The LPGA Tour season may be only six weeks old, but Karrie Webb is already experiencing her second title defense this week.
The Hall of Famer won two of last season’s first five tournaments last year and returns to Phoenix this week as defending champion of the $1.5 million JTBC Founders Cup. Webb’s triumph a year ago was the awesome Aussie’s second victory at the event, as she also won in 2011, and the tournament also boasts Stacy Lewis (2013) and Yani Tseng (2012) as past champions.
Webb obviously enjoys the Wildfire Golf Club at JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, Lewis has been in top form so far this season and Tseng has perhaps recaptured some of the game that took her to the No. 1 world ranking, so it should be an interesting weekend in the desert. Current world No. 1 Lydia Ko and fellow 2015 tournament winners Na Yeon Choi, Sei Young Kim and Amy Yang of the Republic of Korea will also tee it up this week in Phoenix.
The stacked field also includes stars Michelle Wie, Jessica Korda, Ariya Jutanugarn, and Beatriz Recari, as well as Hall of Famers Se Ri Pak, Juli Inkster and Laura Davies, so fans should have no problem finding accomplished players to follow.
The tournament’s first four champions averaged 18-under-par, so birdies should be plentiful on the 6,583-yard course. Speaking of going low, Webb closed out last year’s victory with a 9-under 63 to edge the star-studded group of Ko, Lewis, Yang, Azahara Munoz and Mirim Lee by a single stroke.
This special event was designed to pay tribute to the women who blazed a trail for women golfers by founding the LPGA in 1950. This year’s pioneers are Hall of Famers Judy Rankin and Donna Caponi, as well as 19-time LPGA tournament champion Sandra Palmer.
They join Kathy Whitworth and Renee Powell (2014), Carol Mann and JoAnne Carner (2013) and Mickey Wright, Betsy Rawls, Barbara Romack and Peggy Kirk Bell (2012) as honorees.
This week kicks off a three-event stretch that culminates with the season’s first major, the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, Calif., April 2-5, where Lexi Thompson is the defending champion. After a week in Phoenix, the Tour moves on to Carlsbad, Calif., for the Kia Classic, March 26-29, with Anna Nordqvist defending her title.
At that point, the season will be one quarter in the books, and points races for honors such as Rolex Player of the Year will begin to come into focus. It all begins this week with a birdie barrage in the desert.
)
)
)
)
