The LPGA Is Back in Action... in China

Welcome to the start of the Asian Swing! The LPGA is back in Beijing, China for the Reignwood LPGA Classic. This is only the third playing of the event, and the first two champs are in the field -- 2013 champ Shanshan Feng and defending champ Mirim Lee. (The event wasn't played last year. To my knowledge, no official reason was ever given. But unofficially, Simin Feng thought there were problems preparing the course.)



Tony Jesselli has his usual excellent preview of the event over at his blog. He notes that a large number of the top players aren't in the field this week. However, Ariya Jutanugarn, Brooke Henderson and Sei Young Kim are there; that's three of the Top5 in the Rolex Rankings, so it's not like all of the big names skipped this event. (Tony also notes that his strength ranking of the field is the same as it was in 2014 and, as I recall, that was a pretty good event.)

Plus this is a good chance to see some of the CLPGA (the Chinese LPGA) players, as 15 of them are in the field. I don't know about you readers outside the US, but we here in North America rarely get to see any of those broadcasts. And with more Chinese players joining the LPGA in the future, it will be worth getting to know some of them now.

Bear in mind that -- at least here in the US -- the first two rounds will be in the middle of the night. Round 1 starts tonight (Thursday morning) at 1am ET; Round 2 will be Friday morning at 2am ET. However, Rounds 3 and 4 will be tape-delayed for Saturday (11:30am ET) and Sunday (2pm ET), so folks who keep "normal" hours will be able to watch those.