PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Some nuggets and notes to whet your appetite as you wait for Sunday’s final round of the Wegmans LPGA Championship to begin at Locust Hill Country Club:
• Eun-Hee Ji, the 54-hole leader, has two victories, both relevant in any assessment of her ability to close the deal in the final round. She won the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open, and she won the Wegmans LPGA at Locust Hill in ’08. Ji, though, is off to a sluggish start this year. She didn’t have a top-10 finish until tying for 10th at last week’s ShopRite Classic.
• Fourteen players are within four shots of the lead.
• Nine major championship winners are among the top 14 on the leaderboard.
• Stacy Lewis, two shots back, is seeking to become the first American to win three consecutive stroke-play events since JoAnne Carner in 1982.
• With a win or second-place finish, Lewis will vault over Yani Tseng as the new leader of the Rolex Player of the Year points race. That’s provided Tseng doesn’t finish among the top 10. Tseng starts Sunday tied for 59th. No American has won Rolex Player of the Year since Beth Daniel in ’94.
• Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, a shot off the lead, is seeking her 39th LPGA title and eighth major championship.
• Ji and Webb share the same swing coach, Ian Triggs.
• Cristie Kerr is seeking her first victory since winning the Wegmans LPGA Championship two years ago.
• Paula Creamer is seeking her first victory since the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open.
Ahead of the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic, here are some things You Oughta Know.
• Davis Love III is tied for the lead at TPC Southwind at 6 under par with Nick O’Hern and John Merrick.
The American Ryder Cup captain is in search of his 21st PGA Tour win. He has not won on the PGA Tour since the 2008 Children’s Miracle Network Classic, which gave him 20 wins and lifetime status on the PGA Tour.
• A couple of Aussies are in contention in Memphis. O’Hern shares the lead, while Robert Allenby is one shot back of the leading trio.
No Australian-born player has won on the PGA Tour since Adam Scott won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last season. Aaron Baddeley was the other Australian to win last season, taking the Northern Trust Open.
• Spencer Levin will be doing some leaderboard watching on Sunday. Levin is projected to be No. 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking on Sunday. The top 60 in the ranking Sunday night are exempt into the U.S. Open.
Any of up to 10 players can affect Levin’s ranking by their finish in Memphis.
The closest threats to Levin are Ryo Ishikawa, Ryan Palmer and Padraig Harrington. If Ishikawa finishes inside the top 25, Levin will be bumped from the top 60. Harrington and Palmer, both T-11, must win to oust Levin. All three players are three shots away from their separate thresholds.
• Winning on Sunday may be a bad omen for the champion if he is in the field for the U.S. Open.
No player has ever won the week before the year’s second major, then gone on to win the Open the next week. Since 1945, only eight players have ever won the week prior to one of the other three majors, then won again the next week. – Ryan Ballengee