LPGA Northwest Arkansas Championship

Suddenly, parity par for course

Stacy Lewis hasn’t won a professional tournament in three years, but she’ll get a chance to end that drought this weekend at the Northwest Arkansas Championship in Rogers. Coincidentally, Lewis’ last LPGA Tour victory was at the event in June 2014.
Stacy Lewis hasn’t won a professional tournament in three years, but she’ll get a chance to end that drought this weekend at the Northwest Arkansas Championship in Rogers. Coincidentally, Lewis’ last LPGA Tour victory was at the event in June 2014.

ROGERS -- Four different players had already won at least twice when the LPGA Tour made its 2016 stop at Pinnacle Country Club for the Northwest Arkansas Championship.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

Lydia Ko talks with her caddy before hitting from the 15th tee box Tuesday, June 20, 2017, during practice round for the Walmart NW Championship presented by P&G at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

Northwest Arkansas Championship

WHEN Today-Sunday

WHERE Pinnacle Country Club, Rogers

DEFENDING CHAMPION Lydia Ko

PURSE $2 million

WINNER'S SHARE $300,000

TICKETS $10

TV Golf Channel, today 5:30-7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 4-6 p.m.; Sunday, 4-6 p.m.

This year, there have been 15 LPGA events and 15 different winners.

Former Rolex World No. 1 players Lydia Ko and Stacy Lewis agree that parity has arrived on the LPGA Tour.

Ko has two victories since winning in record fashion last year at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

Lewis, meanwhile, is going through her longest slump since turning professional in 2008, having not won since June 2014 at the Northwest Arkansas Championship.

"I just think the level of play has gotten dramatically better," said Lewis, 32 and a four-time All-American at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. "It's very hard to dominate on this Tour. Everybody is so close together. Everybody hits it far, everybody seems to putt it pretty good, and there is nothing there's that's really separating anybody."

Lewis has been the world's top player twice for a combined 25 weeks, the last time coming in October 2014 before Inbee Park took over the top spot a second time.

Yani Tseng, the only two-time winner in the Northwest Arkansas Championship, had a 109-week run at No. 1 between 2011 and 2013. In her second stint in the top spot, Ko ran off an 85-week streak from the end of 2015 until Ariya Jutanugarn took it over June 12, leaving the 20-year-old New Zealander second.

"I just don't think you're going to see kind of what Yani did a few years ago where she was the dominant No. 1," said Lewis who is currently ranked 18th.

Ko became the youngest player on either the men's or women's tour to become No. 1 at 17 years, 9 months and 8-days old in February of 2015. Now 2o, Ko said the pressure to become the top player of the world might have affected her early on, but it's nothing she concerns herself with now.

"I think there was more pressure at the start when I was first No. 1," said Ko who won last year's tournament with a 17-under 196 for a three-stroke victory over Candie Kung and Morgan Pressel. "It was actually a little bit easier in the second stretch ... but the first time I think I didn't know what to do. It was like a dream-come-true moment.

"I think there was a bit more pressure then, but you start to not think about the ranking as much. The rankings, the awards, everything, those kind of come after the tournaments. So I started to not really think about it, but obviously I was proud to be in that position."

The Northwest Arkansas Championship is the sixth of 12 consecutive tournaments on the LPGA Tour. Past tournaments at Pinnacle Country Club have hosted nearly all of the top 20 players in the world, but this week only 12 of the top 20 will be teeing it up with the Women's PGA Championship looming next week in Olympia Fields, Ill.

Lewis finished tied for 22nd in last week's Meijer Classic in Michigan after taking the Manulife Classic in Ontario, Canada, the week before.

"I really think having the major next week, it does play into the field a little bit," Lewis said of missing some of this week's top players including Jutanugarn who won the Manulife. "Certain players like this golf course, certain players don't. You get some of that. I think it's a product of our schedule. Having more events is a great thing, but it affects your quality of the field."

Ko was tied for 10th in Michigan after taking the previous three weeks off.

"It was definitely nice to come back and play last week and have a pretty solid finish, so I think I'm coming in with some sort of good momentum. I know there's things for me to work on and get better at, but there's a lot of positives," Ko said. "This is is a great golf course. I think this course, you're not hitting drives off every tee and that's why sometimes you can be a bit more aggressive hitting as far as you can and giving yourself a shorter shot, or laying back and playing more in the smart, conservative way.

"Even if you're not so long off the tee, you can still create these opportunities by putting it in the right places. I think that's why you can see in the past it's not really suited for one type of player and I think that's great."

Sports on 06/23/2017

Upcoming Events