Important Questions on this week’s Women’s British Open!
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The Women’s British Open is being played at Turnberry this week.
Turnberry is a great golf course set on the Ayshire Coast and instantly recognizable by the iconic lighthouse out on the course’s far side. Several great storylines are developing, and Bill Fields of espnW.com asks 5 important questions to figure out the final outcome!
Getty Images – Michelle Wie matched her best result of the year in the U.S. Women’s Open, and Lydia Ko is coming off a fourth-place finish in Scotland.
The fourth of five 2015 LPGA major championships. The Ricoh Women’s British Open will be held Thursday-Sunday on the Ailsa course at Turnberry Resort on Scotland’s southwestern coast.
It is the second time play in this event has been at Turnberry. Best known as the site of Tom Watson’s stirring victory over Jack Nicklaus in the 1977 Open Championship. And Watson’s second-place finish in the 2009 Open at age 59, when he led going to the final hole. Australian Karrie Webb won the Women’s British at Turnberry in 2002. A year after the championship made the change to a LPGA major.
Established stars and upstarts have made an impact so far this season on the LPGA Tour.
Here are five questions in advance of the Women’s British Open. American Mo Martin will defend her inspiring victory of a year ago.
(Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Bothered by bursitis in her left hip and a bone spur in her left foot, Michelle Wie sat out the last two tournaments to rest.
1. What can we expect from injury-riddled Michelle Wie?
Wie, 25, matched her best result of the year in the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club, finishing 11th despite continuing to play with injuries that caused her to limp noticeably at times. Wie did not play in the past two events, the Marathon Classic and Meijer LPGA Classic, in an effort to recover from bursitis in her left hip and a bone spur in her left foot that have been plaguing her for several months.
She seemed in good spirits during a Monday morning practice round in Scotland, tweeting, “Team Wie is loving Turnberry so far!!”
It will be interesting to see if the rest has helped Wie, who also has dramatically revamped her stance with instructor David Leadbetter — making it much narrower — to take stress off her left side. Wie has shown an admirably gritty spirit in competing while she has been hurt. But she needs to heal to play the kind of winning golf she did in the first half of 2014.
2. Do those who played last week in Scotland have an edge?
Much is made each summer of the men who do or don’t play in Great Britain the week prior to the Open Championship. By winning the Claret Jug two weeks ago on the Old Course after competing at the John Deere Classic in Illinois, Zach Johnson offered a rebuke to those who say arriving earlier abroad is a plus. (Two years ago, Phil Mickelson notably won the Scottish Open the week before capturing the Open at Muirfield.)
The debate about which strategy is best is relevant this week, too. While the Meijer LPGA Classic was on in Michigan last week, the Ladies Scottish Open, a Ladies European Tour stop, was held at Dundonald Links in Scotland.
Two LPGA stars, World No. 2 Lydia Ko and No. 6 Suzann Pettersen, passed up Michigan for Ayrshire and had good weeks — Ko tying for fourth place and Pettersen finishing second.
For Ko, it was her third top-six finish in her last four tournaments — she tied for 12th in the U.S. Women’s Open in the other — which should give her some confidence at Turnberry. When Ko won her seventh career LPGA title the week she turned 18 earlier this year, a major victory seemed imminent. But she went through a rough patch going into the Women’s PGA. She missed the first cut of her LPGA career. Her game is trending in the right direction again now. She could be a serious factor this week.
Next month, a victory at Turnberry or in the Evian Championship would make Ko the youngest winner of an LPGA major.
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.”
What an incredible year for the LPGA – Top 10 Moments!
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 2014 was the very best year for the LPGA. Excitement with a new star (Not Lydia Ko but Lucy Li), excitement for an old star (Julie Inkster), and a confirmation of a predicted star! (Michelle Wie) I really enjoy watching the LPGA tournaments, and these ladies can play! Here are the top 10 moments of 2014 as described by golf writer Beth Ann Nichols.
1. MICHELLE WIE WINS THE BIG ONE:
The fact that Wiesy triumphed at a historic U.S. Women’s Open where men and women shared the same stage for the first time only made her maiden major all the more perfect. Watching Wie bear hug that trophy was special for all those who have shared her journey for the past 15 years.
2. STACY LEWIS SWEEPS THE POSTSEASON:
The gritty Texan became the first American since Betsy King in 1993 to win the Vare Trophy, Rolex Player of the Year, and money titles. Lewis’s ability to put herself in contention week in and week out has filled an important void at a critical time for the LPGA.
3. LYDIA KO WINS THREE TIMES AND A MILLION:
At age 17, Ko is on pace to put together an unprecedented career on the LPGA. She won three times as a rookie (giving her five total LPGA titles) and took home $1 million at the end of the inaugural CME Race to the Globe.
(Photo by Darren Carroll/Getty Images)
4. CHRISTINA KIM’S EMOTIONAL VICTORY IN MEXICO:
One of the LPGA’s most beloved characters, Kim’s comeback victory at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, was, for many, the season’s most fulfilling moment. Kim wrote a revealing blog in 2012 about her battle with depression and suicidal thoughts. We won’t soon forget that smile she wore in Mexico, nor the sombrero.
5. WE LOVE LUCY:
The early star of Pinehurst No. 2 was Lucy Li, the 11-year-old prodigy who melted our hearts with her patriotic ruffles and grown-up game. She was a media darling, answering questions about her round in between licks of an ice cream bar.
To see the next 5 of the top 10 moments on the 2014 LPGA Tour, click here.
By Bill Fields | Jul 27, 2015
