LPGA February-March Preview
With the LPGA’s season-opening Coates Golf Championship now consigned to the history books, the Tour is going on the road and playing four events in four different countries during a grueling six-week international Spring Fling. Last season these four events set the tone for the Tour’s year. Four events saw four different champions hoisting trophies and it was fairly clear to me that 2014 was going to be year of intense competition among a large and very talented field. What will 2015 bring? Will Lydia Ko move into a position of complete dominance or will that talented field from last year challenge Ko’s fresh control of the Rolex Rankings? We’ll all have a clearer sense of how the 2015 season’s going to unfold in a few weeks.
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The Tour’s Spring Fling begins with a short hop across the Straits of Florida to Paradise Island, just across the bay from Nassau, for the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic February 5-8. Jessica Korda, who finished T2 at the Coates Championship and tends to have a strong start to her season, is defending champion on the Ocean Club track. Look for Korda to deliver her best game at the Pure Silk-Bahamas, even with inclement weather threatening Thursday and Friday.
Karrie Webb.
From the Bahamas the Tour begins its spring Asian swing, traveling to Australia for the LPGA-LET-ALPG co-sanctioned ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, February 19-22 at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Karrie Webb will defend the title she so handily won last year. I’m expecting a field that’s rich in talent for the Aussie Open, the first co-sanctioned event of the season that always attracts Ladies European Tour as well as LPGA stars.
The Tour leaves Australia and heads to Southeast Asia for a pair of events that are always visual delights and that also hold the potential for some big surprises. In 2014, those surprises came packaged as Anna Nordqvist and Paula Creamer.
Anna Nordqvist
Anna Nordqvist will defend the championship that refreshed her love of competitive golf last year at the Honda LPGA Thailand February 26-March 1 at the Siam Country Club’s Pettaya Old Course. The 13th world ranked player went on to a 2nd victory at the Kia Classic so although she finished in the middle of the pack at the Coates Championship I’m looking for Nordqvist’s game to sharpen up between Paradise Island and Thailand. This year, playing for a spot on Europe’s Solheim Cup team, Nordqvist has additional incentive to pour it on in the coming weeks.
From Thailand the Tour travels to Singapore and the HSBC Women’s Champions, March 5-8 at the Sentosa Golf Club’s Serapong Course, where Paula Creamer is defending champion. Will the 23rd ranked Creamer deliver another earth-shattering, 72nd hole save this year? Like Nordqvist, Creamer has her eye on the Solheim Cup and Captain Juli Inkster’s keeping an eye on everybody. I look for Creamer to deliver her best game every time she tees it up this spring.
Golf Channel will be providing daily coverage of all events and my colleagues and I at ProGolfNow will also provide updates and commentary.
In mid-March the Tour will return to the United States mainland and begin the two-event wind-up — the Founders Cup and the Kia Classic — to the year’s first major, the ANA Inspiration, April 2-5 at Rancho Mirage, California.