Rookie Sei Young Kim Wins Pure Silk-Bahamas in Playoff

By Elizabeth Bethel | Feb 9, 2015

Is this going to be the Year of the Rookie on the LPGA Tour? Watching Sei Young Kim and Ariya Jutanugarn make their way around the Ocean Club track on Paradise Island last week would certainly suggest that it could be. For the second week in a row there’s been at least one rookie in contention on Sunday and if the Tour’s 2015 rookie class maintains the pace it’s set at the opening of the season, the LPGA Rookie of the Year award isn’t going to look anything like it did last year, when Lydia Ko had it locked up and on the shelf well in advance of the end of the season.

Last week rookie Ha Na Yang battled against Na Yeon Choi for the Coates Golf Championship win Choi went on to claim. Sunday rookie Sei Young Kim survived a sudden death playoff against Sun Young Yoo and another rookie, Airya Jutanugarn, to take the victory at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic.

Conditions at the Pure Silk-Bahamas challenged the entire field of players. The wind, the rain, the suspended rounds, three days of playing 25 holes in order to complete a suspended round and get through the next one left the field exhausted and the fans sometimes a bit confused. Figuring out who was leading at any given point required a delicate calculation of who was where in which round.

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For a time Brooke Pancake played brilliantly, making her way around the Paradise Island Ocean Club course with a scant 20 putts during the first round and carding an impressive 67 that put her on top of the world, briefly. But Pancake couldn’t keep up the pace, and followed her stunning opening round with a 71, then a disheartening 76 and a 75, and tumbled down to a T38th finish.

Then it seemed as though Gerina Piller might be ready to notch her first pro win. Piller went to the clubhouse at sundown on Saturday afternoon midway through her 3rd round at the Pure Silk-Bahamas on the top of a somewhat confusing leaderboard. But like Pancake, Piller couldn’t hold on to the magic of a disrupted round and the lead slipped away on Sunday morning. Piller had a good T7th finish, alongside Azahara Munoz, Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson.

By Sunday afternoon what had been a somewhat murky situation began to clear and it seemed as though the victory might go to Inbee Park or Brittany Lincicome, or that they might at least get to replay the 2014 Wegman’s LPGA Championship drama. Both had surged and were playing strong games. For Park, disaster struck on the back nine. A couple of uncharacteristic 3-putts put her out of contention.

Brittany Lincicome (pink) and Inbee Park (blue) .

Lincicome, who started the Pure Silk-Bahamas with a flawless 1st round of 68, struggled during the 2nd and 3rd rounds but for a time on Sunday looked like she might challenge the leaders. In the end, however, she either needed one less bogey on Friday or one more birdie on Sunday to get into the playoff. She settled for a solo 4th place finish.

And so it went. Rookie Kelly Shon was looking good but then couldn’t fight her way past the wind, the suspended rounds, and a logjam of players who were crowding the first page of the leaderboard. Still, Shon probably feels better about her T11th finish than Stacy Lewis does about hers.

There were surprises up and down the board at the Pure Silk-Bahamas, none more eyebrow-raising than Cristie Kerr, Mo Martin, Michelle Wie and Coates champ Na Yeon Choi’s missed cuts.

Still, two of the youngsters on my watch list made the cut and played the weekend. Last year’s Oates Victorian Open champion, rookie Minjee Lee, who chose to play in the Pure Silk-Bahamas rather than defend her Vic Open title, finished T27th and Brooke Henderson, who’s playing for a place at the table, finished T33rd.

All-in-all, the Pure Silk-Bahamas provided me with some terrific golf. I’m delighted that tournament sponsors and the LPGA have signed a 3-year extension to keep the Pure Silk in Paradise through 2018.

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