Injured champ, capable Texans, Olympic dreams add spice to LPGA event

Reigning champion Inbee Park will miss this week’s Volunteers of America Texas Shootout at Las Colinas Country Club because of a thumb injury.

The absence of Park, a two-time champion at the fourth-year LPGA Tour event, eliminates one of the proven performers at the Las Colinas layout heading into Thursday’s opening round. But lots of intrigue remains for competitors seeking to win the $1.3 million event that will feature 16 of the top 20 players on this year’s money list, as well as four notable amateurs.

With golf returning to the 2016 Olympic Games for the first time since 1904, the list of potential Olympians in this week’s field is long. The list includes Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson, the two highest-ranked U.S. Olympic hopefuls, as well as representatives from 17 other countries who are tracking toward berths in the Olympic women’s golf competition, Aug. 18-21 in Rio de Janeiro.

Also in the mix are several players with Texas connections, including Fort Worth residents Angela Stanford and Gerina Piller. Both competed on last year’s U.S. Solheim Cup team and practice at Shady Oaks Country Club.

Here are five storylines to watch at this week’s event in Irving:

Texas connections

Piller, who tied for third in Sunday’s Swinging Skirts Classic in San Francisco, enters as the Texan with the most momentum from recent finishes. Piller, wife of PGA Tour participant Martin Piller, has posted three top-10 finishes in her past four starts at LPGA events and ranks No. 11 on the season money list ($302,832). Piller said she’s finally “getting comfortable with being at the top of the leader board” this season as she seeks her first career victory.

Piller and Stanford, a former TCU standout, project to have two of the largest galleries at this week’s event. Also in the mix for that distinction will be Brittany Lang, a McKinney resident; Kim Kaufman, a former Texas Tech golfer and Lewis, a native of The Woodlands.

No defending champion

Inbee Park, the No. 2 player in the world golf rankings who won this event last season and during its inaugural year (2013), is sitting out this week to rest a thumb injury that has bothered her for the past six months. In a statement released last week, Park said she decided “to take the next month off and get it healed” before the next major championship, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (June 6-12), and the 2016 Olympic Games, where Park will represent Korea.

With Park sidelined, the two highest-ranked players in the field are Thompson (No. 3 in world rankings) and Lewis (No. 4), who won this event in 2014. But every other top-10 player ranked below Lewis is in this week’s field, including three golfers who project to join Park on Korea’s Olympic team: Sei Young Kim, In Gee Chun and Ha Na Jang.

Olympic overtones

Based on Olympic qualifying standards, this week’s finish in Irving will impact a lot of Olympic dreams as the July 11 deadline to finalize rosters for competitors in Rio approaches. LPGA Tour commissioner Mike Whan estimates that members of his tour will comprise 48 of the 60 participants in Rio. The 60-player Olympic field is limited to two golfers per country, with one exception: countries that place four or more golfers in the top 15 of the final Olympic Golf Rankings may send their top four players. At this juncture, only Korea projects to have four participants in Rio.

Among the projected international Olympians competing in Irving will be Brooke Henderson (Canada), Gaby Lopez (Mexico), Minjee Lee (Australia), Charley Hull (England), Azahara Munoz (Spain), Anna Nordqvist (Sweden), Ariya Jutanugam (Thailand), Lee-Anne Pace (South Africa), Sandra Gal (Germany), Karine Icher (France), Julieta Granada (Paraguay), Mariajo Uribe (Colombia), Christel Boeljon (Netherlands), Laetitia Beck (Israel), Giulia Sergas (Italy) and the three Koreans (Sei Young Kim, In Gee Chun, Ha Na Jang).

Amateur intrigue

Four amateur qualifiers are part of the field: two college golfers and two high school players. Texas A&M’s Maddie Szeryk and Alabama’s Cheyenne Knight earned the college spots. The high school spots went to Austin’s Kristen Gillman, a senior at Lake Travis, and Karah Sanford, 14, from San Diego. Gillman won the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur as a 16-year-old and will be making her fifth career start at an LPGA event.

Unique saturated venue

With its small greens and tight fairways, the Las Colinas layout is unique among LPGA stops.

“It’s not a bomber’s paradise,” Stanford said. “I like that you have to position your ball off the tee and think your way around the course.”

But greens-softening rain from earlier this week, including seven-tenths of an inch Tuesday night, could lead to a weekend birdie barrage if forecasts for showers Thursday night, Friday and Saturday materialize.

“The first round will play a lot different than the second round because Friday is supposed to be wet again,” said Stanford, who finished sixth at last year’s event. “That will change the scoring quite a bit. The scoring will be a little lower than normal if we get a lot of rain.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Injured champ, capable Texans, Olympic dreams add spice to LPGA event."