Michelle Wie

It’s been an exciting season on the LPGA Tour. We’ve had one player already win five times on tour this year, (Ai Miyazato). We’ve had two women track down Miyazato for the number one spot in the Rolex Rankings on several occasions (Jiyai Shin and Cristie Kerr). And there was another exciting happening at the CN Canadian Open this week, as Michelle Wie controlled the tournament the entire way, and picked up her second victory in her LPGA Tour career.

Entering the 2010 LPGA season, we knew how important it was going to be that new commissioner Michael Whan get things going in the right direction in terms of marketing. With the ladies tour losing events heading into the year, they simply had to start marketing their product more than it had ever been marketed before. And well, this is a good start. News has come out today that Michelle Wie has signed an endorsement deal with McDonalds, which should certainly help get the word out about the sport a little more.

Some good news for fans of the women’s game, as Michelle Wie has committed to play the first LPGA event of the new year, which starts February 18 in Thailand.

Yesterday, I made my 2010 predictions for the PGA Tour. Today, it’s time to shift focus to the ladies, and make my predictions for what could be one of the biggest years in the history of women’s golf.

We all knew that there were some sponsorship problems with the LPGA heading into next season, and that has forced next year’s schedule to only include 24 events for the women on tour.

Anytime we pass over talking about a Tiger Woods win here at Pro Golf Now, you know that there must be another huge story taking place in the world of golf. And that is the case this time around, as Michelle Wie has finally picked up her first LPGA win, by winning the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

I was browsing the blogosphere today, and saw this post by Ryan Ballengee over at Waggle Room.

With the ladies playing on the west coast this week, and the men playing on the east coast, the times aren’t exactly evening up in terms of when play ends at both tournaments each day. So there is golf still being played at both tournaments right now (as of 5:50 CT), therefore I will just recap what has gone on thus far today in the world of professional golf.

With the Safeway Classic getting underway today at Pumpkin Ridge, I thought I’d offer up a few predictions for this week. Hopefully the LPGA can carry over some momentum from the Solheim Cup and make this yet another great tournament for the women’s game. The field is certainly strong, with pretty much all of the big names competing in the Safeway this year, including the players from both Solheim Cup teams. So needless to say, the world’s best will be competing for the trophy this year.

Let me start off by saying this: The Solheim Cup was pretty exciting. There. I said it. Say what you want about women’s golf, and make all the statements you want about the future of the game. There was excitement in the air, and the fans loved it. I was glued to the TV for pretty much the entire week, but especially during the singles matches yesterday. And this was a tournament you may want to remember. One of the main reasons why you may want to remember this year’s installment is because of the breakout performance by Michelle Wie.