Lorena Ochoa Invitational Preview

The fourth-annual Lorena Ochoa Invitational will, for the first time, not feature Lorena Ochoa in action.  Being eight months pregnant, Lorena must not be physically able to walk the 72 holes.  It's her tournament, guys - give her a cart to ride in and watch her finish in the Top 20!

As an invitational, the LOI has a fine field but the absence of a handful of the upper-echelon lowers the Field Score a bit.  Na Yeon Choi is the hottest player missing while Karrie Webb and Jiyai Shin are the other big-name players not making the trip.  Beyond them however, the turnout is solid.  Defending champion In-Kyung Kim has had a decent 2011 but once again she comes down to the season's penultimate event still looking to extend her consecutive season win streak (currently three).  She'll have to beat out Yani Tseng to do that and not too many have succeeded lately in that respect.  Tseng finished 27^th here last year but we've seen "on-this-course" history not apply to Yani a lot this year.

Like all events, they hand out a few sponsor's invites (four this year) so Natalie Gulbis and local talents Lili Alvarez and Regina Plasencia will be playing.  As she has in all three prior Invitationals, Sophia Sheridan gets a sponsor's invite so she can grind out another $10,000 payday.  It's uncanny, I'm telling you - Sheridan's finishes here have been 27^th, T28 and T28.