LPGA back to work at Safeway Classic
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2005 Safeway Classic | Preview | 18 Aug 2005
The LPGA returns to action this week in Portland, Oregon where they will play the Safeway Classic.
It has been three weeks since the LPGA last played an event, that being the British Open Championship although several of their members have played in Europe and Japan. Annika Sorenstam added to her amazing total of worldwide victories with a win at her own sponsored event in Sweden and in Japan, Paula Creamer defeated the local hero Ai Miyazato to win the Karuizawa event there.
This week’s event is being played a month or so earlier than it has been in recent years and perhaps disappointingly the two-time winner of the event and course record holder, Annika Sorenstam, will not be here.
The Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland was originally built in 1925 and designed then by A.V. Macan. Robert Muir Graves redesigned the course in 1966, followed by William F. Bell in 1970, Bob Cupp in 1992 and in 2002 Arthur Hills put the course through a major redesign. It now measures 6300 yards for this event and carries a par of 72.
With Sorenstam not here, the female game’s other hottest property, Paul Creamer, is the favourite. Her win in Japan was her third victory in her rookie season although of course that win was not an LPGA event. She has also had a runner up placing and she currently sits in second place on the 2005 money list.
The number three on the money list in 2005, Lorena Ochoa, is also here. Her recent form is a little mixed but with a win and four runner-up placings in 2005, she must be considered. She was 10th here last year.
Recent British Open winner Jeong Jang will also play and, having been 15th here last year, she is well positioned to follow up, especially now having had the chance to absorb the enormity of her win at Royal Birkdale.
Christie Kerr is having a great season and was third here in 2003.
Defending champion, Hee Won Han, has done enough this season to suggest that successfully repeating is not out of the question.
Australians in the event are Karrie Webb, Rachel Hetherington, Wendy Doolan, Katherine Hull, Nadina Taylor and Lindsey Wright.
The tournament carries a purse of US$1.4 million.
