Lexi Thompson Wins Meijer LPGA Classic

In April of 2014 Lexi Thompson won her first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Today, she claimed her first win since that major, the 2015 Meijer LPGA Classic.

Thompson got the week off to a great start by wearing that number above to the pro-am/pairings party. She opened the tournament with a 69, then a 64 in the second round put her in a great spot. A third-round 68 followed, then, in the final round, Lexi shot 6-under 65. She finished at 18-under 266, one shot ahead of the runners-up Gerina Piller and Lizette Salas.

This is Lexi's first win in her 20s. Her four previous LPGA victories all happened while she was still a teenager.

Here's another shot of Thompson in that dress, this time next to Morgan Pressel:

More Lexi Thompson pics on Golf Babes

Lena Schaeffner

(Photos courtesy of Lena Schaeffner)

Lena Schaeffner recencetly tweeted (@lschaeffner) this photo with the caption, "Golf makes me happy":

Alas, Schaeffner's most recent tournament included some disappointment: She had to withdraw from the International European Ladies' Amateur Championship in Austria this week due to a knee issue.

But Lena does have plenty to be happy about these days: She's a member of the German National Team (which, the way, is absolutely stacked with both golf talent and golf babes), ranked in the Top 50 in the world in the latest amateur rankings; and earlier this year became the first golfer ever from Coastal Carolina University to make it into the NCAA Women's Championship tournament as an individual.

Lena is from Rettigheim, Germany, and helped her high school there win the German national championship before heading to South Carolina to play collegiately at Coastal Carolina.

And she made an immediate impact for the Chanticleers, playing every tournament as a freshman. In her first two seasons at CCU Schaeffner came close multiple times to her first college win - she had three runner-up finishes.

NCAA Win No. 1 came for Lena this past season, her junior season, at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in October of last year. She won again in March of this year at the 3M Jaguar Intercollegiate. She had five Top 5 finishes during the regular season.

Then she won the Big South Championship tournament, finished second at the NCAA Regional and advanced into the NCAA championship. That's having a great season!

That kind of success made me wonder one thing: Would she enter Q-School next month or return for her senior season? CCU alums will be happy to know that Lena is coming back for the 2015-16 season.

Lena told us that she wants "to be successful one more year on college level before I turn pro next summer. Also it is very important for me to have a degree even though I might not wanna use it in the near future."

After that? Q-School beckons next year, with Lena likely to enter both the LPGA and LET qualifying tournaments.

"I want to start playing some tournaments on the Symetra Tour as soon as I graduate to stay in the flow of playing," Schaeffner said. "I'll play both Q-schools trying to get one or both tour cards. But as of right now I think I'll definitely want to stay in the US trying to make my way on tour here. I had a really good season this year and I think I can be successful on the LPGA in a couple of years."

We think so, too.

Paige Spiranac Launches Website, Joins Twitter

Paige Spiranac might well be the next "it girl" in golf, what with her stunning looks, her mastery of social media and her trick-shot and other videos.

We wrote about her a while back at a time when, frankly, we didn't know all that much about her. But it's much easier to learn about her these days since she launched her website - PaigeSpiranac.com - and also joined Twitter (@PaigeSpiranac).

One of the new things we learned about Paige is that she recently won the Colorado Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship. Perhaps that is an event that gave her the confidence boost to decide that a career as a tour golfer is something she's doing to strongly pursue. One of her first tweets was this one:

I love golf and just chasing my dream of playing on tour. I may or may not make it but I'm giving it a go so I don't have regrets later on

— Paige Spiranac (@PaigeSpiranac) July 15, 2015

Best of luck to Paige. We look forward to following her career and hope to see her climbing up the various levels of professional golf. But we're absolutely positive that, should it not work out, there are many, many websites and probably a few networks that will be interested in working with her, too.

(Photos and video via Instagram/_paige.renee)

I like it a little left to right

A video posted by @_paige.renee on Jul 3, 2015 at 4:52pm PDT

Ashlan Ramsey Wins Georgia Women's Open for 1st Pro Victory

When we wrote about Ashlan Ramsey back in January, the post was titled, "Injury not dimming Ashlan Ramsey's optimist about rookie season."

This week, Ash made that headline look good: She won her first pro tournament, the Georgia Women's Open.

The GWO took place Monday-Tuesday (July 13-14) at Brookfield Country Club in Roswell, Ga. The tournament, staged by the PGA Georgia Section, is one of a number of state opens played around the country every year.

Ashlan opened with a 65, after which she tweeted this:

Lowest competitive round for me today #foundmygameagain 👌

— Ashlan Ramsey (@ashlan_ramsey) July 14, 2015

That lowest competitive round was followed up Tuesday with a 67. Ramsey finished at 132 - 12-under par - and seven shots ahead of the second-place finisher.

Ashlan had zero over-par holes during the Georgia Women's Open, and 12 birdies. That's getting it done.

Her first pro victory comes little more than a year after Ramsey turned pro, still a teen-ager, following one season on the Clemson University golf team. Back pain prevented her from competing in the LPGA's Q-School last year.

But a healthy Ashlan Ramsey is definitely a golfer to watch - a golfer with a bright future.

Meet In Gee Chun

Who is In Gee Chun? She's the latest star-in-waiting from the Korean LPGA (KLPGA). Chun is currently in the mix on the final day of the US Women's Open, which, if she were to win, would give her LPGA Tour membership.

(By the way, I've seen Chun's name spelled as "In Gee," "In-Gee" and "Ingee." Not really sure which is correct - guess we'll know soon enough if she wins the USWO.)

While Chun is a superstar in Asia, she's not yet well known in the United States - but she was ranked No. 20 in the world at the start of the USWO.

Chun is 20 years old (she turns 21 in August) and her rookie year on the KLPGA was 2013. That year she won the Korean Women's Open and finished second at that year's KLPGA Championship. She finished third on the money list and was second (to Hyo Joo Kim) in the KLPGA Rookie of the Year race.

She won three times in 2014 and was fourth on the KLPGA money list.

In 2015, In Gee won the World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup. That's a Japan LPGA tournament, one of the JLPGA's majors. At 20 years old she became that tournament's youngest-ever winner. (It was also her first tournament in Japan.)

Another Win for Olivia Cowan

Olivia Cowan, a 19-year-old from Germany, won for the second time in 2015 on the LET Access Series at the Borås Ladies Open (cosanctioned with the Nordea Tour).

Cowan led by five when she made the turn in her final round, but had to hold on to claim the victory. She reached the final hole leading Finland's Oona Vartiainen by two, and wound up winning by a stroke.

Earlier in he LETAS season, Cowan won the ASGI Ladies Open in Switzerland.

What makes Cowan's success on the LETAS in 2015 more impressive is that she earned these two victories while still an amateur. In the latest World Amateur Golf Rankings she is No. 18.