Inbee Park is the best putter – male or female – in the world.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Inbee Park is the best putter, male or female, in the world. Period!
Her display of putting over the last few years has put her in a class of her own when it comes to the flat stick. Bring on Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth or Jason Day. This girl will beat them all! Her recent display at the Rio Olympics has silenced even her harshest critics. Thanks to Golf Digest, you can now understand how she does it and incorporate it into your game.
(Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Injuries and fine seasons from some of the LPGA’s other younger stars might have made you forget about Inbee Park, but her performance at the Olympics brought the 28-year-old’s talent back into focus.
Despite sitting out the previous two months because of a thumb injury, Park put on a ball-striking and putting display in Rio. She made almost 100 feet of birdie putts on Sunday on the way to shooting a 66–which put her five shots clear of silver medalist Lydia Ko.
You might not be able to conjure up tour-caliber ball-striking, but you can copy one of Park’s key putting fundamentals to get some of the seven-time major champions’ ball rolling magic.
“Inbee Park is one of the best putters in the world–on any tour–because of her body connection,” says top New Jersey teacher Bill Schmedes III, who is based at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club in Bedminster. “It starts at address, and it continues through the stroke.”
The Top 10 Stories of the 2015 LPGA Season – #2 was epic!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
What a great season for the LPGA! In a year where two new stars emerged, the current #1 player upped her game, and some of the older players showed their grit, it was a standout year! Read on as Beth Ann Nichols writing for Golfweek, gives us her take on the last 12 months.
From left: Gerina Piller and Juli Inkster at the 2015 Solheim Cup ( Getty Images )
By Beth Ann Nichols
From Lydia Ko’s historic season to a memorable – and controversial – Solheim Cup, here are the top 10 moments on the LPGA in 2015, according to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols:
10. Kris Tamulis won in her 186th start on the LPGA, in her 11th year on tour, at 34.
On a tour dominated by youthful storylines, Tamulis’ victory gave hope to the grinders. It proved especially heart-warming given that her caddie, Thomas Frank, aka “Motion,” lost his home in a fire earlier this year while he worked for Tamulis in Hawaii. They’re easy to root for.
By Associated Press
9. Amy Yang’s “perfect nine” on Sunday at LPGA Keb Hana Bank Championship.
She didn’t get the attention she deserved because of the time zone difference in South Korea. Yang birdied every hole on the back nine Sunday to shoot 9-under 27, the lowest nine-hole score in relation to par in LPGA history. Yang joined Hall of Famer Beth Daniel as the only LPGA player to post nine consecutive birdies.
(Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
8. For a second time, Brittany Lincicome eagled the 18th hole.
The hole location was the same in 2015 at the ANA Inspiration as it was in 2009 when she hit the hybrid of her life. This time, Lincicome’s eagle forced a playoff against pal Stacy Lewis, and she won on the third extra hole. Lincicome led the field that week in driving and total putts.
7. Brooke Henderson didn’t just win the Cambia Portland Classic.
She owned it. The 18-year-old ended her quest for an LPGA card in a dramatic finish, setting a tournament scoring record of 21-under 267. Her eight-stroke margin of victory also smashed the previous record of six set in 1999 and 1986. AND Henderson Monday-qualified for the event. She wasn’t yet a member of any tour but rose to No. 18 in the world.
By Associated Press
6. Inbee Park’s brilliant final-round 65 at the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Trump Turnberry.
Put her seventh on the LPGA’s list of all-time major winners with seven. Whether or not it gave Park the career grand slam is up for debate, but she has now won four different majors. The 27-year-old ended the season by becoming the youngest player in tour history to earn enough points to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
To see the rest of the top 10 stories of the 2015 LPGA season, go here!
Here is the Good and the Bad for the 2015 LPGA Season!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Dottie Pepper, writing for ESPN W, gives us her insight into the year that was, 2015! There were a lot of great things that happened on the LPGA Tour. But, according to Dottie, there are things that could have been better! Things like poor attendance to LPGA events and the performance of the Americans. (definitely, a link here as Americans like Americans to win!) Of course, there are such a lot of positive things happening on the LPGA Tour right now, and I for one cannot wait to see Lydia Ko and Inbee Park go head to head in 2016. Let’s hope that some American women can step up to the plate in the coming year!
For the third consecutive year, we’ll take this time to look back at the good, bad and the ugly of the LPGA Tour’s season. And, just as last year, there’s much more good than either bad or ugly.
The Good
1. Youth movement:
Among the 31 events on the 2015 LPGA schedule, 11 were won by a player under the age of 21 at the time of her victory and nearly half (15) were won by players under 23.
2. Balance:
Cristie Kerr won twice this year, at the KIA Classic while still a 37-year-old and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship as a 38-year-old, crossing the $17 million mark in career earnings in the process.
3. Momentum and the 2016 schedule:
Commissioner Mike Whan now has what he considers the perfect number of official events on the LPGA schedule: 33. That has increased by a whopping 10 events in five years, and total purse money has been upped by more than $20 million to a record $63.1 million in a time that many would argue the Great Recession is still not over.
North American events have increased from 15 just five years ago to what will be 23 in 2016, including a new event in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and another new tournament beginning in 2017 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Total televised hours have nearly doubled in that same five-year span, while network weekend coverage has tripled from two to six events.
Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports
If you thought the men had a youth movement in golf, the LPGA Tour’s champions in 2015 got younger and then some with nearly half its winners under the age of 23, including five-time champion Lydia Ko, who is only 18 — and world No. 1.
4. Drama:
The formula and format of the Race to the CME Globe is absolutely top notch with the season finale not only contested over a quality golf course at Tiburon GC in Naples, Florida, but with a points reset that rewards both season-long consistency and playing a full schedule.
The format infuses just enough drama for players to endure to finish out the season in top form, as witnessed by this weekend’s event. Lydia Ko, Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis each could have won the $1 million bonus with a win at Tiburon, but because none of them won the actual golf tournament, it brought a hard-charging Lexi Thompson into the bonus mix.
During the final round, Ko, Park and Thompson were each, at various points, projected to take home the seven-figure haul. The two biggest LPGA awards, the Rolex Player of the Year and Vare Trophy (for lowest scoring average), were also undecided until the final hole of the year with Ko taking home the first award and Park winning the second, thus giving her the final point she needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame after she completes her 10th year of membership in 2016.
Your Waistline does nor Determine your Golf Skill Level!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I have met people in my professional life who have bodies that are far from what we see as “athletic.”
However, some of these people are awesome golfers and I can never forget the first American I ever met. I was an assistant golf professional at Royal Johannesburg Golf Club and we had a large rotund member by the name of Sam Mc Cready. Sam was a +2 handicap! So yes, fitness is important for longevity and healthy life, but definitely not a requirement for good golf! Ken Pierce of golfgym.com points out two super players. One on the European Tour and one on the LPGA Tour who lacks an athletic body, yet has climbed to the top of their profession showing incredible golf skills!
Congratulations to Inbee Park & Kiradech Aphibarnrat on their wins this past weekend! Inbee Park is the World #1 Woman Player, and won her 7th Major Championship, the Ricoh Women’s British Open on Sunday. Kiradech Aphibarnrat is from Thailand and won his second European Tour title of the year on Sunday when he beat Robert Karlsson on the final hole to clinch the Paul Lawrie Matchplay.
These golfers are two great examples of, and make my point that, GOLF FITNESS IS NOT MEASURED BY YOUR WAISTLINE. Golf Fitness is based on your performance on the golf course. It is based on your ability to perform golf shots consistently and repeatedly…not whether you have six pack abs.
Someone reading this post might think that I am being insensitive to these two young golfers. Actually, my theory that Golf Fitness is not measured by your waistline could not be more valid than for these two professional golfers.
Would You Like To See LPGA Play the Same Courses as the PGA?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I think it would be interesting to watch the Professional women play the same course as men.
Imagine the greats of the LPGA playing Bay Hill, Augusta National, Doral, and Muirfield Village!
Wouldn’t you love to see Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis battle it out down the 18th at Doral’s Blue Monster?
In general, I would like to see the LPGA compete more often on the PGA courses, with the changes that make it fair for women players, of course. The women usually play separate courses, which are not as exciting as most of the men’s courses.
Last year, Juli Inkster said that the men play great golf courses week in and week out, where most of the LPGA courses are ‘good’ but not usually ‘great.’ That is why the LPGA players were all thrilled to play the 2014 U.S. Open at the famous Pinehurst No. 2 Course. The premium courses draw bigger crowds and are in pristine condition normally, which leads to better scoring opportunities and more excitement.
Instead of seeing Tiger Woods hole a clutch putt at the 18th at Bay Hill, wouldn’t you love to see Kristie Kerr do the same thing?
Michael Whan, Commissioner for the LPGA, tried to convince the USGA to put the Women’s Open on the same course as the men for 2015, but that didn’t happen.
Oh well, maybe this one time, it was not bad to play a different course. Sorry RTJ, Jr.!
Would you like to see the LPGA get the opportunity to play these great courses? Post your comments below.
Lydia Ko is the Youngest Player Ever to reach #1 in the World!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
On January 31st, 2015, Lydia Ko became the youngest player in golf history to reach #1 in the World.
What an amazing accomplishment. Here’s the report by golf.com and AP News.
Lydia became the youngest player ever to reach #1 in the World on 31st January 2015.
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — During a closing stretch that featured one of the more tumultuous final hours in recent LPGA Tour history, teen wunderkind Lydia Ko faced a series of tough predicaments. But a query that came after the final round gave her the biggest pause of all.
After reclaiming the lead late Saturday to set herself up for a double payoff of sorts, the 17-year-old double-bogeyed the 71st hole in the inaugural Coates Golf Championship to lose by a shot to Na Yeon Choi.
However, Ko secured a piece of history that could be remembered long after the details of the tour’s season opener are forgotten. The transplanted New Zealander became the youngest player of either gender to climb to world No. 1, breaking the record set by Tiger Woods by almost four years.
As the ramifications of the distinction finally took hold, the sting of defeat at Golden Ocala Golf and Equestrian Club wasn’t quite so nasty.
The notion of celebrating, which first set her back for a moment, didn’t seem so crazy after all.
“It’s going to be good,” Ko said. “I was here to focus on the tournament itself, but I guess I got a great outcome at the end of the day, too.”
After leading by as many as four shots on the front nine, Ko trailed Choi by a shot as they played the par-3 15th. With Choi facing a 6-footer for birdie, Ko slammed in an improbable 60-footer and Choi promptly three-putted for a two-shot swing.
The teenager’s lead didn’t last long. Ko drove into a fairway bunker, then fanned a hybrid shot into a stand of pine trees down the right side of the 17th hole, scrambling to make a double bogey.
As the steadier Choi finished with a 4-under 68 and 16-under total, Ko had to salvage a par on the 18th to finish in a three-way tie at 15 under, but it was good enough to secure a piece of the record book.
Woods, previously the youngest golfer to reach No. 1, was 21 years, 5 months, 16 days when he reached the top in 1997. Ko reached the mark 3 years, 8 months, 14 days earlier. The men’s rankings date to 1986 and the women’s list is nine years old.
“It’s a nice consolation if you want to call it that,” said Ko’s swing coach, David Leadbetter.
Ko finished with a 71 to match Jessica Korda (66) and Ha Na Jang (70) at 15 under.
Ko, whose pulse rate seems to be frozen at about 75 beats per minute whether she’s making an eagle or double bogey, hardly seemed derailed by the 71st-hole meltdown. Her indefatigable nature is her biggest asset, Leadbetter said.
“We sent her to anger management school to learn how to get angry,” Leadbetter laughed.
Choi, on the other hand, was clearly caught up in the emotion of her first victory since late 2012. The 27-year-old topped the LPGA money list in 2010 and won the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open, but had fallen out of the world top 15.
“I think I was so nervous out there,” said Choi, who recorded her eighth LPGA victory and was fighting back tears. “I was waiting so long for this moment.”
Choi, one of the game’s elite players before the two-year victory drought set in, admitted that the pressure to succeed wore her down to the point that she stopped reading Korean sports websites and considered downgrading her cellphone plan so she could not download stories about her play.
“I think I had a lot of stress from the result,” Choi said. “Even if I was top 10 or top five, not many people said you did a good job if you finish as runner up. They say you are a loser and that hurts me a lot.”
As for Ko, her ascent seemed ordained when she won her first LPGA Tour title as an amateur at age 15, the youngest in tour history.
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” American star Stacy Lewis said of the new No. 1. “It was just a matter of time.”
Ko, a native of South Korea who moved to New Zealand as a youngster, unseated Inbee Park in the top spot.
“She’s probably the straightest player out here,” said Park, who tie for 17th. “The golf gets easier if you hit the ball straight and you can roll the ball in.”
Ko hit a few crooked shots down the stretch, which ultimately cost her the first-place trophy, but once the magnitude of the moment took hold, she was all smiles.
“There was obviously a loss,” Ko said. “But there was a huge positive, too. That’s pretty awesome.”
The Top 5 LPGA Players to watch in 2015 – What’s in their bag?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I have always been interested in what type of club setup the top players in the game carry.
If you have that same interest, here is a list of all the LPGA players and what’s in their bag.
1 Stacy Lewis – Taylor Made Driver, Mizuno fairway woods and irons, Taylor Made Putter and Titleist ball
2. Inbee park – Dunlop driver, Taylor Made fairway woods, Dunlop irons, Dunlop and Cleveland Wedges, Odysee putter, and Srixon ball.
3. Michelle Wie – Diver, Fairway woods, irons, wedges, putter, and ball…….All Nike.
4. Lydia Ko – Calloway Driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges, putter, and ball.
5. So Yeon Ryu – Honma Driver, Calloway 3 wood, Honma hybrids, a mix of Honma and Calloway wedges, Odessey putter, and Titleist ball.
For a complete list of clubs of all LPGA players, click here.
