At long last, it’s time for a tournament of major proportions.
This week’s ANA Inspiration kicks off the LPGA’s 2015 major championship schedule in a big way in the California desert on a golf course long adored by the Tour’s best and brightest. The Dinah Shore Tournament Course at scenic Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., outside Palm Springs is a unique place, and players have enjoyed competing for major hardware there for decades.
A picture-perfect landscape, coupled with an elite and immaculate layout and one of the game’s signature finishing holes, awaits the world’s top women’s golfers as they look to join the ranks of the sport’s premier players who hold the title of major champion. Lexi Thompson experienced that last year as a 19-year-old after out-dueling Michelle Wie on Sunday, and there’s no doubt she will remember her plunge into Poppy’s Pond forever.
In addition to Thompson and Wie, this week’s field will be as loaded as they come, with everyone from the likes of world No. 1 Lydia Ko and reigning Rolex Player of the Year Stacy Lewis to Sunday’s Kia Classic champion Cristie Kerr and other 2015 winners Inbee Park, Na Yeon Choi, Sei Young Kim, Hyo Joo Kim and Amy Yang teeing it up in the $2.5 million event. A slew of recent past champions are also competing, including Park (2013), Sun Young Yoo (2012), Lewis (2011), Yani Tseng (2010), Brittany Lincicome (2009), Morgan Pressel (2007) and Pat Hurst (1998).
Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak, Amy Alcott, Laura Davies and Juli Inkster – who have won a combined six majors at Mission Hills – add some Hall of Fame flavor to the field. And we certainly can’t forget the rest of the world’s top 10-ranked players, Suzann Pettersen, Shanshan Feng and So Yeon Ryu, who could be big factors over the weekend as well.
Winning a major title is often a life-changing event for a player, and taking the season’s first of five majors can serve as a massive catalyst that can lead to serious contention for season-ending accolades. One of those coveted awards is the Rolex Annika Major Award, named in honor of Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam and given to the player who performs best in the Tour’s major championships, and Wie would love to make it 2-for-2 by taking home the second-year award again in 2015.
The ANA Inspiration’s list of past champions since its inclusion as an LPGA major in 1983 is a smooth blend of legends and Hall of Famers alongside lesser-known players who used the tournament’s title to announce their presence on the world golf scene. Who will join them on Sunday?
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