RICOH Women's British Open Preview & Pairings

Let me start off this week by congratulating Lexi Thompson for winning the Meijer LPGA Classic. Lexi was victorious by one shot over both Gerina Piller and Lizette Salas. It was the 5th LPGA victory for the 20 year old superstar.

The LPGA moves to Scotland this week for the playing of the RICOH Women's British Open. This will be the third time in the last 5 years that the tournament will be held in Scotland. It was held in Carnoustie in 2011, and in St. Andrews in 2013.

Mo Martin will be trying to the defend the title she won last year when her eagle on the 72nd hole was good enough to win by one stroke over Suzann Pettersen and Shanshan Feng.

Mo Martin shocked us all with her win last year at Royal Birkdale

This will the tournament #20 of 31 on this year's LPGA schedule. It will also be the 4th of 5 major championships.

Here are the Key Details:

Course:  Trump Turnberry Resort
Location:  Turnberry, Scotland
Defending Champion:  Mo Martin
Winning Score:  69-69-77-72 = 287 (-1)

Final Field:  144 players
Par:  36/36 = 72
Yardage:  Not available
Purse:  $3,000,000

My strength of field rating is 81.5%. Although this is a very strong field, it is weaker than the previous 3 majors played this year. Forty-five of the top 50 players from the LPGA priority list, and 61 of the top 75 players from the Rolex Rankings will be in attendance. Players not teeing it up this week include: Mirim Lee and I.K. Kim. Part of the reason my field rating isn't higher is that the criteria for getting into this event is very different than a normal LPGA event, and as a result many players did not qualify. There will be several highly ranked non LPGA members teeing it up. They include: In Gee Chun (#9), Jung Min Lee (#24), Jin-Young Ko (#28), Teresa Lu (#30), Brooke Henderson (#32), and Shiho Oyama (#39),

Here are the pairings for round 1:

Here are the television times:
ESPN2 July 30 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
ESPN2 July 31 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
ESPN2 Aug. 1 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
ESPN2 Aug. 2 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
ABC Aug. 2 5:00-6:00 p.m. (Tape)

Here are my Pak Picker Picks for this week's tournament:
1-Stacy Lewis
2- Suzann Pettersen
3- Inbee Park
4- Lydia Ko
5- Anna Nordqvist
6- Shanshan Feng
7- Hyo Joo Kim
8- Charley Hull
9- So Yeon Ryu
10- Angela Stanford
11- Lexi Thompson
12- Catriona Matthew
I am currently tied for third place among the 22 participants.

Other Tidbits:
The Reignwood Pine Valley Classic, scheduled for later this fall in Beijing, has been removed from this year's schedule. That reduces the number of official LPGA tournaments on the 2015 schedule to 31.

Rolex Movers of the Week: 
Lexi Thompson bursts into the top ten this week, jumping up from #13 to #9. Gerina Piller vaults up from #49 to #35.

Race to the CME Globe:  (1 million dollars)
Inbee Park continues to lead with 3,021 points. She is followed by Lydia Ko with 2,505, and Sei Young Kim with 2,205.

Who's Hot:
Brittany Lang has finished in the top 6 in three of her last six events.

Who's Not:
Pornanong Phatlum has missed four consecutive cuts.

Be sure to check back here daily for any updates. They will be posted here, at the end of this blog.

Here are the final standings:

1	Inbee Park	-12	69	73	69	65	276
2	Jin-Young Ko	-9	68	71	69	71	279
T3	So Yeon Ryu	-8	67	72	73	68	280
T3	Lydia Ko	-8	66	73	72	69	280
5	Suzann Pettersen	-7	68	69	72	72	281
6	Teresa Lu	-6	68	71	69	74	282
T7	Anna Nordqvist	-5	69	72	73	69	283
T7	Mika Miyazato	-5	68	72	70	73	283
T9	Amy Boulden	-4	71	74	68	71	284
T9	Melissa Reid	-4	73	70	69	72	284
T9	Minjee Lee	-4	69	72	70	73	284
12	Maria McBride	-2	79	66	69	72	286

Links to all live scoreboards appear at the top of this page. 

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