Sometimes it’s tough to keep up with the major championships on the LPGA Tour.
They change the names, they add one when you’re not looking.
This week marks the first major of the ladies’ season — the ANA Inspiration. Most of us know/remember it as the Dinah Shore or the Kraft/Nabisco but it is the one played at Rancho Mirage, Ca., and the one made famous by Dinah Shore, who lent her name and support when the LPGA needed it.
Today, the overwhelming favorite this week is a player who hasn’t reached her 19th birthday.
Lydia Ko shot rounds of 68-67-67-67 last week to win the Kia and she keeps reminding us that she is the best out there.
She won the final major of 2015, the Evian, “I don’t have to hear that anymore,” she said of the question: “When are you going to win a major.” It was never a question of “if” but “when” and now “when” has been taken care of.
Ko is the women’s world No. 1. She was the 2015 Player of the Year. She has 11 wins on the LPGA Tour, 16 world-wide and she won’t be 19 until April 24. She says world No. 2 Inbee Park keeps her on her game. “There’s always something you can get better at,” she said, even though she’s incredibly good at every facet of a difficult game. “Every week you can do a little better,” says the spunky teenager who looks way too calm as she goes about her business of winning tournaments.
Even last week when she was on her way to a four-shot win, she shot 67 despite double-hitting a putt at the 10th hole of the final round. “I said I need to play smart but also make some birdies,” she recalled, knowing that if she slipped, Park was right behind her. “Inbee doing Inbee things,” was how she described her accomplished rival.
The only question this week finds everyone wondering who can beat Ko if she throws her “A” game at the rest of the field.
The answer is most likely, no one.
