Americans, Koreans face off in Olympics
Both sides are oozing with talent and armed with solid credentials that could reduce the rest to virtual spectators when women’s golf fires off in the Olympic Games on 4 August at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama.
The United States and South Korea, made up of four world-ranked players each, head to the battlefield with combined 73 victories on the LPGA Tour with the Koreans accounting for nine majors.
But the United States is a proud nation, rich in experience and gloats with enormous talents led by world No. 1 Nelly Korda. She will be backstopped by sister Jessica and 11-time LPGA titlist Lexi Thompson and five-time winner Danielle Kang.
But the three Koreans in the Olympic roster — Inbee Park, Hyo Joo Kim and Jin Young Ko — also boast of victories this season.
Sei Young Kim, the other Korean, has three
Top 7 finishes in 11 LPGA events.
Park will step into the first tee at Kasumigaseki as the defending champion.
Park is the best credentialed in the 60-player roster, with 33 career victories, including seven majors that spiked her 21 title romps in the LPGA. The 33-year-old has shown no signs of slowing down, winning the Kia Classic last March and posting a runner-up and third place effort in the LOTTE Championship and the Women’s World Championship, respectively.
Park will step into the first tee at Kasumigaseki as the defending champion, having become the first woman in 116 years to win an Olympic gold medal in golf. The sport marked its return to the Quadrennial Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro since the 1904 Summer Olympics in Missouri, US.
One of those who skipped the Evian Championship in France was the Philippines’ Yuka Saso who wanted to make sure that she would be in top form and in good health when she takes her first crack at an Olympic gold.
The Philippines actually has a second entry in Bianca Pagdanganan who is hoping to end a not-so-stellar campaign this season.
The field is stacked with great talents.
There are the likes of Aussies Minjee Lee and Hannah Green, Thais Patty Tavatanakit and Ariya Jutanugarn, Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp of Canada, Great Britain’s Melissa Reid and Jodi
Shadoff, Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, Finland’s Mailda Castren, Germany’s Sophia Popov and Spain’s Carlota Ciganda.
Japanese Nasa Hataoka and Mone Inami will have the proverbial home-court advantage.
Iname has dominated the first half of this year’s LPGA of Japan Tour with five victories, giving her all the momentum and impetus to slug it out with the best.