Samsung "World" Championship tees off
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2009 Samsung World Championship | Preview | 16 Sep 2009
The LPGA Tour is in California this week for the rather grandly named Samsung World Championship where a field of twenty players will play for US$1 million.
The field brings together players from various categories although given that the qualifying criteria is weighted heavily towards the LPGA Tour, the naming of the event as a World Championship is somewhat misleading.
Women’s golf now have a world ranking system in place although according to the selection criteria no use of that has been made in the makeup of the field. One place is allocated for the leader of the Ladies European Tour money list although that goes to LPGA Tour player and previous winner of this event Sophie Gustafson.
No players from the Japan Ladies Tour or Korean Ladies Tour are included in the field, Shinobu Moromizato is surely deserving of a place in the field given her 18th placed ranking in women’s golf and that she has won six events on the Japan Ladies Tour this season.
It would make sense to include one player from the European, Korean and Japan Ladies Tours not otherwise exempt. Then Samsung could perhaps get away with calling it a World Championship.
What the organisers have done right however is to take the event to a world class venue, the South Course at Torrey Pines, one of the great courses of American golf. 15 months ago the venue witnessed one of the gutsiest wins in the history of the US Open when an injured Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate in an 18 hole playoff.
This week’s field does include all ten of the leading players in the world and now that Suzann Pettersen has finally won in season 2009, she and the brilliant Ji Yai Shin deserve favouritism.
Pettersen was joint third in this event last year behind Paula Creamer and was 5th in 2007 while in her only start in the event Ji Yai Shin finished 8th last year, one poor round costing her a winning chance.
Shin regained the lead on the 2009 ADT money list with her win in Arkansas last week and few would be surprised if she made it win number for the season this week.
Two time winner Lorena Ochoa has threatened in recent starts to regain to the form she had earlier in the season, a better week at the Canadian Open two weeks ago suggesting that she may soon return to the winners’ circle.
Australians in the field are Karrie Webb and Lindsey Wright. Webb is in the field due to her Hall of Fame category and Wright because of her money list position.
