Resolutions — Five players to keep a close eye on in 2025
The IX: Golf Thursday with Marin Dremock, Jan. 9, 2025
The new year is upon us, and having just made my personal resolutions for 2025, I’d like to make some golf ones as well. You can steal these, I promise.
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Welcome back to Golf Thursday. Here are some 2025 golf resolutions.
- Watch more LPGA final rounds on Sundays…LIVE.
- Scour the LPGA YouTube channel for the highlights of the tournament rounds I missed.
- Watch more sunsets on the golf course. After getting my first full-time job, I’m looking forward to a lot of evening nines as the days get longer.
- Like Megan Khang’s comments on Instagram. Why is she so funny?
- Swing the swing that works, technically and physically. Don’t try to copy a specific player’s swing. Instead…
- Emanate players’ pre-shot routines. Prepare to play, one shot at a time. The pros do it best.
- Play fast, fun golf.
- Join a league/community. Golf is lovely social time, and sometimes we forget it when we get caught up in trying to get better.
- Lift up the female golfers in my life. Check in with former teammates, friends that play, local high school or college players.
- Read golf books. Read silly ones or read serious ones. On my TBR are A Course Called America, Blasted Heaths and Blessed Greens and Golf in the Kingdom.
- Go to the driving range not to tense up, but to relax. My favorite way to relieve stress is to hit golf balls. No pressure. You mishit one? Oh well. More of this in 2025.
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This week in women’s golf
LPGA News
HUGE congratulations, Lexi!! Lexi Thompson rings in 2025 by getting engaged
Take a look at which athletes stepped away from the LPGA Tour full-time in 2024
LPGA Tour member Mary Bryan passes away at 78 after cancer battle
Look back at the 29 holes-in-one that were made during the 2024 LPGA Tour season
Lydia Ko becomes a Dame in New Year’s Honors in New Zealand
LPGA Tour member Emma Talley announces retirement and pregnancy
Annika Sorenstam re-elected for third term as International Golf Federation President
LET News
Finne-Ipsen looking forward to 2025 after fantastic finish at Q-School
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LET announces its global 2025 season schedule with new events in Australia, Tenerife and Belgium
Darquea wins Lalla Aicha Q-School as 24 players secure full cards
Epson Tour News
Epson Tour announces 2025 schedule to kick off historic 45th anniversary
Amateur/NCAA News
Catriona Matthew OBE reappointed as GB&I Curtis Cup captain
Five at The IX: Marin’s five players to watch in 2025
Charley Hull
Yes yes, Charley Hull went viral in 2024 for her personality and impeccable ball-striking, but when will she go viral for winning tournaments?
I think this year is her’s. Hull was on the cusp of winning her third career title last season, but she’s come up short. She finished T-2 at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, but her next best finish was fifth place at the Women’s Scottish Open.
Last season, she made 15 cuts in the 17 tournaments she started in but only had five top 10 finishes.
Hull already has eyes watching her. I think this puts some pressure on her to perform in the 2025 season. Making cuts just isn’t going to be good enough for the ambitious player that Hull is. I think she’ll use that fire and capitalize on an opportunity to pick up a long awaited victory.
Nataliya Guseva
Coming off a solid rookie year in 2024, Nataliya Guseva has got some traction. Ultimately, Guseva’s back-and-forth battle with A Lim Kim at the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii ended in a runner-up finish. But there is still so much to be said about her performance in 2024.
In her rookie season, the 21-year-old made 14 cuts in 21 starts and recorded six top 10 finishes. She tied for second at the Portland Classic, and the week before, she tied for sixth at the CPKC Women’s Open.
Guseva also finished strong in the last tournament of the 2024 season, the CME Group Tour Championship. Her hot putter helped her to a seventh place finish and her second-largest prize of the year.
Guseva might just be the new young face on the LPGA Tour. In 2016, we saw Charley Hull win her first tournament in her second year on tour, so Guseva could very well pick up her first career win in 2025.
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Jeeno Thitikul
You all know I love to hype up Jeeno.
I picked her and Tom Kim to win the Grant Thornton Invitational last season mainly because of her dominance in the CME Group Tour Championship (and I was almost right). The way she played last season’s finale was incredible.
She was dialed. Almost more importantly, Thitikul has so much fun when she plays. I think she’ll continue to be dialed with a smile in the new season.
Fingers crossed for Team Tom & Jerry in the 2025 Grant Thornton.
Lilia Vu
Lilia Vu had a quiet 2024 season, but it wasn’t a bad one. She had four top 10 finishes; one of these was a win at the Meijer LPGA Classic and two more were ties for 2nd at the AIG Women’s Open and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Vu plays so well in the major championships. Last year, she didn’t necessarily fall short. Sahalee was a beast to tackle in the KPMG; Amy Yang shot even par in the final round and won. Some courses are like that, and thus, so are some majors. In St. Andrews, Lydia Ko was just meant to win that one. It was a story that needed to be told, and the gods in the Home of Golf twisted the ropes of fate in her favor.
But speaking of fairy tales, I think Vu wins a major this year.
Asterisk Talley
I didn’t say this list had exclusively pros, did I?
After Asterisk Talley’s more than impressive 2024, where she tied for low amateur at the U.S. Women’s Open, won the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball with Sarah Lim, the stage is set for her to compete in 2025.
She’s only 15 years old. She has so much junior golf left to play (and dominate in), but she’s got a name for herself on the senior stage as well. Talley finished 44th in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open and eighth in the 2024 Augusta Women’s Amateur.
Last year, Talley finished runner up in both the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur, losing both tournaments to Rianne Malixi in the final match play round. These losses were surely disappointing for her, but with a whole other year to get stronger, more strategic and more focused, Talley is going to come back with force.
I watched her play the third round at Lancaster Country Club in the U.S. Women’s Open last summer, and I could tell she knew she could have done so much better. But she was still keeping up with the rest of the field … at 15! She’s definitely going to channel that ambition this year. As a competitive golfer, I know what it’s like to expect a lot of yourself. And Talley most certainly does.
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