The LPGA has had a very busy two months in July and August. The pace will continue to be furious as the women will compete in Virginia and England in September.
The U. S. Women’s Open was held in early July at Black Wolf Run in Kohler, Wisconsin. South Korean native, Na Yeon Choi collected the big check and her first major title. The ladies then moved to France for the Evian Masters that was held at Evian-les-Bains near beautiful Lake Geneva which provided a total purse of $3.25 million.
Inbee Park, who is from South Korea and had one previous LPGA win, the 2008 U. S. Women’s Open, won the Evian Masters. It is a little bit unfortunate for Ms. Park that it will be the fifth major on the LPGA beginning in 2013. On the other hand she did collect the second largest first place check on the LPGA tour this year.
After a week off the LPGA moved to Toledo, Ohio for the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic which was won by another talented South Korean golfer, So Yeon Ryu. She had won the 2011 U. S. Women’s Open but was not yet a member of the LPGA. She fired a final round 62 at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Toledo for her first official win as an LPGA member.
The Safeway Classic was held at Pumpkin Ridge outside of Portland, Oregon the next week after the Jamie Farr. Mika Miyazato who joined the LPGA Tour in 2009 and has over $2.3 million career earnings picked up her first win.
The CN Canadian Women’s Open was held in Vancouver the following week with 15 year old phenom Lydia Ko becoming the youngest winner of an LPGA event. Lydia now lives in New Zealand but was born in South Korea.
Lydia won the U. S. Women’s Amateur in Cleveland earlier in the summer and was also the low amateur in the U. S. Women’s Open at Black Wolf Run. Ms. Ko has become the talk of the golf media and most are ready to induct her directly into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Thank goodness she intends to finish high school and plans to attend Stanford, if they will accept her. I am thinking that they will find some room for her.
If you are keeping score, South Koreans have won 4 of the last five events on the LPGA Tour. Brittany Lang was the last American to win on the LPGA at the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in June. No American woman has won on the LPGA in the last six events.
The Kingsmill Championship has been reinstated on the LPGA Tour Schedule for September 6-9 and will offer a purse of $1.3 million. After that it’s back to Europe for the last major of the year the Ricoh British Women’s Open to be held at famed Hoylake near Liverpool. It will offer a $2.75 million purse just to make it worthwhile for the women to go all the way to England.
Hoylake has hosted the men in the Open Championship 11 times but this will be the first time the British Women’s Open has been held there.
LPGA Tour Commissioner Michael Whan has the LPGA headed in the right direction. With the addition of some new tournaments, the reinstatement of some old ones, plus the big money Evian Masters there is a lot of prize money to be won on the LPGA.
It has become a truly world tour and has been embraced by other countries around the world that love golf and do not have men’s professional golf events to attend.