NWA Championship to feature 26 of top 30 on LPGA money list
Posted on Sunday, June 8, 2008
ROGERS - Tournament officials for the P & G Beauty Northwest Arkansas Championship presented by John Q. Hammons announced that the field list to-date features four 2008 tournament winners, 17 past major champions, the top Rolex Rookie of the Year candidates and many of the top players on the Official Money List.
Players have until June 24 to register for the event. The players will converge on Pinnacle Country Club for the second-year event July 4-6.
Currently, the tournament features 26 of the top 30 players on the 2008 Official Money List and the top five rookies on the Rolex Rookie of the Year standings in terms of 2008 earnings. In addition, 17 past major champions that have combined for 32 major championships titles will be in attendance.
These players include 2008 event winners Paula Creamer, Louise Friberg, Leta Lindley and Seon Hwa Lee. Creamer, a two-time winner this year, was announced earlier this week by tournament officials. Friberg, a Tour rookie, became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Mastercard Classic. Lindley and Lee won the two most recent tournaments, the LPGA Corning Classic and the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika Sorenstam, respectively.
Juli Inkster headlines the list of major champions with seven titles. She is joined by four-time major winners Meg Mallon and Laura Davies. U. S. Women's Open 2007 champion Cristie Kerr will also return to Pinnacle Country Club.
However, tournament officials confirmed that there will be two notable absences from this year's event, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam. The two top-ranked female golfers in the world will miss the event due to a scheduling conflict that arose when the event was moved to Fourth of July weekend to accommodate a network telecast by CBS. They will participate in the Televisa Skins Guerrero Brilla in Ixtapa, Mexico, the same weekend.
"We are certainly disappointed that Lorena and Annika will miss this year's event, but the fact remains that most of the top players in the world will be in Northwest Arkansas over July 4 th weekend, and we have a significantly improved field from last year," said Jay Allen, tournament chairman.
For more information on the P & G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship, please visit www. PGBeautyChampionship. com.
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