A record-breaking 2022 LPGA Tour schedule begins on Thursday with the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions - watch live from 5pm on Sky Sports Mix and - for free - on the Sky Sports Golf YouTube channel
Thursday 20 January 2022 17:03, UK
A battle for the ages between Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko? A winning year for Ireland's Leona Maguire? Richard Kaufman looks at some of the storylines to follow in women's golf in 2022 ahead of the new LPGA Tour season...
The 2022 LPGA Tour season gets underway this week and there's an understandable air of excitement. As Blackadder said to Baldrick, "I am as excited as a terribly excited person who has a very good reason to be terribly excited!" But with good reason.
Women's golf is on the up, with the LPGA Tour its premier home. There is also a potential rivalry to match that of Karrie Webb v Annika Sorenstam from yesteryear, with Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko battling at the top of the game. That has all been preluded by announcements over the last few months of record-breaking prize funds for the new season.
Twelve months ago, most pundits, myself included, were predicting it was just a matter of time before Korda would win a major. And 2021 was the year when America's golden girl fulfilled her promise - aren't we geniuses?! By the way, is there a family with greater sporting success than the Kordas?
At the start of last year, though, Ko was the one to beat. After winning the 2020 money list in the US from just four events, one of the surprises in the first half of last year was just how quiet she was. But in her first start after she lost the world No 1 spot to Korda jnr, the Korean went out and won.
Ko's slow start to last year was affected by the death of her grandmother, with Covid restrictions meaning she couldn't get home to be with her family. Ko is so good under pressure, and the only thing that could stop her from having another stellar year is a nagging wrist injury that bothered her on and off at times last season.
By the time the year ended, the pair had shared ten victories between them. So, 2022 starts with Korda as the world No 1. In fact, she has now been at the top of the rankings longer than any other American woman before her. If the world's No 1 and 2 continue in the same vein for the new campaign, we miht be at the start of a rivalry to remember.
Let's not get carried away just yet, as it's worth noting that they've only got three major victories so far between them. No disrespect to players at the turn of the millennium, but fields now go deeper than in the days of Sorenstam and Webb.
Patty Tavatanakit has all the game to push them and, I know I am not supposed to have favourites, but she is a joy to watch. She might mot be as mentally strong as the top two, but she can out-hit them and her short game is extremely proficient.
Talking of someone who's more than tidy around the green, Lydia Ko is getting back towards the standards she set as a teenage sensation. When you have "rookies" like US open champion Yuka Saso and last year's No 1 on the Ladies European Tour, Atthaya Thitikul, about to join the weekly action, competition is going to be fierce.
It's why someone like Lexi Thompson needs to sharpen her chipping and putting, or she could go winless again. On the LPGA Tour, you can't afford to stand still. No chance to conflate working and partying here.
So where do the Euros, the Brits and Irish fit in with all of this? Inspired hopefully by what they achieved at the Solheim Cup, they should be ready to take further steps forward themselves.
The signs in the last six months showed Charley Hull looks ready to fulfil her obvious talent. Given what I have said about the world's best players, Hull needs to maintain her standards throughout the week. In a number of tournaments, she seemed to just have that one round that set her back a little.
Georgia Hall has a quiet determination that could see her peak at any time. But the one prediction I want to make regarding the Euros is a first Irish win on the LPGA Tour, courtesy of Leona Maguire. The quiet assassin at Inverness Club, she has already gone where no Irish player has gone before.
Every year she improves, so why should 2022 be different for Maguire? If that is the case, that would surely translate into a win or two. And as you will see from my predictions, I have thrown in a couple of European winners at this year's majors!
Does anyone ever get these predictions right? Think about the names I haven't mentioned already, like Inbee Park, Brooke Henderson, Nasa Hataoka, Sei Young Kim, Anna Nordqvist and Danielle Kang. There's easily other names to consider, many that feature in my list below.
Are you telling me they don't all go into 2022 with the potential to win? I thought about playing it safe and predicting that Nelly Korda will win all five majors, as that way I should be able to get one right! But here goes…
Watch the LPGA Tour this season live on Sky Sports. Live coverage from the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions begins on Thursday from 5pm on Sky Sports Mix and - for free - on the Sky Sports Golf YouTube channel.
