Ladies' day out

If the Women's US Open produces as stern a test as the Shinnecock Hills did a couple of weeks ago, the women cannot complain "" at least not this year, when the event is being held at the Orchards Golf Club.

Simply, because the charming Orchards Golf Club was a course built for a woman and owned by female-only Mount Holyoke College. Joseph Skinner, an American textile magnate, wanted a place for his daughter to play and so commissioned Don Ross to design and build it.

The clubhouse is an understated, three-story Colonial and the practice green is a small one, just about the size of a two-car garage. But when 156 players get together here for an event like the US Open, it will become apparent to them that it is indeed the toughest and the most prestigious of all Majors. It carries a prize of $560,000 for the winner from a total purse of the $3.1 million.

For sometime, it seemed the US Women's Open at Orchards might be headed in the same direction as the men's US Open at Shinnecock, with not much grass on the greens, a result of a brutal winter, which saw long stretches of record subzero days.

Yet, when it was time for the curtain to be raised on the event this week, the course had made a dramatic recovery leading many to feel the event might after all be a keenly contested one with some good golf.

Annika Sorenstam started the 2004 season with a publicly stated desire to win all four Majors for a Grand Slam. But she stumbled at the first one itself and finished 13th at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. The Swede, US Open champion in 1995 and 1996, has been close over the last couple of years.

In 2003 she missed on a three-way play-off after making a bogey six on the final hole to finish one shot out of the playoff. Two years ago she was second to Juli Inkster.

While she failed in the first Major, Annika stepped up her game and claimed victory by successfully defending her LPGA Championship in Delaware. So, she amended her target to winning three out of four Majors this year, and she begins a firm favourite for the year's third Major.

Winner of this year's first Major, Kraft Nabisco, Grace Park, missed the LPGA Championships due to a back problem, but is back for the US Open and will be among the contenders.

Yes, while favourites are being discussed one name that is hardly figuring is that of Hilary Lunke, the defending champion. She won the title last year at Pumpkin Ridge and it was her biggest victory, in fact her only victory. Lunke has never finished in the top 10 at any other professional tournament.

Annika apart, other leading contenders will include 41-year-old Juli Inkster, two-time winner in US Open, 26-year-old Cristie Kerr, whose best has been a tied second, 29-year-old Australian Karrie Webb, who won in 2000 and 2001, Koreans Grace Park, who won her first Major at Kraft Nabisco this year and Se Ri Pak, who in 1998 became the youngest to win the US Open in her rookie year.

Outsiders could be Mexican Lorena Ochoa, rookie of the year last season, Michelle Wie, Stacy Prammansudh and veteran Meg Mallon, who won the US Open in 1991.

One of the big talking points at the Women's Open has been the number of teenagers in the field. This year there are a record 16 teenagers, two more than last year at Pumpkin Ridge. But the maximum attention seems to have been reserved for the 14-year-old Michelle Wie, still an amateur.

The USGA gave her special treatment by giving her an exemption from qualifying, and that prompted criticism from some quarters. Exemptions usually go to players who previously have won a Women's Open, or at least a major.

But the USGA Executive Director David Fay put it in the right perspective by bringing it to notice that had she been a pro, she would be exempt by virtue of her performance in three professional events.

On the LPGA Tour, Wie has made the cut in nine of her last 10 tournaments and would have earned enough money in three events this year to be 28th on the money list when the exemption was awarded.

Meanwhile Wie has enough rivals in her teenaged group. Paula Creamer, just 17, finished second on the LPGA Tour two weeks ago. Then there is the 17-year-old Jane Park and 18-year-old Aree Song, who has the game to win the biggest tournament. Song, a rookie on the LPGA Tour, came within one shot of winning the first Major, the LPGA Championships.

An amazing feature of the US Women's Open this year is that for the third consecutive year players will start either their first or second rounds on a par 3. The 10th hole at Prairie Dunes (2002), Pumpkin Ridge (2003) and Orchards are all par 3s. At the Orchards the tenth is about 180 yards with a creek in front of the green.

It might be a short start, but the journey over four days is a long and hard one. The US Women's Open Championship now into its 59th edition is open to any professional or amateur golfer born a female "" which closes the doors to transexuals.

In the case of amateurs, they must have a handicap index of less than 4.4. And the number of entries is huge. This year there were 1,097 entries as against 980 last year.

As many as 40 countries are represented and one of them is India, whose only woman pro Simi Mehra came through the sectional qualifiers top make the grade.