Keep an eye on Rose Zhang, Alison Lee during 2024 LPGA Tour season | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Ahead of the start to the 2024 LPGA Tour season, Beth Ann Nichols calls in to talk about the tour’s parity, potential breakout stars, the venues for the women’s majors and more. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral #RoseZhang
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Keep an eye on Rose Zhang, Alison Lee during 2024 LPGA Tour season | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new Chrome tour golf ball from Callaway this week marks the beginning of the lpga’s 2024 season the women kick things off with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at late know a golf and country club in

Orlando the field is limited to winners on tour in the previous two years but there’s also a celebrity tournament as well as each Pro is paired for two celebrities during their rounds and looking ahead to the year well the LPGA will have a 35 event schedule with three

New events including the FM Global Championship outside of Boston you got the total prize fund as well will be more than 118 million with 16 events having purses of at least 3 million and the LPGA Tour continues to schedule globally with tournaments in 10 different countries and by the way it is

Not just an Olympic year for the women but the solheim cup will also be played in back-to-back years as well so to talk a little LPGA I’m so pleased to welcome in golf week senior writer bethanne Nichols bethan first of all happy New Year I haven’t seen you um but let’s

Talk some golf because last year was well pretty remarkable we had four different firsttime major champions in the women’s game 13 firsttime winners on tour most of the established Stars really kind of struggled Nelly Lydia didn’t win at all are we expecting more of the same or are there signs that

Perhaps the veterans are reasserting themselves at the top well I think we definitely saw some good signs from Lydia obviously at the at the grant Thorton so that was wonderful to see when she won alongside Jason dig and then of course same thing with Lexi Thompson huge boost at the

Solheim cup and then going on to play against the men but I I really don’t see a whole lot changing in terms of the parody I really think we’re going to see a lot of different winners again I don’t expect the likes of Lil Au Vu or or or

Ronnie yen to back it up in 2024 I think they’re they’re going to keep pushing forward and and and winning tournaments and and and establishing themselves in the game they just have too much talent to to expect otherwise so while I’d really love to see someone really step

Up and dominate this tour I’m I’m hard pressed to to predict that for 2024 yeah par is certainly the main characteristic that we’ve seen across the LPG in the last couple of years bethanne but how important is it for the tour and the attention that it gets the eyeballs that

It brings that we have our big stars really stepping up in making the headlines this year I I think it’s massive you know I mean I I I feel like you know Nelly Corda injury seems to be holding a lot of these players back when you look at a

Jinan Co or or or a nelly Corda specifically but you know hopefully a healthy Nelly corta uh will will rise in 2024 and and and give us something uh to cheer for because I I definitely think Nelly and Rose Zang are the two players that could really take this tour to the

Next level so it’ll be interesting to see how Rose Zang balances her schedule she’s of course taking classes this quarter at Stanford a heavy load uh she played a lot of golf at the end of last year in that that second Asian swing and I would expect her to maybe uh tone it

Down a little bit in the number of tournaments that she plays at least in the second half of the season so I think a lot of lessons learned in that rookie campaign of when to say no uh and and so you know I’m I’m I’m hopeful that we’ll

See rosang win more than once this season yeah she’s already made such a name for herself in so early days in her career can’t wait to see what she does this season and you already mentioned her bethan Lilia Vu what a year for her she won four times including her first

Two major championships faring away the breakout player of 2023 any ideas who could possibly follow in her Footsteps in terms of breakout Stars this season you know I I think we’d have to look at at Allison Lee you know Lilia Vu hadn’t won an LPGA tournament coming

Into 2023 so that was her main goal and similarly Allison Lee has been waiting for a lot longer than Lily a Vu to make that happen and Allison finished second in her last three lpj starts and of course won an let event right in the middle of that in Saudi Arabia so you

Know I I just think she was ended the season the hottest player on tour and and I think Stacy Lewis I know Stacy Lewis certainly has an eye on her as as a potential for the solheim Cup this year maybe the only different player that we’ll see on that team uh in come

September given the short amount of turnaround time to to qualify but you know Allison of course booed by that that friendship with with Fred Couples who was extremely supportive and boosting her confidence and then and then hiring a a putting coach to really turn things around was already hitting

The ball great I spoke with our instructor Chris Mason last week and he used the word elegant to describe everything that that Allison does and I just thought that was the perfect word for her and she’s the kind of player that in terms of how she the the the way

She addresses the media she’s so open uh she’s so great with fans and she’s she just has this this it Factor about her that she could really be a superstar for the LPGA if she could get into the Winter Circle you’re right she was one of the stars of last season especially

Towards the end and when she was talking to the media as you say about her um relationship with Freddy Couples at the Yim me group Tour Championship just looking at her phone and going oh my goodness it’s Freddy again but he’s just trying to make her believe in herself

Because he has seen something very special in her as the rest of the golfing world so keep an eye um on Alison Lee well let’s have a look at some of the major venues um upcoming we’ve got sah hary for the women’s PGA Lancaster Country Club for the US

Women’s Open and then the old course of course for the Women’s Open what stands out to you on this list of course you got to first go to the old course right the women haven’t been there in over a decade so for a lot of players on the lpta it’ll be their

First time playing a major championship at the old course maybe their first time ever to go around that historic venue so it also could be the very last time we see Laura Davies Tee It Up in in a British Open as this is her final year

For exemption as she turned 60 uh and then and then Lancaster you know people might say you know look at this list of of iconic name courses that the US Women’s open’s been going to and say why are they going back to Lancaster but you know what that the crowds there were

Absolutely incredible when in Chan Wan the atmosphere was fantastic and and I’m excited to feel that again because we don’t feel that often enough on the LPGA that except maybe the solheim cup is really the only place that you know you’re going to feel that and and it was

There in spades on the ground at at Lancaster when when in won and it it it could be a lot of pressure on on in this year to to have another big year are going back to defend yeah that’s going to be a fantastic storyline another big

Week that we can’t wait for is of course the Olympics 2024 as an Olympic year um there’s got to be some really interesting story lines just six months left in qualifying and the women’s game being such an international sport as it is we’ve got a lot of players vying for

Not many spots to represent their country absolutely you know it’s it’s it’s always interesting to to to go back and remember that this isn’t always about this definitely isn’t about just the best players in the world making up this field that the ioc wants to have a great representation from around the

World so right now there are 15 players ranked outside the top 200 in the Rolex rankings that that would qualify today if if Paris were to be tomorrow so you know it’s a lot of players that people aren’t familiar with which means on the opposite end of the spectrum you have a

Lot of bigname players vying to have an opportunity to even compete so of course you have to be in the top 15 of the Rolex rankings uh to to be able to be one of four players to qualify for a country that’s the most any country can have is four players which really

Realistically only United States and South Korea have a chance to send four players right now they’re only three South Koreans in the top 15 which is kind of surprising but I fully expect them to to to get another player up there Amy Yang’s just one spot out but

To have you know four players from South Korea and four players from from the United States which which means you could even be ranked inside the top 15 and and not qualify for the Olympics so it’ll be a tough race the rest of the countries will have we’ll have two

Players uh you know it’ll be a tight race to see who qualifies from the likes of Sweden Japan even China uh and and of course you know we’ve seen players sit out from the Olympics the last two times for various reasons of course we had the

The zika virus and then and then covid and then on top of that you just have a really busy major season and some players choose to make the major is the priority so of course we’re always interested to see who decides not to play a