Michelle Wie to Return to Desert Major
RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF. – The Kraft Nabisco Championship has announced that sponsor invitations have been extended to six of the nation’s top amateur golfers and seven of the world’s leading professional golfers, including 17-year-old Michelle Wie of Hawaii. The 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first "major" tournament of the year on the LPGA Tour, will be held March 26-April 1 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
According to Tournament Director Terry Wilcox, Wie will be making her fifth appearance at the tournament – her second as a professional. At last year’s Kraft Nabisco, Wie finished tied for third with Natalie Gulbis, earning $108,222 in her first LPGA major tournament as a pro.
Wilcox also announced that invitations were offered to amateurs Esther Choe, Kimberly Kim, Jennie Lee, Taylor Leon, Stacy Lewis and Dewi Claire Schreefel.
Choe, the 2006 AJGA Rolex Junior Girls Player of the Year, is a senior at Cave Creek High School in Scottsdale, Ariz. Currently ranked number one in the nation by the GolfWeek/Titleist performance index as of Jan. 28, 2007, Choe is a four-time AJGA Rolex Junior All-American. She won three AJGA titles in 2006, including the Rolex Girls Junior Championship, the Ping Invitational and the Polo Junior Golf Classic. Choe was also a member of the 2006 Junior Ryder Cup U.S. team and competed in the U.S. Women’s Open in 2005 and 2006.
Joining Choe in the Kraft Nabisco field is her friend and golf rival 15-year-old Kimberly Kim. Originally from Pahoa, Hawaii, Kim currently resides in Queen Creek, Ariz., near Phoenix. She won the 2006 U.S. Women’s Amateur as a 14-year-old (the youngest winner in the history of the event) and was last year’s runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. Kim is listed eighth in the Jan. 28 GolfWeek junior girls ranking.
Duke University sophomore Jennie Lee has also earned an invitation to the Kraft Nabisco. Currently ranked fourth in GolfWeek’s women’s collegiate rankings and tied for 3rd in the women’s amateur rankings, the 20-year-old Blue Devil graduated from Edison High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., in 2005. Lee led the U.S. Curtis Cup team to victory in 2006 and earned medalist honors in last year’s 2006 North and South Women’s Amateur Championship.
Taylor Leon, a sophomore at the University of Georgia, is a four-time AJGA All-American and the 2006 SEC Rookie of the Year. Currently ranked second in women’s collegiate rankings, Leon is also the 2006 Women’s Southern Amateur champion and the 2006 Bryan National Collegiate champion. The Dallas, Tex., native competed as a member of the 2006 Curtis Cup team and is a three-time U.S. Women’s Open participant.
Stacy Lewis of The Woodlands, Tex., currently a junior at the University of Arkansas, will also play on a sponsor’s exemption this year at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. The Lady Razorback was named Women’s Amateur Player of the Year in 2006 by GolfWeek magazine and is currently ranked as the number one women’s amateur. She won the Women’s Western Amateur last year and was runner-up at the Women’s Southern Amateur behind Leon. Earlier this month, Lewis won the Harder Hall Invitational.
Rounding out the amateurs is Dewi Claire Schreefel, currently a junior at the University of Southern California. Born in Alkmaar, The Netherlands, the 21-year-old is the 2006 NCAA Women’s Golf Champion and a First Team All-American. A member of The Netherlands Amateur World Cup golf team, Schreefel finished second at the Dutch Junior International Championship in 2006.
Wilcox said that the field will be cut after two rounds to 70 low professional scores and ties and any amateurs within the cut. Last year, four amateurs made the cut, with Angela Park earning low amateur honors. Park finished tied for 15th with a score of two over par 290.
Among the professionals receiving sponsor invitations this year were Gwladys Nocera of France and Linda Wessberg of Sweden from the Ladies European Tour. Nocera finished second on the LET’s New Star Money List in 2006, while Wessberg finished sixth. Ji-Yai Shin, the 2006 Rookie of the Year and top money winner on the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour, and Hee-Young Park, the number two player on the KLPGA money list, have also received invitations. In addition, sponsor exemptions were extended to Shiho Oyama, who finished first on the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association money list in 2006, and Mi-Jeong Jeon from South Korea, who finished second on the JLPGA money list.
The 36th annual Kraft Nabisco Championship will once again host the best professional women golfers in the world. Leading the field will be two-time Kraft Nabisco champion Karrie Webb, who stunned the crowd last year in the final round when she holed a 116-yard wedge shot on 18 for an eagle to take a one-shot lead. Lorena Ochoa came back with an eagle of her own, forcing a playoff with Webb who won with a birdie on the extra hole.
For more information on the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship, please visit the tournament Web site at www.KNCGOLF.com.
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