As Tiger Woods prepares to do golfing battle with his ex-caddie’s new man, Adam Scott, at the Presidents Cup exhibition in Australia, there’s another heavyweight tilt shaping up halfway around the world, and this one actually means something.
Beginning Thursday, world No. 1 Yani Tseng and burgeoning teen star Lexi Thompson will tee it up in the CME Group Titleholders tourney in Orlando, Fla., the final event on the LPGA’s slim 2011 calendar. Tseng, who has absolutely crushed women’s golf this year with 11 worldwide wins, including two majors, rewrote the record books when she became, at 22, the youngest golfer ever to win five major titles. Thompson, 16, has already made her own history, becoming the youngest victor of any LPGA event, thanks to her five-stroke Navistar LPGA Classic win in September.
“It was a great week for me, it has always been my dream to win on the LPGA and play full-time at that,” Thompson, the star last year’s Curtis Cup at Massachusetts’ Essex County Club, told reporters prior to this week’s competition. “Having my dad on the bag that week, sharing the experience with me was everything I could ask for. Just everything went well for me that week, my putting came through, I worked so hard those few weeks before that tournament, everything just came together.”
Along with 57 others, the two headliners will take to Grand Cypress Resort — unfortunately for the viewing audience, in different groups — in hopes of cashing the winning $500,000 pay check of the id=”mce_marker”.5 million finale. The top-three players in each of the previous 22 events qualified for the Titleholders, although Juli Inkster withdrew with an elbow injury and six golfers, including No. 6 Jiyai Shin and U.S. Women’s Open champ So Yeon Ryu, did not commit to play.
For sure, all eyes will be on Tseng and Thompson. Going for her eighth tour win of the year, Tseng will receive her second consecutive Player of the
As Tiger Woods prepares to do golfing battle with his ex-caddie’s new man, Adam Scott, at the Presidents Cup exhibition in Australia, there’s another heavyweight tilt shaping up halfway around the world, and this one actually means something.
Beginning Thursday, world No. 1 Yani Tseng and burgeoning teen star Lexi Thompson will tee it up in the CME Group Titleholders tourney in Orlando, Fla., the final event on the LPGA’s slim 2011 calendar. Tseng, who has absolutely crushed women’s golf this year with 11 worldwide wins, including two majors, rewrote the record books when she became, at 22, the youngest golfer ever to win five major titles. Thompson, 16, has already made her own history, becoming the youngest victor of any LPGA event, thanks to her five-stroke Navistar LPGA Classic win in September.
Along with 57 others, the two headliners will take to Grand Cypress Resort — unfortunately for the viewing audience, in different groups — in hopes of cashing the winning $500,000 pay check of the id=”mce_marker”.5 million finale. The top-three players in each of the previous 22 events qualified for the Titleholders, although Juli Inkster withdrew with an elbow injury and six golfers, including No. 6 Jiyai Shin and U.S. Women’s Open champ So Yeon Ryu, did not commit to play.
For sure, all eyes will be on Tseng and Thompson. Going for her eighth tour win of the year, Tseng will receive her second consecutive Player of the Year award during the event. With 40 rounds in the 60s so far this season, Tseng is also the favorite to take honors for the lowest season scoring average (69.56 strokes per round in 21 contests). Na Yeon Choi is chasing the front-runner, with a scoring average of 70.54 in 20 events.
While the star attractions won’t play together to start, their groupings should garner interest as well. Thompson will join music video star Tiffany Joh, as she did in the final round of the Navistar, and Guilia Sergas. Tseng will play alongside fan fave Michelle Wie and seven-time major champion Karrie Webb. In other notable groups, two-time 2011 winner Brittany Lincicome will stalk the fairways with 2010 U.S. Women’s Open winner Paula Creamer and world No. 3 Cristie Kerr, second-ranked Suzann Pettersen will go out with Maria Hjorth and Song Hee Kim, and top Solheim Cup point-getter and LPGA rookie Ryann O’Toole will join Vickie Hurst and Hee Young Park.
This week’s event, by the way, takes its name from a women’s tourney played between 1937 and 1966 and again in 1972. Past winners include LPGA rounders Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, and Baba Zaharias.
Golf fans may catch the action on Golf Channel:
- Thursday, November 17 — 1:30 p.m.-4 p.m. EST
- Friday — 12:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
- Saturday and Sunday — 1:30 p.m.-4 p.m.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Read all her articles here. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
Related posts:
- Lexi Thompson takes early lead at LPGA Classic
- Tseng shares lead at 2010 Women
- Lexi Thompson to make 2011 LPGA debut at Avnet LPGA Classic
- Tseng aims for fifth 2011 win at LPGA
- Curtis Cup teammates lead the way at Navistar LPGA Classic
