The LPGA Tour plays in Korea this week for the seventh consecutive year.  Last year harsh weather conditions rendered the course unplayable for the final round and the event was shortened to 36 holes, much to the chagrin of the fans.  I don't know if the Tour ultimately blamed the course superintendent for that calamity but they did move the event to its third venue in four years.  As you might expect at a layout dubbed "Ocean Course", water will come into play fairly often.  Four of the last five holes require pivotal shots to avoid the agua.

12 KLPGA players join the fray, including HD #8 and British Open champ Ji-Yai Shin.  Shin is fresh off her seventh win of the KLPGA season, which was also her 20^th career victory on that tour.  Other locals to watch for include So Yeon Ryu, Sun Ju Ahn, Hye Yong Choi, Ha Neul Kim - all in the Top 5 of the money list - plus Hee Kyung Seo, who has won four times this year, and Sun Ju Ahn, who finished on top at the first Q-School qualifier in September.  Despite the absence of four of my top five players, the LPGA contingent is a good one with Paula Creamer, Suzann Pettersen, Na Yeon Choi and Seon Hwa Lee all in the field.

Until Pettersen broke through last year, this tournament had never been won by a non-Korean and three of those times the winner was a KLPGA member (Shi Hyun Ahn in 2003, Jee Young Lee in 2005, Jin Joo Hong in 2006).  At Mostly Harmless yesterday, The Constructivist asked "How much of a fight will the top KLPGA ... players put up against the LPGA's finest"?  My response was that a Korean tour regular will quite likely win again, and I'll back that up here by picking Ji-Yai Shin.  Suzann Pettersen and Karen Stupples are my CYAs.

Stats:  Winners 6-30 (10-30 with CYAs), Top Tens 40-90.