Lorena Ochoa led first-half points standings in LPGA’s innovative new playoff system; slate wiped clean as second half begins next week with Evian Masters
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (July 17, 2006) – Lorena Ochoa, winner of two tournaments this season and a top-10 finisher nine other times, easily topped the list of 11 points qualifiers for the ADT Championships as the LPGA Playoffs 2006 first half came to a close Sunday.
Ochoa (467 points), Mi Hyun Kim (362), Cristie Kerr (323), Juli Inkster (316), Seon Hwa Lee (316), Hee-Won Han (300), Jeong Jang (288), Paula Creamer (266), Natalie Gulbis (254), Pat Hurst (233) and Meena Lee (166) will join automatic qualifiers Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak, Karrie Webb and Brittany Lincicome in the ADT Championship, the concluding event in the LPGA’s inaugural playoff system.
Ochoa’s list of highlights from the season’s first half is impressive. The 25-year-old Mexico native won the LPGA Takefuji Classic and the Sybase Classic; finished second or tied for second in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open, the Franklin American Mortgage Championship and the Michelob Ultra Championship; and registered four other top-10 finishes in 15 starts.
Among points qualifiers, Kim was the only other double winner in the season’s first half. Kim won the Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open and the first-half-ending Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic while also notching seven other top-10 finishes.
Winners of major tournaments and other select events on the 2006 LPGA Tour schedule automatically secure a spot for the season-ending ADT Championship, which features the first-ever $1 million winner’s check on the LPGA. Fifteen more players will qualify – five via automatic qualification and 10 via their spot in the points standings – during the season’s second half, which begins next week at the Evian Masters, and two wild cards will be selected to fill out the 32-player field.
Following is a list of the 15 players who qualified for the ADT Championship in the season’s first half, along with their first-half points or the automatic qualifying event they won:
Player Event won/qualifying points
Annika Sorenstam U.S. Women’s Open
Se Ri Pak McDonald’s LPGA Championship
Karrie Webb Kraft Nabisco Championship
Brittany Lincicome HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship
Lorena Ochoa 467 points
Mi Hyun Kim 362 points
Cristie Kerr 323 points
Juli Inkster 316 points
Seon Hwa Lee 316 points
Hee-Won Han 300 points
Jeong Jang 288 points
Paula Creamer 266 points
Natalie Gulbis 254 points
Pat Hurst 233 points
Meena Lee 166 points
The 11th annual ADT Championship will be held at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., Nov. 16-19. This will be the sixth consecutive year the exclusive club has hosted this prestigious concluding event to the LPGA season. Sorenstam is the reigning champion, owning four ADT Championship titles and three of the past four.
The tournament will be played in the following format (a sudden-death playoff will be used at the end of each round in the event of a tie): the first cut will be after 36 holes to 16 players; the second cut will be after 54 holes to eight players (scores are cumulative through 54 holes). The final round will be played in four groups of two, with all players starting with a fresh scorecard. Whoever shoots the lowest score in the final round will win the ADT Championship and $1 million.
About ADT
Celebrating its 131st anniversary, ADT Security Services, a unit of Tyco Fire & Security, is the largest provider of electronic security services to more than six million commercial, government and residential customers throughout North America. ADT’s total security solutions include intrusion, fire protection, closed circuit television, access control, critical condition monitoring, electronic article surveillance, radio frequency identification (RFID) and integrated systems.
About IMG
IMG is the world’s premier Sports, Entertainment and Media Company. IMG is a diversified global business with two major business segments: IMG Sports & Entertainment, and IMG Media. IMG employs over 2,300 people in 30 countries. Forstmann Little & Co. purchased IMG in 2004.
IMG Sports & Entertainment includes: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; client representation in golf, tennis, baseball, broadcasting, hockey, football, European football, rugby, cricket, motorsports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. In addition, IMG Academies are the world’s largest and most advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport training and educational facilities, delivering world-class sports training experiences to over 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes each year.
IMG Media, which includes content production subsidiaries TWI and Darlow Smithson Productions, is recognized as a global leader in the delivery of traditional and new media content and services, with Internet, broadband and mobile expertise, transforming how audiences access and interact with content. IMG Media produces and distributes over 9,000 hours of sports, documentary, docu-drama, entertainment, and popular factual content annually, over multiple platforms across 200 countries, including award-winning television and radio programming. It also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world’s premier sporting events and has the world’s biggest sports archive with more than 200,000 hours of footage. More information about IMG is available at www.imgworld.com and www.darlowsmithson.com
About Ladies Professional Golf Association
Featuring the world’s best women golfers, the LPGA’s membership includes touring, teaching and club professionals. The LPGA Tour in 2006 features 34 events, with total prize money of nearly $50 million.
Since 1981, the LPGA and its tournaments have raised approximately $170 million for charity. From the dreams of its 13 founders in 1950, the LPGA has evolved into the world’s preeminent women’s professional sports organization. The LPGA has grown from its roots as a playing tour into a non-profit organization involved in every facet of golf. In addition to the LPGA Tour members, the LPGA membership includes nearly 1,200 certified Teaching and Club Professionals (T&CP) who serve the golf industry in teaching, coaching and management positions. The LPGA T&CP member programs focus on increasing the involvement of women, girls and youth in golf, as well as contribute to the growth of the sport overall. The LPGA is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla. For more information on the LPGA, log on to www.LPGA.com.
Contact:
Steve Brener/Damian Secore/Brian Robin
Brener Zwikel & Associates, Inc.
(818) 344-6195, Ext. 103 / 114/ 110
