10th August 2002
Who will make history on Sunday
by Stat Rat
 

If Australia’s Karrie Webb wins tomorrow afternoon, she would achieve the LPGA’s “Super Career Grand Slam,” which means she has won the five different major championship titles available in her career.

Webb - Super Career Grand Slam?

No other player has achieved this distinction, which is available to those players who have competed during the years when the US Women’s Open, McDonald’s LPGA Championship, Kraft Nabisco Championship, Weetabix Women’s British Open and the du Maurier Classic (played from 1979-2000) were majors in Women's golf.

Webb would also become the second-youngest player to capture six major championship titles at the age of 27 years, 7 months and 21 days. The youngest is Mickey Wright, who won the 1961 US Women’s Open at the age of 26 years, 4 months and 17 days.

LPGA Tour rookies Natalie Gulbis, Candie Kung and Beth Bauer are in contention to win this week. Only three rookies in LPGA history have made an LPGA major their first career win: Sandra Post, 1968; Liselotte Neumann, 1988; Se Ri Pak, 1998.

American Tour rookie Natalie Gulbis at age 19 years, 7 months and 4 days, would be the youngest player to win a major championship in LPGA history. The current record is held by Sandra Post, who won the 1968 LPGA Championship at 20 years, 19 days old.

Karrie Webb has 11 come-from-behind victories in her career, all from two strokes or more.

Jenny Rosales could become the first player from the Philippines to win a Women’s professional golf tournament

If a non-LPGA member, for example, Spain’s Paula Marti or Elizabeth Esterl from Germany wins the Weetabix Women’s Open, she could immediately apply for membership in the LPGA.

They would be non-exempt for the remainder of 2002, but would go to the top of the non-exempt priority list for the purposes of gaining entry into LPGA events during that year. The win would also give her one year of exempt status which would take effect the following season.

Unlike LPGA members who are granted a three-year exemption for winning an official tournament and a five-year exemption for winning an LPGA major, a non-LPGA winner is given one year only, and during that one year of exempt status she must, through performance, extend her membership for future years. For instance, finish in the Top 125 of the year-end money list.