Evian Masters Preview

The official site for the Evian Masters is a dream for someone like me who has to follow the LPGA on-line from Japan. Not only does it give you the usual links to things like scores, starting times, news, interviews, player profiles (quel Eurocentrique!), and the tournament history, but it also gives you web tv, a hole-by-hole intro to the course, and a blog (in French!). So I'll be spending as much time as I can at this site during the next few days, when I'm not grading, packing, doing goodbyes, playing with the girls, or sleeping. Not that much, in other words.

If you're into picking winners, this overview of the past finishes of those in the field may be worth examining. It suggests that the Evian Masters Country Club is a good course for Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie to attempt their comebacks from injuries, that it just might jump-start the games of Juli Inkster, Meena Lee, and Jeong Jang, that Lorena Ochoa, Karrie Webb, Paula Creamer, Mi Hyun Kim, Cristie Kerr, and Maria Hjorth are likely to contend, and that the top 4 Super Sophs--Morgan Pressel, Seon Hwa Lee, Ai Miyazato, and Jee Young Lee--have to learn quickly from their previous struggles in this tournament. What it can't tell you is how the 30 golfers playing it for the first time--including KLPGA superstar Ji Yai Shin, Rookie of the Year rivals Angela Park and In-Kyung Kim, and Super Soph Meaghan Francella--are likely to handle a course that seems vulnerable to low scoring from people playing well but tough on anyone with any weaknesses in their game. Nor can it tell you why Se Ri Pak is skipping the tournament this year. Although maybe the new issue of Seoul Sisters can.

The pairings for the first two rounds of the tournament (which didn't have a cut until this year, by the way) are also very interesting. As Mulligan Stu pointed out at Waggle Room, Morgan Pressel and Michelle Wie are playing together, but that's only part of the story. So are world #1 Lorena Ochoa and world #2 Karrie Webb, American sweetheart Paula Creamer and Japanese sweetheart Ai Miyazato (not to mention money list neighbors), the KLPGA's Ji Yai Shin and the LPGA's Seon Hwa Lee, the Euro-legends Annika Sorenstam and Laura Davies, and duelling Solheim Cup qualifier contenders Angela Stanford and Sherri Steinhauer. So check out who triumphs in these matches-within-the-tournament each day.

The Evian Masters Country Club is a short, hilly, tight, and tricky course. It puts a premium on local knowledge, good decision-making, and smart approach shots. It takes driver out of the hands of the majority of the field on the majority of holes, but it requires them to put themselves on the correct side of the fairway on almost every one of them. The tee shots are usually framed by trees and sand traps, the fairways are usually tilted in one direction or another, and the greens are usually multi-tiered and undulating. Most of the par 5s are reachable in two for most of the field (even Mi Hyun Kim says so about the 7th!), especially the 18th, which tempts you with its relatively wide fairway and threatens you with the creek and sand traps surrounding the green. The back 9 looks a lot tougher than the front to me--even though the last 3 holes are very very short, they look (and sound from the player commentary) very very tricky. I can certainly understand why people either go really low or struggle to break par in this tournament (and often do both over the course of their four rounds).

With the course being so hilly, most of the field dealing with jet lag and recovering from the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship (for one reason or another) the previous week, and the last major of the year--the British Women's Open (at ST. ANDREWS)--coming the following week, players' physical conditioning, mental toughness, and ability to deal with their emotions will be an even bigger factor on this European swing than it usually is. I don't see any of the first-timers in the mix on the weekend except maybe Ji-Yai Shin, Momoko Ueda, Kyeong Bae, or Angela Park. And I don't know how Annika Sorenstam's back and neck, Mi Hyun Kim's knees and back, Michelle Wie's wrists, or Paula Creamer's swing changes will affect their play, much less which Karrie Webb or Cristie Kerr or Suzann Pettersen are going to show up this week. So in the end I'm looking for Jeong Jang, Morgan Pressel, Seon Hwa Lee, Ai Miyazato, Laura Davies, Angela Stanford, Carin Koch, Sherri Steinhauer, and Maria Hjorth to be chasing Lorena Ochoa on the weekend. I'll let Hound Dog pick the winner, as he's been doing so well (barring the unpredictable HSBC match play event) with his predictions lately.