Category: LPGA

Annika Sorenstam will defend her title this week at the 2005 Safeway International from Superstition Mountain, Arizona. This will be one of eight title defenses for Sorenstam who won her first tournament of 2005 at the Mastercard Classic Tournament. Sorenstam plays exceptionally well at this event. Last year, Annika boasted a four-shot win over Cristie Kerr. And, in 2001, Annika became the first woman to card a 59 during the second round of the tournament. Perhaps being a graduate of the University of Arizona makes her feel comfortable when she is playing at this event.

Cristie Kerr is among the players looking to dethrone Annika. Last week, Cristie tied for third place after leading through to the final round of the tournament. With a second place finish at the LPGA opener, the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, Kerr is only $18,000 short of first place on the 2005 ADT Official Money List.

Continue reading “Sorenstam Defends Win at Safeway International”

Annika Sorenstam fired a four-under 68 today to take the lead from Cristie Kerr and proclaim victory at the 2005 Mastercard Tournament from Mexico City. Karrie Webb, twice player of the year and with 32 career wins, finished in second place. “I’ve probably worked harder over the last couple of years than I have ever worked on the Tour” remarked Webb in a recent interview.

Lorena Ochoa rallied to fifth place after coming back from a 27th place tie on Friday. Ochoa, the 23-year-old darling of Mexican golf and two-time LPGA tour winner, is the first Mexican-born champion on the LPGA Tour. At the end of 2004, Ochoa made a pledge that in 2005 she would improve her position and topple number one seed Annika Sorenstam. “I think I need to remain consistent with where I am and try to shorten the distance that Annika has over me. I want to get closer and closer to give her more of a fight,” Ochoa states in a recent LPGA.com interview.

Continue reading “Annika Rules at 2005 Mastercard Tournament”

After making its debut in Hawaii, the LPGA will jetset down to Mexico for the first ever MasterCard Classic. This tournament goes hand-in-hand with the Open de Mexico Femenil, a golf event played in January 2005 in Mexico. The idea of the Open was to select up to six Amateur Mexican Female Golfers to participate and contend with the best players in the LPGA.

By far the biggest draw for the tournament will be Annika Sorenstam who makes her first start in 2005 as she attempts to defend her four straight money titles. The tournament will also be the debut of Australian Karrie Webb, a sure fire candidate for the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame. Webb needs just nine more starts this year to fulfill the eligibility requirement of 10-years active membership on the LPGA. While these two will be very popular, look for hometown hero Lorena Ochoa to garner quite a bit of attention throughout the tournament.

Continue reading “MasterCard Classic Tournament”

The LPGA kicked off the year with its first full-field event, the SBS Open. The final round concluded today and it was Jennifer Rosales who finished on top despite late round charges by both Michelle Wie and Cristie Kerr. Rosales finished the three round event with a final score of -9. J-Ro took advantage of optimal scoring conditions in the first round and jumped out to an early -7 lead. In the second and third rounds, the Hawaiian trade winds picked up and made scoring much more difficult. Rosales outlasted the competition thanks to rounds of 69 and 72 to seal her second victory on the LPGA Tour.

Although Rosales’s victory was big news, the spotlight was shining squarely on the youngsters. Paula Creamer made her first start as a professional on the LPGA Tour, and 15 year-old Michelle Wie made her second start since teeing it up with the men at the Sony Open.

Continue reading “J-Ro Dances Through SBS Open”

AP news sources are reporting that LPGA superstar Annika Sorenstam has filed for divorce from David Esch, her husband of eight years.

“I want to confirm that I have filed for divorce,” Sorenstam said in a statement. “We are working toward an amicable resolution and we appreciate the media’s respect for our privacy. I wish David nothing but the best for the future.” In other words, bug off.

The divorce was filed February 4 in Circuit Court of Orange County. The suit is sealed and no other information is available.

Sorenstam, who has talked in the past about retiring early to start a family, is at this moment formulating a new plan. Will she stay on tour long enough to break Kathy Whitworth’s record of 88 career LPGA victories? We don’t know. Annika currently has 56.

Said David Esch about Annika, “that’s the problem with driven women… sometimes they drive right over you.” Okay, so he didn’t really say that. But it would have been funny if he had. More at pga.com.

Photo Credit: © Unknown

Michelle Wie. Yeah, you thought we were done talking about her, right? Psych! Wie has accepted an invitation to play in the Evian Masters in France and, because of a new policy in LPGA Tour rules, she’ eligible to play in the Women’s British Open as well. Those starts would bump Wie’s LPGA Tour start tally to eight and would include all four majors.

B.J. Wie confirmed the news late yesterday: that his daughter had received a sponsor’s exemption to the Evian Masters for a second straight year. Golfweek is quoting someone close to the Ladies Golf Union saying that Wie could be offered one of the two spots available to top amateurs for the British Open. LGU chief Andy Salmon said that Wie’s invitation is “being given due consideration” only at this time.

B.J.’s hopes remain high. “We hope to play back-to-back tournaments,” he said. The Evian Masters is played the week before the British Open. The two women’s Opens – US and British – do not acount against the six sponsor’s exemptions a player is allowed to use on the LPGA Tour.

Wie tied for 33rd at last year’s Evian Masters, the only time she missed the top 20 in seven LPGA starts.

Photo Credit: © Unknown.

The commissioner of the LPGA tour, Ty Votaw has announced today that he will resign after the 2005 season. Votaw has been the commissioner of the LPGA tour for the past seven years. During his tenure, the tour has seen unprecedented growth. Before Votaw, the average purse of an LPGA tour event was $840,000 and only 12 tournaments had total purses of over $1 million. Now, the LPGA has 30 tournaments with total purses over $1 million and the average tournament purse has risen to $1.4 million. Votaw’s decision came as a surprise to many, considering the popularity of the LPGA with superstars like Annika Sorenstam and no shortage of talent from youngsters like Paula Creamer. Still, Votaw has decided to leave on top, “I feel very much at peace with this decision. I feel very good about having given the LPGA everything I’ve got, and I feel good about the results.”

Continue reading “Ty Votaw to Step Down After 2005”

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ rookie Ben Roethlisberger has won thirteen straight games. And now he’s apparently won the heart of one very hot, hot LPGA Tour player: Natalie Gulbis. ESPN has the story.

Gulbis, soon-to-be 22 years old and called “The Anna Kournikova of Golf” (it’s true: neither Kournikova nor Gulbis has won much of anything professionally, and both are blondes, and both have their own calendars), has been dating Roethlisberger for five weeks or so. She may fly to Pittsburgh this weekend to hang out with Ben, but she’ll “definitely” be there the weekend after that.

And that’s all there is to that. But hey, because we can, here’s another Gulbis shot: