Little consolation for the runners-up
Creamer, Inkster get in practice for next week's finale
By Tommy Hicks, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Officially, Paula Creamer and Juli Inkster tied for second place Sunday in The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions, which in this particular case is akin to the state of Alabama edging out Georgia in closeness to California.

Lorena Ochoa's tournament record-setting 21-under-par score of 267 for the 72-hole event was a whopping 10 shots better than the equal 11-under 277 scorecards turned in by Creamer and Inkster.

To put some perspective on the scoring, Ochoa had a quadruple bogey 8 on the first hole of Friday's round and was 20-under over the final 51 holes while Inkster was 5-under and Creamer 3-under over the final 53 holes of play. And Creamer and Inkster finished four shots ahead of fourth-place finisher Angela Stanford (7-under), who was three shots better than fifth-place finishers Jeong Jang, Sherri Steinhauer and Dorothy Delasin (3-under). More>>

MUY CALIENTE: Ochoa scorches field
Mexican star shoots 63 to take five-shot lead
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Red-hot Lorena Ochoa really knows how to melt a snowman.

Despite starting her second round with a quadruple-bogey 8 on Friday, the 24-year-old Mexican star seized control of The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions on Saturday with a 9-under-par 63 that puts her on the verge of winning her third consecutive tournament and clinching the tour's player of the year award.

"Unbelievable," Hall of Famer Juli Inkster said in a fitting, one-word description of Ochoa's round on a cold, blustery day at Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course. More>>

Creamer leads Tournament of Champions
By The Associated Press | More>>

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Paula Creamer matched her career best with an 8-under 64 on Thursday to take a two-stroke lead over Lorena Ochoa and two other players after the first round of The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions.

With the players allowed to lift, clean and place their balls in the fairways because of wet conditions on Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course, 27 of the 39 players in the winners-only field broke par.

"They gave birdies out there," said the 20-year-old Creamer, winless this year after winning twice and earning rookie of the year honors last season. More>>

Eagles galore spark Kim's 66, Park's 70
By Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Joo-Mi Kim played well in her first-ever round in The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions on Thursday at Magnolia Grove, posting a 6-under-par 66.

She realized there was a lot more to the round, however, than just good golf.

"I had a very lucky day today," the 22-year-old South Korean said through Kyumin Shim, the LPGA's player-sponsor relations coordinator and part-time interpreter. More>>

Back to the future
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Paula Creamer is not old enough to be able to refer to the good old days, but she was able to relive some of her teenage glory in the first-round birdiefest at The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions on Thursday at Magnolia Grove.

The 20-year-old Creamer, who won on the Crossings Course as a junior golfer just four years ago, took a good first step to winning here as a pro as she matched her career-low score with a bogey-free, 8-under-par 64 to build a two-stroke lead on a sun-drenched day when 27 of the 39 players in the select field posted sub-par scores.

"They gave birdies out there," said Creamer, who owns a first-round lead for the first time in her two-year LPGA career. "It was fun. I enjoyed that. It's a difficult golf course. You can get fooled a lot by the grain of the greens, but I went out there and had fun. More>>

Business as usual for Ochoa
By Tommy Hicks, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

You could picture a marshal holding up one of those "Hush Y'all" signs, the ones used all around Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course to remind the gallery to be silent as players in The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions prepare to make their next shot.

Lorena Ochoa had been asked if she had given any thought to the fact that a win in Mobile would lock up LPGA player of the year honors for her.

"No, no, no," she said. "I don't even think on that. You cannot be thinking of winning a tournament. It's only Thursday. I'm just trying to put myself in a good position for Sunday. And Sunday will be a different story depending on how the conditions are and how I am in the field. More>>

Tournament of Champions tees off today
By Ian Thompson, The Birmingham News | More>>

The Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions begins play today over the Crossings Course at Magnolia Grove in Mobile. This event brings together most of the top names on the LPGA Tour in an event open only to winners of tournaments in 2006 and the previous three years, as well as active Hall of Fame members.

This Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail facility is hosting the Tournament of Champions for the eighth successive year.

The field is composed of 40 players: Dorothy Delasin, Heather Young, Meena Lee, Sung Ah Yim, Heather Daly-Donofrio, Jimin Kang, Rachel Hetherington, Moira Dunn, Soo-Yun Kang, Grace Park, Jee Young Lee, Kim Saiki, Carin Koch, Wendy Doolan, Liselotte Neumann, Karen Stupples, Joo Mi Kim, Sophie Gustafson, Angela Stanford, Hilary Lunke, Candie Kung, Jin Joo Hong, Pat Hurst, Helen Alfredsson, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, Marisa Baena, Stacy Prammanasudh, Jennifer Rosales, Jeong Jang, Mi Hyun Kim, Paula Creamer, Seon-Hwa Lee, Se Ri Pak, Sherri Steinhauer, Cristie Kerr, Wendy Ward, Lorena Ochoa, Brittany Lincicome, Christina Kim and Juli Inkster. Six of these players are first-time participants. More>>

'The Determinator'
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

They call the 18th hole at Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course "The Terminator."

It's only 354 yards but it's straight uphill. It has more sand than Gulf Shores. The green has more humps than a herd of camels.

In four of the seven Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions contested in Mobile, the winner has ultimately been decided on the 18th green, including two of the last three. More>>

Bivens: Trail courses great stages
LPGA Tour commissioner Carolyn Bivens said Wednesday she is pleased with the direction of the women's tour and sees better things for the LPGA in the future.
By Mobile Press-Register | More>>

"TV ratings are up, attendance is up, hits on our Web site are up. We're very happy with how things are going," Bivens said Wednesday while watching play in the pro-am for The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions at Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course.

"It's been a great year and we're happy with the season. There have been some exciting finishes this year and great electricity at many of the events. Several of the tournaments have had 11 or 12 players within one or two shots on the last day, and many of the tournaments have needed a playoff to decide the winner. More>>

LPGA Tournament of Champions
By Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Many of the golfers participating in this week's The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions will head for the LPGA Playoffs at The ADT in West Palm Beach, Fla., next week. The winner of the limited-field event will take home $1 million, the biggest first-place money ever offered for an LPGA Tour event.

The last day of the event will feature an eight-player shootout.

Fifteen players -- Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak, Annika Sorenstam, Brittany Lincicome, Lorena Ochoa, Mi Hyun Kim, Cristie Kerr, Juli Inkster, Seon-Hwa Lee, Hee-Won Han, Jeong Jang, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Pat Hurst and Meena Lee -- qualified for the ADT in the first half of the season. Sherri Steinhauer (British Open champ) and Brittany Lang (points) have already qualified in the second half of the season. More>>

Pak back for try at third title
Korean looking to claim third title at Tournament of Champions
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Se Ri Pak is back.

More importantly, Se Ri Pak is happy.

Three years after claiming back-to-back, Pak-to-Pak titles in The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions, the 29-year-old South Korean is already picking up good vibes from the Magnolia Grove Crossings Course she absolutely owned in 2001 and 2002. More>>

Hong gets first taste of the LPGA
Jin Joo Hong's win at South Korean tourney leads to LPGA career, which starts this week at the Tournament of Champions
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Jin Joo Hong patiently sat around the Magnolia Grove clubhouse on Monday, waiting for the rain to stop so she could get a look at the Crossings Course for this week's Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions.

Welcome to Mobile, Alabama, USA -- which has been ranked among America's wettest cities.

An early-afternoon deluge cut short Monday's Mobile Gas Pro-Am, so players hoping to squeeze in a practice round or just practice eventually left the saturated course disappointed. "It's rain, you can't control it," Hong said through her agent/interpreter Mike Lee of KOSPO Enterprises, a sports management company based in Seoul. "I was hoping to get out and practice some because it seems I've been flying the last three days and haven't even held a club." More>>

Pak coming back for LPGA TOC
Two-time TOC champ scheduled to return to Magnolia Grove after two-year absence
By Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Se Ri Pak, the back-to-back winner of The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions in 2000-01, is coming back.

Pak, who has skipped the event the last two years, is one of the big names headlining the list of early commitments to the LPGA TOC, which is scheduled for Nov. 9-12 at Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course.

So far, 43 of the 50 players eligible for the tournament have confirmed with the tour that they plan to play in Mobile, including leading money winner Lorena Ochoa, who is coming off back-to-back victories. More>>

TOC purse increased to $1 million
The Mitchell Company extends commitment another year as title sponsor
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions is getting richer and extending its run in Mobile.

John Saint, president and CEO of The Mitchell Company, announced at Monday's TOC media day festivities that this year's tournament purse would be bumped from $850,000 to $1 million and also that his business has signed on to be the event's title sponsor through 2007.

"We know the city has benefited from this event and we just feel like, as a corporate citizen, it's the right thing for us to do," said Saint, who jumped on board as title sponsor in 2003 and is credited for keeping the TOC in Mobile after it struggled for two years without a major financial backer. "We're based here. This is our home. "The $1 million purse adds distinction to our tournament and the ladies have responded to it. It lets them know how much we value the LPGA." More>>

TOC last chance to qualify for ADT's big prize
Winner at Crossings Course earns automatic berth in new season-ending playoff where the winner will earn $1 million, the biggest payday ever in women's golf
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

Two weeks from today, eight LPGA pros will tee it up in the final round of the LPGA Playoffs at The ADT. The winner of that season-ending, 18-hole shootout will walk away with $1 million, the largest prize ever in women's golf.

The last chance to qualify for a shot at that historic payday will be this week in The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions at Magnolia Grove.

The TOC ends the second half of the LPGA's complicated and sometimes confusing new playoff format, and the race for those final spots in the ADT promises to be an interesting subplot in this week's action at the Crossings Course. More>>

Numero uno! Lorena Ochoa poised to end Sorenstam's LPGA reign
By Gareth Clary, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

When Lorena Ochoa was 12, she scaled Mount Iztacchaetl, the third-highest peak in Mexico at 17,324 feet.

She learned early what it takes to get to the top.

Now 24, Ochoa is nearing the summit of women's golf, poised to end Annika Sorenstam's five-year reign as the LPGA's queen of the mountain. More>>

Steinhauer standing tall for Tournament of Champions
New coach has Women's British Open winner working to improve her posture, game
By Tommy Hicks, Mobile Press-Register | More>>

If you attend this week's The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions golf tournament at Magnolia Grove, make a point to watch Sherri Steinhauer play. Take particular note of her posture as she addresses each shot -- please.

This year's Weetabix Women's British Open champion spent an entire year working with golf coach Hank Johnson of Birmingham in getting her posture correct, and the work has paid off. Correcting her posture was the first step in what has been a two-year work-in-progress of reshaping Steinhauer's swing.

The Wisconsin native, who has seven career LPGA victories that include a pair of major championships, said the changes have given her more confidence. More>>