This week’s LPGA Tour season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions presented Insurance Office of America features 26 LPGA Tour winners from the last two seasons, but it is top-ranked American Lexi Thompson with the freshest winner’s circle memory to draw from.
In November, Thompson took home the final trophy of the 2018 LPGA Tour season at the CME Group Tour Championship. After a self-admitted tough year, she ended her season on a high note by extending her yearly winning streak to six years (2013-2018), the longest active streak on the LPGA Tour.
“Last year was a tough year emotionally,” Thompson said on Wednesday at Tranquilo Golf Course, “but I learned a lot, and I took the time for myself that I needed. And just to be refreshed coming into the year.”
A short offseason was in order for Thompson, who estimated she put the clubs away for a week and a half. “I wanted to continue to see what I was working on with CME and the previous tournaments to that,” she said, “if it was continuing to work, and I still wanted to engrave it in my golf swing and be confident coming into this year.”
Although it happened three months ago, Thompson was still smiling about capturing her 10th LPGA victory and hopes to begin her 2019 season on the same high note she finished her 2018 season.
“It was a great week,” Thompson said of the 2018 CME Group Tour Championship. “Just to let it all soak in in the month of December being around my family and celebrating it and realizing my hard work paid off. I think that was the best feeling of it. But it's still sinking in. I still like replay videos of it just to refresh it in my mind and get into this year.”
Thompson will tee off her first round of the 2019 season on Thursday off the first tee at 10:10 a.m. alongside Major League Baseball Hall of Fame members Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS – CELEBRITIES ON THE DIAMOND RESORTS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
“This kind of stuff is great for us because it allows us to get back into what we love, and that's the competition, to get those energy – those juices flowing to go out there and compete, and that's what I love the most is to be able to come back out here and focus the way I focused before I played a hockey game or before he played a football game or before he pitched a Major League Baseball game. We miss those days, and when we have great events like the Diamond Resorts that allows us to come out, have some fun with each other, now play with the LPGA champions. I'm really excited for that because, when you play with the best of the best in the sport, that brings the best out in you. So it's going to motivate me to play with some of the LPGA players this week. I think it's a great combination. It's the start of their season. Hopefully, we don't screw them up enough off the start to get them going on their season.” – Jeremy Roenick
“I think the interesting thing that these ladies are going to find out is that, when they're playing competitive golf, they're going to have – if they're playing with two guys, they're going to have two cheerleaders cheering them on and rooting them on and anticipating them to make the putt.” – Mark Rypien
“I think everybody understands that the personalities in your group, when you play with other people, you know who wants to talk and who doesn't. You learn -- you just know to stay out of some people's way and let them do their thing and let them get comfortable. We've done this a bunch, and you just learn that in Pro-Ams or anything like that, you just try to stay out of the way.” – John Smoltz
“We've all played a lot of golf with professional golfers, and we really stay out of the way. We're all playing an event here, and I think even the guys that are not going to be competing for the lead still understand that this is a golf tournament for the professionals. You know, the players that really have a chance to win, we all kind of understand what professional golf is and we all play accordingly. It's going to be fun. Looking forward to it. I think it's really a great testament to NBC that they've really gotten on board here, as well as the Golf Channel, and they've said, we're behind this, and we think this could be a really cool combination.” – Jack Wagner
DESIGNATED HOLE FOR AON RISK REWARD CHALLENGE
The first-of-its-kind Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which gets underway on the LPGA Tour at this week's season-opening event, will highlight the world’s best professional golfers as they tackle the most strategically challenging holes across both the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour schedules. The player from each Tour on top of the Aon leaderboard at the end of the regular season will receive a $1 million prize. The Aon Risk Reward Challenge takes the best two scores from every participating event in which a player competes, ensuring that all play is counted and providing a small advantage to those that make the cut with the overall winner having the best average score to par on the designated holes. Players must complete in a minimum of 40 rounds throughout the season.
The designated Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions is the par-4 16th, which will be played this week at 330 yards for two of the four days and at 290 yards for the other two. This hole, a short dogleg right which can be drivable for the longer players, provides a great risk-reward opportunity because of its two-tiered green and the angle at which it sits. To drive the green, the player must clear a bunker and a few trees on the right side of the fairway. The risk off the tee is a miss to the right or a shot that ends up in the bunker. Failure to reach the green can leave a tricky pitch shot into an elevated putting surface guarded by a large bunker on the front left side.
For more information on the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, visit www.lpga.com/statistics/aon-risk-reward-challenge.
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