RICOH Women’s British Open Preview

The final major championship of 2010 (and the third one in six weeks) begins Thursday at the RICOH Women's British Open.  The WBO has been co-sanctioned by the LPGA since 1994 and it replaced the du Maurier Classic as the fourth major in 2001.  Since it became that fourth major no player has managed to win the British twice, although 2006 winner Sherri Steinhauer also won in 1998 and 1999.  Catriona Matthew (11 weeks removed from giving birth) won by three shots at Royal Lytham & St. Annes last year while Jeong Jang won in 2005, the last time the ladies visited Royal Birkdale.

Judging by the scoring averages, Royal Birkdale is the middle one in difficulty among the three courses in the regular WBO rota.  While Sunningdale has played much easier, Birkdale showed to be about your average Tour course in 2005 although it appears to have played a little tougher in 2000.  Unlike Sunningdale and like Lytham a year ago, Birkdale is a links layout so the 2010 edition will definitely have that "British Open" feel.  Not that I'm a huge fan of that - watching players fight the elements for four straight days feels less like Golf than it does MMA.  Maybe I have less tolerance for it because we see the men go through this every year just two weeks prior, but I would always prefer bright sunshine and a slight breeze.  The forecast for Southport (in the northwest corner of England) calls for highs in the mid-60s and a 60% chance of light rain Friday and Saturday.  Oh well...

For the fourth time in the last five events, only one player (the same one) from my Top 40 is missing.  In fact, the rest of my top 52 players are in the field this week as Shi Hyun Ahn is the highest ranked active player not here.  Like the other majors, the WBO has its own qualifying criteria, which can be found on the Final Field page at LPGA.com.  It also has its own unique cut line - the top 65 and ties go through to Round Three.

So who's gonna win?  Why do you ask me, being Oh-fer-2010?  And 18th out of 18 players in the Evian PakPicker?  This has been by far my worst year at picking the tournaments.  Yes, the winner does seem to appear in my list about half the time but that's small consolation.  Maybe if I just keep on picking NYC, I'll get it right one of these weeks.