HSBC Women's Champions All Set

Michelle Wie

Yani Tseng, who has bagged four titles in a row so far this year, sets out in the company of Cristie Kerr and Na Yeon Choi in tomorrow's opening round of the HSBC Champions at Tanah Merah.

Tseng is the World No. 1 of the moment but she is well aware that players like Kerr and Choi, each of whom had a spell in the No. 1 spot in 2010, are angling to get back to where they feel they belong.

"There are so many good players out there," said Tseng. "I'm just going to have to keep working hard and to keep winning if I'm to stay ahead of them all."

However, though everyone assumes that the stress of winning so much in such a short period of time will catch up with her before too long, Tseng gives the impression that she is still as relaxed as she was at the start of the season. She says that she does not carry the pressure forward from one week to the next - and that it is her intention to have fun on the Garden Course. Certainly, she was doing just that as she featured among the morning starters in today's pro-am.

The Tseng trio, which departs the first tee at 10.08 tomorrow, is sandwiched between two equally watchable parties.

I. K. Kim, Karrie Webb and Paula Creamer are in the group directly in front, with Jiyai Shin, Ai Miyazato and Michelle Wie right behind.

Wie, who will finish her degree at Stanford in 2012, had a spell with David Leadbetter at the start of this year and was playing well enough in Thailand last week to finish second to Tseng as the latter was making off with the fourth of her 2011 trophies. Wie was up there with the Taiwanese golfer over the first nine holes of the final round but could not get the putts to drop on the second half.

Singapore's 22-year-old Christabel Goh sets off a little earlier than all of the above - at 9.13 to be precise - in the company of Eun-Hee Ji and Inbee Park. Goh, who has based herself in the States, is the first women golfer on the island to make a name for herself since that local legend, Kee Bee Kim, won comfortably over 30 Singapore Island Amateur championships and represented her country in top amateur events all over the world.

Meanwhile, tennis fans will enjoy casting an eye over Jessica Korda, the daughter of Petr Korda, a former finalist in the Australian Open. Jessica finished second in the LPGA's December Qualifying school and is appearing in what is only her second event as a professional. She slipped down the field with closing rounds of 78 and 75 in Thailand last weekend but was putting things to rights on the Tanah Merah practice ground first thing on Monday morning.

The Garden Course is in exquisite shape for the competitors, some of whom are obviously going to feel more deserving than others of the red-carpet treatment which awaits at the end of the penultimate hole.

LPGA Tour Championship

Six different LPGA Tour players - Jiyai Shin (South Korea),Suzann Pettersen (Norway), Cristie Kerr (United States), Yani Tseng (Taiwan), Na Yeon Choi (South Korea) andAi Miyazato (Japan) - are fighting to the end for the most coveted awards on the LPGA Tour. The battle forRolex Rankings No. 1, Rolex Player of the Year, Vare Trophy and the LPGA money title will culminate at the season-finale LPGA Tour Championship at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Florida, December 2nd -5th, 2010. 

With one event remaining on the LPGA Tour schedule, Shin, Pettersen, Kerr, Tseng, Choi and Miyazato remain tightly wound in the fight for the No. 1 position in the Rolex Rankings. Despite not competing this week, Shin maintained the No. 1 spot for the third consecutive week. She holds a .49 margin over No. 2 Pettersen who jumped up three spots in the Rankings after claiming her sixth runner-up finish in 2010 at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Kerr, who has made three separate trips to the top spot this year, is No. 3. Tseng is No. 4. Relative newcomer to the mix Choi is No. 5, while the world's former No. 1 for 11 weeks this season Miyazato is No. 6. The battle for No. 1 has been hotly contested all season and has changed hands nine times between three players (Shin, Kerr and Miyazato) since Lorena Ochoa retired in May.

Five of the six players (Tseng, Miyazato, Choi, Kerr and Shin) in the Rolex Rankings No. 1 race also have a chance to still claim the Rolex Player of the Year award. Since winning her second major championship of the year at the RICOH Women's British Open, Tseng has been the race's front-runner. Tseng, who did not earn points this week in Mexico, yielded some ground to Miyazato, Kerr and Choi. Kerr made the biggest gain earning seven points for finishing tied for fourth. Miyazato picked up five points for sixth, while Choi secured four points for her tie for seventh-place showing. Rolex Player of the Year points are only awarded to players finishing in the top 10. A win carries a point value of 30.

Choi holds the lead in the remaining two year-ending LPGA contests - Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average and the LPGA official money list. Choi is averaging 69.77 strokes per round, a mere .09 lower than Kerr, making the Vare Trophy contest nearly a dead heat. Two other players own scoring averages below 70.00 - Pettersen (69.92) and Shin (69.95), while seven additional players are averaging less than 71.00 strokes per round. The last time more than one LPGA player finished the season with a scoring average below 70.00 was in 2006, when Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam finished one, two in the race.

The battle for the LPGA official money list title has come down to a two-player race between Choi and Shin. Choi holds a slim $34,790 lead over Shin who is attempting to win back-to-back money titles. Shin was both the LPGA money leader and Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 2009.

While Spain's Azahara Munoz already clinched the 2010 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race, runner-up honours are still up for grabs. Beatriz Recari (Spain), Gwladys Nocera (France) and Amanda Blumenherst (United States) currently stand within 19 points of one another for second place.

Full report

Pettersen Leads in Ochoa Invitational

Suzann Pettersen shot a 3-under 69 to post at 12-under and take a one-shot lead into the final round of $1.1 million Lorena Ochoa Invitational Presented by Banamex and Corona Light at Guadalajara Country Club in Mexico. 

A group of four players will give chase from 11-under - In-Kyung Kim (68), Ai Miyazato (68), Karine Icher (68) and Stacy Lewis (69). Second-round leader Paula Creamer (72) is two shots back.

Pettersen got off to a quick start, birdying her first two holes to take the lead. She added birdies on six and nine to post an outward 4-under 32. But after a birdie on 10 earned her a three-shot lead, she dropped shots on 15 and 16 to come back to the field. "It's just a roller coaster out there," Pettersen said. "I made some really good birdies, and made a few sloppy on swings on the few bogeys that I made. But I made a good putt on the last and that kind of helped me get my momentum going for tomorrow. I've been feeling really good on the greens and making some nice putts."

Pettersen is one clear on a crowded leaderboard - there are four players one back and another two back. 

"If there's that many people that close, some of them will go low," she said. "You can't really look back. Just try and look ahead and try and bring it home." Pettersen's four for nine with the lead or a share of the lead entering the final round.

Pettersen has five second-place finishes this year and is hoping to not compile her sixth Sunday. "I've been in this situation a lot," she said. "Hopefully my experience from previous tournaments this year can help me play well tomorrow."

Pettersen said a win would be sweetened by the fact that this tournament is hosted by one of the game's greatest ambassadors and such a well-liked player. "She has done so much for golf and for kids here in México," she said. "To be here and playing on her course, it would be a very, very nice win if I can pull it off tomorrow."

Ai Miyazato birdied the 18th hole to become the second of four players to post at 11-under. Miyazato is close friends with Ochoa - Ochoa hand-picked her and Natalie Gulbis to play with her in the first two rounds of her farewell tournament at the Tres Marias Championship - a fact that might make a win Sunday even sweeter for her. 

"That would be great," she said. "But you never know what's going to happen, because with the top ten players, it's getting really close right now. So I need to keep playing good and just need to be patient. One more day."

Tournament hostess Lorena Ochoa improved again Saturday, shooting a 3-under 69 to get to 2-under overall. Her round featured six birdies, four of them on the back nine.

Rookie Recari Wins LPGA event

Ladies European Tour member Beatriz Recari from Spain became a Rolex First-Time Winner on the LPGA on Sunday when she shot a final-round, 2-under 70 to finish 14-under and win the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge at Blackhawk Country Club in Danville, California, by one shot over Gwladys Nocera. 

Nocera of France, also a rookie on the LPGA, came to the 18th hole three shots down, but after she birdied and Recari bogeyed the 17th hole, the lead was one. Recari, needing par, avoided the water guarding the front of the green and two-putted for the win. Recari (68-66-70-70=274, -14) became the first rookie to win on the LPGA this year. She is also the first Spaniard to win on the LPGA since Marta Figueras-Dotti at the 1994 Cup Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Open.

“I saw that,” Recari said, when asked whether she knew she needed to par 18 to win. “I just had to put myself in position where I could have easy two putts, and I did, so I'm very, very proud.”

With the win, Recari moved from fifth to third in the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race. With her solo second-place finish, Nocera moves to second. Nocera can still catch leader Azahara Munoz; Recari cannot. 

Recari, the 2009 Finnair Masters champion, drew on a once-in-a-lifetime experience she had earlier this month when she rode in an IndyCar two-seater with motorsports legend Mario Andretti. Recari took a 200 mph ride with Andretti around Homestead – Miami Speedway prior to the IZOD IndCary Series’ last race of the 2010 season. “I felt like that was a great experience coming before this tournament because I believe I had so much adrenaline and then I just felt so calm when I was standing on the putt,” she said. “That was a crazy experience. I was very, very lucky or honoured to have such an experience.”

America’s Michelle Redman and another Frenchwoman, Karine Icher tied for third at the tournament.

Wie Leads Canadian Open

Michelle Wie carded a 7-under-par 65 Thursday to take a three shot lead after the opening-round of the 2010 CN Canadian Women’s Open at St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg. 


After making the turn at 3-under-par, the 20-year old holed a 5-iron from 181 yards for the second LPGA ace of her career.  The hole-in-one on No. 11 propelled Wie to 5-under-par to that point giving her sole possession of the lead.  Despite a bogey at No. 12, she rallied with three birdies in her final six holes, including the 17th hole where she holed out from the greenside bunker. 


“I just went out there and tried to go out there and have fun and focus on every shot,” Wie said following her round. “I didn't really think about my score. I just went out there and tried to hit every shot as best I could. The crowds were awesome.  The people out there were cheering pretty loudly. It was just really fun today.” 


Wie holds the first-round lead for the second time in her career dating back to the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open, where she went on to tie for 23rd.


Sarah Kemp took the early lead with a 4-under-par 68 and now trails Wie by three shots. The 25-year-old Australian is searching for her first top-10 as a member of the LPGA. 


“You just gotta stay patient, and I think that's what I've learned over the years,” she said.  “Good things are going to happen if you just keep putting yourself in situations.”  


Kemp shined as an amateur in Australia before joining the Ladies European Tour (LET).  A rookie on the LPGA in 2008, Kemp’s career-best finish came at the 2009 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic where she tied for 12th.


Defending CN Canadian Women’s Open champion and Rolex Rankings No. 3 Suzann Pettersen put herself in contention to defend her title and earn her first victory of 2010 by recording four birdies and a bogey en route to a 3-under par 69.  The six-time LPGA Tour winner is currently four-strokes behind Wie heading into Friday’s second round.


If not for a ball-snatching tree on hole 16, Alexis Thompson’s day might have been a bit more enjoyable.  The 15-year-old shot 1-under-par 71 on Thursday, but it was her seventh hole of the day – the 395-yard, par-4 16th – that left her in disbelief when her drive flew into a tree and never came down.  


She returned to the tee and finished the hole with double bogey, derailing an otherwise promising start.  Thompson salvaged an under-par day with the help of an eagle at the 503-yard, par-5 fifth hole where she hit seven-iron to 15 feet.


There’s no place like home for Toronto’s Seema Sadekar.  The 25-year old, who now lives in Las Vegas, NV, fired an opening-round 1-over par 73 to lead the pack of 14 Canadians in this week’s field.


Sunny skies and windy conditions helped to make St. Charles Country Club a nail biting test for 46 of the top 50 LPGA professionals on Thursday.  With temperatures in the low 80’s and wind gusts up to 45 kph, the already firm Winnipeg golf course was all the more difficult.  Balls were hopping on the greens and skidding through fairways with only 24 of the 156-player field finishing the day in red numbers. Tomorrow calls for mostly sunny skies with windy and warm conditions.

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