Ai Miyazato's preparations for this week's Evian Masters, presented by Société Générale, could not have gone any better as the defending champion heads to France as the newly crowned number one on the Rolex Women's World Rankings.
The Japanese star, who defeated Sophie Gustafson in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff at Evian Masters Golf Club last year, took over as Rolex Rankings No.1 for the first time on 20th June after four victories this season on the LPGA Tour, but she was overtaken by American Cristie Kerr just one week later.
She returned to the No.1 spot for the second time on Monday 19th July, just in time to defend her title at Evian-les-Bains in France.
The 5'2" phenomenon moved ahead of Kerr by the smallest possible margin, calculated to four decimal places, even though the rankings are only published to two decimal spots. Miyazato has 564.61 weighted points over 55 events with a 10.2656 average while Kerr has 472.19 weighted points over 46 events and a 10.2650 average.
Miyazato has established an impressive record on the LPGA this year. The 25-year-old from Okinawa became the first player since 1966 to win consecutive season-opening events with the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand, where she won by one stroke over Suzann Pettersen with a career-low and tournament-record 63 in the final round, and the HSBC Women's Champions. She also won the Tres Marias Championship and ShopRite Classic and finished tied for third at the LPGA Championship Presented by Wegmans.
Having joined the Ladies European Tour after her victory at Evian last year, she leads a glittering cast of 35 LET members in the 111 woman field, which features players from 23 different countries.
Korea leads the way with 28 representatives in the field, followed by the United States with 22, Japan with 18 and Australia and England, both with six players.
The 35-strong Ladies European Tour Membership teeing up includes this year's tournament champions Laura Davies, Anja Monke, Sophie Gustafson, Anna Nordqvist, Melissa Reid, Maria Hernandez, Florentyna Parker, Lee-Anne Pace, Karen Lunn and Trish Johnson, as well a number of runner-ups including Kristie Smith, Iben Tinning and Virginie Lagoutte-Clement.
Ten of those 35 Members will be making their Evian Masters debut, including South African Lee-Anne Pace, who captured her maiden LET title at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open and Nicole Gergely who won the 2009 Vediorbis/Randstad Open de France Dames.
MIYAZATO LEADS GLITTERING CAST TO EVIAN MASTERS
Ai Miyazato's preparations for this week's Evian Masters, presented by Société Générale, could not have gone any better as the defending champion heads to France as the newly crowned number one on the Rolex Women's World Rankings.
The Japanese star, who defeated Sophie Gustafson in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff at Evian Masters Golf Club last year, took over as Rolex Rankings No.1 for the first time on 20th June after four victories this season on the LPGA Tour, but she was overtaken by American Cristie Kerr just one week later.
She returned to the No.1 spot for the second time on Monday 19th July, just in time to defend her title at Evian-les-Bains in France.
The 5'2" phenomenon moved ahead of Kerr by the smallest possible margin, calculated to four decimal places, even though the rankings are only published to two decimal spots. Miyazato has 564.61 weighted points over 55 events with a 10.2656 average while Kerr has 472.19 weighted points over 46 events and a 10.2650 average.
Miyazato has established an impressive record on the LPGA this year. The 25-year-old from Okinawa became the first player since 1966 to win consecutive season-opening events with the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand, where she won by one stroke over Suzann Pettersen with a career-low and tournament-record 63 in the final round, and the HSBC Women's Champions. She also won the Tres Marias Championship and ShopRite Classic and finished tied for third at the LPGA Championship Presented by Wegmans.
Having joined the Ladies European Tour after her victory at Evian last year, she leads a glittering cast of 35 LET members in the 111 woman field, which features players from 23 different countries.
Korea leads the way with 28 representatives in the field, followed by the United States with 22, Japan with 18 and Australia and England, both with six players.
The 35-strong Ladies European Tour Membership teeing up includes this year's tournament champions Laura Davies, Anja Monke, Sophie Gustafson, Anna Nordqvist, Melissa Reid, Maria Hernandez, Florentyna Parker, Lee-Anne Pace, Karen Lunn and Trish Johnson, as well a number of runner-ups including Kristie Smith, Iben Tinning and Virginie Lagoutte-Clement.
Ten of those 35 Members will be making their Evian Masters debut, including South African Lee-Anne Pace, who captured her maiden LET title at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open and Nicole Gergely who won the 2009 Vediorbis/Randstad Open de France Dames.
The English pair of Florentyna Parker and Felicity Johnson will be looking to build on their maiden professional victories at the 2010 ABN AMRO Ladies Open and 2009 Tenerife Ladies Open respectively, while Australian Kristie Smith, Colombian Mariajo Uribe and India's Smriti Mehra will set out in search of her first victory on the LET.
There is a trio of Spanish talent teeing up, all of whom have recently won on the Ladies European Tour. Maria Hernandez was the Allianz Ladies Slovak Open victor while Azahara Munoz won on her professional debut at the 2009 Madrid Ladies Masters and Beatriz Recari clinched a playoff at last year's Finnair Masters.
Of the international cast, Karrie Webb, the ANZ Ladies Masters champion, is in the field along with Yani Tseng, the 2010 Women's Australian Open winner.
Italian Diana Luna, who gave birth to her first child Elena just over two months ago, will make her first appearance since the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters in December after receiving one of ten invitations. Former European No.1 Gwladys Nocera from France has also booked her spot via an invitation this year.
The Evian Masters has featured on the Ladies European Tour schedule since the beginning in 1994 and has been designated a major championship on the LET schedule since 1998. The tournament became an official co-sanctioned LPGA Tour event in 2000 and features a purse of 3,250,000 USD.
In addition to the on-course action, the tournament features a whirl wind social calendar including a charity football match in aid of the ELA (European Leukodystrophy Association). Players, caddies and VIPs will compete at the Stade Camille Fournier in Evian on Thursday evening at 7.15pm where a galaxy of international sports stars is expected to appear.
