- After two weeks of blowing leads late in tournaments, it is only fitting that Inbee Park wins the LPGA Championship by coming from behind. We can sometimes forget how hard it is to win a professional golf tournament, and no one has made it harder on themselves than Inbee has, so to see her rewarded in this fashion seems right. Now that she strung together three great weeks, and cashed in on another victory, I wonder if she's going to give Stacy Lewis a real run towards the end of the season. They have one more major that could be a deciding factor.
- I know everyone is saying that Brittany Lincicome proved herself to be the next American major winner, but I can't see that as being true. Personally, this may have been Lincicome's best opportunity to win, as her career has started to take a slight downturn the past two seasons. Of course, Lincicome is still only 28, so she'll have several more opportunities, but who knows if she'll ever get another great opportunity like she got heading up the 72nd hole of the LPGA Championship. I know IK Kim is still looking for her breakthrough from a similar situation.
- Lydia Ko is ready to be a major winner. Nothing has made me realize that more than her performance on Sunday, trying to chase down the leaders late as they were trying to pull away from her. Ko's bogies on the final two holes derailed her chances, but she gave more of a charge at it than anyone else. Physically, she may be the best player on Tour, and if she can get through a few mental hurdles, she may be almost unstoppable.
- I am now convinced that Mirim Lee is ready to be a big time player on the LPGA Tour. I wanted to see how Mirim would be able to handle her first major following her first victory on Tour, and she handled it better than most could have expected. She stumbled on the back 9 on Sunday, but she did not completely implode and shoot 80 like she could have. I believe this, more than her victory last week, will give Mirim confidence moving forward.
- Two weeks, two wins for Koreans on the LPGA Tour after everyone was applauding the rise of the American golfers this season. This is not to say that the Koreans are ready to retake their dominance, but it is great for all parties involved to have both American and Korean players playing well. Asia is one of the biggest markets for the LPGA, and if their stars are playing well, they will continue to support the product. A battle for supremacy between Korean and American stars on the LPGA can only be a positive thing for that Tour.
- I remember a few years ago the golf world was talking about the young guns being ready to step up and take over the PGA Tour when guys like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were ready to step away. Right towards the top of that conversation were Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas. Kim has been nowhere to be seen the past several years, and Villegas has struggled, notching only two top 10's since 2011. His victory at the Wyndham Championship turned back the clock a few years and showed us the kind of skills he is able to possess if he were to play at the top of his game. The win was Villegas' first top 10 of the season, so I'm not ready to say he's going to become this great player again, but it is a great step in the right direction for the Columbian.
- The Wyndham became a scene of pure disappointment for many players, such as Freddie Jacobson, Heath Slocum, and Brad Fritch, and while every golf writer will focus on the negative, I will, instead, discuss the positive. Sang-Moon Bae's final round 66 was enough to move him from 126 in the FedEx Cup standings to inside the top 125, giving him a tee time for next week. Also helping his cause was bubble boy Paul Casey, who was sitting right at 125 when the week started and was able to put together a decent tournament and get himself into the playoffs. For most players, the playoffs start at the Barclays, but for Casey and Bae, the playoffs started this week, which may give them some extra motivation and confidence heading into next week. The previously mentioned Slocum was able to translate his narrow entry into the playoffs in 2009 into a victory, so there is some previous history on this sort of thing happening.
With the home ground/support advantage about to dry up over the coming months for the USA LPGA players It will be a challenge for them to continue to dominate.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that matters as much as it used to. American players have done just fine during the Asian swing. Thompson won in Malaysia last year, and Lewis won in Japan two years ago. It will only matter for those who haven't won as often, or are looking for their first wins.
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