HONORED CHAMP

Brittany Lincicome was almost giddy talking about how she felt returning to Mission Hills as the defending champion for the second time. She said it’s a place that brings back great memories and has helped define her career up until this point. Both of her major wins have come at the ANA Inspiration and those accomplishments were something of her imagination at the start of her career 12 years ago.

“To be able to play in this event and jump in the pond twice, I didn’t know that was ever possible,” said Lincicome. “It’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was little. I’ve played in this event many, many times and I’ve always dreamt of doing something like that. So to have gotten to do that, I think if I retired tomorrow, that would be one of my greatest accomplishments is winning this event.”

Lincicome hasn’t played lights out yet in 2016 but it’s not bothering her in the least. The 30-year old said her wins have typically come out of nowhere. She has not cracked a top-50 finish in her last four events and is coming off a T54 last week at the Kia Classic.

“Each time that I’ve won it’s never been like, wow, I’m playing really good or I’m playing really bad or any-thing like that. It’s just golf, I guess, and it must just be my time every couple years or what have you,” said Lincicome. “I just kind of show up and I win an event. But, yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m playing great. I played really well in Phoenix. Had a bad run on Sunday, and last week’s golf course is so night-and-day different than this week, I can’t even compare the two. But I felt like I hit it really well. I just had some putts that needed to fall. So I feel like I’m playing really, really well coming into this week, but I obviously don’t want to jinx myself or anything, but feeling really good.”

NOT HANGING IT UP YET

There’s been a lot of retirement talk recently in the women’s game in lieu of Lydia Ko saying she’ll retire at 30 and Se Ri Pak announcing this will be her final year on Tour. It might seem odd to ask a 27-year old ranked second in the world in her craft on when she might be thinking to wrap up her decorated career. Inbee Park squashed any rumors that she has plans to hang up her clubs any time soon.

“Because even though I think I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve, there are so many things I can look up to. But retirement-wise, I really haven’t set the date yet,” said Park. “Because if I say I’m going to retire after three years, after four years you just don’t know what’s going to happen, and you change every year. Sometimes I have a bad day and I have a bad week. I feel like maybe I should only do a couple more years. Then once you start winning tournaments again, I’m thinking oh, I can do this longer. So I think it’s just very different.”

By winning the Vare Trophy last season, the 17-time LPGA winner earned her final point for criteria for the LPGA Hall of Fame. She’ll be eligible for induction when she fills her 10th year of active membership on Tour which she’ll hit in her 10th event this season.

“So I don’t want to make time arrangements where I want to do it and I don’t want to do it. I just want to go by every year. If I still think I’m competitive and I’m ready to play and if my physically I’m ready to play, I’ll be playing,” said Park. “If I think I’m ready for a second life, if I’m ready to have a family or I want to live some kind of different life, I don’t know when, but whenever that thought process comes, that’s going to be when I’m going to retire.”

A DIFFERENT STACY LEWIS

Five years ago, Stacy Lewis had a career breakthrough when she captured her first LPGA victory and major championship here at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage. It was the start of Lewis’ surge, which included a stretch of 10 additional victories over the next three years, a rise to become the top-ranked American and even a couple stints as the No. 1 player in the world.

But entering this week’s ANA Inspiration, Lewis is facing more questions about what’s wrong with her game rather than what she’s accomplished. It has been nearly two years since Lewis’ last victory (the 2014 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in June 2014) and there have been many near misses over that stretch -- nine runner-up finishes include a playoff loss to Brittany Lincicome at this event last year.

“Honestly right now I’m just a little frustrated,” said Lewis. “I feel like things are getting a lot better on the golf course. Probably had two of my best ball-striking weeks I’ve had in six months the last two weeks and the scores just haven’t quite shown that, so it’s been frustrating. But I feel like I’m moving in the right direction and getting on the golf course like this that I know and that I’ve played well in in the past I think should help me a lot.”

Lewis, who is set to get married in August to her fiancé Gerrod Chadwell, believes that It’s not the technical aspects of her game that necessarily need fixing. She said she’s had to learn to balance her golf with all of the things happening off the golf course in her life and how she is mentally dealing with it all. But while it may look to others like she’s struggling with that change, Lewis said she is happy with where life has taken her at the moment.

“The biggest thing is I’ve got somebody in my life that’s more important than any golf tournament I’ll ever play in or any tournament I’ll ever win, and I honestly never thought I would be up here saying that,” Lewis said. “I never thought I’d be in that position. So it’s a little bit strange to me, and that’s one thing I’m trying to figure out right now.”

COMING INTO FORM

Inbee Park has admitted to being a slow start at the beginning of the year and this season seemed to be no different. Park battled a back injury and took nearly a month off after withdrawing from the season-opening event in the Bahamas and has slowly been wiping off the rust ever since.

She didn’t record a finish better than T30 until last week at the Kia Classic where she finished runner-up and four shots behind Lydia Ko.

“Actually, I’m very happy that my game is getting better and better every day,” said Park. “I feel like it’s going in the right direction. So, yeah, I didn’t know when was going to be the tournament where I kind of get the confidence from, but last week I definitely got some confidence for playing four rounds of golf un-der par and putting good and hitting the ball great. So I think it’s going to be a great summer and just, yeah, really looking forward to it.”

Park, who won her second of seven major titles here at Mission Hills in 2013 at the start of her historic three-in-a-row streak, said it’s an event

“Yeah, I played this tournament since I was a young kid, since amateurs, so it feels quite special to come back every year,” said Park. “This is my 11th year playing this event. So it has all my growing up moments, and a lot of special moments, especially in 2013 when I won this event. Three majors in a row, it was a very historical year.”

“Obviously this place has so much history and so many Legends of Golf won this event,” said Park. “So it’s always special to play this tournament, and obviously just walking on the No. 18th hole by Poppie’s Pond and looking at all the plaques for the champions and to see my name on that plaque was just a very special feeling.”

Inbee Park’s Finishes in 2016

EVENT	SCORES	FINISH
Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic	80	WD
Honda LPGA Thailand	72-76-68-71=287 (-1)	T30
HSBC Women’s Champions	68-73-75-69=285 (-3)	T30
JTBC Founders Cup	73-69=142 (-2)	CUT
Kia Classic	67-69-70-67=273 (-15)	2

QUOTABLES
“Yes, it’s at my house, actually. So it feels quite familiar.” -Inbee Park on sitting next to the ANA Inspiration trophy while addressing the media on Wednesday

“It’s very exciting. Anytime you come back to a tournament and everyone’s congratulating you or saying let’s defend and get to jump in the pond again, all that great stuff, it’s a dream come true to be standing up here with you and doing the press conference and being in this position.” -Brittany Lincicome on returning to Mission Hills as defending champion

“I’ve gotten a lot of grief because people think it’s very strange that I’m using a putter that says Happy on it. I’ve gotten a lot of grief for that.”-Stacy Lewis on the name of her new ‘Happy’ putter

“I’ve taken pictures. I haven’t tweeted it yet, but I’ve taken selfies with it, don’t worry.”-Brittany Lincicome on seeing her name on two plaques on the Walk of Champions on the 18th hole

ANA Inspiration Wednesday Pre-Tournament Notes

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