Pro Golf Now Morning Chip Shot: More LPGA Success In 2015
By Les Bailey
I am convinced the LPGA enjoyed one of the better golf seasons in recent history during 2014. The Race To CME Globe year-end finale’ appeared to be a huge success, Michelle Wie finally gets a major championship, and what could have been more exciting than the close, hard-fought battles we saw from week-to-week during the season? LPGA commissioner, Michael Whan appears to have the LPGA on the proper road to success, and I expect more in 2015.
When the dust settled after the CME Group Tour Championship, it was 17 year-old Lydia Ko who took all the money by winning the golf tournament, and the Race To CME Globe. Ko was the youngest player in the field, and took home the $1 Million Dollar bonus, as well as a $500,000 Dollar paycheck for winning the tournament.
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The $1.5 million dollar payout became the largest in LPGA history and put a huge exclamation point on Lydia Ko’s 2014 Rolex Rookie of the Year Award.
The victory in Naples, Florida moved the teenager into second place in the Rolex Rankings, behind number one, Inbee Park, and well ahead of number three, Stacy Lewis.
Aug 17, 2014; Pittsford, NY, USA; Inbee Park hits a fairway shot on the 15th hole during the final round of the Wegman
For the first time in over a decade, the 2015 LPGA Season will kick off on US Soil. The Coates Golf Championship presented by R+L Carriers Info tees off on January 28th at the Golden Ocala Golf and Country Club in Ocala, Florida, and offers up a $1.5 Million Dollar purse which will include 500 Race To CME Globe points.
This will be an inaugural event on the LPGA Tour.
The tour moves off-shore to the Bahamas for the Pure Silk and on to the Pacific Rim for the month of February before returning home in mid-march for the Founders Cup. The ladies visit Australia, Thailand, and Singapore.
The 2014 season saw the first time that both the men’s US Open, and the Women’s US Open were contested on the same venue in successive weeks at Pinehurst in North Carolina.
Many felt that the scheduling was a good idea, but many of the players on the lady’s side indicated that the golf course was in bad shape after the men were done, and the ladies took to the links.
In mid-September everyone will take a break for the 2015 Solheim Cup which will be played at the Leon-Rot Golf Club in Heidleberg, Germany. Team USA will follow the men’s Ryder Cup effort in traveling to Europe to avenge the 2013 lose in Colorado, and bring the cup home.
Retiring pro, Juli Inkster will Captain the US Team with 43 year-old Swede Carin Koch taking the reigns of team Europe. Festivities stat on September 17th, with action beginning on the 18th.
Captain, Meg Mallon and Team USA lost 18-10 at the Colorado Golf Club in 2013 in one of the more exciting events during that season.
Team USA holds the most victories in this event that started in 1990 with eight victories to Team Europe’s five wins. Team Europe has the cup, and the home field advantage in 2015.
The prize money, and interest in the LPGA is still not on an equal with men’s golf, but in my opinion, the ladies are gaining ground. If you didn’t watch some of the tournaments in 2014, you missed out on some great golf, and parity among the top players not yet seen on the PGA and European Tours.