Something’s up on the LPGA Tour this season. Were it their male PGA Tour counterparts, it would be easy to categorize: machismo, testosterone, wildly raging egos.
With the women, the truth probably lies somewhere in between fierce pride and an episode of “As the World Turns.”
Paula is being lumped with Michelle and Morgan, but would rather be compared to Annika. Lorie and Christina are shedding pounds faster than a Hollywood starlet, just so Ai doesn’t get all the attention. Meanwhile, grand dame Juli knows the true meaning of the brand-spanking-new endorsement logo on her golf bag.
“Somebody must think the old broad can still play,” Juli Inkster cracked shortly before winning her first tournament in almost three years, the recent Safeway International. The truth is, these days on the LPGA Tour, almost everybody can.
As it heads into its first major of the year, this week’s Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., a circuit that in recent seasons has been labeled as Annika Sorenstam & Co. or, even more pejoratively, dismissed as an unappealing band of foreign-born players, is now filled with an embarrassment of riches.
Sorenstam, the world’s top player, is just 22 victories from setting the all-time record for wins and is in fine form, but far from a solo act.
“We’ve got some great young players, but more importantly, we’ve got veterans who are taking their games quite seriously and are still very competitive,” Lorie Kane said. “When you put the two together, you’ve got a product that’s probably the best it’s ever been.”
Adds Christina Kim, another of the LPGA’s burgeoning wave of talent: “The clothing’s getting much better, the play is getting much better, everything is getting a little more flashy, a little more sexy. It’s something that we need.”
Much of the attention entering the season focused on the tour’s youth movement.
Paula Creamer, last season’s rookie of the year, is only 19. One of the favorites for this year’s title is Morgan Pressel, 17. The 2005 United States Women’s Amateur champion, Pressel successfully petitioned the LPGA to waive its age requirement for members (18). The fact she finished sixth in the LPGA’s qualifying school in December and was one miraculous Birdie Kim bunker shot from winning last summer’s U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills Country Club was a pretty compelling argument.
Another precocious performer, Michelle Wie, didn’t even bother to ask for permission. When the long-hitting, 16-year-old Hawaiian turned pro last November, she demurred from seeking LPGA status, giving her the flexibility to play both women’s and men’s events. Wie will be at the Nabisco, her second LPGA event of the year.
The winner at Q-school, by a record 12 shots, was Ai Miyazato. Already a legend in her native Japan, with 12 victories on that country’s tour, Miyazato’s every move in this country has been chronicled by a press corps that routinely numbers in the 50s.
Miyazato is said to trail only a pair of baseball players, Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees’ Hideki Matsui, in the nation’s sporting consciousness. She is only 20.
“I used to take pride in being one of the youngest players on tour,” said Christina Kim, 22, a two-time tour winner who lost 25 pounds in the offseason. “The tour’s gotten so much younger in the last five months. We’ve gone from Paula and Brittany (Lincicome), who were 18 last year, to, ‘You can’t drive yet?”‘
Kane, 41, was another player who had a big offseason, dropping 30 pounds and admitting it was a direct response to, and an attempt to better compete with, the swell of youthful figures on tour. That’s just one way, she said, that the younger set has helped improve the LPGA’s appeal.
“It’s so new and exciting to see fresh faces, but the thing is they’re fresh American faces, which we haven’t had in a number of years,” she said. “Even though we have a very strong contingent of Asian players, particularly the Koreans, the hype is still when Michelle Wie shows up for a tournament, or Morgan, or Paula and Natalie (Gulbis), and they’re Americans.
“We’re a U.S.-based tour; we’ve missed that over the last few years. But we’ve got it now, and I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon.”
Creamer is certainly the most accomplished of the cherubs, winning twice last season on the LPGA Tour and twice more in Japan. While she said she’s OK with all the talk of the tour’s “young guns,” she makes it very clear that she’s reaching for a far loftier perch.
“I compare myself to Annika. I feel that’s who I should be compared with,” said Creamer, who is generally regarded as the game’s second-best player.
That’s not to say Creamer is on the verge of taking over the top spot. While Creamer is hoping to win one major championship this year, Sorenstam’s goal is to win all four.
That was the case last season, when the Swede won the Nabisco and LPGA Championship before stumbling at Cherry Hills, finishing in a tie for 23rd.
“I know how to win them, I’ve just got to be able to do it in one year,” Sorenstam said of the Grand Slam.
Sorenstam joked recently that all the attention being given to the youngsters might allow her “to play under the radar this year.” The truth is Sorenstam is arguably the most competitive player on tour, and like her friend Tiger Woods is quick to take whatever motivation she can find in order to succeed.
When Wie made her much-ballyhooed professional debut at last year’s Samsung World Championship, it was Sorenstam who won the tournament – beating Creamer in the process – by eight shots.
“They’re getting a lot of attention,” Sorenstam said of the kiddie corps. “I don’t mind sharing the spotlight.”
Sorenstam quickly added, “A little bit.”
After all, it’s a matter of pride.
What to watch
Denver Post golf writer Anthony Cotton looks at the top story lines on the LPGA Tour this season:
THE COMMISSIONER
Commissioner Carolyn Bivens is in something of a tricky spot, inheriting a tour on a decidedly upward slope while trying to make her own mark. While an unquestioned dynamo, things have not gone smoothly for her. There have been numerous changes among LPGA executive personnel, and a snafu at the start of the year with media organizations over who owns rights to photos and stories could have been disastrous. However, much of the rank and file adore Bivens, and the rest are at least willing to give her a full year to see how everything plays out.
THE WORLD RANKINGS
Another trouble area for the tour came last month when the first set of world rankings was released with 16-year-old Michelle Wie at No. 3 and a pair of Japanese players without any LPGA credentials, Yuri Fudoh and Ai Miyazato, at Nos. 4 and 6, respectively.
“I do think they need to be tweaked a bit,” said Annika Sorenstam, the world’s No. 1 player.
The problem stems from the number of events a player needs to play in order to be ranked. The current number is 15 tournaments over two seasons. Look for the number to be raised, perhaps as early as this week.
THE POINTS CHASE
While the PGA Tour is struggling to iron out the details for its revamped year-long points race in 2007, the LPGA has already embarked on a superior system. The 2006 “regular season” will be split into halves, with players amassing points from each tournament. Fifteen players from each segment, along with two wild cards, will qualify for the season-ending playoffs. Once there, the 32-player field will be cut by lowest scores to 16 players over two days, then eight after the third round. On the final day the remaining players will compete, with the player with the low score that day winning $1 million.
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
