American Players to Watch at the Women's US Open
This week marks the Women's US Open Major Championship at the Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburg. Which players have the best shot at the trophy? Here are two top American players to watch out for, as there’s no doubt that they’ll both be making headlines at this year’s tournament.
Cristie Kerr
Cristie Kerr is ranked number one on the women’s golf tour after she won the LPGA Championship by 12 strokes. Along with that recent victory, Kerr became the first American to hit the top spot in the Rolex Rankings since it began in 2006. The recently crowned world number one has two wins in her last three starts, including an LPGA Championship victory from the end of June. In the tournament, Kerr also finished at 19-under, the lowest score in relation to par at any women’s major championship.
“It’s so awesome, I couldn’t have played better,” Kerr said in an interview after winning her second major title. She also won the 2007 US Women’s Open.
“I feel great,” she said. “I feel like I’ve worked for this my whole life. It’s what I’ve worked for and it’s coming true. So it’s great that I got there, but now it’s time to just keep doing the things that got me there. You know, I can’t control what other golfers do, but I can control what I do. And if I can control what I do well enough, then I will stay there.”
Kerr is being predicted to knock Japan’s Ai Miyazato (another player to watch for) out of her position in the rankings. Kerr is the fourth woman to be No. 1 this year and the fifth woman in that position since the rankings began in 2006. She has that position in common with the following golfers; Miyazato, South Korea’s Jiyai Shin, Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa and Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam.
"It's especially big for American golf for us to do well in these kinds of tournaments, because there are so many little girls out here that we see in the practice rounds," Kerr said on Tuesday from Oakmont Country Club, where she was practicing for this week's US Women's Open.
Morgan Pressel
Already with a major championship under her belt, Pressel's best playing assets are fairways finds and putts. As she's seventh and eighth on tour in both of those categories, she’ll be expected to be near the top of the leader board at the tournament.
A golf veteran at the ripe age of 22, Pressel has won an LPGA Tour event this season, at a time when American players are striking out more often than not. However, Pressel's last victory was last month in the Salonpas Cup on the Japan LPGA Tour, which seemed to amuse the American golfer.
"They come over here and win on our tour and I go over there and win on their tour," Pressel said.
Although Pressel became the youngest player to win a major championship at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship at age 18, she is still very realistic about her chances of winning this year's US Open as Americans have only won two of the past 12 majors.
Pressel has also shared this opinion with the press, "[I]t's getting harder and harder to win on tour." The golfer made this comment after playing a practice round last week at Oakmont, a course she has played before.
"There's deeper competition, there are a number of different players who can win every week. Lately, it hasn't been the Americans," she added.
"It's not like we haven't been close; we're there, we're just not holding the trophies. We're out here trying our best. We don't want to lose. We're not out here trying to lose."
Kerr and Pressel are indeed golf champions, but only one woman will leave Oakmont on July 11th with a trophy in her hand.
Tags: