The LPGA CME Group Tour Championship begins today, and the American players competing in the season's final event are "looking more like victims of a systemic failure than a cyclical blip," according to Randall Mell of GOLFCHANNEL.com. The U.S. is "suffering through a year as strange as it is troubling." Brittany Lang won the U.S. Women’s Open in July and the U.S. won the UL International Crown team event. However, Lang and Lexi Thompson are the only Americans to win a tournament, combining for two titles. In the 67-year history of the LPGA, Americans have "never won fewer than four LPGA titles in a season." Thompson is the "lone American left in the top 10 of the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, and Lang is the lone U.S. player among the top 10 on the LPGA money list." Golf instructor David Leadbetter said, "There’s just a real lack of depth in the Americans coming out on tour. All the real star quality right now is with the Asian players.” Swing coach Gary Gilchrist said, "Americans need to do something about this before they become extinct." Mell noted there is "no overplaying the impact" South Korean golfer Se Ri Pak "continues to have in Asia, and the challenge she created for the American version of the game." Pak, who retired last month, "changed everything in ways that are more profound now than they have ever been," and she "created a phenomenon the Americans still haven’t figured out how to overcome." Pak "made Korean men care more about a woman’s sport than they did the male version of the same sport." She also "created a flood of male interest in women’s golf" and "won over men willing to invest time and money to support the women’s game" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 11/15).
NOT AS BAD AS IT LOOKS? In Florida, Dave Kempton noted the situation for U.S. golfers is "not a dumpster fire," and several top Americans this week urged critics to "hold on and be patient." Gerina Piller said, "It’s not as bad as it looks. We were one of two countries with more than two players in the Olympics and we played well on that huge stage." Cristie Kerr is "adamant the lack of American wins is a blip." Kerr said, "Winning the Solheim Cup [in '15] was a big thing for us and things go in cycles. We’re outnumbered out here, and that’s what people seem to lose sight of a lot." Thompson: "The talent out there is amazing ... it is so hard to win. The Americans are trying just as hard, it’s just the competition is getting better and better" (NAPLES DAILY NEWS, 11/16). ESPNW.com's Bill Fields noted it is "no news flash" that the LPGA "arguably is sport's best melting pot." Outside of the U.S. there were 28 countries represented by 127 players on tour this season. However, the "paucity of American individual success is still jarring." Golf Channel's Judy Rankin said, "I find it a little scary. I almost hate to say anything to put more pressure on the American players, because I think they feel it. There is no doubt it's a sticking point. I am really hopeful that there are big crops of juniors coming up in the U.S. that might be the next wave" (ESPNW.com, 11/16).
NOTHING NEW TO REPORT: USGA Dir of PR Janeen Driscoll said the governing body has "not changed its position" on holding the '17 U.S. Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., next year. USA TODAY's Christine Brennan writes the USGA's "mission is to grow the game of golf for women and girls." However, by not moving the tournament, the USGA has "not only failed to rebuke a man who bragged on video that he sexually assaults women," it also "continues to do business with him." The USGA "said nothing and did nothing" while Trump was on the campaign trail, and the "silence was a de facto nod: We’re with him." The USGA has "made a visible effort over the past few years to try to start digging out from decades of discrimination against women and girls." Brennan: "Now the USGA is unable to act, paralyzed by a rich, white man who has ridiculed almost everyone but his cronies and peers, almost all of whom are rich, white men" (USA TODAY, 11/17).
