The best are back (1)

It's been 19 days since the Ricoh Women's British Open ended, which means the LPGA hasn't had a single tournament since then; Nevertheless, the tour will be back on track this week thanks to the Safeway Classic to be held August 20-22 in Portland, Oregon; an event that has been part of the tour since 1972.

The field of this tourney is always full of stars, this year, as it's a tradition, we'll have the chance to see the top 10 of the Rolex Rankings. Today we'll talk about players 10 to 6:

10. Song-Hee Kim: she has never won in the LPGA, still her victories in the FUTURES Tour (5) have been enough to put herself among the best. This season, Kim has been runner-up twice and leads some stats such as scoring average (69.98), rounds under par (74%), top 10 (78%), birdies (206) and sub-par holes (210). 

9. In-Kyung Kim: her career has been discrete, nevertheless, she's lifted two LPGA trophies, Longs Drugs Challenge (2008) and LPGA State Farm Classic (2009), and one more from the Ladies European Tour, Dubai Masters (2009). As if that wasn't enough, she's very consistent with her short game.

8. Anna Nordqvist: she's been compared with Annika Sörenstam by media and fans; the 23 year-old Swede has three victories in two seasons as a pro, besides, she's very analytic when she plays. Furthermore, she trains with Sörenstam's former coaches, Henri Reis and Pia Nilsson.

7. Paula Creamer: U.S. Women's Open champion is anxious to play this week, mainly because last year she had to WD from this event due to health issues. The "Pink Panther" came back to the LPGA just in time, she's a crowds' favorite and has the talent needed to help the tour go back on track. 

6. Na Yeon Choi: this year she's won once, at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, and has been runner-up twice. With only two seasons as a LPGA member, the South Korean has 3 million dollars in earnings and is fifth in the Player of the Year Award race.

This five players will do everything to win, but they'll also fight to climb the Rolex Rankings and become closer to the first spot.

Here come the Asians!

As it has been for the last couple of seasons the girls from the far far East have been dominating the leaderboard of almost every single LPGA tournament.

LOI’s field features 15 Asian players, compared with only
2 Mexicans and 6 Europeans.

Son Hee Kim had a great start, she opened her 65 round with a birdie on number 3 par 5. Kim, who has 10 top ten finishes this year, continue to card birdies on 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Then, she had to settle with pars from 11 to 17 and finally closed with another birdie. With this round she tied the course record which was set last year by Brittany Lang.

Jiyai Shin, who is close to become POY, birdied 1 after a great approach shot and continue with the pace in 3, 5 and 6. Nevertheless, she bogeyed 8 but managed to comeback on 10, then she would do the same on 12 and 13. She was one stroke behind clubhouse leader Kim, when she bogeyed 16 to finish 5 under for the day.

Another Asian player who is up there is Eun-Hee Ji who also had a good round, with few mistakes and very solid finish. She managed to birdie 1, 9, 10, 14 and 18 compared with only one bogey on 5.

Still, there are two players chasing Kim, one of the kids on the block, Paula Creamer, who’s putting is definitively getting stronger; and a Latino player who isn’t precisely Lorena Ochoa, she’s Maria José Uribe who had a solid 67 round with only 1 bogey on 14.