The 55^th LPGA Championship, the second major of the LPGA season, makes its fifth and final appearance at Bulle Rock Golf Course.  Next year the McDonald's sponsorship will be gone and with it, the impetus to play this major championship at this location.  The latest word was that the Tour was looking to relocate near the New York City area but supposedly Kingsmill is in the running if the Anheuser-Busch sponsorship of its current event falls through.  For 20 years the LPGA Championship has been contested in the Delmarva area so if it must be moved, Williamsburg wouldn't be a bad choice in my opinion.

Yani Tseng is the defending champion, defeating Maria Hjorth in a four-hole playoff which flirted with being called on account of darkness.  I was a video-clipping madman at this time last year so you can check out the final-round highlights back at my old blogging grounds.  My favorite clip was Hjorth's ricochet off the rocks at 15 to setup a birdie and tie for the lead.

Golf Channel will provide the coverage for all four days at the times listed above, with replays of the afternoon's action each evening.  Last year they shocked me when the Thursday and Friday evenings' "replays" turned out to be tape-delayed coverage picking up from the time they left the air at 4pm, giving us six hours of golf each of the first two days.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that situation to repeat itself this week.  And as if you needed any other reason to watch...they're going to put a mike on Christina Kim for Thursday's round.  Fortunately, cable channels don't have to follow those FCC regulations quite as closely as the broadcast ones!

Other than the temperatures which occasionally have cracked triple-digits, the playing conditions in Havre de Grace have been perfect the last few years.  This year, the temps will be about 20 degrees cooler with the usual summertime afternoon pop-up t-storms possible.  Without knowing any setup changes that may have been implemented, I expect the scoring to come in somewhere between 72.5 and 73 - which is on the low side for a major championship.

Unlike the other majors, the LPGA Championship doesn't have a special qualifying criteria - it uses the same priority process that regular LPGA events use.  Jeong Jang is still out recovering from wrist surgery and the only other Top 40 player missing is...Ai Miyazato?  I'll let The Constructivist lead the discussion on Ai's decision to play back home this week.

In my book there are five clear favorites to win.  The trick is figuring out which order they'll be in on Sunday evening.  Here goes...