The southwest beach of Oahu, that is. Welcome to the LOTTE Championship.
This is where Michelle Wie got her amazing run underway last year and where she hopes to get things going once again. Ko Olina is Michelle's home course, and her victory there last year was her first win inside the USA. But she's been fighting various illnesses and injuries this year, so she's definitely in need of some "home cooking" to kickstart her stretch to her US Women's Open defense.
Here's the link to Tony Jesselli's preview of the event. Perhaps the most interesting thing he mentions is that, among the Top3 in the Rolex Rankings, only Inbee Park is playing. Inbee is now in third place yet is less than one point behind Ko, which should mean that she can take over the #1 spot with a win this week. That should give the event a bit of excitement despite the number of top players taking the week off.
Best of all, this event runs from Wednesday to Saturday -- which I believe is a concession to the preferred TV broadcast days in Asia -- and it will be in primetime here in the States, as there is a 5-hour time difference between Hawaii and the East Coast. GC plans to start broadcasting each night at 7pm ET, so PGA Tour coverage won't interfere.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12744436&categoryid=2630020 http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12741195&categoryid=2630020
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