Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&GPinnacle Country ClubRogers, ArkansasJune 27, 2012Pre-Tournament Notes and Interviews
Stacy Lewis, Rolex Rankings No. 2
Juli Inkster, Rolex Rankings No. 72
Brittany Lang, Rolex Rankings No. 24
Juli Inkster, Rolex Rankings No. 72
Brittany Lang, Rolex Rankings No. 24
This week the LPGA travels to Rogers, Arkansas, which will play host to the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G. At the Pinnacle Country Club, 144 ladies will be competing for a $2 million purse and a $300,000 first-place prize check.
Back-to-back title holder Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng will try to make it three-in-a-row when she returns to Arkansas this week. The tournament in 2011 took an interesting turn after Tseng missed a 4-foot putt to finish the regulation play that would have given her the title. Tseng and Amy Yang were sent into a playoff, where Tseng sank a 4-foot birdie putt when they replayed the par-5 18th hole. The birdie allowed Tseng to capture her fifth LPGA title of the 2011 season. She continues to hold her reign at the top of the LPGA Tour in this 2012 season with three victories at Honda LPGA Thailand, RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup and the Kia Classic.
The Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G is a fairly young tournament on Tour, having been held since 2007. In addition to Tseng, past champions of the event also include No. 10 Jiyai Shin, who is currently sidelined following surgery on her left wrist, and No. 167 Seon-Hwa Lee.
Heart of Gold… Former University of Arkansas Razorback Stacy Lewis announced today that she is donating $100,000 to the University of Arkansas women’s golf program. The donation made Lewis the first female member of the Razorback Foundation’s Century Circle.
“I say it all the time, I would not be where I am if I had gone to any other university, and I honestly feel that way,” said Lewis. “I came here a kid that -- I couldn't swing a golf club at the time and there was no guarantee I would ever play golf again, and this university and these coaches took a chance on me. So I've just always felt like this was something that I've wanted to do. I wanted to give back to this program in a way that was big and was special. We've talked about it for a long time and this came up and it just seemed like this was such a good opportunity to -- a hundred thousand dollars is a lot, but we still need more to kick start. We need more to get this building done. So this is just kind of a kick start to our fundraising. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, but I just wanted to find a good way to do it and this was just the perfect opportunity.”
As a result of scoliosis, Lewis underwent back surgery her senior year of high school and was forced to red-shirt her first year at the University of Arkansas. Lewis then burst onto the collegiate golf scene where she won 12 tournaments and was a four-time All-American during her four years in Arkansas.
As Lewis returns to Arkansas this week for the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G, she comes in as the leader in the Rolex Player of the Year standings and is currently the top-American in the Rolex Rankings. Since missing the cut at the LPGA LOTTE Championship Presented by J Golf, Lewis has finished no worse than tied for fifth in her last five starts including wins at the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic and the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
“It's awesome,” said Lewis of her recent success. “I mean, it's what you practice for, it's what you're out there hitting balls for is to give yourself a chance to win, and just to be able to relax out there and have fun with the fans and enjoy the crowds and the people cheering for you. I think that's what I work hard for, and it's been so much fun these last couple weeks and I just want to work hard and keep that going.”
Welcome back, welcome back! LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame member Juli Inkster will make her 2012 season debut at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G this week. Inkster underwent surgery on her right elbow back in January to repair a torn tendon.
There will be plenty of eyes focused on Inkster in her return to competitive golf this week and even if the 52-year-old veteran wanted to stay out of the spotlight, it would be a difficult task as she’s paired with Michelle Wie and University of Arkansas alum Stacy Lewis in the first two rounds.
“Good thing they just paired me with a couple no-names,” Inkster said with a laugh.
Inkster tried rest and the use of platelet-rich plasma injections to heal her elbow after the Lorena Ochoa Invitational last November. But when the elbow was still bothering her in January, she decided to have the surgery where her tendon was reattached and the ulnar nerve moved. The surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Dillingham and Dr. Gordon Brody, two of the doctors for the San Francisco 49ers. She’s spent the past few months at her home near Los Altos, Calif. and despite the long layoff from golf, she kept herself plenty busy.
“I have two kids that graduated this year and I had a really busy -- I mean, I really don't know how I would have done it and played golf, so it was kind of a blessing in disguise,” Inkster said. “I missed golf. I missed the competition, I missed the playing, I missed working towards something, but also it was great being home. Once I could start chipping and putting and stuff, it kind of was better.”
Inkster said she picked up a club for the first time toward the end of March and began working on her full swing in April. Still, she’s unsure how her game will fare this week in her first competitive event.
“When I've been playing, if I didn't like a shot I would just drop one and hit it again,” Inkster said. “I don't think they're going to let me do that out there. So I think just getting into playing mode's going to be the toughest part.”
Winner’s Circle: It took seven years for Brittany Lang to capture her first victory on the LPGA Tour at last week’s Manulife Financial LPGA Classic. So perhaps it’s no surprise that there were times in her career that the 26-year-old questioned whether one would ever come.
“I honestly thought I would never win,” Lang said. “After I had been out here five, six years and everybody around me kept telling me -- my agents, my family, my friends, you know, you're good enough to win, you're good enough to win. I was so tired of hearing it. I was like, I don't think it's ever going to happen and I don't want to talk about it, I don't even care. I just want to play golf. I love golf. I just want to enjoy myself.
“I was so sick and tired of talking about it and I didn't think I would ever. I didn't think I would ever win, and I guess it's when you stop thinking about it and you make little changes and try to get better is when it happened because it definitely wasn't on my mind last week. I was just trying to be in each shot and I can't believe it happened.”
Now that she’s got victory No. 1 under her belt, Lang hopes that the experience and confidence she gained from it will help her throughout the rest of her career.
“It was such a great experience last week, having that putt to win, that was really a good position to be in to make you stronger and grow,” Lang said. “I was extremely nervous on the putt in regulation. I did everything in my power to get into the shot, get into that putt, and I couldn't do it. I was so focused on my hands shaking and how nervous I was. I was so outcome focused. I did, I kept a good attitude, and going into the playoff hole I told myself I was really going to be into that putt if I have another putt to win. I just stopped focusing on being so nervous and just focused on the task at hand and I did a lot better with those last few putts that I had, so I learned and I'll only get stronger from here.”
Beat the Heat… With temperatures expected to reach the upper 90’s this week in Rogers, Ark., fans have a few options to beat the heat while watching their favorite players at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G.
Fans will be provided free bottled water on the golf course and volunteers and tournament staff will be driving around all three days to distribute bottled water. Volunteers and fans will also have chilled towels readily available in coolers positioned on both the front and back-nine of the course.
In addition, special shade zones will be set-up throughout the golf course where fans can get a brief reprieve from the heat.
