2011 Evian Masters, day 1

Lots of movement in the Evian Master Golf Course, actually in all the city! This little and picturesque town goes nuts when the LPGA comes to visit. Banners and flags with the tourneys logo line up all over the place.

The ideal thing is to catch a flight to Geneva, Switzerland, there you can take a taxi or ferry all the way to Évian-les-Bains; others prefer to fly to Paris, where they take a train to Geneva, Either way, press members, players and caddies are transported by the organizers, both from the airport and the train station all the way to their hotels. There's a lot of place to stay and for all budgets.

If you go to Evian from Geneva by car you should be there in an hour, tops. When you cross the frontier you won't see any kind of officials or checkpoints, you just go through as you owned the place, although there's a tool booth1(.70 euros / 2.41 dollars)

You won't get any sign directions on the road to get to Évian until you're actually 10 minutes away (lots of posters and banners will lead you there). In downtown expect to see all kind of goodies of the tournament, decorating the shop windows, as well as the hotel and restaurant entrances.

Lots of vans, or courtesy cars as they call them officially, around the place, and as I said earlier, they transport media members, players and caddies, this time, from their hotels to the course and vice-versa.

Now, as for the players, they are all here people so there's a lot of activity for being a Tuesday; some of them have been since Sunday! It's been raining a lot, not hard but constantly, nevertheless, players suck it up and keep it going, like Yani Tseng, who's here with her mother. Speaking of Yani, she's very relaxed and is hitting the ball pretty solid

Another gal who brought mom and dad with her is.... yes, you guessed correctly: Michelle Wie. Whom I saw at the putting green and let me tell you people, she wasn't sinking much, but she said "the course is in great shape, regardless of the soggy conditions".

Alison Nicholas is also here and she's watching the Euros pretty closely, and how wouldn't she? The Solheim Cup is around the corner (September 23- 25).

It seems like tomorrow's weather conditions should improve, it hasn't stop raining since early in the morning and it's chilly. Anyways, we have to wait and see if rain becomes a factor, meanwhile, expect quite a show!

The rankings: upside down

The days when golf was dominated by Annika Sörenstam and Tiger Woods are over; a long time ago -at least that's how it feels- both used to tease each other about majors. Today, things are completely different...

Woods hasn't recovered his mental side of the game due to his infidelity scandal, which came to light on November 2009, after he crashed his SUV in Isleworth; meanwhile, Sörenstam left the LPGA in 2008 to pursue two of her biggest dreams: creating her personal brand -ANNIKA- and starting a family. This brought changes in the world rankings.

In women's golf, it was Mexican Lorena Ochoa who assumed the top position, and managed to stay there for 3 years, before leaving the LPGA.

When Ochoa left, the Pandora box opened. After 11 months, we've seen 4 players atop the rankings - three Asian and one from the USA-. Still, non of them has stayed there for more than 15 weeks in a row. They are: Jiyai Shin (South Korea), Cristie Kerr (USA), Ai Miyazato (Japan) and Yani Tseng (Taiwan).

This seems to be expanding rapidly. After 5 years of dominance, Woods left the first place of the Official World Golf Rankings in October 2010, and ever since, men's golf has had an open season. Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer have had the privilege to lead golf, but haven't consolidated up there.

Throw Luke Donald in there, who has a 0.28 point difference with Westwood, and you'll get another guy on track to take over the first spot.

It's clear that the 'Monarchy' has come to an end, but far from being a mishap, it happens to be quite a treat for fans. For the first time in years, there's a range of possibilities ahead, there are no clear favorites, which brings excitement to the table, and to prove it, you have the first two majors of 2011: The Masters and the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Tweet of the week:

Anyone remember when media outlets were slagging the @LPGA for not having one definite #1 player? We are SUCH trendsetters, @PGATOUR!! -@TheChristinaKim-

The first LPGA major is almost here

Everything is set for the 40th anniversary of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first Grand Slam of the season. After four tourneys, the best women golfers are ready to visit Rancho Mirage, CA.

This will certainly be a tournament to remember, it will have more than 30 entertainers from music, TV and movies. Of course it'll display a star studded field, with 23 of the top 25 players of the Rolex Rankings.

Expect to see an Asian leader board, probably led by world number one Yani Tseng, who aside from being the defending champion, has had a stelar year so far. For starters, she won her first four tourneys, one in Taiwan, two in Australia (Ladies European Tour) and one more in Thailand (LPGA), and has two top 5 finishes and a T19 in her last three appearances in the LPGA.

South Korean Jiyai Shin will also be a serious contender for the title, even when she started with three ties (35, 11 and 29), last weekend she showed why she's one of the best players, as she finished runner-up at the Kia Classic, one stroke back from German Sandra Gal

Keep an eye on Australia's Karrie Webb, who has already won twice in 2011, at the HSBC Women's Champions and RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup; and also in Michelle Wie, who has two top 10 finishes in three events.