Will Webb resurrect her season with Mizuno win?
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2007 Mizuno Classic | Preview | 01 Nov 2007
The Mizuno Classic in Japan this week provides an opportunity for Karrie Webb to at least partially resurrect her 2007 season when she defends the title she won by one shot over Japan’s Kaori Higo last year.
Despite still being the world number two golfer, Webb is languishing in 22nd place on the LPGA Tour money list without a win in the US in 2007.
After a start to the year where she was twice a winner in Australia, Webb has recorded only five top tens but this week on a golf course which was used for the first occasion when she won the event last year, she may well improve.
Her most recent starts three weeks ago saw her record two solid finishes and she may well be approaching some good form. Webb’s problem may be however that she has not played a tournament for three weeks.
With Lorena Ochoa and Suzann Pettersen giving the field a chance by not playing this week, it is a particularly open contest with even Annika Sorenstam, a winner of this event on five consecutive occasions from 2001, not present.
Laura Davies put the upmost pressure on the game’s hottest player, Suzann Pettersen, while in Thailand last week and might have a chance to go one better. 34 of the 78 strong field are members of the Japan Ladies Golf Tour including their hottest players in 2007, Momoko Ueda and Sakura Yokomine.
The Australians other than Webb are headed by Rachel Hetherington, who did well last week in Thailand when 4th. Lindsey Wright, Wendy Doolan and Katherine Hull are also in the event representing the USLPGA Tour while Nikki Campbell and Tamie Durdin, who both play the Japan Ladies Golf Tour, get one of their few chances to play an LPGA event.
The tournament has a purse of US$1.4 million.
