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In just the third official playing, the BMW Ladies Championship has garnered a host of talent. Six of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings top-10 will be in attendance, headlined by the world’s top-three players. Luckily for viewers, No. 1 Jin Young Ko, No. 2 Atthaya Thitikul and No. 3 Minjee Lee will tee off together at the Oak Valley Country Club.
Jin Young Ko
In August, Jin Young Ko missed the cut in back-to-back weeks for the first time in her five-year LPGA Tour career. After those disappointing performances, Ko took a seven-week vacation to rehab what she described as a lingering wrist injury. This week marks her long-awaited return to professional golf, where she looks to defend both her 2021 BMW Ladies Championship title and her position atop the Rolex Rankings.
Despite her absence, Ko was able to retain her spot atop the Rankings due to stellar play in the first half of the season. Over her first seven starts Ko earned four top-10 finishes, including a win at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. She shot an average of 69.57 and gained more than a stroke per round over the field tee-to-green (+1.40).
But in her last three starts, Ko has lost more than a stroke per round to the field tee-to-green and has played 7-over par. While those numbers might be attributed to Ko’s wrist, she says a bad performance this week will have nothing to do with pain.
“It’s really difficult, I don’t know how to explain what my wrist is like at the moment,” Ko said in a press conference on Tuesday. “It’s not fully okay but I’m not in a lot of pain. I have to say it’s not at its worst and I don’t think it’s impacting my game that much. If I don’t do well, I don’t think I can blame it on my wrist. I’m just going to do my best out there.”
It seems that Ko expects to return to full form this week and put up a strong defense of her No. 1 title that has been challenged in her absence.
Atthaya Thitikul
The 19-year-old rookie from Thailand is one of Ko’s biggest competitors. After her second LPGA Tour win at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G, Thitikul carded two more top-10 finishes to shoot up the Rolex Rankings to World No. 2. The youngster is on a charge to the top and another strong performance in Korea could tip the scales in her favor.
Thitikul is also locked in a tight battle with Hye-Jin Choi for the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year title. For now, Thitikul has a slim 243-point edge over Choi, but both are set to play in nearly all the final events – Thitikul will sit out the Pelican Women’s Championship – giving both different ways to win the honor.
With guaranteed money on the table at the BMW Ladies Championship, there’s ample opportunity for Thitikul to make a move towards both ends. The key to opening that door? Not thinking about rankings or awards at all.
“I’m not really thinking about all the awards that much,” Thitikul said. “Because I think when I go out and just have fun, all the results have been in pretty good (shape). I’m the kind of person that goes out and smiles as much as possible. We worked really hard this year already and it’s coming pretty close to the end of the season, so what I have to do is just relax and enjoy.”
Minjee Lee
World No. 3, Minjee Lee, might have the most exciting path ahead this week. She currently leads the race for two of the most hotly contested end-of-year awards and must use this week to distinguish herself from the competition.
A whopping 22 players are in the running for the Aon Risk Reward Challenge and Lee sits atop that leaderboard with an average of -0.906. Meanwhile, there are 18 players with a mathematical chance to win the Rolex Player of the Year award. Lee – a two-time winner this season – leads that crowd with 149 points, but is closely followed by Brooke Henderson (130), Atthaya Thitikul (124) and Lydia Ko (120).
“I don’t think I’ve been close in the other categories throughout my career,” Lee said Tuesday. “It would be such a great honor to be Player of the Year. But I know that there’s a few behind me that are pretty close. So, I think I've got to play really well the next few events that I'm in and see what happens at the end of the season.”
Unfortunately, Lee will be going into the BMW Ladies Championship with little momentum after missing the cut in her last two events. But regardless of recent troubles, she still leads the tour in strokes gained ball striking (+2.63) and strokes gained approach (+2.16).
If Lee can channel some of the energy that made her a two-time winner this season, she has more than a fighting chance at setting herself apart from the field.
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