The Evian Championship Golf Channel Fantasy Picks

By Danny Norris | Sep 10, 2014

The Evian Championship, the 5th and final major on the LPGA Tour, will be played this week and it is a part of the Golf Channel’s fantasy game this week. Including the LPGA always makes the week more fun and gives it a really nice boost. And just as a side note, I’m glad the Golf Channel includes the LPGA when the majors roll around, but I wish that there would be more fantasy games for the LPGA Tour.

As we see with on various fantasy sites there are a variety of sports to take part in and it’d be cool to see the LPGA get in on that one of these days. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me, but anyway, let’s get into a little bit of analysis and make some picks for The Evian Championship.

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Group 1: As is usually the case you pretty much can’t go wrong with any pick in group 1. Stacy Lewis is the number one golfer in the world, Lydia Ko finished 2nd last year, Suzann Pettersen is the defending champion, So-Yeon Ryu finished T-4, Michelle Wie is having a fantastic year which includes the U.S. Women’s Open, and Lexi Thompson finished solo 3rd last year plus has a major under her belt winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Having said all that, I’m rolling with Inbee Park because she is just on an absolute tear of late. In her last five starts her worse finish has been 4th. That’s her worse finish! That’s unbelievable stuff right there. And in her last tournament at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open she finished 3rd.

Group 2: This is usually the toughest of the groups to choose from because there is a lot of quality and quantity in group 2. Shanshan Feng, Karrie Webb, and Anna Nordqvist are available at the top.

Or you can go down to the bottom of the list and pick up Hee-Young Park, Se-Ri Pak, or Jenny Shin. And we didn’t even talk about some of the other gals that are sandwiched in the middle like In-Kyung Kim, Chella Choi, Brittany Lincicome, or Paula Creamer….but, I suppose we just did now. The point being there’s a lot to choose from and you’re really splitting hairs at this point.

Now, for my pick, I’m going with Ana Nordqvist because I feel she is probably the best golfer, all-around, in this group. She really has no weaknesses in her game driving it 252 yards off the tee, hitting 77% of fairways, she is 4th on Tour in Greens In Regulation and when she’s on the green in regulation she is typically making that birdie putt.

She’s 7th on Tour taking 1.77 putts on the green when she hits it in regulation. Plus, she’s in really good form of late making six straight cuts including a T-12 at the Women’s British Open, and T-4 at the LPGA Championship.

Group 3: Mirim Lee is having quite the rookie season. She’s 19th in the Race to the CME Globe rankings, has three top 10’s and just recently won her first LPGA event a month ago at the Meijer LPGA Classic.

In fact, she’s having quite the four tournament stretch which feature a T12-1-T6-T46 and I want to highlight that T-6 because that was at the LPGA Championship.

Now, that’s not the only M. Lee we are going to talk about. You should also be aware about Minjee Lee. Minjee Lee is another young, talented golfer just getting her feet wet on the LPGA Tour. Currently, she is an amateur, but that hasn’t stopped her from having some fine results in her limited time on Tour.

She’s made the cut at two of the three majors she’s played at this year which features a T-24 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and a T-22 at the U.S. Women’s Open. I’d keep an eye on her and it’ll be fun to watch and see how she develops over the course of the next few years as well.

Other notables: Morgan Pressel – Pressel has made the cut in her last two tournaments, but missed the cut at the LPGA Championship. Sandra Gal – She finished T-19 last year, but Gal has missed her last two cuts. Jennifer Johnson finished T-9 last year, Brittany Lang has made the cut in her last three tournaments which includes a T-62 at the LPGA Championship.

The former number one golfer in the world, Yani Yseng, has been up-and-down this year, but does come into The Evian Championship making the cut in her last three tournaments six of her last seven.

All in all, when I look at the group I go back to the top of the list with Mirim Lee and that’s who I’m taking. Lee is an absolute talent who’s in really good form and compared to the other golfers in the group I have more confidence in her than the other bigger name golfers.

Group 4: For the LPGA Championship I took Sydnee Michaels as my group 4 pick and she performed really well. She ended up finishing T-22 and so I’m putting her on my team once again. Michaels is in nice form making four of her last five cuts – including that T-22 at the LPGA Championship – plus she had a nice finish last year at The Evian Championship finishing in a tie for 37th.