1. Anticipation surrounds Kraft Nabisco Championship as Sorenstam aims for repeat
2. Compelling storylines emerging in 2006; It's not just Sorenstam-each week features a new name
3. 2006 LPGA Statistical Leaders
4. 2006 ADT Official Money List
5 Duramed Futures Tour - Pipeline to the LPGA Tour
6. This week - Kraft Nabisco Championship, Mission Hills Country Club, Dinah Shore Course, Rancho Mirage, Calif., $1,800,000, March 30-April 2, 2006
7. Upcoming event - LPGA Takefuji Classic, The Las Vegas Country Club, Las Vegas, Nev., $1,100,000, April 13-15, 2006
8. LPGA News and Notes

1. Anticipation surrounds Kraft Nabisco Championship as Sorenstam aims for repeat

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. - As the Kraft Nabisco Championship enters its 35th year as an LPGA Tour major, 101 women will tee off for the 72-hole event in hot pursuit of the biggest check from the $1.8 million purse. The winner will also be the first to qualify for the LPGA Playoffs 2006, which culminates at the ADT Championship in November.

The Kraft Nabisco Championship, contested at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., March 30-April 2, sets the stage for Annika Sorenstam to defend her 2005 title and begin her quest for the ever-elusive Grand Slam: win all four majors in the same season. Last year, Sorenstam made waves on and off the course as she completed the traditional jump into Champions Lake, which surrounds the 18th hole, after defeating Rosie Jones by eight strokes.

Sorenstam has already successfully defended one tournament this year, the MasterCard Classic Honoring Alejo Peralta, and the golf world eagerly awaits another of 10 title defenses in 2006.

She has won nine majors in her career and has won the Kraft Nabisco Championship three times (2001, 2002 and 2005). A win this week would be her 10th major and tie her with the legendary Babe Zaharias for fourth on the all-time majors win list.

There are 14 categories of qualification for the limited-field tournament based on performance not only on the LPGA Tour, but also the South Korea and Japan LPGA Tours and the Ladies European Tour. The tournament also extended sponsor's exemptions to six amateurs: Anna Grzebien; Paige Mackenzie; Maru Martinez; Sydnee Michaels; Angela Park; and In Bee Park.

Who could be most likely to unseat Sorenstam as the defending champion? Take your pick:

First, perhaps a South Korean player? A South Korean has either won or finished runner-up at every tournament this year. Joo Mi Kim won the official season-opener SBS Open at Turtle Bay. The following week at the Fields Open in Hawaii, Meena Lee defeated rookie Seon Hwa Lee in a sudden-death playoff. Seon Hwa Lee, who leads the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race by almost 70 points over Julieta Granada, next traveled to Mexico City, where she missed the trophy presentation by one stroke behind Sorenstam. Two weeks ago at the Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola, it was only by virtue of a double-bogey on No. 14 that Sarah Lee missed out on a sudden-death playoff with champion Juli Inkster.

Statistically speaking, Cristie Kerr may be on track to hoist the Dinah Shore Trophy on Sunday. Kerr, who is ninth on the ADT Official Money List after playing the first four events of the season, leads the Tour in ADT points for the LPGA Playoffs 2006 with 108, has the most birdies this season (59), as well as top-10 finishes (4/4) and rounds under par (12/13). She is tied for second on Tour with Natalie Gulbis with a 69.6923 scoring average.

Next, with her first victory in 49 starts at the Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola, Inkster proved her hard work in the off-season will pay off in 2006. The $210,000 check put her in first on the ADT Official Money List and she is leading the race for the Rolex Player of the Year. Inkster currently owns the Tour's lowest scoring average (69.6) and is just two points behind Kerr in the ADT Points standings.

No doubt, the Tour veterans have the odds in their favor to capture the title, based purely on experience and tradition. In the Tour's history, only three rookies have made their first Tour win a major, but that may be all the incentive this year's competitive and talent-laden rookie class needs. As amateurs in 2005, Morgan Pressel finished tied for 14th; Julieta Granada tied for 30th; while Brittany Lang and Karin Sjodin were also in the starting field. Japanese superstar Ai Miyazato played as a professional in last year's Kraft Nabisco Championship, but is looking to improve on her tie for 44th finish.

As the low amateur from 2005, Michelle Wie, will also make her professional debut in an LPGA major, her second of eight appearances on the LPGA Tour in 2006. In her three previous appearances at the Kraft Nabisco Championship (2003-05), Wie has finished tied for ninth, fourth and tied for 14th, respectively.

Because the Kraft Nabisco Championship is a Major Event in the LPGA Playoffs 2006, the winner becomes the first golfer to qualify for the ADT Championship in November, where the winner will earn a record-breaking $1 million paycheck. The remaining top-20 finishers will receive double points toward the first half of the LPGA Playoffs 2006.

All-time major wins list
Player Majors
Patty Berg 15
Mickey Wright 13
Louise Suggs 11
Babe Zaharias 10
Annika Sorenstam 9
Betsy Rawls 8
Juli Inkster 7

Sorenstam at the Kraft Nabisco Championship
Year Finish
1995 T24
1996 T2
1997 T8
1998 T7
1999 T7
2000 T17
2001 Win
2002 Win
2003 2
2004 T13
2005 Win

2. Compelling storylines emerging in 2006; It's not just Sorenstam-each week features a new name

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. - This week at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, most of the talk will be focused on Annika Sorenstam's Grand Slam quest and how the kiddie corps of Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel and Michelle Wie will fair in the first major of the year; but the storylines of the LPGA extend far beyond those boundaries.

In fact, they spread from Joo Mi to Juli, as in Joo Mi Kim to Juli Inkster. At 21 and 45, both have cashed a winner's check this year and represent the prevalent diversity on Tour. Kim, of South Korea, is only a couple years older than the youngest player to ever win on the LPGA (Marlene Hagge, 18), while Inkster, of the United States, is only a few years younger than the oldest player to win on Tour (Beth Daniel, 47).

Two of four events have gone extra holes this year (last year, there were two playoffs the entire year), a sign of just how closely contested every tournament title will be this year. Both of those playoffs went more than one hole and ended with the victor making birdie, not with an opponent gift-wrapping a trophy with a tournament-ending bogey.

Kim and Meena Lee emerged victorious in both playoffs, sending a reaffirming message to the rest of the Tour that LPGA members from South Korea play for championships, not top-10 finishes.

Sorenstam, who has won more LPGA tournaments than anyone else not named Kathy Whitworth or Mickey Wright, made her season debut in Mexico to defend one of 10 tournament titles from last year. She won again and chalked up victory No. 67 of her career.

Entering this week, Sorenstam is 21 wins behind Whitworth and 15 behind Wright on the LPGA's career wins list. If you ask her, she will say she is still very far away from catching them, but this comes from a woman who won 10 events last year and 11 in 2002. In the last five full years, she won 43 LPGA tournaments, so Whitworth's record 88 wins may be far away now, but might be much more attainable by the end of the season.

Inkster has already done something this year that most people on Tour have not been able to d she won the Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola by knocking defending-champ Sorenstam from the winner's circle to earn her first win since 2003.

Inkster also sent a message to players, fans and media that although she has been playing longer than some Tour members have been alive, she has no thoughts of leaving the game anytime soon. A retooled swing from winter workouts has left her not only with confidence heading into this week, but also a place atop the ADT Official Money List.

3. 2006 LPGA Statistical Leaders

4. 2006 ADT Official Money List