Preferred Lies June 2007

Wie

Must answer the question

By Elspeth Burnside

The first major of the year always throws up intriguing questions and this year’s Kraft Nabisco Championship is more tantalising than most. Will Annika Sorenstam prove that she is still the best in the world and take a first step towards a Grand Slam? Can Lorena Ochoa finally make the breakthrough in one of the big four tournaments? Or will Karrie Webb stage a successful defence and prove she really is back to her very best.

Perhaps the biggest question mark of all surrounds Michelle Wie, the girl for whom the Kraft holds such special memories. Amazingly, at the tender age of 17, this will be her fifth appearance at Mission Hills in California, and she has finished ninth, fourth, 14th and joint third. Not bad eh?

Michelle Wie

Last year she came within a whisker – or rather a few blades of grass - of joining Webb and Ochoa in a play-off . Needing to get down in two from the edge of the green to force a three-way tie, she chipped past the hole and two-putted.

But what a difference 12 months make. Since that day in the Californian sunshine when Wie came so close to making history by becoming the youngest ever winner of a major, the Hawaiian’s halo has slipped a little. Her stubborn insistence to keep playing alongside the men appears to have dented her confidence, fuelled the angst of her many critics and heaped on the pressure.

She has finished all but last in a string of male tournaments and the latest downer was the revelation that she hurt her wrist at the start of the year and had to take a month out. Mind you, she was spied watching the women’s singles final at the Australian Open tennis final. She was in Serena Williams’ box.

So how fit will the wonder teen be by the time the first of the women’s four majors rolls around? Is the wrist an excuse for burn-out? Or could it be a serious problem. After all, she did suffer similar problems towards the end of last year. Or will she confound us all by finally securing the LPGA victory that is so long overdue? She certainly won’t have it easy, and this year promises to be the most open and most competitive for many a long year at the top of the women’s game.

Sorenstam, Ochoa and Webb are all established stars, while South Korea’s Se Ri Pak, who readily admits that she achieved too much too soon and suffered a period of burn out, made a welcome return to the top flight when she won last year’s second major, the McDonald’s LPGS Championship.

Then there are the other young guns desperate to sideline Wie and prove that they are the best of the new bunch. Paula Creamer, 20, won the opening event of the LPGA season in Hawaii, while 18-year-old Morgan Pressel has already proved she is a gutsy girl by tying for second in the US Women’s Open a couple of years ago.

Global diversity is the big appeal in women’s golf, and one of the most popular victors would be Japan’s superstar, Ai Miyazato. The biggest name in golf and even more popular than Tiger Woods in her home country, the girl with the flashing smile had a solid 2006 rookie year in America and is tipped for a big, bright future.

Si Ri Pak

Now that she is rapidly improving her English and happily settled into a home on the Californian coast, then this should be the year that she makes the breakthrough and begins to challenge the establishment. As far as the world expansion of women’s golf is concerned, a Miyazato victory at Mission Hills would be a huge plus.
Julieta Granada, the pocket-sized 20year-old who led Paraguay to a shock triumph in the Women’s World Cup in South Africa in January is another ready to spread the

word by achieving the status of a major winner.

Then how about the Americans?  Wie, Creamer and Pressel are jostling to be the pick of the confident and brash new US bunch, but Juli Inkster still shows that maturity can be a powerful weapon.
Inskter will turn 47 this summer, but any thought of retirement remains firmly on hold. She has been talking about cutting back since the turn of the century – every Solheim Cup is predicted to be “my last one.” Inkster has won two Kraft titles and seven majors in all. The clock may be ticking, but it hasn’t chimed out quite yet.

Of course, there could also be the surprise package. For instance, American rookie Meaghan Francella proved what is possible when she beat Sorenstam in a four way play-off to win the Mastercard Classic in Mexico early in March. There are also a host of talented players from South Korea – in fact, there are far too many to list – and it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if one of them came out top at Mission Hills.

Whatever happens, it promises to be a great week, and a pointer of things to come in 2007. Will it be more of the same? Maybe a fourth win in six years for Sorenstam and the perfect start in her bid for a Grand Slam of all four majors?

Or will it be the year when the tide turns in favour of youth? If Wie is fully fit then this could be hear year. She’s had a rest, recharged the batteries and, so far, it has always been a case of many happy returns to the Kraft. The questions have been asked – who will come up with the right answers?