Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, Calif. will play host at the fifth-annual Kia Classic, where 144 players will compete for a $1.7 million purse and a $255,000 first place check.
Beatriz Recari will return to the site of her second LPGA Tour victory when she defeated I.K. Kim in dramatic fashion on the second sudden-death playoff hole a year ago. The win sparked the Spaniard’s strong 2013 campaign that included two wins and a spot on the victorious European Solheim Cup Team.
World Golf and LPGA Halls of Famer Karrie Webb will tee it up with week and will be fresh off her 41st career victory and second of the season at the JTBC Founders Cup last week in Phoenix. The win jumped Webb into a tie for 10th on the all-time wins list with Babe Zaharias and pushed her to No. 5 in the Rolex Rankings.
Webb now leads the Race to the CME Globe with 1,242 points and is trailed by American Paula Creamer who won the HSBC Women’s Champions earlier this month in Singapore.
Rolex Rankings No. 1 Inbee Park, No. 2 Suzann Pettersen, No. 3 Stacy Lewis and No. 4 Lydia Ko will also compete at Aviara Golf Club and continue to fight for the top spot in the Rolex Rankings. Eighteen out of the top 20 players in the world rankings will be in action.
Other past champions Hee Kyung Seo (2010), Sandra Gal (2011) and Yani Tseng (2012) will try to become the first two-time winner of the event.