By RENALDO DORSETT
Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
THE best players in women’s golf will open their seasons here in the Bahamas as the fourth edition of the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic tees off today.
Hosted at the Ocean Club Golf Course on Paradise Island, Bahamas, 120 golfers, including the Bahamas’ Georgette Rolle, will vie for the title at the $1.4 million event.
Rolle will be paired in one of the last groups alongside Annie Park and Cheyenne Woods as they tee off at 12.37pm.
Rolle, a teaching professional in the Bahamas Golf Federation, played in the first two tournaments with the Bahamian exemption. She returned to the line-up after she lost her spot to Racquel Riley in 2015. The two were a group of four that played for the right to gain the exemption in a BGF playoff and Rolle emerged as the winner.
“One of my mentors gave me a tip. He told me when I tee off, don’t look at the players as the No.1 or No.2 golfers in the world, just see them as faceless, nameless people,” Rolle said. “So I think that gave me an extra calming factor too because it could be very intimidating playing against some of the world’s best.”
Woods, the niece of Tiger Woods, is in just her second year on the tour after she earned two-time All-American and three-time All-ACC honours at Wake Forest.
Park earned her LPGA Tour card in September 2015 after she won her third Symetra Tour title.
The tournament’s defending champion, Sei Young Kim of Seoul, South Korea, will tee off at 12:15pm in group 30. Winner of the 2015 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Award on the LPGA Tour, Kim has never defended a title. This will be her first of three in 2016, and she is looking forward to the challenge as she returns to the site of her breakthrough LPGA victory.
“I got a little pressure for defending champion first time, so just keep going,” Kim said yesterday at the Ocean Club. “Bahamas still very strong wind so I need to handle the wind. And I like the wind, I like to play in the wind because I like to play the tough conditions. I’m very grateful to be here and I am very excited. This is my first defending tournament. I didn’t practice in wind, I just understand wind and a whole lot of how to use wind. And my coach trained when you got strong wind, how to hit the ball and then that’s why I understand that easier than before.”
A five-time winner on the Korean LPGA Tour, Kim sank a 4-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to defeat Sun Young Yoo and Ariya Jutanugarn.
“I can say anywhere I see the view is awesome,” she said. “When I play the Ocean Course, every morning I walk on the beach because it’s good for me.”
Also paired with Kim is American Lexi Thompson, who is ranked No.4 in the world. She views the tournament as a positive note to begin her season as she looks to contend internationally and qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.
“Yeah, those are two of my top goals going in this year, especially the Olympics. Anytime I can represent my country that’s always my number one goal, to make it on that team. Just to be there and be able to say I’m an Olympian, quite an honour. But yeah, I’m really looking forward to it. Lot of golf to be played before that team is picked for both of them so hopefully I’ll be representing.”
American Stacy Lewis, ranked No. 3, said opening the season in the Bahamas has been a welcome change thus far. “I would like to open where it’s not so windy, but it’s also a lot warmer than Ocala, so there’s some good and bad to it,” she said. “I like that we’re close to home, we’re not flying 20 hours to get somewhere. It’s a good place to start.”
Lewis called the 2016 season an important year for the popularity of the LPGA Tour as more major events garner attention. “I mean, it’s an opportunity is really what it is. We got more TV coverage, more network coverage. We got the Olympics. It’s just some big events there where there’s a lot of exposure for the tour. Whether it turns out to be a positive or not, who knows,” she said. “For us it’s just going to be crazy busy. It’s going to be trying to maintain an energy level throughout the year and doing all that, but it’s one of those things, you know, you want to be there at International Crown, you want to be there playing the majors, you want to be there at the Olympics. There’s a good and bad to it, but you can’t really complain too much.”
Golf Channel is expected to provide 10 hours of live coverage beginning today from 11:30am to 2:30pm EST. Live second-round coverage on Friday, also is 11:30am to 2:30pm, while live coverage of the final two rounds Saturday and Sunday will air 3-5 pm EST. Admission is free to the public. For more tournament information, visit www.puresilkbahamasclassic.com
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