Two Majors for the Ladies

Of course I speak of the first-ever Augusta National Women's Amateur and the ANA Inspiration. Let's start with the am. First, here's a photo of the new trophy:



And yes, I know this new event isn't a major... yet. I think it could, in time, become one. We'll see.

The Women's Am holds two rounds at Champions Retreat Golf Club on Wednesday (today!) and Thursday, after which the field will be trimmed to 30. Those 30 will get a practice round at Augusta National on Friday before playing the final round there on Saturday. NBC will cover that final round live from noon-3pm ET.

For those of you who want the info:

• Here's a link to the official website.
• CBSSports gives their favorites in the event here.
• PGA.com has this article about the event.
• And golf.com has a preview of it here.

Those should get you started.

And then Thursday (tomorrow) the LPGA gets into the act with the first official major of the year, the ANA Inspiration. (Unlike me, a lot of people don't consider THE PLAYERS a major.)

You can find Tony Jesselli's preview at this link. I always try to include a link to Tony's previews because he puts a lot of work into them and you always learn some fun stuff that you won't find anywhere else -- like the fact that the Top25 in the Rolex Rankings are all in the field. Even Michelle Wie is going to give it a go, and I suspect that's why she skipped the Kia last week. She's still having some problems from the wrist surgery she had in the off-season.

The ANA -- still called the Dinah by some, the Kraft Nabisco by others -- almost always provides some drama, whether it's something like the freak penalty to Lexi Thompson in 2017 when So Yeon Ryu won in a playoff, or last year's epic 8-hole playoff where Pernilla Lindberg got her first LPGA win by beating Inbee Park.

Please note that GC's live coverage is split on the first two days. The early coverage is from noon-4pm ET while the late coverage is from 7pm-9pm ET. The last two rounds will have four straight hours of coverage from 5pm-9pm ET. That's because of the three-hour time difference between the East and West coasts.

If you're a fan of women's golf, you'll have a full plate this week. Enjoy!

ADDITION: Phil Clare sent me a couple of extra links for these events.

• This one is to his article about Champions Retreat Golf Club.
• And this one is to his article about Mission Hills (the ANA site).

Both are over at foregals.com. Thanks, Phil!