RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Mission Hills Country Club brings the LPGA Tour to the California desert for the 48th annual season-opening major championship with the ANA Inspiration, set to begin Thursday.
The tour's top 25 ranked players are in the field, hoping to take the traditional champion's plunge into Poppie's Pond and grab the winner's payday of $450,000 in the $3 million four-round event.
This year's field features 112 players, including defending champion Pernilla Lindberg of Sweden, who defeated Korea's Inbee Park at the 2018 event with a birdie on the eighth extra hole. Park won the 2013 championship.
Past champions from the previous five years also will return to Mission Hills hoping for a shot at collecting another major title. Joining Lindberg will be So Yeon Ryu (2017), Lydia Ko (2016), two-time winner Brittany Lincicome (2015, 2009) and Lexi Thompson (2014).
Other former winners in the field include: LPGA Hall of Fame member Juli Inkster (1984, 1989); Stacy Lewis (2011); Morgan Pressel (2007); Yani Tseng (2010) and Hall of Famer Karrie Webb (2006, 2000).
Japan's Nasa Hataoka won last week's Kia Classic in Carlsbad, California, and seeks back-to-back victories in the Golden State.
In addition to the professionals, five amateur players will compete in the ANA Inspiration -- continuing a longstanding tradition of exemptions for top women amateurs. Those invited amateurs are: Stanford-bound teen Rachel Heck, Frida Kinhult of Florida State, Florida high school player Cindy Kou, UCLA sophomore Patty Tavatanakit and Stanford junior Albane Valenzuela.
Here are some things to watch this week:
Pernilla Lindberg wins first major, then struggles
A return to Mission Hills Country Club, site of her first career win in eight LPGA seasons, reminded Pernilla Lindberg of some career-best happy memories.
The Swede won last year's ANA Inspiration marathon match in eight extra holes against LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park. She ended that dramatic duel with a 30-foot birdie putt that extended into Monday morning for an unforgettable highlight to her career.
But while winning a major championship, earning her first LPGA title, crossing the $2 million mark in career earnings and erasing any notion of self-doubt was remedied at last year's tournament, the rest of the 2018 season wasn't as kind or as eventful.
After winning the ANA, Lindberg posted one more top-10 finish at the HUGEL-JTBC L.A. Open, a tie for 15th at the ShopRite LPGA Classic in June and nothing better than a tie for 26th in her past 14 tournaments. It was a season that produced a major win in 27 events, as well as five missed cuts and a lot of new demands.
"For me, it doesn't come natural to say no, and obviously, I had a lot more requests and opportunities coming my way after my win," Lindberg said. "I embraced it all, took advantage of all the great opportunities, but -- I didn't realize until later -- [that it produced a] higher stress level."
Because the newly crowned major champion was suddenly in demand, she was learning to teeter between being accommodating and losing grasp of the nitty-gritty details required for weekly tournament performance.
"I could tell my focus wasn't 100 percent there and I just got a little more scattered," she said. "It's hard to play your best golf when you feel that way."
And expectations for her performance soared both from others, as well as from herself.
"Expectations are such a big factor in golf on all different levels," Lindberg said.
So, Lindberg launched into 2019 with a renewed focus. She worked with her team to get back on track with her tournament preparation. She took careful note of what she needed to do to play her best golf and, newly married, examined how she could better balance her life between personal and professional growth.
"A lot of people don't realize how hard it is to just stay in that top-70ish on the [LPGA's] money list every year," Lindberg added. "I've had a steady career so far and now I've shown what I can do on the biggest stage. I hope I will be able to show that a few more times, too."
Unfinished business for Inbee Park
Inbee Park stopped in front of a television monitor playing in the media center when she arrived for her Wednesday media conference and paused. There, on the screen, was footage of Park taking the celebratory leap into the greenside Poppie's Pond after winning the 2013 championship.
The typically stoic player from South Korea allowed a little smile to creep across her face before climbing into her chair on the interview podium.
And that tiny smile reemerged on the face of the seven-time major championship winner when asked if she had any unfinished business this week at the 2019 ANA Inspiration.
"Hopefully," she said. "Hopefully I can perform a little bit better. Last year was definitely just one of those one-of-a-kind experiences that I'd never had in my golfing career."
While Park came up short in outlasting eventual champion Lindberg in an epic eight-hole playoff for the 2018 title, the LPGA Hall of Famer gave herself some credit for making birdies on her last two holes in regulation just to enter the playoff.
"There are no regrets in how I played last year," said Park, who owns 19 career LPGA wins and a runner-up finish at last week's Kia Classic. "I fought really hard, but came up just a little bit short."
Entering this week's championship in only her fourth event of the season, Park praised the course conditions of Mission Hills this week, calling the greens "really, really pure." This, coming from a player whose putting stroke has been pendulum-reliable over the years, producing 94 top-10 finishes and winning more than $14.7 million in prize money.
Park thinks scoring will be more difficult this year following heavy rain that saturated the valley in the early spring and made Mission Hills' rough extremely thick and gnarly.
"The course is playing a little bit tougher, a little bit longer and the rough is up a little bit more," she said. "You don't want to miss fairways or greens. You have to be very accurate."
But accuracy and unflappability are what have pushed Park into rare company with the likes of fellow LPGA Hall of Famers Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright and Annika Sorenstam. She would move closer to their respective esteemed records with a win this week for her eighth major championship.
"It's such a meaningful thing to do if you can leave your name in the history of golf, especially among great names like that," she said. "It's just such a great honor."
And even falling short in winning last year's marathon finale has given Park fuel to start Thursday's opening round in a new season that is just getting started.
"I came so close last year," she said. "This definitely gives me a lot of confidence going into this year."
Players with SoCal ties hope for big week
Depending on the traffic, the California desert can be a short two-hour drive from greater Los Angeles. This week's ANA Inspiration field features a sizable cast of former UCLA Bruins and Southern California Trojans, as well as SoCal golfers who would like nothing more than to win a major championship just over the San Jacinto Mountains from the City of Angels.
Lizette Salas of Azusa leads the charge as the top-ranked player in the field from Southern California. Salas generally attracts a large following of amateur players from the L.A.-based Latina Golfers Association and from the Latin-American community.
Ranked 29th in the world, Salas also heads a trio of former University of Southern California players that includes 57th-ranked Annie Park of Levittown, New York, and Jennifer Song of Orlando, Florida, ranked 51st.
Former UCLA players currently ranked in the top 100 include 55th-ranked Bronte Law of Stockport, England; Ryann O'Toole (56th) of San Clemente, California; Mo Martin (61st) of Altadena, California; and 100th-ranked Jane Park of Woodstock, Georgia.
Other Bruins in this week's field are Alison Lee of Los Angeles, Mariajo Uribe of Bucaramanga, Colombia, and amateur Patty Tavatanakit, currently at UCLA.
Angel Yin of Arcadia, California, enters this week with a world ranking of 38th. Yin tied for fourth earlier in the season at the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open and the big-hitting third-year LPGA player hopes to become the second player in as many years to make the ANA Inspiration her first LPGA victory.
Thompson hopes to build on Mission Hills success
The old adage, "there are horses for courses," rings true when it comes to Lexi Thompson at Mission Hills Country Club's Dinah Shore Course.
Crowned as the 2014 champion when the event was still the Kraft Nabisco Championship, Thompson has posted four top-10 finishes, eight top-25s and has never missed the cut in her nine previous appearances in what is now the ANA Inspiration.
The Floridian credits some of her comfort at this event due to familiarity. She has played the course since age 14 and it's one of those courses that stylistically fits her eye. It also suits her game, allowing her to play aggressive golf.
"So many great memories and I just love this golf course," the long-hitting Thompson said. "I get to hit my driver everywhere. And just the setup of the golf course ... [allows me to] aim up the right side and hit my draw out there with my driver."
Thompson also added a familiar face on her bag by bringing back caddie Benji Thompson (no relation), who was with the player and her family when they all took the victory plunge into the Poppie's Pond in 2014.
"It's great to have him back on the bag," Thompson said. "I think he brings out the best in my game. If I'm ever questioning a shot, he's like, 'You got this. Show me what you got.' It's just a good personality for me to have out there on the golf course."
Sung Hyun Park seeking third major
If it seems as though Sung Hyun Park is collecting major championships, she is.
And this week, the third-year player from Korea has her eyes focused on adding the ANA Inspiration to her collection that already includes the 2017 U.S. Women's Open and the 2018 KPMG Women's PGA Championship.
"I have two major wins under my belt, [but] honestly, at those wins, I had good luck in those weeks," said Park, currently the world's top-ranked woman. "We focus more on the majors and players put a lot more emphasis on [them], as do I."
Making her fourth ANA Inspiration appearance, Park's best finish at this championship is a tie for sixth in 2016. She posted a tie for ninth in 2018, but she remembers struggling in last year's championship and understands the penalty for a long hitter who can't hold the fairways.
"The course is really hard and there are a lot of opportunities where, if you make a mistake, it will be detrimental to the score," said Park, the LPGA's top rookie in 2017, 2017 top money winner, and 2017 co-LPGA Player of the Year (with compatriot So Yeon Ryu).
She sees plenty of opportunities for birdies at Mission Hills, but last year also taught her the risks. Park knows the rough in 2019 will be especially punitive and she learned some lessons last year about where she needs to be if she wants to contend.
Already with six wins and 25 top-10 finishes in two seasons, including one win in 2019 and a tie for second last week at the Kia Classic, Park seems to be picking up where she left off last year.
And her goal this week is very clear.
"The ANA Inspiration is a major that I've targeted as a tournament that I would like to win," she said.
Lisa D. Mickey has covered golf for Golf World, Golf For Women, The New York Times, the U.S. Golf Association, LPGA.com, Virginia Golfer Magazine and for various other publications and websites. She is based in Florida.
