When the LPGA headed into Naples, Florida last week the stage was set for the most exciting finish of the year.
With the top three players in the world, Inbee Park, Stacy Lewis and Lydia Ko grouped together and perched to pocket the $1 Million bonus in addition to the half a million winner’s check something really special looked to be on the horizon.
As it played out only one of the Big Three lived up to expectations. Inbee Park (3 wins) was off her game from the start and rounds of 71-74-74-70 left her well down the leaderboard at T24 and out of the Race to the CME Globe.
Stacy Lewis (3 wins) started well but a Friday 74 left her too far behind to really challenge for the Tour Championship. But well into Sunday’s final round she still was projected to earn enough points to take the million.
But a lackluster back nine from Lewis and a solid 68 from Ko moved Ko into the lead for both the tournament but the Race to the CME Globe. Lewis finished T9 and Ko headed to the playoff having clinched the million dollar prize.
Ko’s opponents in the playoff Carlota Ciganda and Julieta Granada, while solid players don’t generate much buzz right now in the world of golf. If Ko had Lewis or Park or needle mover Michelle Wie in that playoff I can imagine things would have been a bit different.
For my money playoffs in golf are anti-climatic. With only a few players on the course there is so much dead time. And this weekend the fact that Granada is a very slow player and Ciganda seemed to mimic her under the pressure the playoff seemed to drag on forever and even put me to sleep.
One of the negatives that the LPGA has to deal with is the pace of play that many of their members seem to be stuck with. Granada is the new poster girl for slow play. 
She is constantly checking and rechecking the yardages. Her caddie (her mother) marches off steps from sprinklers time and time again. Granada switches clubs on each breath, tosses a yard of grass in the air and stutter steps more than Keegan Bradley. It’s impossible to watch her without screaming.
So while the LPGA’s Dream Season would have finished with the loudest of bangs had Lewis or Wie been in that playoff it went out with a whimper…a long slow whimper as slow play dragged it down.
Luckily, the very likable and unflappable Lydia Ko saved the day for Mike Whan and the Tour.
Ko is in a position to bring the tour even more publicity as she grows up on the LPGA. She’s only seventeen but plays and speaks like a mature veteran.
Ko, Lewis, Wie and the rest of the very watchable ladies of the LPGA are in a great position to take the tour to the next level. Just make sure we get those slow players to move it along.
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