As many of you might recall a number of months ago I posted my first article titled “As the LPGA World Turns.” My intention was to keep everyone up to date on the news, events, and stats of the LPGA Tour. It turned out to be very popular, so I decided to continue it here.
New LPGA Commissioner Announced
As most of you probably know by now, the LPGA will have a new Commissioner. The Board of Directors of the LPGA unanimously elected Molly Marcoux Samaan as its next Commissioner. Marcoux Samaan, currently Ford Family Director of Athletics at Princeton University, will become the ninth Commissioner of the LPGA since its formation in 1950. She will succeed Commissioner Mike Whan who notified the LPGA Board late last year of his intent to step down in 2021. Whan was recently announced as the next Chief Executive Officer of the USGA.
The Latest LPGA Priority List Movements
On another note, the LPGA had its first Priority List reshuffle a couple of weeks ago. The Priority List is used to fill the required amount of spots for any given tournament. Without getting into the categories, which can be confusing, here is a brief explanation. Most full field events have a field of 144 players. Usually 140 of the players come from the Priority List ranking. Two players are Monday qualifiers, and 2 more are sponsor exemptions. So to keep it simple, if your Priority Rating is #150, you have to hope that 10 players decide not to play, or you are probably not getting into the field.
Most players just moved up or down a few spots and are not worth mentioning. On the other hand there were some players that had their chances of playing in the upcoming tournaments significantly improved or reduced.
Here are the players that have improved their status the most and will be seeing much more action:
- Christina Kim moved from 153 to 104
- Marissa Steen – 159-105
- Mina Haragae – 149-135
- Luna Sobron Galmes – 362-137
- Matilda Castren – 155 – 140
- Esther Henselet – 163-141
- Klara Spilkova – 168-142
- Alison Lee – 176-143
- Kristy McPherson – 373-144
- Ruixin Liu – 179-146
- Ana Belac – 367-147
The following players are not guaranteed to play in all full field events, but have a much better chance than before the reshuffle:
- Paula Reto – 419-150
- Andrea Lee – 162-152
- Brianna Do – 161-153
- Min Lee – 167-155
- Dottie Ardina – 360-156
- Lauren Coughlin – 173-157
- Bianca Pagdanganon – 169-160
- Kyung Kim – 171-161
- Janie Jackson – 370-165
The following players got hurt the most and will be seeing a reduction in playing time or won’t be playing at all:
- Haley Moore – 144-154
- Jiwon Jeon – 148-158
- Liz Nagel – 146-163
- Emma Talley – 135-166
- Alana Uriel – 145-167
- Jaclyn Lee – 133-168
- Maia Schecter – 151-169
- Lauren Kim – 137-179
- Jackie Stoelting – 134-180
- Katherine Perry – 142-181
- Suzuka Yamaguchi – 147-182
- Linnea Johannson – 157-181
- Kim Kaufman – 160-185
Other Interesting Notes:
- Jasmine Suwannapura is the only player to play in all 13 tournaments this year.
- Anna Nordqvist has made 29 consecutive cuts.
- There have been 13 different winners in the 13 LPGA tournaments played this year.
- There have been four first time winners on the LPGA tour this year (Patty Tavatanakit, Wei-Ling Hsu, Yuka Saso, Matilda Castren).
There have been winners from eight different countries:
- United States (4) – (Nelly Korda, Jessica Korda, Austin Ernst, Ally Ewing)
- Thailand (2) – (Patty Tavatanakit, Ariya Jutanugarn)
- Republic of Korea (2) – (Inbee Park, Hyo-Joo Kim)
- New Zealand (1) – (Lydia Ko)
- Canada (1) – (Brooke Henderson)
- Chinese Taipei (1) – (Wei-Ling Hsu)
- Phillippines (1) – (Yuka Saso)
- Finland (1) – Matilda Castren
Feature Photo: Brooke Henderson at the 2019 CME Group Tour Championship. All photos by our LPGA Tour photographer, Ben Harpring.
