STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS
By Steve Keating
(Reuters) – When girls’s golf crowns its first main winner of the season on Sunday on the Chevron Championship it is not going to make the identical splash it as soon as did.
The sight of winners celebrating with a joyful leap into Poppies Pond off the 18th inexperienced was one among girls golf’s most recognisable traditions however a transfer from its longtime dwelling of Mission Hills Nation Membership in Palm Springs to The Membership at Carlton Woods close to Houston has successfully ended the ritual.
In a nod to the previous, a small picket dock has been constructed into the murky lake that traces the par-five ending gap at Woodland Hills and the standard gown and slippers can be ready however gamers have been non-committal about taking a plunge.
“I am not likely positive,” stated defending Chevron champion Jennifer Kupcho. “I feel there is likely to be snakes within the water right here, so is likely to be slightly fascinating.”
Whereas a dock might be rapidly constructed, it takes years to construct traditions and barely are they transferable.
However world primary Lydia Ko of New Zealand gave the LPGA and new sponsor Chevron credit score for acknowledging the game’s historical past and in some small method honouring the event’s previous.
“I feel they’re very respectful and understanding of all of the historical past that we have had,” stated Ko.
“For them to be understanding of how individuals bear in mind this championship and having the leap to Poppies Pond and for them to type of convey that again and provides gamers alternatives to try this I feel is absolutely cool.”
ELITE FIELD
The primary of the season’s 5 majors has attracted an elite discipline that features the world’s prime 20 ranked gamers, together with Ko, who received her second and final main on the Chevron in 2016, quantity two American Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Nelly Korda and South Korean Ko Jin-Younger, the 2019 champion.
Kupcho is again to defend her crown together with all of final season’s main champions Minjee Lee (U.S. Ladies’s Open), In Gee Chun (Ladies’s PGA Championship), Brooke Henderson (Evian Championship), and Ashleigh Buhai (Ladies’s British Open).
The sector additionally consists of the winners of the primary six occasions this 12 months received by girls from six totally different international locations
Canada’s Henderson captured the LPGA Tour’s opening occasion and was adopted to the winner’s circle by American Lilia Vu, South Korea’s Ko Jin-young, Frenchwoman Celine Boutier, China’s Yin Ruoning and LPGA Tour rookie Australian Grace Kim, who arrives in Texas driving the second from taking her maiden title final week on the LOTTE Championship.
When play will get underway with the opening spherical on Thursday on the Jack Nicklaus designed structure the highlight is not going to wander removed from Ko and Korda.
After lacking final 12 months’s Chevron on account of damage, Korda is again to full health with 4 finishes inside the highest six in 5 begins this season, together with runner-up eventually month’s HSBC World Championship.
A win on Sunday would give Ko the 2 factors she must develop into the youngest participant to qualify for the LPGA Corridor of Fame.
“It might be fairly cool to get it achieved within the first main of the 12 months and be within the Corridor of Fame, however that is not what’s essential to me,” stated Ko. “For me I simply need to have an excellent week.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, Modifying by Ed Osmond)