Sybase Match Play Championship preview
May 14, 2012

64 of the top female golfers on the LPGA Tour will travel to Gladstone, NJ this week for the third-annual Sybase Match Play Championship.

Rolex Rankings No. 3 Suzann Pettersen returns the Hamilton Farm Golf Club to defend her title after defeating Natalie Gulbis, Amy Hung and Stacy Lewis en route to a faceoff with Cristie Kerr in the final match. Pettersen sank a 15-foot putt on the 18th hole to seal the match for her first victory of the 2011 season. She went on to win the Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola and secured 10 additional top-10 finishes.

Seven of the world’s top-10 golfers and nine of the top-10 golfers on the 2012 Official Money List are also slated to be in the field this week. Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng leads the pack with Na Yeon Choi following close behind.

The field is also comprised of the top-45 players on the Official Money List. This includes Rolex Rankings No. 1 Tseng, No. 4 Ai Miyazato, No. 15 Angela Stanford, No. 7 Stacy Lewis and the 2010 Sybase champ No. 14 Sun Young Yoo, who have all secured a win so far this season. Miyazato and Yoo are closing in on Tseng at second and third, respectively. Miyazato earned her eighth LPGA win at the LOTTE LPGA Championship, while Yoo notched her first major victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Other tournament contenders include Pornanong Phatlum, who is coming off her first LPGA victory at the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup last week, which was the first unofficial event of the season.