Purse: US$2,000,000
Final Field: 75 players (12 sponsor invitations)
Course: Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club
Par: 35/36 = 71
Yardage: 6,246 yards
Defending Champion: Shanshan Feng
Winning Score: 67-67-69-63 = 266 (-18)
1) The tournament has seen five different winners since its inception – Jimin Kang (2010), Na Yeon Cho (2011), Park Inbee (2012), Lexi Thompson (2014) and Shanshan Feng (2014).
2) Forty-three of the top 50 players from the Rolex Rankings will be in attendance. Key players not teeing it up this week include 2011 champion Na Yeon Choi, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome and Brooke Henderson.
- Park Inbee and Lydia Ko will continue their batttle for supremacy
3) The duel at KLGCC’s East Course will see world number one Inbee Park and second-placed Lydia Ko resume their year-long rivalry as they seek to end the season as the top-ranked player, both on the world rankings and the LPGA’s money list, in addition to the stroke average race for the Vare trophy.
With four victories each this year, the pair are separated by mere 0.08 points average on the Rolex Rankings and US$125,500 on the merit list with US$300,000 awaiting the winner in Kuala Lumpur.
World number one scenarios:
Ko would become number one if:
- She wins and Park finishes in a three-way tie for 2nd or worse
- She finishes in second and Park finishes in sole 40th or worse
Park would retain her top spot if:
- She finishes in runner-up or higher
- Ko finishes higher than second
4) Not only will New Zealander Lydia Ko regain the world number one ranking from Inbee Park with a win at KLGCC, she would become the youngest player ever to reach 10 career LPGA wins – a feat that would best Nancy Lopez’s previous record by more than 3.5 years.
5) The host venue – the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club – has the distinction of being the only golf course in the world to host a PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and European Tour event all in this calendar year.
6) Twelve players received sponsor invitations to this year’s event, including the five Malaysians as well as LPGA members Christina Kim, Ryann O’Toole, Paula Reto, Jennifer Rosales, and Cheyenne Woods. England’s Melissa Reid of the European Solheim Cup team rounds out the sponsor invites.
7) Malaysian professionals Kelly Tan, Michelle Koh, Ainil Bakar, Cindy Lee-Pridgen and national amateur Nur Durriyah Damian are the five Malaysian players in the field this week. The first three were given invites as the top three ranked locals on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings while Durriyah and Lee-Pridgen earned their way into the field via a 25-player qualifier held in September.
8) Nur Durriyah will vie with India’s Aditi Ashok for the best amateur prize. Seventeen-year-old Aditi, who hails from Bangalore, topped the qualifier to earn her maiden LPGA start and comes into the tournament on the back of a rich vein of form, having won the Thailand Amateur Open and the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in recent months.
9) The first-ever KL Food Truck Festival will be staged concurrently with the tournament – gathering some of Klang Valley’s top food trucks at the concourse to feed hungry golf fans with authentic local fare, gourmet burgers, Mexican tacos and other international cuisine.
10) Grab a copy of the latest The ClubHouse magazine on-site with a limited edition Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia poster inside to cover all your autograph needs!
