The LPGA Tour continues its Northwest swing as it crosses over the border to Coquitlam, British Columbia, just outside of Vancouver, for the second Canadian event of the year. The 12th annual CN Canadian Women’s Open will feature a field of 156 players at The Vancouver Country Club, vying for a $300,000 first-place prize.
Coming off a runner-up finish at the Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola last week, Rolex Rankings No. 18 Brittany Lincicome looks to defend her title this week in Canada. Last year’s event saw an outstanding finish by Lincicome at the Hillsdale Golf and Country Club outside of Montreal. Battling high winds and heavy rain from the remnants of Hurricane Irene, Lincicome shot a 2-under 70 on Sunday to outlast 2010 defending champ Michelle Wie and Stacy Lewis by one-stroke. Lincicome notched her fifth career victory with the win at the CN Canadian Women’s Open and captured the first multi-win season of her career.
This week will feature another strong field that contains all of the previous 2012 tournament winners and the majority of the world’s top-25 golfers. This includes, No. 1 Yani Tseng and No. 10 Mika Miyazato.
Miyazato became the sixth Rolex First-Time Winner of the 2012 season after boasting an 11-under par finish at the Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola. She held the lead in all three rounds of the 54-hole event and only needed a tap-in for par on the 18th hole to secure a 2-stroke win over Lincicome and Inbee Park. This marks her fourth top-5 finish in the last seven events and she’s also had two ties for seventh at the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic and the U.S. Women’s Open.
Tseng carded her best finish since the ShopRite LPGA Classic last week with a 6-under 210, giving her an 11th place finish. She missed three cuts in the last six events and failed to crack the top-50 at Wegmans LPGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open. Tseng will be firing on all cylinders this week as she claims her confidence is back and ready to make a move before the final major of the year.
Rookie Sydnee Michaels put her name in the spotlight last week as she carded a career-low 65 to take the lead in the first-round of the Safeway LPGA Classic. A three-round total of 207 earned her a solo seventh place finish and punched her ticket to the CME Group Titleholders.
Eight additional top-10 finishers from last week will join Michaels and Miyazato at the CN Canadian Women’s Open including South Koreans Inbee Park, Haeji Kang, So Yeon Ryu and I.K. Kim and Americans Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie.
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