USA TODAY International Edition
Victories sparse for U. S. women
Americans preaching patience
If form holds, the Race for the CME Globe at the CME Group Tour Championship will be among three young women, two in their teens, from New Zealand, Thailand and Canada.
Asking where all the American LPGA professionals have gone remains a valid question. And no one can pinpoint why the Americans are struggling in the win column.
Prominent American golfers Stacy Lewis, Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer are winless entering the final event of the season starting Thursday at Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz- Carlton Golf Resort. Michelle Wie didn’t qualify. Lexi Thompson and Brittany Lang, who won the U. S. Women’s Open, are the only Americans to win on tour this year.
Veterans Dottie Pepper, a 17time LPGA winner and now a TV analyst, and 2017 Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster are concerned.
“The Americans have been out- focused, outdriven, and it’s showing up,” Pepper told the Associated Press. “Nobody wants to hear that, but all you have to do is look at the results.”
“It’s always great to have Americans winning, but in the overall concept of the LPGA Tour worldwide, I’m not sure it matters,” Inkster told the AP. “But for our TV ratings and fan base, the recent results have killed it.”
Several top Americans said this week to be patient. This is not a dumpster fire.
“Cut us some slack; Americans hold all four tour cups,” said U. S. Olympian Gerina Piller, citing the men’s Ryder and Presidents Cup and the Solheim and International Crown titles on the LPGA tour. “It’s not as bad as it looks. We were one of two countries with more than two players in the Olympics, and we played well on that huge stage. In the end, I understand to satisfy some people we’ll have to start winning more.”
Lang isn’t following any scrutiny of the Americans.
“I don’t pay attention to all that, but right now the rest of the world is pushing us, and that’s cool to see,” she said. “We do need more good young players; the Asian countries are producing a lot of strong players.”
Kerr, the defending champion of the CME Group Tour Championship, is adamant that the lack of American wins is a blip.
“Winning the Solheim Cup was a big thing for us, and things go in cycles,” Kerr said. “We’re outnumbered, and that’s what people seem to lose sight of a lot. It’s not just Korean players. There are Chinese players now, Taiwanese, Japanese. Golf has exploded over there in the last 10 years, and America has not caught up.”
Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn and South Korea’s Ha Na Jang and Sei Young Kim are in the top five in the Race for the CME Globe standings.
For the LPGA, given how the tour has embraced the global aspect of the game, the worldwide appeal has attracted significant sponsorship dollars and television revenue.
But on the flip side, the tour needs Americans to play well and win to help with U. S. television ratings and sponsorships.
Since the LPGA was formed in 1950, Americans have never failed to win fewer than four events in a season. Thompson’s win in Thailand and Lang’s U. S. Women’s Open title are the only two for American players this season.
Thompson is the lone U. S. player ranked in the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings at No. 5.
The 21- year- old also is the only American under 30 ranked in the Rolex top 25, and the women’s game is already much younger with an average age of 22.6 in the same category.
“Se Ri Pak woke up not only South Korea but all of Asia and in turn created a tour for us that we could not have envisioned in 1997,” LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said recently while in South Korea.