The LPGA heads to Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y., this week for the Wegmans LPGA Championship. This is one of the five biggest events on the LPGA tour - the fourth year it's been a major. The second of five majors on the LPGA schedule.
It’s the second-longest running tournament is LPGA history, surpassed only by the U.S. Women’s Open. But it’s not recognized by the Ladies European Tour as a major. In fact, the Ladies European Tour does not recognize any of the three majors played in the United States.
Pittsford will welcome the best women golfers in the world this week. The top 50 players in the money list are present to play for the $337,500 winner’s share of a total purse for the tournament that stands at $2.25 million.
The tournament moved to Locust Hill, a longtime regular LPGA Tour stop, in 2010 after five years at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, MD. It will be the fourth consecutive year that the tournament will be played at this beautiful venue in Rochester, NY. It takes lots of time and lots of help to get Locust Hill Country Club's greens in mint condition but is ready.
The Locust Hill Country Club plays at a par-72 and 6,532 yards long. The first two years it was played here, the wins were via blowouts. American Cristie Kerr (19-under) won in 2010 by 12 strokes and in 2011, Taiwan’s Yani Tseng (19-under) won her second LPGA Championship by 10 strokes.
Last year, China’s Shanshan Feng won by two strokes and became the first Chinese player to win an LPGA Tour title and a major event. She closed with a final round of five-under 67 to dramatically rally and win with a total score of six-under-par.
She is poised to defend her title and comes from a hard fought second-place finish loss at the ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey this past weekend. Australian Hall of Famer Karrie Webb got the win, her first LPGA Tour title in two years, rallying for a two-stroke victory over Feng. The Australian now has 39 tour victories and has been sitting at seven majors since she last won the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship
Webb is riding her momentum and knows what it takes to win a major championship.
The world’s No. 1, Inbee Park, won the first major of the season the Kraft Nabisco Championship, but was forced to withdraw with an injury to her right hand four weeks ago in Japan. She has been steadily getting her game back to the level that we all know from her, and she is one of the top players to contend for the championship.
In fact, Asian players have won the last eight major championships, including completing its first sweep of the majors in women’s golf, winning all four in a single season for the first time last year.
Stacy Lewis, Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer are the big three looking to end the major drought for the Americans.
Lewis is ranked No. 2 in the Rolex World Rankings, but comes off a T-58th at eight-over. Lewis had shot a nine-over 80 on Saturday, matching her worst round since the third round of U.S. Women's Open last year. Not a good omen for this year, but Lewis is really playing outstanding golf.
Kerr, a two-time major winner and winner here in 2010, could be a good bet to end the drought and take home the win. Last month, she won the Kingsmill Championship on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Suzann Pettersen and has been playing very good golf lately.
Creamer has yet to win in 2013. And despite generally playing very well at Locust Hill, she has not finished atop the leaderboard at the Wegmans LPGA Championship. But in her last nine starts she has finished in the Top 15 and two Top Five among those finishes.
Suzann Pettersen won in 2006 by one stroke over Webb. But that was at the Bulle Rock Golf Course, a different kind of monster. She may be playing the hottest golf on the tour right now and should be contending on Sunday.
Another previous winner of this tournament that seems to be knocking on the door lately and could be a factor this weekend is Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist. Her last three finishes have been T-9th, T-4th, solo third and T-13th, plus she fired a 61 on the third round of the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic.
The youngsters contingent, Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko, Ariya Jutanugarn and Jessica Korda should be all systems go this weekend. But plenty of veterans as well that could have the last word.
Other players to watch for are Na Yeon Choi and Yani Tseng. Choi hasn't won this year, but she has four top-10s and is 11th on the money list. She is already a major winner, she won the U.S. Women's Open last year and that experience will serve her well.
Tseng, a five-time major winner, has won this event twice, once over this course, tying the women’s major low score. She has been battling with tonsillitis, but expects to be playing on Thursday and a win would go a long way in helping her regain the top player status she once held.
The Wegmans LPGA Championship looks like it will come down to the final hole on Sunday. Don’t miss on any of the action, the Golf Channel has you covered with all the action from Locust Hill. The coverage schedule will be:
Thursday: 12:30-3:00 p.m.
Friday: 2:30-4:30 a.m., 12:30-3:00 p.m.
Saturday: 2:30-4:30 a.m., 3:00-7:00 p.m.
Sunday: 4:30-6:30 a.m., 3:00-7:00 p.m.
For a very interesting interview with Kraig Kann, the LPGA Chief Communications Office, where he talks all things LPGA, you can access eDraft.com’s Back Nine Report show from this Tuesday June 4th.
The tour is off next week. Play will resume June 21-23 when Ai Miyazato will defend her title at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G.