Days after shedding tears following yet another professional victory in her native New Zealand, world No. 1 Lydia Ko comes to Australia on an emotional high.
The 18-year-old wunderkind enters the $1.3 million ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open as dialed in as ever, with a victory and a tie for third on her 2016 resume so far. She will be defending the first of five 2015 titles this week against a full field of talented pros who are eager to add their names to the trophy “Down Under.”
Last year, Ko had to outduel Amy Yang down the stretch, closing with a final-round 71 to edge Yang by two strokes. Yang would win the following week in Thailand and pushed Ko to the max on Sunday in Australia.
“Whenever I saw the leaderboard, [Amy] had made another birdie and another one, so I was like, ‘Ok, you need to get your stuff together and you need to make birdies,’” Ko said after her win last year. “She’s such a consistent player and she’s been putting so well on these fast greens, so I knew she was tough to get rid of.”
It was Ko’s seventh career LPGA win and first since becoming the world’s top-ranked player, and the scary thing for the rest of this week’s field is that she’s an even better golfer heading into the 2016 installment.
Last year’s win came at The Composite Course at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club, but the Tour now travels to a new locale that players will need to study hard during practice rounds. The Grange Golf Club in Grange, South Australia, is up this week, offering a new venue for the longstanding event, which was added to the LPGA Tour schedule as an official event in 2012.
Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis – the next two players behind Ko in the Rolex Women’s Golf World Rankings – are not teeing it up this week, but there are still plenty of storylines to keep fans interested. Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, the most famous and beloved Australian golfer of all-time, is making her 2016 debut this week, and Minjee Lee enters the 72-hole tournament as the world’s highest-ranked Aussie.
Webb won the 2014 event and is joined in the field by 2013 champion Jiyai Shin – one of nine sponsor’s exemptions – and 2012 winner Jessica Korda. The tournament’s sponsor’s exemptions include a talented group of amateurs to watch: Celina Yuan, Minori Iwasaki, Yu-Sang Hou and Min-Ji Park.
In addition, Hall of Famer Laura Davies – who is no stranger to winning tournaments in Australia – is in the field, along with longtime LPGA Tour veteran and Australian native Rachel Hetherington. Other players who could give Ko a run for her money include Ha Na Jang, who is looking for her second straight LPGA win, and 2015 tournament winners Brooke Henderson, Chella Choi and Kris Tamulis.
Night owls will love the Golf Channel time windows, which run from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET on Thursday, 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Sunday. Regardless of the time change, fans can rest assured they will bear witness to some great shot-making from some of the world’s best.
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