JTBC Founders Cup Preview and TV Schedule

The fifth edition of the JTBC Founders Cup will be played 19-22 at the 6583 yard, par-72 JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa Wildfire Golf Club. Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, Australia’s First Lady of Golf, is the defending champion as well as the only 2-time winner of this event that takes as its symbolic centerpiece a celebration of the LPGA’s 13 founders.

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Founders & Pioneers

Much has been written about the founding of the LPGA in 1950 and the 13 amazing women who poured their hearts into the fragile young organization. (I’m especially fond of Liz Kahn’s The LPGA: The Unauthorized Version.) The stories those women have told about their cross-country car trips and tournaments played on tracks only a cut above cow pastures stand in stark and vivid counterpoint to the 72-hole stroke play competition about to get under way in their honor and in recognition of their service to women’s golf.

Wildfire is the perfect setting for this celebration. Set in the Sonoran Desert, the Wildfire course is a place of wild and rugged beauty, as are the women who made real their dream of an organization that would support their singular goal, playing golf as professionals. Now those who remain will gather and hold court just off the 18th green, and they will give and receive affirmation after affirmation from those who are the heirs to the legacy they created.

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In this 5th year of the Founders Cup, a new set of LPGA Pioneers will join the few surviving Founders, women whose trailblazing spirit and exemplary participation in the development and advancement of the LPGA Tour and women’s golf merits public recognition and celebration. Judy Rankin, Sandra Palmer and Donna Caponi will be recognized this year at the Founders Cup.

I’m waiting to see if Rankin, who currently provides Golf Channel commentary for LPGA events, will be working this week or sitting in one of those elegant rattan chairs just off the 18th green. We’ll know on Thursday.

Even if Rankin’s not going to be available to provide the commentary this week, we’ll get a special treat from 13-year old Ashley Menne and 12-year old Katie Stinchcomb, a pair of LPGA Girls Golf participants who are going to function as on-course reporters and provide the symbolic generational wrap-around that makes the Founders Cup such a special annual event.

The Field

All three past Founders Cup winners are in the field: Yani Tseng, Stacy Lewis, and Karrie Webb, and three of the top-10 world ranked players in addition to Lewis and Webb: Lydia Ko, Michelle Wie and Hyo-Joo Kim.

I’m looking for a strong performance from both Ko and Lewis — they could be the final pair on Sunday — but if Wie has gotten her engine started she’ll be in the mix and Tseng has been showing signs through the last four events that she’s on the edge of recovering that championship game that took her to the top of the rankings.

Na Yeon Choi, who won the season-opening Coates Golf Championship, and Chella Choi, who’s on the hunt for her first Tour victory, are the top-ranked South Korean players in the field. But Sei Young Kim, 2015 Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic champ, and Amy Yang, winner of the 2015 Honda LPGA Thailand, are also in the field and will be strong contenders.

I’m not looking from a second win from any of the previous South Korean winners, but Chella Choi is playing hard for a win and she’ll give it everything she has to get into contention and stay there.

Two Danes will bear watching. Second year Tour player Line Vedel and rookie Teresa Koelbaek both have fine games and both are enthusiastic competitors. I’m looking for them to make the cut and perhaps get themselves into the top-20.

Outside Lewis and Wie, I’m watching several Americans: Jessica Korda, Christina Kim and Brittany Lincicome. I suspect that Juli Inkster, who’s also in the field, will be keeping a close eye on this trio of players as well. Every tournament they play is a mini-audition for the US Solheim Cup team and Inkster’s the decider.

Among the younger players, I’m keeping an eye on China’s Xi Yu Lin, Australia’s Minjee Lee, and two Americans, Katie Burnett and Sadena Parks. They’re all very talented young golfers at the beginning of their careers and I think among this group we’ll see some future champions working hard to play the weekend.

Media Coverage

Golf Channel will provide delayed coverage of all four rounds of the Founders Cup: Thursday, March 19, 6-9pm; Friday, March 20, 6-8pm; Saturday, March 21, 7-9pm; Sunday, March 22, 7-9pm, all times ET.

ProGolfNow will also provide ongoing commentary and updates, and you can follow the tournament in real time on the LPGA electronic leaderboard.

Follow me on Twitter @bethbethel and I’ll notify you when I post news about the Founders Cup and other women’s golf events.

Next: The Drinks Are On Michelle Wie!

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