Webb primed for Longs Drugs defence
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2007 Longs Drugs Challenge | Preview | 04 Oct 2007
Despite the fact that she has yet to win on this year’s USLPGA Tour, Australian Karrie Webb looks well placed to defend the Longs Drugs Challenge title she won narrowly twelve months ago.
Webb started her year well with consecutive victories in Australia but she was beating only mediocre fields when doing so. Back on the LPGA Tour, other than a third place in Hawaii in the first event of the season and her very good runner up to Suzann Pettersen at the LPGA Championship there has been little to get excited about by her standards.
Last week in Alabama she finished in 5th place behind her Ian Triggs stablemate, Maria Hjorth, and might be improving at just the right time to successful defend her one shot victory over Annika Sorenstam last year.
“I haven’t putted nearly as well as I did last year, and then you lose a little bit of confidence and get in that rut of not doing the good mental work again,” said Webb in a post round interview. “That’s where the difference is this year for me I think. I thought I did a good job mentally last week, which was good after a three week break.”
“I got a good feel going and made some of my putts. So it was a good warm up I think for this week. Obviously I have good feelings for this tournament, and to have had such a positive week last week I hope I can really carry that into this week.”
The event was played at the Blackhawk Country Club in Danville in California for the first time last year and given the quality of the players who appeared at the top of the leaderboard by week’s end in 2006, it is a good sign in terms of the capacity of the golf course to produce quality winners.
The course was designed by Australain, Bruce Devlin, and Robert Von Hagge in 1982 but was extensively redesigned in 1999 by Damian Pascuzzo.
Webb was forced to withstand a spirited final round challenge from Sorenstam last year but with no Sorenstam this year, the biggest challenge for Webb and every other player in the field this week will come from the game’s hottest player, Lorena Ochoa.
Ochoa finished fourth last year and given the dominant form she is in at present, Webb will need to be at her best to hold her out. Ochoa could only manage third last week in Alabama but she was returning form a lengthy break and will be better for her outing last week.
Maria Hjorth finished 8th in this event last year and while it will be hard to follow up the significant win she had last week, she clearly has a liking for this layout. She is a much better player than she was at that point – the only real hurdle she needs to overcome is the letdown factor.
The number two player on the 2007 LPGA Tour money list, Suzann Pettersen, has played well in one or two events in Europe of late including a win in Sweden and has played her last two LPGA Tour events well. She is a class player and appears to be a big chance this week.
Only Webb, Rachel Hetherington, Wendy Doolan and Katherine Hull represent Australia this week.
