Last chance to tune up for Solheim
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2002 Safeway Classic | Preview | 09 Sep 2002
In what will be the last opportunity for many of the team members for next week’s Solheim Cup to fine tune their game a high quality field is taking their place in Portland, Oregon this week for the Safeway Classic.
Mi Hyun Kim is the defending champion although she won it in 2000. The reason for that of course was that it was this week last year when September 11th impacted on this and many other sporting events.
What a field with only Se Ri Pak misssing from the top ten players with Sorenstam, Webb, Inkster, Kim, Grace Park, Rachel Teske, Laura Diaz and Hee Won Han all there.
Other Australians Mills, Ellis, Waugh, Stephenson, Doolan, Crafter, Lunn, Durdin and Pike are also expected to line up. Interesting additions in the field are European Ladies Tour players Karine Icher and Suzann Pettersen, both of whom are through first stage qualifying for next year’s LPGA Tour. They are also Solheim Cup players.
This event represents the final chance for those contending for Rookie of the Year honours. Beth Bauer’s tie for fifth this past week in Tulsa now means that the only way she can lose the title is for Natalie Gulbis to win and for her to miss the cut. I’d suggest she is fairly safe.
