Kim vies to defend Bank of Hope Founders Cup title (Mar 15, 2017)
The LPGA Tour moves from Asia to Arizona's Valley of the Sun this week for the seventh annual Bank of Hope Founders Cup, the first of five consecutive tournaments in the United States after events in the Bahamas, Australia, Thailand and Singapore.
The 72-hole event will be contested beginning on Thursday at the Wildfire Golf Club at JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz. The course will play to a par of 72 and at 6,679 yards.
A field of 144 players will tee it up, including nine of the top 10 players in the Rolex Rankings -- excluding No. 3 Shanshan Feng of China). All told, 96 of the top 100 players and all of the winners from the first four tournaments of the 2017 season will participate.
World No. 1 Lydia Ko headlines the field along with No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn and No. 4 In Gee Chun. The total purse is $1.5 million, with $225,000 going to the winner.
Sei Young Kim of South Korea returns to the desert as the tournament's defending champion.
Last year Kim finished at 27-under par, matching the LPGA's low 72-hole scoring record in relation to par set by Annika Sorenstam in 2001. Kim also set a tournament scoring record with the help of a final-round 10-under par 62.
Kim's victory was by five strokes over Ko of New Zealand.
Kim said the Wildfire Golf Club plays to her strengths.
"This course is pretty dry, and if I hit (my) driver (it goes a) little farther than on other courses," Kim said. "If I take advantage of the par-5s, I can reach the greens in two, which gives eagle or birdie chances, so it's easy to make the lower score.
"My goals this season are making the top three in the Rolex Rankings and being more consistent."
One of the sponsor's invites is former U.S. Women's Amateur champion Hannah O'Sullivan, an 18-year-old player from nearby Chandler, Ariz. O'Sullivan, who will begin her collegiate career this fall at Duke University, is the lone amateur in the field.
O'Sullivan made history in 2015 when she became the youngest winner in the history of the Symetra Tour at 16 years of age. She is looking forward to her second consecutive start in Phoenix after finishing tied for 33rd last season and fashioning a second round 8-under 64.
"I'm really looking forward to getting it all started on Thursday," O'Sullivan said. "I've had a lot of fun preparing, and the atmosphere is amazing, to see support from some of my friends and the crowd. I would love to make the cut and hopefully play pretty well. I know the best way I can do that is to take it one shot at time and try to do my best on every single shot and we'll see what happens."
This week's Bank of Hope Founders Cup will mark the fifth event in the season-long Race to CME Globe.
With her win at the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open and top-5 finish at the HSBC Women's Champions, Ha Na Jang of South Korea is the early leader in the Race to CME Globe with 674 points.
