Stacy Lewis & Jessica Korda Talk About the Tour’s 2015 Rookies (Video)
Stacy Lewis. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
How do Stacy Lewis and Jessica Korda, two of the LPGA Tour’s top American players, feel about the 2015 Rookie Class? It’s a class that’s packed with power and potential, a class that includes 8 players from the Rolex Rankings Top 100 and a class that begins its rookie year with perhaps more experience in competition than any previous class in the Tour’s history.
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I’ve watched the Tour’s 2015 season begin to unfold with amazement. Two months ago I would have predicted that 2015 was going to revolve around a three-way battle for the top of the Rolex Rankings, and that Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, and Stacy Lewis were going to carry on that battle from one Tour event to the next.
I realized how very wrong I’d been as I watched the first round of the season-opening Coates Golf Championship unfold. Rookie Ha-Na Jang never stopped smiling as she set the pace for the tournament with an eye-opening 67 and then followed that with an even more stunning seven-under 65. As the weekend came into view it seemed very possible that the rookie was going to outplay the field and take the win.
To be sure, Jang’s not really a rookie. She came to the big stage with five years’ competitive experience on the KLPGA. She already had six pro wins on her resume when she teed it up at Golden Ocala, and had earned the 2013 KLPGA Player of the Year award. Still, she was playing against the best golfers in the world. With drives that challenged Lexi Thompson and Brittany Lincicome for distance and Mo Martin for accuracy, it quickly became very clear to me that Ha-Na Jang was one of best.
Sei Young Kim’s Pure Silk-Bahamas championship selfie. Photo credit: lpga.cpm
While Stacy Lewis and Inbee Park had languished in the middle ranks at the Coates, I figured as tee time for the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic rolled around that the battle for the top of the board would hinge on how Jessica Korda and Lydia Ko played. I was wrong again, but when Inbee Park and Brittany Lincicome came out hot in the first round at Paradise Island I thought perhaps I’d just plugged in the wrong pairing.
When the Pure Silk-Bahamas was over and done and there were two more rookies at the top of the board, one of them hoisting the trophy, I decided I needed to rethink my predictions for the year. Pure Silk-Bahamas champion Sei Young Kim and runner-up Ariya Jutanugarn are, like Ha-Na Jang, going to make their mark this year.
With Ariya Jutanugarn and Lydia Ko sharing the top of the board at seven-under par there’s a very interesting final round waiting to be played at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. Jang’s holding 6th place and trailing by four strokes and yet another rookie who’s not a rookie, Charley Hull, has a share of 7th. How many rookies can crowd into a top-10 finish at Royal Melbourne Sunday afternoon?
The only prediction I feel comfortable making at this point is that the contest for LPGA Rookie of the Year is going to be a whole lot more interesting this year than it was last year!