The LPGA Thread

[tonyj5]

The LPGA will be playing its first major championship this week. It will be the first of five major championships this year. The Evian Championship has been upgraded to a major this year, giving the LPGA 5 majors for the first time.

Rancho Mirage, California will be the location this week for the the LPGA's first major championship.
I will have more on this championship in the next few days, for now let's look at some recent history.

The United States has struggled mightily in recent years, as Asia has dominated the victory circle of major championships. Here is a look at major winners dating back to the year 2000.

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/...-first_31.html

[tonyj5]

After a very exciting start to the season, the LPGA will be staging its first major championship this week with the playing of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

This will be the first of five major championships this year. The United States will be trying to break Asia's streak of seven consecutive major championship victories. For more on that see my blog on Asian dominance.

Winning a major championship can go a long way towards achieving the LPGA's most prestigious awards at season's end. Player of the Year points and Rookie of the Year points are doubled for major championships.

This will be tournament number 6 of 28 on this year's schedule.

Here are the key details:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/...p-preview.html

[tonyj5]

Here are the leaders after round 1.

1 Na Yeon Choi -4 F
1 Suzann Pettersen -4 F
1 Jodi Ewart Shadoff -4 F
4 Amy Yang -3 F
4 Anna Nordqvist -3 F
6 Inbee Park -2 F
6 Giulia Sergas -2 F
6 Angela Stanford -2 F
6 Jane Park -2 F
6 Jacqui Concolino -2 F
6 Caroline Masson -2 F
6 Lizette Salas -2 F
6 Moriya Jutanugarn -2 F
6 Jessica Korda -2 F
6 Jiyai Shin -2 F
6 Hee Young Park -2 F

[tonyj5]

The second round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship saw the best of the LPGA's players rise to the top of the leader board. Inbee Park, Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Na-Yeon Choi, Stacy Lewis, Jiyai Shin and Ai Miyazato are all within striking distance of the lead.
Here is the full story:
http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/...ond-round.html

[tonyj5]

Will anyone be able to catch Inbee Park? Inbee extended her Kraft Nabisco Championship lead to three shots, shooting her second consecutive 67 for a three day total of 12 under par. Lizette Salas, who shot a 69, is her closest pursuer 3 shots back.

Read full story:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/...-round-of.html

[tonyj5]

Before the 2013 season started I posted my top 30 predictions for LPGA Player of the Year.
My pick as winner was none other than Inbee Park. Inbee is making me look very good now, winning her second tournament already this year.

Inbee won this season's first major championship quite easily, with a 4 stroke victory over So Yeon Ryu.
The issue was never in doubt. Starting the day with a 3 stroke lead over Lizette Salas, and a 6 stroke lead over six other golfers, Inbee put an end to this championship very early. Inbee birdied the first hole while Salas would record a double bogey, and the three stroke lead became six very quickly. From there on in everyone else would be playing for second place. The only question was how many strokes ahead of the field she would be when she jumped into Poppie's Pond.

For full story:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/...-to-kraft.html

[tonyj5]

Only twelve more tournaments remain for the U.S. players to get themselves into position to qualify for the 2013 Solheim Cup, which will be played this year at the Colorado Club, in Parker Colorado. Players started accumulating points at the completion of the last Solheim Cup, in 2011.

The United States has changed the qualifications for entry. In previous years it was the top ten players who accumulated the most points, and then two captain's picks. They have now changed that to the top eight players off the point list, the 2 highest Rolex ranked players not already in, and 2 captain's picks.

Points are accumulated the following way:
(From the first event after the previous Solheim Cup match in 2011 through the end of the 2012 season)
Winner - 40 points, 2nd - 20 points, 3rd - 18 points, 4th - 17 points, all the way down to 20th - 2 points.
(The 2013 season tournaments, leading up to the Solheim match)
Winner - 60 points, 2nd - 30 points, 3rd - 28.5 points, 4th - 27 points, 5th - 25.5 points, all the way down to a 20th place finish worth 3 points.
The reason for the increased points for the last part of the term is to give an advantage to the players who are hot going into the match.

With many players fighting to get into a position to make the team, let us look at where we stand as of today.

Here are the top 8 Solheim Cup point leaders right now:


http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/...n-solheim.html

[tonyj5]

After a one week break, the LPGA resumes its schedule with the playing of the LPGA Lotte Championship Presented by J Golf. This will start a stretch of six tournaments over a seven week period, that will be capped off by the year's second major championship.

There will be a pretty solid field, with newly crowned Kraft Nabisco champion Inbee Park, and the world's number one player Stacy Lewis, leading the way.
Although there are a few key players sitting it out, my strength of field rating is still a very solid 80.5%.
Among the players sitting it out this week are: Amy Yang, Catriona Matthew, Lexi Thompson, Chie Arimura, Ayaka Uehara, and Jimin Kang.

This will be tournament number 7 of 28 to be played this year.

Here are the key details:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2013/...-pairings.html