The LPGA Is in Asia Too

While the men tee it up in South Korea at the Presidents Cup, the LPGA has begun its Asian Swing. The first event in this five-tournament series is the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia, held in Kuala Lumpur at the appropriately named Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club.



Tony Jesselli has done his typically well-done preview of the event at this link, and I recommend you take a moment to check it out. In this post I'll focus on a couple of things not in Tony's fine piece.

I found this interesting tidbit at the LPGA site, which you should know in case you're one of those people who believe that the LPGA plays courses that are not as good as the PGA or European Tours:

Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club, the host of the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia, holds a distinction that no other venue in the world can claim in 2015. KLGCC will have hosted a PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, and European Tour event all in the same year.

This week Malaysian fans will get a glimpse of women’s golf’s best taking a crack at the East Course at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club with the LPGA’s stop sandwiched between the European Tour’s visit in early February for the Maybank Malaysian Open, which Anirban Lahiri won, and the PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic. The CIMB Classic will tee off October 30 here on the West Course.

Don't underestimate the women's game, folks. There's a reason that I say watching them can help you improve!

The defending champion here is Shanshan Feng, but 10 of the 12 Solheim Cup players are also in the field. (Cristie Kerr and Brittany Lincicome aren't playing.) We often talk about 'bumps' for players after a team competition, so perhaps it's no surprise that the leader -- at least, the leader as I'm writing this -- is Alison Lee. Lee was at the center of "GimmeGate" (one of the coolest -gate names I've heard yet!) and bounced back by winning her singles match that afternoon. Alison and Gerina Piller are the only two US players without wins, so maybe this will be the week one of them breaks through.

Obviously GC's coverage of the event will be tape-delayed but at least we'll get to see some of the action now that the women are back in action. GC's first round coverage runs for two hours today, starting at noon ET.