It’s Super Bowl week and the entire sports world is obsessed with the Patriots, Seahawks and a bag of soft balls. The Super Bowl hype gets unbearable at times but the LPGA Tour is offering us a fine mid-week diversion from the Super Bowl propaganda blitz. 
The LPGA opens its newly revamped 2015 season tomorrow at the inaugural Coates Golf Championship Presented by R+L Carriers. The Coates is a new event with a new sponsor that will be played on a new course for the LPGA.
It is one of the many new and returning tournaments to the schedule and the direct result of all the hard work Commissioner Mike Whan and his team have put in the last few years. This was a tour on death’s door when Whan took over but it is now hitting on all cylinders.
The ’15 LPGA season has grown to include 34 events and includes new sponsors, new locations, new partnerships and an increased television package that will feature the most televised hours in LPGA history.
An example of Whan’s forward thinking is the Wednesday to Saturday Coates Championship. Why would he put his product up against the biggest television event of the year? The early start gives the LPGA a day where it won’t compete with the PGA Tour and with the Saturday finish the girls will be home watching Brady, Wilson and the commercials like the rest of us.
The ladies of the LPGA are thrilled to start the season and two of their biggest draws are already going head to head. World No.3, Stacy Lewis and No.6 Michelle Wie aren’t just rivals on the course. They are friends and rivals off the course too.
With the two of them spending the off season in Jupiter, Fla. They have become close friends and by sharing the same conditioning coach their paths have crossed frequently. Each wants to outdo the other in the gym and on the course. The competition has already started with who can out lift who.
Carrying that competitiveness on to the course should give us plenty of excitement this season.
Wie is looking to build on her ’14 season saw her win twice, earn her first major and finally quell the critics of the former prodigy. 
Lewis wants to regain the top spot in the rankings and her three wins in 2014 didn’t include a major. That’s not good enough for Lewis.
Lewis’ 2014 season: 28 cuts made in 28 events, 3 wins, won the Rolex Player of the Year, Vare Trophy and led the money list. But no major and falling from number one has Lewis motivated for a better season.
2014 is primed for an exciting season for the LPGA and it gets started tomorrow.
TV Times
Jan 28 – GC 2:00 PM-5:00 PM ET
Jan 29 – GC 11:00 AM-2:00 PM ET
Jan 30 – GC 8:00 PM-10:00 PM ET
Jan 31 – GC 3:00 PM-5:00 PM ET
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