By Alex Myers

Natalie Gulbis withdrew before the second round of the HSBC Champions in Singapore due to illness, according to the LPGA. Her instructor, Butch Harmon, fears it may be more serious than that.

Harmon tweeted early Friday, "Just learned both SeRi and Natalie Gulbis put in the hospital in Singapore with Malaria . Hope they both will be ok"

According to an Mike Scanlan the LPGA's director of media communications, "Se Ri does not have malaria, just flulike symptoms. Natalie is getting checked in Singapore, but has not been given a diagnosis yet."

"LPGA officials are in contact with both players," Scanlan added.

Pak didn't tee it up on Thursday. Gulbis shot an opening-round 75.

It's already been a wild week on the LPGA. On Wednesday, Ai Miyazato withdrew from the tournament after being in a five-car auto accident in Thailand over the weekend. That accident included fellow LPGA stars Paula Creamer and Suzann Pettersen, both of whom remained in the event.

Creamer told reporters before the tournament that she had "pretty bad whiplash," but she has played well and enters the weekend T-2.

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By Stina Sternberg

Before teeing it up in the pre-qualifier for this week's season-opening LPGA event, the ISPS Handa Australian Open in Yarralumla, Australia, the only Black Widows that LET rookie Daniela Holmqvist of Sweden had ever heard of were the eponymous golf spikes.

But after punching out of the rough on the fourth hole of the Royal Canberra Golf Club in Tuesday's competition, she felt a sharp stab in her ankle. When she looked down, she saw a large, black creature with a red spot on its back just above her sock line. After quickly swatting it away, she doubled over in pain.

Related: Golf's most damaging injuries

"When I told the local caddies in my group what had happened, they got very upset and said it was a Black Widow, and immediately started looking for their phones to call the medics," Holmqvist told Karin Klarstrom of Svensk Golf.

As Holmqvist's leg started to swell and the pain became intense, she made the quick decision to take matters into her own hands (she'd just been informed that a Black Widow bite can kill a child in as little as 30 minutes). She pulled a tee out of her pocket ("it was the only thing I had handy," she told Svensk Golf) and used it to cut open the wound so she could squeeze out the venom and keep it from spreading inside her body.

"A clear fluid came out," she said. "It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever done, but I had to get as much of it out of me as possible."

It appears the do-it-yourself surgery was effective. An official was called and after weighing her options, Holmqvist decided to play on, despite severe pain and some anxiety about her well-being. Medics followed her the remaining 14 holes to make sure she didn't pass out, and monitored her behavior and swelling. She finished the round without incident but shot 74, which left her out of the tournament.

"It still hurts," she told Svensk Golf later in the evening. "I don't recommend getting bitten by a Black Widow."

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PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- The buzz going into the 1999 U.S. Women's Open at Old Waverly in steamy Mississippi was about Beth Bauer, the Duke star who was expected to take the LPGA by storm. But early in the week, anyone hanging out on the practice ranged noticed the ball was jumping off the club of Grace Park with a very special sound.

"I have been thinking about it for awhile," Park said, fighting her emotions. "But after getting my health back and playing every event last year, I wanted to give it one last chance at becoming one of the top golfers again. I worked really hard, especially this last winter. But the truth was that my game just wasn't there. To be honest, it just wasn't fun. It was really painful and hard to deal with."

PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- Unlike the PGA Tour, the LPGA is in the enviable position of having a clear No. 1 player in Yani Tseng, who has a vintage Tiger Woods-like lead over the second-best player in women's golf. But what most fans don't realize is that No. 2 is Na Yeon Choi, a 24-year-old Korean who is as consistent as the ticking of a clock, with a repeating swing that is just as reliable.

Choi knows all about being second to Tseng. In 2008, she was runner-up to Yani for the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Award. And with five LPGA wins since then, Na Yeon has the most triumphs on tour in that time period than any player other than Tseng.

Na Yeon, who was 10 years old when she watched on TV as Se Ri Pak won the 1998 U.S. Women's Open, the first LPGA major won by a player from their homeland, is looking for her first major. On Thursday, she got off to a good start, firing a two-under-par 69 at Locust Hill CC in the first round of the Wegmans LPGA Championship. 

Na Yeon has yet to win this year, but has been second twice and picks up a check every time out, currently sitting at No. 6 on the money list this year and having amassed $6 million in career earnings.

Azahara Munoz's win at last weekend's Sybase Match Play might've gotten lost with all the attention focused on the slow-play story.

A 24-year-old from Spain, Munoz won her first LPGA title in the tour's only match-play event, beating Morgan Pressel with a controversial rules decision.

What you haven't heard much, though, over the last few days, is that Munoz is a rising start in women's golf.

The native of San Pedro del Alcantara, Spain, who played college golf at Arizona State University, made her mark in her first appearance on the Solheim Cup team, going 2-1-1 to help Europe to a win over the U.S.

She obviously likes the match-play format, too, beating LPGA legend Karrie Webb in the second round, American stud Stacy Lewis handily in the quarters, 5 and 4, and Jodi Ewart, who had previously knocked off Solheim Cup veterans Suzann Pettersen and Sophie Gustafson, the round previous.

While the focus has all been on Pressel and their rules dispute, we caught up with Munoz on her way to the practice green, to give you a little idea of who Munoz is.

Related: Stina Sternberg's Q&A with Azahara Munoz

GLADSTONE, N.J. -- Winning the Sybase Match Play Championship would be quite an early birthday present for Morgan Pressel, who turns 24 next Wednesday. Given the recent arc of her career, though, just making it to Sunday morning's semifinals is a well-earned gift in itself.

Pressel's best finish in 2012 was a T-20 at the Kia Classic. She is looking for her first victory since 2008. After a rousing comeback victory over No. 2 seed Na Yeon Choi Saturday morning, Pressel defeated Anna Nordqvist 5 and 4 Saturday afternoon. For Pressel, who will face 24-year-old Azahara Munoz of Spain on Sunday, this week has been a big step forward. (Candie Kung and Vicky Hurst will square off in the other semifinal.)

"No matter what happens, this is the best I've played in a long time," Pressel said. "I finally feel comfortable with my game again to a point where I haven't been in a while. I'm going to give it everything I have tomorrow. But I just have a lot of confidence going into the heart of the season."

Pressel has been working recently with instructor Ron Stockton, previously her short-game coach, on all parts of her game. She is trying to recapture some of the magic that made her the youngest winner (18 years, 10 months, 9 days) of an LPGA major championship at the 2007 Kraft Nabsico.

"Certainly people put expectations on me -- the media, the fans, my sponsors, everybody wants me to play well," Pressel said. "Having won the Kraft so young, I'm never going to say it was a bad thing. I mean, I'm a major champion, the youngest in LPGA history. I probably more than anybody else put extra pressure on myself to really be a world-beater, and I don't think I was quite ready for that and don't think I was quite mature enough for that."

-- Bill Fields

GLADSTONE, N.J. - Can you picture a PGA Tour pro teeing it up with a group of amateurs on a Friday morning of a tournament week?

No? Well that's because that would never happen.

It's just one reason it's different out here on the LPGA Tour.

"If we just try to do what the PGA Tour does, we can't really win," Karin Sjodin said. "They're doing it at such a high level already and have the pull that their stars do. So we have to kind of branch out in other ways so we can get other people involved and get more tournaments for us, too."

(Photo of Mozo at Hamilton Farms' picturesque 16th hole: Chris Trotman/Getty Images. Mozo played the par-3 course in a pro-am on Friday.)

Nearly every player who lost their first round matches at the Sybase Match Play Championship played in a pro-am on the Hamilton Farms' par-3 Hickory Course on Friday. Defending champion Suzanne Pettersen, knocked off by 62-seed Jodi Ewart in the first round, was the only one to decline the offer.

GLADSTONE, N.J. -- Down two after two holes, Jodi Ewart thought she was going to get "absolutely thrashed."

She didn't put much pressure on herself coming into the match. She was the third-lowest ranked player in the field. Matched up against defending Sybase champion and 2011 Solheim Cup slayer Suzann Pettersen, it didn't matter if she exited early and got ready for tomorrow's pro-am with losing players. Yet she also didn't want to waste a chance against one of the game's elite.

"This was my opportunity to show people what I can do and what my golf game is like," Ewart said. "Obviously, you know, I'm playing the world No. 3, so it was probably the most mentally draining match I've ever gone through."