UP THERE SWINGIN'
LPGA aiming for next level
There is promise here, and the goal is to make people realize that.
The game of women’s golf is very healthy, and all one needed to do was glance at the leaderboard of the Women’s PGA Championship heading into the third round of the major championship at Westchester Country Club on Saturday.
All within three shots of the lead were the veteran names of Karrie Webb and Cristie Kerr; players in the prime of their careers in Stacy Lewis and Suzann Pettersen; and, most interestingly, there were the young guns of 17yearold Canadian Brooke Henderson, English 19yearold Charley Hull, and the 6foot, 20yearold American Lexi Thompson.
“I love just the variety of people we have on the leaderboard,” Lewis said after her secondround 71, putting her at 5under for the tournament and three shots behind the secondround leader, Sei Young Kim of Korea. “You’ve got Karrie who is 40 and then you’ve got a bunch of 17yearolds chasing her — and I’m somewhere in the middle. It’s pretty cool to see just how the game of golf is ageless, really. We’ll see if experience hopefully plays out for myself and Karrie on the weekend.”
Lewis, 30, is probably the best of American hopefuls, even if her game isn’t exactly where she wants it. With a win and some other permutations of how the field finishes, Lewis could retake the No. 1 spot in the Rolex World Rankings, usurping the title from 18yearold Lydia Ko, who missed the cut for the first time in any tournament in her budding career, which already contains seven wins, yet no majors.
Lewis last held the top ranking in October 2014, and she has two major championships to her name — the 2011 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now called the ANA Inspiration) and 2013 Women’s British Open.
But the women’s game has gotten younger and younger, and the incredible play of Ko over the past year — especially in racking up the victories — has inspired the younger players to know they can do more than just compete, but they can win.
“Lydia kind of changed everything,” Lewis said. “She changed the way I think Brooke and Charley even think. They are like, ‘Wow, I’m two years older than Lydia was when she won her first tournament.’ It’s impressive. But Lydia kind of set the bar pretty high.”
Henderson has made quite an impression through the first two rounds of this tournament, with her succinct swing and deft short game.
“It’s really exciting seeing my name up there with Stacy Lewis and Karrie Webb and all the big names,” Henderson said. “It’s awesome. I think I just have to stay patient, stay consistent and keep working on my game and I think good things will happen.”
But if good things keep happening and a good story like the 17yearold like Henderson wins, will anyone notice or care?
That’s really the question the LPGA is trying to answer in the affirmative. The tour has changed exponentially for the better since smart and creative commissioner Michael Whan took over in 2010. He has added tournaments and added prize money, and this tournament is a prime example.
With the help of Lewis, Whan brought in accounting giant KPMG as a title sponsor here — also a major sponsor of Lewis’ — and added national television coverage on Golf Channel and, more importantly, NBC on the weekend. It’s now joins the U.S. Women’s Open as the two tournaments broadcast on national television.
Whan also smartly reached out to the PGA of America, who govern all of the teaching pros in the country as well as the men’s major, the PGA Championship, along with as the hugely popular international team competition, the Ryder Cup. This tournament was rebranded, changing the name from the LPGA Championship, and the purse has gone from $2.25 million last year to $3.5 million.
Then there is the golf course, too, with Westchester being a bigtime venue that held important men’s tournaments for the past 50 years.
“I think the most important thing is we’re on a hard golf course,” Lewis said, “and on a golf course like this, your best players are going to rise to the top.”
There are still some roadblocks to popularity, as Kim, the leader, speaks very limited English. Michelle Wie, the one woman’s player most casual golf fans know, won her first major at last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst, but is struggling with injuries again and has seemingly become buried in technical theory with longtime coach David Leadbetter.
But there are many positives going for the women’s game, and the hope of those involved is recognition of that fact is coming.
“Being on NBC this weekend is going to be huge for us, and the best part is we’ve got our best players playing well,” Lewis said. “So you really couldn’t ask for more. But the golf course really sets up to have a leaderboard like we have.”