Blumenherst declines Kraft Nabisco invite

It's rare that a player would decline an invitation to play in a major championship, but Duke star Amanda Blumenherst has done just that, rejecting an invitation to play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April.

Blumenherst, according to the Desert Sun newspaper, intends to turn professional this summer. She wants to save the six sponsors' exemptions allowed to non-members of the LPGA to use when she can accept prize money, in an attempt to play her way onto the LPGA.

The most recent example of a player declining an opportunity to play in a major is that of Colt Knost, a PGA Tour member. When Knost won the U.S. Amateur Public Links and later the U.S. Amateur in 2007, he had invitations to play in the Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open. Instead, he forfeited them all by choosing to turn pro.

-- John Strege