LDN - Sports

Park, world's new No. 1, heads field at Blue Bay LPGA

[November 08, 2017] By Steve Habel, The Sports Xchange

Last year at this time, South Korea's Sung Hyun Park was dominating the Korea LPGA Tour, one of the world's true proving grounds for the best women golfers on the planet.

Park is now the top-ranked female player on Earth, having overtaken countrywomen So Yeon Ryu for that spot this week, and will headline a stellar field of 81 golfers in competition beginning Wednesday at the Blue Bay LPGA tournament on Hainan Island in China.

Sixty-six LPGA Tour players will be joined by 15 golfers from the China LPGA in search of a portion of the $2.1 million total purse, with $315,000 and 500 Race to the CME Globe points going to the winner of the 72-hole event at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Club.

Hainan Island is set in the South China Sea between Vietnam to the west and the Philippines to the east. Rain and overcast conditions with temperatures in the upper 70s are forecast for the tournament, which enjoys the Tour's only Wednesday-Saturday schedule.

The roster of players this week includes five of the top 10 players in the world, highlighted by a trio of major champions in Park, world No. 3 Shanshan Feng of China and fifth-ranked Anna Nordqvist of Sweden.

Rounding out the top 10 in the field are No. 7 In-Kyung Kim of South Korea, who is returning to Blue Bay for the first time since 2014, and No. 9 Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand, who finished third in this event last season.

"This year is going to be really tough because the course is going to be wet and the weather is going to be pretty hard for us," Jutanugarn said. "I just really want to go out and enjoy myself and have fun on the course.

Park is in the hunt for her third win of the season as she makes her first appearance at Blue Bay.

The news of Park's jump to the top of the world rankings came one day short of one year after she held a press conference to announce she would take up membership on the LPGA Tour. When she made that announcement, Park was the 10th-ranked player in the world.

"I was very surprised and amazed by what I've achieved," Park told LPGA.com about her performance this season "The ultimate goal of my career was to join the LPGA. I dreamt of playing side by side with global golf stars and didn't want to miss the opportunity when it eventually arrived."

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Park has won twice, so far, on the LPGA Tour, including her first major at the U.S. Women's Open, which she considers her biggest achievement of the year.

Park has already locked up Rookie of the Year honors and currently owns the second-lowest scoring average on Tour. She's ranked second in the Player of the Year standings. And she is now in position to do what just one other player has done in the history of the LPGA Tour.

Nancy Lopez is the only player to earn both Rookie and Player of the Year honors in a single season. That was in 1978.

"I think everybody knows it's really difficult to not only become the No. 1 but to maintain that status moving forward," Park said. "So, we'll just have to keep going and doing my best."

Seven of this season's winners are in the field this week, including Mi Hyang Lee of South Korea, winner at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open, who is coming off a tie for fifth last week in Japan, and Volunteers of America Texas Shootout champ Haru Nomura of Japan.

Defending champion Minjee Lee would love nothing more than to cap off this season with a win. Lee picked up her third career win and second victory of 2016 at last year's Blue Bay LPGA where she carded an opening-round 65 to take early control of the Tournament.

This is the fourth year for the Blue Bay LPGA, and this tournament is the penultimate event on the LPGA Tour schedule. The season wraps up Nov. 16-19 at the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla.

This week marks the 32nd event of what has been an exciting 2017 campaign that has seen two Rolex First-Time Winners along with 22 different tournament winners.

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