News

Why you should be watching the LPGA Tour in 2016

Published

10 years ago

Dec 15, 2015

The short answer is that players like Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Suzann Pettersen and Lexi Thompson, among others, make the LPGA Tour worth every second of attention you eventually decide to give it. In 2016, incidentally, LPGA Tour players will be playing a total of 34 events covering 12 different countries for over $63 million in prize money. Don’t sell these players or this tour short, as a whole, and give it a test drive in 2016 if you’re not following things already.

For those unfamiliar with the likes of top draws, such as Ko or Park, here is the truncated version: Ko earned just over $2.8 million in 2015 by posting 17 top-10 finishes, including five victories, one of which was her first professional major, The Evian Championship. At the tender age of 18, and based on that stellar year of golf, she became the youngest winner ever of the Rolex Player of Year Award. Park, on the other hand, at age 27 is presently playing the role of savvy veteran. An LPGA Hall of Fame member in-waiting and now armed with a putting stroke for the ages, Park turned professional at age 17 in 2006, and is a 17-time winner on the LPGA Tour, including seven professional major championships.

In 2015, Ko and Park notably battled neck-in-neck up to and including the last event on the LPGA Tour calendar, known as the CME Group Tour Championship. While neither player was victorious, finishing T7 and 6th, respectively, Ko was able to earn the Rolex Player of the Year Award as well as win the Race to CME Globe and LPGA Tour money list. Park ultimately captured the Vare Trophy (low stroke average) providing her with enough points to become eligible for the Hall of Fame after next season. The point being not only is the LPGA Tour highly competitive and global in terms of both players and venues, but it is smack dab in the middle of having a couple (if not more) Hall of Fame careers intersect, yet again, in 2016.

There’s no doubt that the battle for supremacy to be waged in 2016 between Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, and Rory McIlroy on the PGA Tour will be worth its weight in gold, but the same can be said for the LPGA Tour. With young players such as Ko, Thompson, Sei Young Kim, and Jessica Korda consistently fighting for victories against a backdrop of veterans like Park, Pettersen, Stacy Lewis, and Cristie Kerr for a record amount of total prize money in 2016, there is no better place to be for captivating professional golf than the LPGA Tour, especially if you lack appreciation for the current bomb-and-gouge trend on professional mens’ tours around the world. You only have until January 25th when the new season starts at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic to get up to speed on your new favorite players.

3 players to watch next year

Typically, this section would be dedicated to identifying players not so well-known, i.e., under the radar types, as potential impact golfers for the upcoming season. Annie Park, former USC Trojan and leading money winner on the Symetra Tour (feeder tour to the LPGA Tour; akin to the Web.com Tour) in 2015, would be just such a player. Despite another crop of promising young talent, like Annie Park, it is more compelling to hypothesize on how some existing LPGA Tour players might play in 2016. With that in mind, here are my LPGA Tour players to watch.

Stacy Lewis

Twitter

A former No. 1 ranked player in the world, Lewis, by all accounts, had a consistent year on the LPGA Tour in 2015 with 14 top-10 finishes and almost $1.9 million in total earnings. In fact, Lewis’ play protected her spot as the top-ranked American sitting at No. 3 in the current Rolex Rankings (despite a hard-charging Lexi Thompson) as well as earned her third place on the money list. Yet, as an 11-time LPGA Tour winner, including, the 2011 Kraft Nabisco Championship and 2013 Women’s British Open with 88 career top-10 finishes and over $10 million in earnings, Lewis had to be disappointed that she did not find the winner’s circle for the first time since 2010.

Plainly enough, Lewis’ expectations for 2016 will likely involve not only returning to the winner’s circle, but to the top of the Rolex Rankings, even if she has to go through Ko and Inbee Park to do it. Lewis has the skill-set, drive, and desire to achieve all of the above. Seemingly held back by an inconsistent putter this past season, if Lewis can find the groove that previously took her to world No. 1, you can certainly bet she will be in the mix once again for that coveted spot. Keep an eye out for an early win in 2016 by Lewis to set the tone for the year. The only variable, at this point, is Lewis recently became engaged and how changes to her personal life affect her golf, if at all, remains to be seen.

Sei Young Kim

Twitter

Kim is the reigning 2015 LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year, having won three times and posting 11 top-10 finishes in winning over $1.8 million in total earnings. Before earning status on the LPGA Tour through the 2014 qualifying school finals, Kim won five times on the LPGA of Korea Tour in 2013 and 2014. Presently, she’s ranked No. 7 in the Rolex rankings after finishing 4th on the LPGA Tour money list in 2015, Kim has already shown not only a knack for winning, but playing to win.

It will be interesting to see if Kim steps into 2016 looking to build on her incredible 2015 season and plays with the same fearlessness that brought her Rookie of the Year honors. Amongst a sea of incredible young talent like Ko, Thompson (20-years old), and Korda (22-years old) et al., Kim will need to keep pace by playing her best and closing the door on wins, just as she did this past season. Soon to be just 23-years old, Kim will inevitably be in thick of things throughout 2016 on the LPGA Tour.

Brooke Henderson

Twitter

Currently, ranked No. 18 in the Rolex Rankings, Henderson was a top-ranked amateur before turning professional in December 2014. At the age of 18, the Canadian has already amassed six professional wins, including the LPGA Tour’s Cambia Portland Classic by eight shots in August 2015 (at 17-years old). That winning margin was the largest on the LPGA Tour in 2015, made her the third youngest winner ever on the LPGA Tour, and made her only the third player to win before the age of 18 (Ko and Thompson being the other members of that prestigious trio). Upon winning in Portland, LPGA Tour commissioner Michael Whan granted Henderson immediate membership to the LPGA Tour as she was playing as a non-member. Notably, Henderson become only the second player ever to win an LPGA Tour event after having earned the right to play through a Monday qualifier.

Apart from demonstrating her ability to win and compete on the LPGA Tour throughout 2015 by virtue of, among other high finishes, top-5 finishes at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open, Henderson looks to join a somewhat select group of young guns headlined by Ko and Thompson in 2016. Evident by her steady progression from touted junior to amateur and now LPGA Tour professional, Henderson will inevitably be mixing it up late on Sunday trying to capture victory nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and beyond for the foreseeable future.

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19 Comments

Russell Platt

Dec 26, 2015 at 8:23 pm

I have been watching the LPGA more lately, to try and figure out how they hit the ball so long. There is no way I can ever be that flexible. I also agree about the clubs they use being closer to mine, except how strong their shafts are.

Reply Report comment
Martin

Dec 25, 2015 at 1:49 pm

I like to watch the LPGA, the game they play is a lot closer to mine than the guys.

Brooke Henderson will have a great year, Lydia Ko is great to watch as well.

Reply Report comment
Jafar

Dec 22, 2015 at 8:56 am

I think the title should be “What to watch” instead of “Why to watch”.

Reply Report comment
Steve Thomas

Dec 18, 2015 at 3:20 pm

I volunteer at the range every year at an LPGA event. Working the range is fantastic. The shifts is 12 hours long and it allows you to get up close to the players, listen to what they are working on by themselves or with their instructor. You can see what kinds of clubs they are playing, what shafts are in their clubs and the makeup of their bag. You also get a first hand look at the people who work for the Darrel survey. They walk up to the players bags and see what clubs they are actually playing with and then write it down in a notebook.
I find that with the exception of Suzzan Petterson every single LPGA player that I have personally been around is extremely nice and they go out of their way to sign autographs, pose for pictures or just talk to the fans, in particular the kids.
The incident she (Petterson) had at the Solheim Cup didn’t surprise me or the other volunteers I work with at all. When you are around her at a tournament, she is not friendly at all to the volunteers or fans and her language can be somewhat “R” rated or worse.
Working 12 hours at the range allows me to see what player really works on their game. Without question, the Asian players are at the range much longer than most of the American players with the exception of Michelle Wie. Michelle works extremely hard at her game. When I work that many hours, I see a lot of things and Michelle is the hardest working American during the week I work. Her parents are there too helping her with her game. We give them folding chairs and her parents sit and watch her hit balls or putt for hours.
Asian players for the most part don’t have any swing devices that help them with their game other than alignment sticks and most all of the LPGA players have the sticks.
If you have never been to an LPGA event, try it one time. Take the kids, especially if you have girls and you will have a really good time. Go on a practice day and a tournament day so you can see how they warm up, practice, and get prepared for the tournament. It’s very entertaining and educational.

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Park District Hacker

Dec 17, 2015 at 3:08 pm

I love the LegsPGA.

Seriously though, I think I watch the LPGA more than the PGA because my own game is similar to the ladies. My distances are similar to theirs and I carry the same type of clubs as them (lots of 4,5, & 6 hybrids on the LPGA tour). I think a lot of guys would improve by modeling their swings and course strategy after some of the talented ladies on the LPGA tour.

Reply Report comment
- Chuck
  
  Dec 18, 2015 at 10:06 pm
  
  Absolutely. The LPGA plays courses I can relate to. In some cases, they play very nice classic design courses that have been made obsolete for the Mens’ Tour by virtue of technology and distance. And yes, their distances and golf bags look more like my own, than like Jason Day’s or Dustin Johnson’s bags.
  
  I’m not kidding myself about compelling personalities; the LPGA is lacking, frankly. But I’d be very happy to see double the number of WITB posts for the ladies, because that’s information I am more likely to use.
  
  Reply Report comment
Tom

Dec 17, 2015 at 1:52 pm

I watch religiously. Damn good entertainment.

Reply Report comment
Bob

Dec 16, 2015 at 8:34 pm

Not knocking their golfing skills, but if you need to keep telling people they “should” watch something then there is a larger issue at hand.

Reply Report comment
- Jack
  
  Dec 17, 2015 at 1:11 am
  
  It’s just a thing with women’s sports. Not as many people watch it. They’re just trying to bring awareness to it, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You keep pretending that people are going to watch, and nothing happens. This is all part of marketing. That said, they really are very good players. Only difference is distance vs the PGA. And people tend to go for the most athletically impressive, and distance is usually more impressive than consistency and accuracy, since they just replay the good ones.
  
  Reply Report comment
Sean

Dec 16, 2015 at 2:53 pm

Megan Khang. Way, way under the radar. But her game will surprise many.

Reply Report comment
- LT
  
  Dec 17, 2015 at 10:38 am
  
  Definitely will keep an eye out for her, she did just turn pro.
  
  Reply Report comment
prime21

Dec 16, 2015 at 8:35 am

If your familiar w/ golf, I doubt your “unfamiliar with Ko or Park”. The golf channel relentlessly floods our television sets with their images in hopes of boosting ratings. Much like ESPN showing WNBA games, forcing anything upon an uninterested audience, simply doesn’t work. By definition, this article would be unnecessary if there was a sincere fan base, would it not? I don’t think I’ve seen the PGA version of this article yet, and for good reason, people DO care about that. I am fully aware that times have changed and by all means believe equality on every level is important. I am also quite capable of making up my own mind regarding what is considered entertainment as well as where my attention will be directed when prioritizing my free time. I was thinking that Ben would soon hear from the Golf Channel as they look for more writers to fill their expanding LPGA coverage, but then, as Mike points out above, he went and ruined the entire premise of his article by making a ridiculously sexist statement regarding the reasoning behind Stacy’s 2015 “slump”. You can’t force fans, Ben, just like you can’t force sincerity.

Reply Report comment
- Jack
  
  Dec 17, 2015 at 1:14 am
  
  Actually he’s predicting some issues in 2016, not explaining 2015. Doesn’t make it better (who talks about getting engaged affecting any of the guys? Is Rory expect to struggle because he just got engaged too?). That said Aaron Rodgers caught slack and they’re blaming Olivia Munn for the Packers sucking.
  
  Reply Report comment
PhilUp

Dec 15, 2015 at 2:17 pm

I look forward to more coverage of Paige Spiranac.

Reply Report comment
Midwest Blade

Dec 15, 2015 at 1:10 pm

The best thing about watching the LPGA is that the top Ladies definitely play in a lot more events therefore you generally get to see a fair amount of the top players playing just about every tournament week. Probably has something to do with the purse size. In comparison the top men on the PGA do not have to tee up nearly so often with the giant purses available. I give the ladies full credit for the support they show to most all of their tour events.

Reply Report comment
Greg V

Dec 15, 2015 at 12:40 pm

In Gee Chun had a pretty good year – US Open, Japan Open, World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup. I hope that we see more of her this year. She is very good.

Reply Report comment
L

Dec 15, 2015 at 12:07 pm

I already do watch the LegsPGA, I meant LovelyPGA, no I meant…….

Reply Report comment
Mike

Dec 15, 2015 at 11:08 am

“The only variable, at this point, is Lewis recently became engaged and how changes to her personal life affect her golf, if at all, remains to be seen.”

You have to be kidding me, right? Is it 1955?

Reply Report comment
- Comp
  
  Dec 15, 2015 at 11:57 am
  
  No but it could be 2008 and comparisons to Eldrick Woods must be made.
  
  Reply Report comment

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News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

3 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Why do we use it?

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

2 days ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
Sahith Theegala +15500
Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
Chris Gabriele +500000
Braden Shattuck +500000
Ben Polland +500000
Ben Kern +50000

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.