exercises and likes looking back at how she has handled her journey as a professional golfer so far.

“I mean obviously it’s tough to do a couple things at the same time, but some of the assignments have been really cool where I had to like contribute the things I’ve done, my psychological things,” said Ko. “You know, like kind of go back through the last couple years and I had to explain like the mental side, not always just like me itself. It’s really cool because I had to kind of go back on that journey again, and when you’re like playing you kind of stay in the present and you kind of look forward to what’s coming up next, but to go back and see the past is really cool.”

NOW SHE WANT A PHOTO, YOU ALREADY KNOW THOUGH

When LPGA Tour rookie Cheyenne Woods saw one of her favorite musical artists, Drake, announce his Jungle Tour dates, she immediately looked at the stops to see if she would be in the area of one of his six stops.

“I have always been a huge Drake fan,” said Woods. “I listen to him when I warm up, off the course, everything. When I saw that he released his tour schedule, I looked at it to see if any of the cities matched up with our Tour stops.”

Woods saw that the Toronto native would be playing in his hometown during this week’s Manulife LPGA Classic. She made a call to her manager with Excel Sports and put in the request. She landed the tickets and brought fellow rookie Sadena Parks and second-year Tour member Jaye Marie Green.

“And this was a month and a half ago, as soon as I saw it, I messaged my manager to see if he could get me tickets,” said Woods. “It took him a few weeks but he got them which was amazing. Someone with Excel knew Drake’s manager so through the manager, we got tickets and got introduced after the show.”

It was after the show that Drake asked for a photo and posted it to his Instagram account. Woods said she woke up the next morning not knowing where the 500 new followers came from.

“I didn’t know he was going to post it,” said Woods. “It was probably one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. He was amazing.”

Asked what her favorite song of the night was, she said “Know Yourself” from his latest album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.

“How can you not get hyped about that song?” she said.

WATCHING FROM THE SIDELINES

Lydia Ko enters her 18th week at the top of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and said that she watched the coverage of the ShopRite LPGA Classic from home but she wasn’t watching to keep an eye on the status of her ranking.

“I wasn’t really watching because of my ranking,” said Ko. “I mean, if somebody else plays better, I really can’t do much about it. Just because I want to maintain my ranking doesn’t mean I want to play every single week. It becomes a really long season if I play all the events. But yeah, I kind of watched because it was such an exciting finish, especially all the girls making birdies.”

Inbee Park had a chance to take over the No. 1 ranking last week with a two-way tie for third or better finish. It looked like Ko would be safe heading into Sunday with Park trailing the lead by six shots and in a tie for 21st but a final-round 68 jumped her up the leaderboard into a tie for fifth and one shot out of a tie for third. Ko said the late run by Park didn’t even cross her mind

“I was really excited watching it, and then obviously there was a great winner, Anna, by the end of the week,” said Ko. “But yeah, when I watch it I’m kind of seeing what the tournament’s like. I wasn’t necessarily watching because I was thinking about oh, my God, is she going to become World No. 1 now? It’s just a whole lot of fun and kind of support the LPGA.”

By no surprise the courteous teen said she didn’t have any voodoo dolls of Park.

“No,” said Ko. “I’m happy when she makes birdies.”

ROLEX RANKINGS NO. 1 SCENARIOS

The fight at the top of the Rolex Rankings continues this week in the desert with Inbee Park being the only player to have a chance to unseat Lydia Ko at No. 1. Here are the scenarios:

Inbee Park can go to No. 1 if:

With a win even if Lydia Ko finishes in 2nd.

Inbee finishes in 2nd and Lydia Ko finishes in a two-way tie for 3rd or worse.

She finishes in solo 8th AND Lydia Ko misses the cut.

SUPER STARTS

World No. 1 Lydia Ko and No. 2 Inbee Park have been dominating the 2015 season in every statistical category – including wins. They’re two of only three players with multiple wins with two apiece alongside rookie Sei Young Kim.

Ko said she’s pleased with the first part of her season so far and currently leads five stat categories. She said she’s hoping to get back on track in terms of finishing and to improve on her past two finishes: a T41 at the North Texas LPGA Shootout and a T16 at the Kingsmill Championship.

“I started off really well in Ocala and then I kind of continued that going. You know, I kind of kept the Top 10 thing going until ANA,” Ko said. “Obviously I would have loved to have played better the last two events I played after Swinging Skirts, but there are those stages where sometimes this works and sometimes this doesn’t. I guess when you have the really good weeks or when you’re really near the leaderboard is when kind of everything clicks, but that hasn’t really happened in the last couple events. I know that I’m playing consistent enough that I can shoot similar scores and hopefully it will start again this week.”

Park echoed her contentment with her own start and hopes to take that momentum into the heart of the summer with a stretch of tournaments that includes three major championships in six weeks.

“I think it’s a great start. Everybody wants to have a good start to the season,” said Park. “Obviously we have a lot of good, big major tournaments coming up this year very soon, a lot of them coming really soon and really bunched up together. So yeah, it’s good to have confidence going into the majors and having a successful season, early season definitely helps you go through the season much better. Yeah, I feel like my game is in pretty good shape and yeah, this is going to be like the final touch up. So yeah, I’m just going to try to, you know, work as hard as I can so I’m ready for next week.”

Lydia Ko Inbee Park

Rank Statistic Rank

1 Rolex Player of the Year 2

1 Race to CME Globe 2

1 Official Money List 2

1 Greens in Regulation 4

1 Rounds Under Par 2

4 Scoring Round 1

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I think a good iron player is going to play well here. You really have to hit it to the right spots on the greens but you can also use slopes to get it closer. Putting is key when you’re winning a tournament or not. You have to putt well, but then just hitting it to the right places. Off the tee there’s a few holes that are narrow, but in general you can get away with some tee shots.” -Stacy Lewis on what it will take to win at Whistle Bear

TV Times

Golf Channel

June 4 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

June 5 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

June 6 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

June 7 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

All times listed are Eastern

Pre-Tournament Wednesday News and Notes: Manulife LPGA Classic

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