Coates Golf Championship: A 1st Look at the Field

Aug 17, 2013; Parker, CO, USA; Gerina Piller of team U.S. hits out of the rough on the eleventh hole during the final round of the 2013 Solheim Cup at the Colorado Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

From the top of the world rankings to the lower levels, the field for the LPGA season-opening Coates Golf Championship is packed with potential surprises. At the top, we’ll get our first look at what’s certain to be a year-long battle between Inbee Park, Lydia Ko and Stacy Lewis for the top of the world rankings, Rolex Player of the Year, the Vare Trophy, and the Race to the CME Globe, and get a sense of how that year-long battle’s going to proceed. We’ll also have our first opportunity to see how three of the season’s strongest rookies, Sadena Parks, Minjee Lee and Cindy Feng, are going to handle golf’s big stage. Between the top of the rankings and the rookies, however, there’s a another group that will also have my attention, three players poised for a breakout year.

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“Breakout” can refer to a number of different outcomes, specific to individual athletes. While the concept typically calls up the image of a first pro victory and a hoisted trophy — as would be the case for

Gerina Piller

— it can also refer to a jump into the rarefied atmosphere of the Rolex Rankings top-10, certainly

Azahara Munoz’s

goal, or even to more modest, less publicly dramatic career achievements: making more cuts, finishing inside the top-10 more often, edging into the top-100 the world rankings. That’s the case with

Katie Burnett

, whose solid and competent game is showing signs now of maturing and developing a more competitive edge.

Gerina Piller

Gerina Piller. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

Rolex ranked number 47 Gerina Piller is due a win. Frankly, I thought it would come in 2014 and while Piller got achingly close twice, at the Honda LPGA Thailand and again at the Shoprite LPGA Classic, she couldn’t close the deal.

Piller’s starting her 5th year on the Tour at 39th on the money list. She’s a strong, talented player, she consistently plays the weekend, and she’s determined, mentally tough. Although as a rookie member of the 2013 Solheim Cup Team USA Piller put only half a point on the board, she had some moments of sheer brilliance, both in her singles match against Catriona Matthew and in her 4-ball match, playing with Angela Stanford. Her performance challenge then, and throughout 2014, has been consistency of play.

Piller’s long off the tee and when she stays in the short grass she’s competitive on the putting surface. I’m confident that her first pro victory is in her bag and I have a feeling that she’s going to close the deal on one of this year’s Sundays. Which one? Let’s see how she starts the season at the Coates Golf Championship.

Azahara Munoz

Azahara Munoz. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

World ranked number 14 Azahara Munoz will be starting her 5th year on the Tour when she tees off next week at the Golden Ocala Golf and Equestrian Club and she’s compiled an impressive records of wins and top-10 finishes on both the LPGA Tour and the LET over those five years.

Munoz’s first pro victory came within a month of her turning pro, at the 2009 Madrid Ladies Masters in a playoff against future Solheim Cup teammate Anna Nordqvist. Munoz followed that with a 2012 LPGA Tour win at the Sybase Match Play Championship, then back-to-back 2012 and 2013 wins at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France; and in 2014 Munoz and teammates Beatriz Recari, Carlota Ciganda and Belen Mozo took the cup for Spain at the LPGA’s inaugural International Crown. Munoz is no stranger to the winner’s circle.

I’m thinking this could be the year Munoz takes her game to the next level and closes out the season inside the top-10 in the Rolex Rankings. She’s starting the season four places outside the top-10, and is going to need to slide past Christie Kerr, Anna Nordqvist, Kyu Jung Baek and Lexi Thompson to get there. She needs a big victory. Munoz needs to win a regular event or two and a Major. Can she do it?

For the first time in her career, Munoz made the cut at all five Tour Majors in 2014, and she finished inside the top-10 in two of them, T7th at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and T4th at the LPGA Championship. Over the last three seasons she’s improved steadily where it matters most, inside 100 yards and on the putting surface.

I look for Munoz to come off the first tee next week hot and ready to win. Although she picked up ten top-10 finishes in 2014 she didn’t notch a victory and in fact suffered a heartbreaking runner-up to Paula Creamer at the HSBC Women’s Champions when Creamer stole what I thought was a certain victory for Munoz with an impossible 75-yard putt. Munoz has the game, the mental desire, and the emotional stamina to take her game to the highest level this year and I’m going to thoroughly enjoy watching her play her way into that circle.

Katie Burnett

Katie Burnett

Katie Burnett’s starting her 3rd year on the Tour ranked 184th by Rolex and all you Ladies Dream Golf fantasy golf players looking for a 4th category pick may want to give her a close look. Burnett played collegiate golf for the South Carolina Gamecocks, turned pro in 2012, played 11 events on the Symetra Tour, and qualified for the Tour at 2012 Q-School on her first attempt.

In 2013, her rookie year, Burnett entered 11 events, made six cuts, and ended the year with $53K in winnings, enough to almost break even given the expenses of a touring pro golfer and just enough to get her inside the top-100 on the money list. Burnett carded her career-low 66 during the 2nd round of the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic and her career-best finish, T12th, at the Kingsmill Championship.

Burnett almost doubled events entered in 2012 and her cut rate edged up from 55% to 62%. Her winnings, which crossed the $100K mark, increased by 45%, making it likely that she’s starting her 3rd year on the Tour with a little money in the bank, if she hasn’t maxed our her credit card at the Nike store!

Burnett’s career low dropped by a stroke, from 66 to 65, carded again at the Manulife, and she notched a T9th finish at the LPGA LOTTE Championship, an accomplishment that was eclipsed by Michelle Wie’s stunning victory hula.

Although a win’s not likely for Katie Burnett, if she’s used the two month break to work on her short game and her accuracy off the tee, I’m looking for Burnett to play the weekend more often, double her winnings this year and perhaps even cross the $250K mark, and to play herself into the top-100 in the Rolex Rankings.

Next: Lydia Ko's 2015 To-Do List

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