State Farm Classic Preview

The LPGA visits Illinois for the 34^th consecutive year to contest the LPGA State Farm Classic.  Panther Creek Country Club hosts this tournament for the third time.  Ji Young Oh (who won two weeks ago at Sybase) defeated Yani Tseng (who won last week at Corning) in a one-hole playoff to take the 2008 State Farm title.  This was also the event where Michelle Wie would have been playing in the final Sunday group had she not been disqualified for a Friday scorecard infraction.

For the second straight year, the State Farm moves to an earlier slot in the LPGA schedule.  After being played in September 2007, it was held in July 2008 and now moves to the first weekend in June.  According to Larry's Life On Tour blog, the seasonal difference in the course conditions is astonishing.  In addition to the thicker rough, the course has been lengthened out in an effort to prevent a repeat of the very low scores we saw last July.  I doubt we'll see anybody with four rounds in the 60s this week.

If true, the posted TV schedule this week is good news.  Four hours of coverage both Saturday and Sunday with two hours each day on NBC would be great exposure for the Tour.  Even though both LPGA.com and the State Farm Classic website are posting this schedule, I'm a little skeptical of it because NBC and ESPN2 aren't natural broadcast partners like ABC/ESPN or NBC/GC (who will be in the booth - Terry Gannon and Dottie Pepper?).  Hopefully, my skepticism is unfounded.

Thanks again to Mr. Sporadic Schedule (or should I say Mr. Ginn?), the turnout in Springfield is outstanding.  Yes, next week's LPGA Championship could have influenced that also.  Lorena Ochoa and Jeong Jang are the only two players in my Top 40 not in attendance.  Contrast the field with last year's - 2008's Field Score of 31 tied with the MasterCard Classic for second-worst of the year (Corona's 13 was the worst).  Last year's edition was played the week before Evian so many players traveled early to get acclimated to the European time zones.

So - we have a familiar course which has been toughened up versus a very strong field, most of whom haven't played here in almost two years ...who to pick, I must ask?  I think Yani makes it two in a row.