Richard Kaufman
Golf Pundit
Who impressed in 2023? What extra may be achieved to enhance the ladies’s sport? Richard Kaufman displays on an eventful 12 months within the sport and appears at whether or not Staff Europe can get pleasure from extra Solheim Cup success
Final Up to date: 24/12/23 7:19am
Can Charley Hull declare a maiden main victory in 2024?
Skilled golf proper now appears in a limbo state. At a crossroads. And while the main target is on the lads’s sport, additionally it is the case within the ladies’s sport too.
There is not any level me speculating at this level, as I genuinely do not know the main points, however I might be stunned if this time subsequent 12 months issues look the identical as they do now.
The previous 12 months has introduced extra of the identical: new faces lifting main trophies, Europe with the Solheim Cup and loads of prize fund will increase. Nevertheless, the ladies’s professional sport nonetheless struggles for consideration.
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Suzann Pettersen was introduced with the Solheim Cup after Europe retained and commenced joyous celebrations together with her crew
Within the 12 months previous, it appeared that each time there was the chance to place the ladies’s sport within the highlight, some mega information broke within the males’s sport to distract. Watching from shut quarters, I do really feel that a few of the largest names within the sport do not assist.
There appears to be a little bit of a distrust of the media. They see the press convention as a burden slightly than a chance. For my part, it is a part of their position, like taking part in within the week’s pro-am. I perceive not everybody enjoys the limelight, however get higher at it – like their wedge play – and so they would possibly get pleasure from it.
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Highlights from the ultimate spherical of the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida
Who stood out in 2023?
Essentially the most spectacular participant of the 12 months was Lilia Vu. Even after profitable the 12 months’s first main, the Chevron Championship, she was awash with self-doubt, considering she is perhaps a one-hit surprise till she squashed residence hopes and Charley Hull to win the AIG Girls’s Open at Walton Heath.
My favorite win of the 12 months was Celine Boutier’s on the Evian Championship. To win like that on residence soil was so spectacular. The Evian Championship typically will get dismissed in some quarters as a serious solely in identify, however I disagree.
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Highlights from day 4 of the Evian Championship on the Evian Resort Golf Membership in France
It is actually constructing a legacy as a serious. As new faces seem within the sport, they’ll wish to be a part of that, particularly as it’s the solely everlasting residence for any of the ladies’s majors.
Like all of the majors, the prize cash over the past 5 years has exploded and different occasions are additionally maintaining. The CME Tour Championship, the season ender on the LPGA Tour, will see the champion take residence $4m. On the Girls European Tour, the Aramco Saudi Girls Worldwide has a prize fund of $5m. That is vital.
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Highlights from the ultimate spherical of the AIG Girls’s Open at Walton Heath as Lilia Vu claimed her second main title of the season
Massive enterprise is taking the ladies’s sport severely. Hopefully, others can do the identical. I embody the TV protection in that too. We will actually do issues higher.
Can Europe make extra Solheim Cup historical past?
The Solheim Cup was clearly a standout week within the calendar. Carlota Ciganda appropriately grabbed the headlines, however my best reminiscence might be of the back-nine cost and comeback from Caroline Hedwall. There was Linn Grant and Maja Stark, a partnership that may solely get stronger.
Gamers like Charley Hull, Georgia Corridor and Celine Boutier weren’t at their greatest that week and Europe nonetheless saved maintain of the cup, which is testomony to the very good captaincy of Suzann Pettersen. From 4-0 down after the primary session, it takes one thing particular to emerge as Staff Europe did.
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The very best of the motion from day three of the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin in Spain
Suzann and Stacy Lewis get to do all of it once more as captains this coming September within the USA. It might be superb if Europe can stay undefeated for a fourth successive time.
The expectation is a few of the gamers from that European crew, like Ciganda, Hull and Grant, are prepared for the subsequent step of their sport and to grow to be main champions. There isn’t a doubt they’ve the sport, however there’s now a depth in ladies’s golf that makes it tougher than ever to win one of many large 5.
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Staff Europe celebrated retaining the Solheim Cup by leaping in a swimming pool!
In order for you me to call a repeat main winner in 2024 from our champions of 2023 it will be Ruoning Yin. The Chinese language participant doesn’t get the publicity she deserves but, however after I watch her play, I see somebody with that “x factor”. And from speaking to these round her, she does nothing however impress in her angle, mindset, and sport.
The Girls European Tour will get again underneath method in February in Kenya, the place the rookies will combine it with zebras and giraffes. By then, I might be itching to get airplane hopping once more and produce you the tales with Sophie Walker and the crew. One other thrilling 12 months forward for certain, and hopefully you’ll be part of us on Sky Sports activities Golf.
Watch all the ladies’s majors, the Solheim Cup, the Ryder Cup and the top of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour seasons solely stay over the approaching months on Sky Sports activities Golf. Stream the Girls European Tour and extra with a NOW Sports activities Month Membership – simply £21 a month for six months.
