Tight battle as LPGA hits Arkansas
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2010 NW Arkansas Championship | Preview | 08 Sep 2010
The LPGA Tour has moved to Arkansas for this week’s P&G NW Arkansas Championship with Ai Miyazato still atop the world rankings despite an indifferent 15th place finish in Canada two weeks ago.
Miyazato heads the world rankings but she trails the money list leader in 2010, Ji Yai Shin, by US$60,000 heading into the final eight events of the year. Miyazato has put together five wins this season but although Yani Tseng is the only other multiple winner in 2010, it is the consistency of several other golfers that make this season’s race for money list honours so tight.
Shin has a handy break atop the money list table but only US$110,000 separates the next five players. Miyazato, Na Yeon Choi, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr and Tseng are those five players with that group the only players with earnings over US$1 million to date in 2010.
All six get the chance to further their cause this week at the Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers in Arkansas where Shin will defend the title she won in a playoff last year.
Suzann Pettersen has yet to win in 2010 but her great consistency has her within striking distance of topping both the money list and world rankings.
Na Yeon Choi has finished inside the top ten in her last two visits to this event and given her amazing level of consistency it would not surprise if she was to win her second tournament of the year this week. In addition to her win in Ohio earlier in the season, Choi has been four times runner up and once third this season.
Australians in the field are Karrie Webb, Katherine Hull, Lindsey Wright, Sarah Kemp, Sarah-Jane Smith, Anna Rawson and Michelle Ellis who earned her way into the field via Monday qualifying.
