Yani Tseng
LPGA Tour action continues this week at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the year's first major championship. A field of 113 players will battle it out for the honour of hoisting the Dinah Shore Trophy and taking the celebratory dive into Poppy's Pond. Defending champion and Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng will attempt to win her fourth career major championship at the 40th anniversary of the prestigious championship.
Tseng has already won four times world-wide in 2011 including the season-opening Honda LPGA Thailand. Tseng fired rounds of 69-71-67-68 at the 2010 Kraft Nabisco Championship for a one-stroke victory over perennial Kraft contender and Rolex Rankings No. 5 Suzann Pettersen. Pettersen has posted three runner-up finishes in three of the last four editions of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Tseng and Pettersen will be joined by the world's best players including top-ranked American and Rolex Rankings No. 3 Cristie Kerr, Rolex Rankings No. 8 and two-time 2011 LPGA Tour winner Karrie Webb and last week's Rolex First-Time Winner Sandra Gal. Kerr is searching for her first Kraft Nabisco title to add a third leg in her quest for the LPGA career Grand Slam, while Webb looks to notch her eighth career major championship title.
The field is packed with powerful challengers including Rolex Rankings No. 2 Jiyai Shin, Na Yeon Choi, Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Laura Davies and LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame member Juli Inkster. Players will compete for a total purse of $2 million and a first-place prize of $300,000.
The 18th hole on the Dinah Shore Course has provided plenty of drama throughout the tournament's 40-year history. In recent years, Brittany Lincicome won the 2010 championship with an eagle on the par-5 finishing hole after reaching the difficult green in two. Morgan Pressel became the youngest player in LPGA history to win an LPGA major with an emotional one-stroke victory over Brittany Lincicome, Catriona Matthew and Suzann Pettersen at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco, while Karrie Webb holed a spectacular wedge on the 72nd hole of the 2006 championship which led to a play-off win against Lorena Ochoa.
Eight former Kraft Nabisco champions are in the field this week - Yani Tseng (2010), Brittany Lincicome (2009), Morgan Pressel (2007), Karrie Webb (2006, 2000), Grace Park (2004), Pat Hurst (1998), Helen Alfredsson (1993) and Juli Inkster (1989).
Six amateurs will compete this week - Kristen Park, Cydney Clanton, Ariya Jutanugarn, Danielle Kang, Lisa McCloskey and Meghan Stasi. The best finish by an amateur in Kraft Nabisco Championship history is a fourth-place finish recorded by Caroline Keggi in 1998 and Michelle Wie in 2003.
Eleven players gained entry into this week's field via their performances at the Kia Classic including Marcy Hart who fired a final-round 65 to tie for seventh in only her second start after giving birth to her first child, LPGA Tour rookies Christel Boeljon and Stephanie Sherlock, and Mindy Kim who posted two top-10 finishes in her last two starts.
