KO EYES ANOTHER ACCOLADE AT EVIAN

The Rolex ANNIKA Major Award will be decided this week in Evian with Rolex Rankings No. 1 Lydia Ko leading in the standings by a small margin. Ko leads Ariya Jutanugarn by just 10 points and each player would guarantee themselves the trophy with a win this week at Evian.

Ko says the award personifies exactly what her goal was coming into the 2016 season which was playing better on the Tour’s biggest stages.

“Going into every year is be a bit more consistent playing in majors, and this award is exactly that,” said Ko. “It’s about -- obviously you need to win a major to be, I guess, capable of winning the award but also showing how consistent you are.”

Ko is trying to join the likes of Michelle Wie (2014) and Inbee Park (2015) as winners of the award.

“It would mean so much, especially having Annika’s name, and what she’s done for the women’s game, what she’s still doing for our Tour and for the LPGA,” said Ko. “I think without players like her, there might not be a Tour like it is today.”

ROLEX ANNIKA MAJOR AWARD SCENARIOS

Lydia Ko and Ariya Jutanugarn would guarantee a RAMA victory with a win at Evian
Brooke Henderson and Brittany Lang would need to win to even have a chance
Henderson would need to win and have Ko finish 3rd or worse
Lang would need to win and have Ko finish 4th or worse (would tie Ko if Ko finishes third and Lang wins)
Ariya Jutanugarn needs to finish in the top-6 to have a chance (tying scenarios below)

Jutanugarn 2nd and Ko 4th = tie at 116 points

Jutanugarn 3rd and Ko 7th = tie at 110 points

Jutanugarn 4th and Ko 9th = tie at 106 points

Jutanugarn 5th and Ko 10th = tie at 104 points

Jutanugarn 6th and Ko outside top-10 = tie at 102 points

*In the event of a tie in total points after the final Major Championship of the season, the award will be given to the player with the most Major Championship wins.

If there is the same number of wins, the award will be given to the player with the most second-place Major Championship finishes; if there is the same number of second place finishes, the tie will be broken by the most third-place Major Championship finishes. This pattern will continue until the tie is broken.

LIVING YOUNG

Lydia Ko was named an Evian ambassador this past March and when she signed on with the global brand, she didn’t know she would be featured in their Live Young campaign. The water company’s marketing campaign features lookalike babies to promote a “live young” mentality. To commemorate her first major victory and her return to Evian-les-Bain, they digitally produced ‘Baby Lydia’ who has been featured on seven million produced bottles per day worldwide in the two-month lead up to this week.

Ko joked that she’s never “met the baby but I still claim her. I say, have you seen my baby?”

She said her coach, David Leadbetter, gave her a hard time saying a real baby picture of the 19-year-old wouldn’t be nearly as cute.

“But you know, yeah, even my coach David said -- they said, hey, how come you don’t use your photo on here, and then David said, oh, it’s probably because she wasn’t this cute,” says Ko. “But no, I definitely agree she’s cute.

“It’s great, and it almost just really goes well with the “Live Young.” Definitely it’s not only about the physical aspect of it but spiritually how you can be that way no matter if you’re 10 or if you’re 60, and I think that’s the great thing about it.”

NO DRIVER DRAMA

Ariya Jutanugarn will come into the Evian Championship as one of the favorites as she leads the LPGA with five victories on the season, including her first major championship at the RICOH Women’s British Open.

“When I start to play good, I didn’t worry or feel I want to win,” Jutanugarn explained. “The only key to me on the course is I really want to be happy, with my caddie, with all the fans, spectators, with the players I play with.”

One of the things that has stuck out about all five of Jutanugarn’s victories is that they have all come without the driver in the bag, a strategy she will once again use this week at Evian.

“I tried to hit driver on Monday but I’m not really feel comfortable because this course is really narrow and it’s not that long to me to hit driver, so no driver this week."

While some may think the strategy of leaving the big dog in the bag is due to a lack of confidence, Jutanugarn explained that it’s all part of the game plan to win tournaments.

“I still enjoy hit driver, but there’s no need on this course and some other course, too.”

HENDERSON GETS WELL DESERVED REST

Brooke Henderson was able to take some time off from her busy schedule last week and was able to spend the week back home in Canada relaxing with family and friends.

“Yeah, playing two weeks in Canada, and the second week was only five hours away from home, so I was home Sunday night and was able to spend time with family and friends and rest a little bit, be able to practice and prepare for this week,” Henderson explained. “It was a lot of fun, spending some time at my cottage. We went canoeing one day, and just seeing family and friends that I haven’t really had a chance to see much this year was really important to me.”

With the rest leading into the Evian Championship, Henderson is hoping to get back to the form she showed earlier in the season as she has yet to record a top-10 since her victory at the Cambia Portland Classic in late June.

“I’m feeling really well right now, and I think the week at home was really nice, and I’ll have a week at home again next week. But if I was at home I’d practice anyway, so I may as well have a chance to win.”

QUOTABLES

“To me it’s very cool. It’s been like this when we were juniors because we played together, Lydia used to be No. 1, I’m second, and Brooke used to play really good. To me it’s just like junior golf again, but we’re professionals and we can have fun and make some money, so that’s more fun.”-Ariya Jutanugarn on being a part of the youthful top-3 in the world alongside Lydia Ko & Brooke Henderson

“Brit has been taking a lot of notes, and I’ve been trying to work on the confidence so that I can take those lines, and at the end of the day, I think this course requires somebody that has all factors of their game, all assets, I guess, of their game working, and hopefully that’ll be me or at least I’ll finish on the top of the leaderboard.”-Brooke Henderson on her strategy this week at Evian Resort Golf Club

“When I first played the 18th hole last Sunday, this past Sunday, a lot of memories of really walking down the 18th on that last day. It was so much more than I could have ever imagined it. To know that I had a few-shot lead coming down the last hole so that I could have a little bit of a breathing room I think was great. It just brought a lot of great memories.”-Lydia Ko on her return to the site of her first major win

OF NOTE

The last two winners of the championship have been first-time major winners (Hyo Joo Kim, Lydia Ko)
Ariya Jutanugarn will try to become the seventh player since 1996 to win back-to-back majors and would join Lydia Ko, Inbee Park (three in a row), Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Se Ri Pak
The average age of the major winners in 2016 is 21.5
A champion from South Korea this week would continue the streak of having at least one Korean major winner in a single season on the LPGA Tour since 2011. In the last 20 years, 12 Koreans have won a total of 23 LPGA major championships.

Top-20 Finishes in Majors This Year

Only two players have recorded top-20 finishes in each of the first four majors of the year:

Ariya Jutanugarn So Yeon Ryu

ANA Inspiration 4th T-10th

KPMG Women’s PGA Championship 3rd T-4th

U.S. Women’s Open T-17th T-11th

RICOH Women’s British Open 1st T-8th

Lydia Ko Eyes Another Accolade and More From Evian

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