LPGA 2015 Season Preview

Jun 15, 2014; Pinehurst, NC, USA; LPGA player Lexi Thompson hits tee shots on the practice ground during the final round of the 2014 U.S. Open golf tournament at Pinehurst Resort Country Club – #2 Course. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

With Lydia Ko’s grand finale tromp through the CME Group Championship and her eclipse of Stacy Lewis and Michelle Wie as she claimed the Race to the CME Globe victory now consigned to golf history, with Brittany Lincicome engaged and Paula Creamer newly wed, with Lexi Thompson eager to debut her shift from blonde to brunette and with a new rookie class stepping up to the tee, I’m more than ready for the 2015 season to begin. While we start the countdown to the last week in January and the inaugural Coates Golf Championship in Ocala, Florida, let’s take a look at three season-long dramas that are likely to play out in the coming months.

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The Battle for the Top of the Rankings: Five to Watch

The season-long, 2-way battle between Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis for the top of the world rankings that kept all of us on the edge of our seats during 2014 season is going to be much more complicated this year.

Although Suzann Pettersen, who’s still in the number 4 slot in the rankings, is unlikely to mount a viable charge for the top, going into the 2015 season there are at least 5 players with a realistic chance of claiming the top of the Rolex World Rankings at some point this year.

Stacy Lewis

Inbee Park’s going to start the year at the top of the rankings, but can she hold on to the top spot? Stacy Lewis, 2014 LPGA Player of the Year and winner of the Vare Trophy, is coming into 2015 sitting on the top of the money list. She’s at the peak of her playing power, she’s utterly focused, and she wants to reclaim the top of the rankings. She’s starting 2015 in 3rd place, behind Lydia Ko, but that’s a statistical artifact. In total points, Lewis is ahead of Ko and trailing Park by less than 50 points. I see her playing her way right back up to the top of the rankings very quickly. But will she be able to hold on to the top once she gets there?

Lydia Ko’s starting her 2nd year on the Tour in an enviable position. She had an stunning rookie year and now the 2014 Rookie of the Year is starting the season from a position of enormous strength. But can Ko finish the job she started in her rookie season and take over the top of the rankings? She’s already shown that she can outplay the best of the best, and I look for her to take the top of the rankings at some point, perhaps early in the season. However, I don’t think she’ll be able to hold the top spot, not yet.

Michelle Wie (right) & Stacy Lewis (left)

What about Shanshan Feng and Michelle Wie? They’re lurking just below Pettersen in the rankings, Feng at 5th and Wie at 6th. They both played terrific golf in 2014.

After losing her first real shot at a major championship to Lexi Thompson, Wie outplayed her perennial competitor and good friend, Stacy Lewis, to claim her first major at the US Women’s Open last June. Injury stalled her momentum in the latter half of the 2014 season but if she stays healthy Wie will be a serious challenger this year.

Shanshan Feng, China’s top golfer, meting her personal goal of three 2014 victories by pulling a final win out of the fire at the LET Omega Dubai Ladies Masters in December. Like Michelle Wie, Shanshan Feng has her eye on the top of the rankings and she has the mental strength and the technical skills to get there.

By the numbers, Feng and Wie need to come out hot and claim some early victories — before the season’s first major in March, the ANA Inspiration (formerly the Kraft Nabisco Championship) — in order to have a reasonable chance of catching and passing Lewis and Ko. I’m watching and waiting.

The Solheim Cup

Liselotte Neuman 2013 Solheim Cup Team Europe captain. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Captains Juli Inkster and Carin Koch have about 9 months to get their 12-player teams ready for the epic contest between the Americans and the Europeans that will play out this year at Germany’s Golf Club Saint Leon-Rot in September. The Europeans want to make it three in a row. The Americans want to bring home the Cup. Both captains will field the best of women’s golf and I’m expecting the quality of the golf to surpass all previous Solheim events.

It’s too early to start making predictions but it’s not too early to start monitoring the performance of the likely team members.

For the Americans, I’ll be watching Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie, Lexi Thompson, Christie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome, Paula Creamer, Angela Stanford, Jessica Korda, Lizette Salas and perhaps Mo Martin, essentially the same players Meg Mallon fielded for the Americans in 2013. Can this team pull a victory from the ashes of the Parker, Colorado debacle?

. . . going into Germany we have got two years to sit on [the 2013 defeat] and four years since we have won the cup and I can tell you we’ll be ready to go – Paula Creamer

Koch is likely to field a European team that includes Suzann Pettersen, Anna Nordqvist, Azahara Munoz, Catriona Matthew, Charley Hull, Carlota Ciganda, Sandra Gal, Caroline Masson and Caroline Hedwall, again essentially the same players who defeated the Americans on home ground and claimed that historic 2013 victory.

By the numbers, the Americans outrank the Europeans, but the Europeans are playing with the home advantage this year. Munoz and Ciganda will be formidable. Hull is coming in more seasoned. Defeat may have shaken the Americans from their arrogant complacency. Kerr and Stanford are fierce competitors but perhaps not as strong as their rankings suggest.

The wild cards Inkster and Koch pick may be critical and won’t be settled until the RICOH Women’s British Open in early August, but the speculation begins now. For the Americans, does rookie Sadena Parks have a shot? For the Europeans, wouldn’t Beatriz Recari be a logical addition?

The 2015 LPGA Rookie Class: Three to Watch

Thirty-two rookies are joining the LPGA Tour this year and several of them have the potential to get out in front and onto the first page of the leaderboard.

Minjee Lee.

Australian Minjee Lee is on the top of my rookie watch list. After winning the 2014 ALPG Oates Victorian Championship last February Lee tested the waters on the pro circuits, played on Team Australia, alongside her mentor, Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, at the LPGA’s inaugural International Crown, and turned pro just in time to make her professional debut at the 2014 Evian Championship. She easily played at the top of the 2014 Q School leaderboard, and from what I’ve seen her game’s equivalent to Lydia Ko’s.

Sadena Parks is right alongside Minjee Lee on my list. The twenty-four year old played her collegiate golf at the University of Washington and was among the 10 Symetra Tour players who qualified for unconditional 2015 LPGA Tour status by finishing inside the top-10 on the money list. Parks is a scrappy, determined player who likes to take risks and likes to win. She’s my kind of golfer!

Sadena Parks

It’s not just being there; I don’t think that’s good enough. You have to win. – Sadena Parks

I’ve seen Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow play better golf than she did at Q School, but she squeaked onto the Tour and I’ll be watching her closely. Meadow was a standout golfer for Alabama’s Crimson Tide, turned pro in time to take my breath away at the 2014 US Women’s Open, then played the rest of the 2014 season on sponsor invites at both LPGA and LET events.

Stephanie Meadow

Although her performance fluctuates from outstanding to disappointing, Meadow has a winning game in her bag. She may just need some steady, high-level competition to even out her play.

I’m looking forward to the season-opening Coates Golf Championship and to a new year of competition: the continuing players, the new rookies, the excitement and anticipation of the Majors, the new events are all beckoning.

Next: Predicting the PGA Tour Season

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