Six Australians will this week vie for the most prestigious trophy in women’s professional golf, the US Women’s Open conducted by the USGA. The third major on the 2010 women’s professional golf calendar tees off this Thursday at the famous Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

Once again, Australian No.1 and Rolex World No. 9 Karrie Webb will lead the Australian charge. The 2000 & 2001 champion is an automatic starter, along with Lindsey Wright and Katherine Hull who gained entry as a result of finishing in the Top-50 on the 2009 LPGA Official Money List. Tamie Durdin, Sarah Kemp and Anna Rawson earned their way into the field through success at recent sectional qualifying.

Oakmont Country Club will provide a great teat for the 156 professionals and amateurs this week. It will be the 15th USGA championship to be held at the highly regarded club which has hosted eight US Men’s Opens, five US amateur championships and this will be the second US Women’s Open. Patty Sheehan took out the title when it was last played at Oakmont back in 1992.

South Korean Eun-Hee Ji is the defending champion, having birdied the last hole at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem to defeat Taiwan’s Candie Kung by one shot.  Ji will however need to improve her 2010 form if she is to defend her title, with her best finish in 2010 being a tie for 17th.

American Cristie Kerr, who recently won the LPGA Championship presented by Wegmans by an incredible twelve shots is deservedly one of the tournament favourites. The current Rolex World No.1, along with this season’s four-time LPGA winner, Ai Miyazato and South Korean Jiyai Shin are also likely to be in contention.
The top spot on the Rolex Rankings is once again up for grabs this week with the current averages so tight that, mathematically, any one of the current Top- 5 ranked players has the chance to move to No.1 if they were to win this week.

Of the Australians, Webb has been in fine form in recent weeks and will be looking for all aspects of her game to fall into place. She has finished fifth in both 2010 Majors and will be looking to secure her third US Open title. This week will however be Webb’s first visit to Oakmont.“I haven't played there before but I did watch the men play there a couple of years ago. It is definitely going to be a tough test but I am looking forward to it.”

Webb will also have a welcome distraction this week, when she hosts the two leading amateurs from the 2009 Karrie Webb Series. She will treat Stacey Keating and Jessica Speechley to the US Open experience during which they will walk practice rounds with their idol, meet many of the LPGA stars and administrators, and spend most of their off course time benefiting from Webb’s mentoring. For Webb it is a side of the week which she thoroughly enjoys, having stated that she feels she gets more out of the week than the amateur girls do.

156 players will tee it up Thursday (US time), after 36 holes the cut will be made to the low 60 scores and ties and any player within 10 strokes of the leader.

Prizemoney for the Championship is US$3.25 million, which along with the Evian Masters is the biggest purse in women’s professional golf.

The tournament offers prizemoney of US$2,250,000.

US WOMEN’S OPEN – PAST CHAMPIONS (2000-2009)
2009    Eun-Hee Ji           
2008    Inbee Park
2007    Cristie Kerr
2006    Annika Sorenstam
2005    Birdie Kim
2004    Meg Mallon
2003    Hilary Lunke
2002    Juli Inkster
2001    Karrie Webb
2000    Karrie Web