Best of 2017: LPGA

Park already had 10 wins on the LPGA of Korea Tour before she began her rookie season in the U.S. By the time the 2017 schedule was over, she had won the U.S. Women’s Open, risen to No. 1 in the rankings and clinched the Rookie of the Year Award. When she was named co-winner (with So Yeon Ryu) of the Player of the Year Award, she became the first player since Nancy Lopez in 1978 to win the ROY and POY awards in the same season.

Lexi Thompson appeared to be on her way to winning the ANA Inspiration, two shots ahead as she walked to the 13th tee on Sunday. That’s when everything changed. Thompson was informed that, as a result of an email by a TV viewer, she was being penalized two strokes for incorrectly marking her ball on the 17th green on Saturday, and was being hit for another two strokes for subsequently signing an incorrect scorecard. Thompson was shaken, but regained her composure enough to get into a playoff with So Yeon Ryu, which she lost on the first extra hole.

A 2-foot putt. That’s all Lexi Thompson had left on the final hole of the CME Group Tour Championship. Make it, and she likely would have won the season-ending tournament (Ariya Jutanugarn would have needed a closing birdie to force a playoff), which would have given her enough points to wrap up the Player of the Year Award. And she would have risen to No. 1 in the world for the first time. Shockingly, Thompson missed. She still ended up winning the Race to the CME Globe (and its $1 million bonus) and the Vare Trophy for low scoring average, but that short miss cost her plenty.

It was a year of change for Lydia Ko. The New Zealander changed swing coaches, caddies and equipment. But the biggest change? No wins, after seasons of three, five and four triumphs. Once ranked No. 1 in the world, Ko has fallen to No. 9. Whether she can return to the winner’s circle will be one of the biggest stories of 2018.

That South Koreans dominated the LPGA was not news. But the extent of their domination was. Eleven different South Korean players won a total of 15 events, matching the record set in 2015. Those 15 wins included three majors, which were won by So Yeon Ryu (ANA Inspiration), Sung Hyun Park (U.S. Women’s Open) and I.K. Kim (Ricoh Women’s British Open). Kim (pictured) led the way with three wins.

The U.S. blanked Europe, 4-0, in the Day 1 afternoon fourballs, the first time the Americans had swept a session in Solheim Cup history, and went into the singles with a 10 ½-to-5 ½ lead. Needing only 3 ½ points to retain the cup, the U.S. halved the singles session for a 16 ½-to-11 ½ win. Cristie Kerr led the way for captain Juli Inkster’s team, going 3-0-1 for 3 ½ points.

It’s not often a tournament winner – let alone a major championship winner, gets lost because of another, more compelling story about another player in the field, but that’s what happened to So Yeon Ryu. Lexi Thompson bounced back from her controversial penalty to get into a playoff. Her opponent: So Yeon Ryu. Ryu birdied the first extra hole to capture her second major title (she also won the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open). In June Ryu won her second event of the year and ascended to the world No. 1 ranking. At the end of the year she was no longer No. 1, but she was the co-Player of the Year with new No. 1 Sung Hyun Park.

In an up-and-down year, Michelle Wie was mostly up. Despite missing six weeks after undergoing emergency appendectomy surgery, Wie made the cut in a career-high 20 events (out of 24 starts) and earned $930,575, second only to the $1,924,796 she took home in 2014, the year she won the U.S. Women’s Open. The only thing missing from her resume was a victory.

After a career that saw her amass 18 wins, including four majors, Meg Mallon was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In addition to her individual accomplishments (which included winning two U.S. Women’s Opens), Mallon played on eight Solheim Cup teams and was captain of the 2013 squad.

Joining Meg Mallon as former LPGA players inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame was Lorena Ochoa of Mexico. Ochoa’s LPGA career was short but meteoric. In a mere seven years she won 27 times, including two majors, and spent 158 consecutive weeks ranked No. 1.

Former world No. 1 Lewis had gone three years and 82 starts without a victory until she won the Cambia Portland Classic in November. Before the tournament began she had said she would donate her winnings to relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey, which had devastated Houston, where she grew up. With her win, that amounted to $195,000 .

For the second year in a row, Brooke Henderson was a two-time winner. In June she outdistanced Lexi Thompson and Michelle Wie by two shots to win the Meijer LPGA Classic, and in October she cruised to a five-shot win in the McKayson New Zealand Women’s Open. With five career wins, Henderson, 20, trails only the legendary Sandra Post (eight) among Canadians.

Who could forget I.K. Kim’s 14-inch miss on the final hole of regulation in the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship. Instead of celebrating her first major, Kim went into a playoff with Sun-Young Yoo, which Yoo won. In 2017 Kim finally captured that elusive major, winning the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Cristie Kerr was just a few days shy of her 40th birthday when she won the LaCoste Ladies Open in France. She has said that one of her goals is to keep winning into her 40s, but that wasn’t the foremost thought in her mind at the time. Kerr, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor, said she played with two cancer victims in mind. “I’m sorry,” she told reporters after winning, “but f--- cancer. I’m so sorry to say the F-word, but I’m so sick of people losing people to cancer.” Oh, and that part about wanting to win into her 40s? She did that, too, capturing the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia three weeks later.

The first player from China to become a member of the LPGA, win a tournament and win a major, “Jenny Money” (her American nickname of choice) in November became the first player from China to rise to the No. 1 world ranking. In all she won three times in 2017, joining I.K. Kim as the year’s only three-time winners.

It was truly an up-and-down year – make that up and down and up again – for Ariya Jutanugarn. The first Thai player ever to win an LPGA event had top-10 finishes in nine of her first 13 starts, culminating with a win in the Manulife LPGA Classic in June. That elevated her to the No. 1 world ranking. After that, however, she went into a bit of a tailspin, with five missed cuts and a WD in her next eight events. She gradually turned her game around, putting an exclamation point on her season by winning the CME Group Tour Championship.

The LPGA said goodbye to one of its most accomplished caddies when Greg Sheridan died of cancer on Nov. 22 at age 63. Sheridan had been on the bag for Kathy Whitworth’s record 88th (and last) LPGA win. He had carried for Hall of Famer Beth Daniel at the height of her career. More recently, he was Natalie Gulbis’ regular caddie. A tweet by fellow caddie Matthew Galloway summed up Sheridan’s place in the game. “Best Greg story,” Galloway tweeted, “coming up 18 at [the LPGA Founders Cup], all the founders were in their chairs. Greg goes, `Yep, caddied for her, her and her.’ Legend.”

With back-to-back U.S. Women’s Amateur titles to her credit, Danielle Kang was an eagerly awaited addition to the LPGA after she gained conditional status from her performance at the 2011 Q-School. But in five years she went winless, with only one top-3 finish in 122 starts. Then came the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Tied with Chella Choi after 54 holes at Olympia Fields, Kang closed with a 68 to edge Brooke Henderson by one stroke.