Rating Field of LPGA Event as Easy as 1-2-3

It might not be fair, but those absent are noticed first. And three big names are not playing in the Los Angeles Women’s Championship this week at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley.

Karrie Webb (the LPGA’s top money-winner last year), Juli Inkster (LPGA Hall-of-Famer and world-class soccer mom) and Annika Sorenstam (the Swedish sensation who finished second at this tournament two of the last three years).

The field is impressive nonetheless.

Dottie Pepper, Liselotte Neumann and Laura Davies have seven major championships among them.

Catrin Nilsmark was tournament champion last year when the event was held at at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.

Nancy Scranton won the $850,000 Subaru Memorial of Naples tournament three weeks ago.

Se Ri Pak finished third on the money list last year and her Korean countrywoman, Mi Hyun Kim, was rookie of the year.

The hottest golfers are in the field of 132 as well. Eight of the top 10 money winners in the two tournaments this year will compete.

“It’s a great field,” said Bob Collins, vice president of Group Dynamics, Inc., the tournament’s first-year promoter. “A few big names are missing, but otherwise it’s the best players on the LPGA.”

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Sorenstam’s absence is a surprise because she was featured in much of the pre-tournament publicity.

It has nothing to do with her collapse last year during the first round of a playoff against Nilsmark. Sorenstam, the leading money-winner in the three years of the tournament, three-putted from four feet.

Officials said Sorenstam did not apply for entry into this year’s tournament. Sorenstam believed she did apply, but was held responsible for the mix-up.

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The light rain that fell Tuesday helped soften greens that have a reputation for being hard to hold.

And there has been little wind on both days the women played practice rounds and whiled away time on the driving range and practice greens.

Possible scattered showers are forecast later in the week, but the consensus among players is that precipitation is preferable to wind.

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Diane D’Allesio won the tournament’s final berth in a sudden-death playoff over Heather Bowie on Tuesday.

D’Allesio made par on the first extra hole, a 402-yard par four.

D’Allesio, 29, is an LPGA rookie who earned nonexempt status for this season by finishing 46th at the LPGA Qualifying Tournament.

A product of Furman University, D’Allesio played on the SBC Futures Tour last year, accumulating three top-five finishes.

Furman, a Division I school in Greenville, S.C., is a breeding ground of LPGA talent. There are 10 Furman alumnae on the tour, including Pepper. Only Arizona State (15) and Texas (12) have more.

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Pro-Am tournaments are today and Thursday, giving some players another chance to tour the course before the tournament begins Friday.

Eighteen groups play today beginning at 7 a.m., and 18 more will tee off beginning at 11 a.m.