CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge Preview

Before heading across the Pacific to begin the annual Asian Swing, the ladies tee it up at the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge.  Blackhawk Country Club hosts this event formerly known as Longs Drugs for the fifth time.  Sophie Gustafson won last year by four strokes over Lorena Ochoa.

The layout is one of the few LPGA tracks under 6200 yards but it makes up for the lack of length with a lot of elevation changes, making club selection a bit trickier.  Last year was the first time Blackhawk played to an average of less than 73 and the ladies beat it good, by nearly a stroke.  That event was played during my two-month sabbatical so I confess I don't know why it played so much easier.  Lift-clean-place rules?

CVS is our final full-field event of the year (although I'm not sure I should use that description on a field of 108) and is the last chance for many players to help their status for 2011.  I'll have the particulars spelled out for them tomorrow.  Fortunately for them (but unfortunately for the Bay Area fans), even more of the top players are sitting out here than they did at Navistar.  The Field Score is 38, the worst since the 2008 Mizuno Classic also registered 38.  I'm happy for the extra opportunities for the rank-and-file but in a season with only 24 events being scheduled, this is inexcusable.  I'm placing some blame on the players not in attendance but keep in mind, it's not their fault that the Asian Swing begins immediately following the CVS and continues on without break through the Ochoa Invitational.  A six-week stretch of events in the context of this year's schedule creates this regrettable problem.  I've written about this before and The Constructivist covered it very well this morning - the Tour needs to make sure that if its schedule can't be as robust as we'd all like it to be, it needs to be ordered so the large number of off-weeks can be used to build up the field strength at each event.  Assuming it was possible, the LPGA and the organizers should have moved the CVS to late September.  With this event already looking for another sponsor, I hope its location in this bizarro schedule isn't a death sentence for the Tour in Northern California.

One thing I remember about weak fields like this - don't be shocked if the victory comes from an unlikely source.  In 2008 there were six fields with a Field Score of less than 40.  The winners of those events were Louise Friberg, Lorena Ochoa, Leta Lindley, Paula Creamer, Ji Young Oh and Jiyai Shin.