The Top 10 Story Lines In Women's Golf
Stacy Lewis is top AmericanCristie Kerr, 34, who's been in the top 10 on the Rolex World Ranking for over eight years straight and peaked at No. 1 three times in 2010, has finally had to relinquish the title of top-ranked American to 27-year-old Stacy Lewis. Lewis, who has won twice this season (the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic and the Shoprite LPGA Classic) and has eight top fives in 13 starts, has shot to No. 2 in the world and is aiming higher. "I'm ready to take [Yani Tseng] on," Lewis said last week. "I want to be No. 1 in the world. I know I'm No. 2, but I'm not happy with that."
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What's going on with Yani Tseng?The No. 1 player in the women's game hasn't had a great summer so far. Granted, we're spoiled; we're used to Tseng rattling off wins by the handful. But a T-59 finish at the LPGA Championship and -- gasp! -- a missed cut at last week's Walmart NW Arkansas Championship has sent tongues wagging. Tseng admits she's not sure what's going on with her game right now, but she spent much of Monday working with Dave Stockton at the Blackwolf Run practice green, so she's obviously anxious to fix whatever is ailing her. The U.S. Women's Open is the only thing standing between Tseng and the title of the youngest player ever to complete a career Grand Slam.
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Ai Miyazato finds her formAfter winning two tournaments in her last six starts (last week's Walmart NW Arkansas Championship and the LPGA Lotte Championship in April), money leader Ai Miyazato is arguably the hottest player on the LPGA Tour going into Kohler. Does she have the game to win a U.S. Women's Open? The 5-foot-1 player's 245-yard driving average is 245th on tour, which puts her at a disadvantage on the 6,954-yard Blackwolf Run layout, but her top-ranked putting average (28.36) could be the great equalizer. No player on tour has more confidence right now.
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Is Pak ready for another Kohler U.S. Open?Se Ri Pak's dramatic playoff win over Jenny Chuasiriporn in the 1998 USWO at Blackwolf Run sent Pak into the stratosphere and spurred a generation of young Korean girls to pick up the game, resulting in that country's current dominance in professional women's golf. And there's nothing Pak wants more than to return to Kohler and play well. She wants it so badly, she returned to the tour last month a mere six weeks after having surgery on a torn labrum in her left shoulder. Last week, she withdrew after the first round in Arkansas but claims it was due to heat discomfort, not the shoulder. She's on site in Kohler and ready to play.
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Melissa Reid brings a fresh win on the heels of tragedyBritish Solheim Cup star Melissa Reid comes to Kohler with a heavy heart after losing her mom in a fluke car accident at a Ladies European Tour stop in Germany in late May. But she also has a fresh outlook on life -- and a brand new "W" to her name. Reid won her first tournament back after her mom's death, the LET's Prague Masters, on June 24th, and said the tragedy helped put things like golf in perspective: "I think with something like what's happened to my family and me the last four weeks nothing really seems that difficult any more."
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Fearless rookies make their marksThe breakout star of last year's U.S. Women's Open in Colorado Springs was rookie Ryann O'Toole, who had qualified in and showed not one ounce of nerves until the back nine on Sunday. She finished T-9, which led to a wildcard spot the 2011 U.S. Solheim Cup team. This year, watch out for 19-year-old Jessica Korda (already an LPGA Tour winner at the ISPS Handa Women's Autralian Open) and last week's standout, Veronica Felibert (left) from Venezuela (who finished T-4 in Arkansas and qualified for the USWO in May).
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Will Feng turn the 2012 USWO into China's Se Ri Pak moment?The impending Chinese golf boom has been rumbling for years (it's the only country in the world that's currently building more golf courses than it's closing), and Shanshan Feng's victory at the Wegmans LPGA Championship in June nudged it closer to eruption (she's the first Chinese major winner of either gender). If the four-year tour veteran can eke out another win in Kohler, she would no doubt cause a giant golf explosion in her home country.
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Michelle Wie's slump deepensThis was supposed to be the year an adult Michelle Wie would show us exactly what she can accomplish on the golf course without the distractions of term papers and final exams weighing her down. But in the months since she graduated from Stanford University, Wie's game has simply deteriorated. Her T-68 at the Manulife LPGA Classic two weeks ago was her first made cut since February, and she has now hired Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott of Vision 54 to help find her way back to the girl who qualified for first USWO as a 13-year-old in 2003.
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Will Tiger's niece become the LPGA's first African-American major champ?There's nothing like a little unreasonable pressure to kick off a professional career, but Cheyenne Woods seems up to the task. The 21-year-old Woods, a two-time All-American at Wake Forest University whose father is Tiger's half brother Earl Jr., turned pro this spring after graduating, and has qualified her way in to the USWO. She received a sponsor's invite to the Wegmans LPGA Championship last month, where she missed the cut but showed remarkable poise and maturity both in press interviews and on the course.
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Watch out for the teenage amateursNo, this isn't figure skating or gymnastics, but a whopping 19 teenagers have qualified for the USWO this week. Some, like Lexi Thompson and Jessica Korda, you already know as full members of the LPGA Tour, but it's the amateurs you've never heard of that might end up raising a brow or two. Fourteen-year-old Hannah O'Sullivan of Cupertino, Calif., is the youngest player, and 17-year-old Moriya Jutanugarn (left) one of the most decorated. Seventeen-year-old Annie Park made big headlines by winning the Nassau County Boy's High School Championshipat Bethpage last month after medaling her USWO sectional in New Jersey.
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