Jeong Jang at Birkdale in 2005

(Royal Lytham & St Annes, UK – August 1st 2006) – This week, Korean Jeong Jang defends the Weetabix Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes GC near Blackpool, from August 3-6.

At Royal Birkdale twelve months ago, Jang defeated Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson by four shots and won not only her first major but her first Tour event. Since that time she has gone on to win again on the US LPGA Tour and has become one of the world’s leading players. If she was to successfully defend her title at Birkdale, there would be no surprise this year.

This week, much interest will centre on World no.1 Annika Sorenstam who completed her career Grand Slam at Royal Lytham the last time it staged the Championship in 2003, with a one shot victory over Korean Se Ri Pak, the 2006 McDonald’s LPGA Championship winner. It was the only time Sorenstam has won the Championship and if she were to repeat the feat, she would complete a double Grand Slam.

Sorenstam, who claimed her tenth career major at this year’s US Women’s Open will surely be a favourite, but last week’s winner at the Evian Masters, Karrie Webb, is already a three time winner of this event.

Only one of her seven major championship victories is a British Open title. Her first two wins in the British Open were prior to the event being granted ‘major’ championship status in 2001 while her other win came in 2002 at Turnberry. Webb now leads the 2006 ADT Money list on the LPGA Tour and given the manner in which she is playing it would not surprise to see her extend that lead this week.

Michelle Wie was the tied runner up with Laura Davies in last week’s Evian Masters and both players are in strong form. The 16 year old US star has been an amazingly consistent performer in the major championships in which she has played. She was third at the Kraft Nabisco earlier this year, fifth at the McDonalds LPGA Championship and third at the US Women’s Open. Wie finished third in this event last year and is aiming for her first victory in what will be the last of her appearances in professional tournaments this summer.

By comparison, Davies, a winner of 66 tournaments worldwide, has won this event once before at Royal Birkdale in 1986, before it was granted major championship status. As the top ranked English player, the four-time major winner would be a popular home champion. She has rated the links at Royal Lytham as one of her favourite courses in the world and is certainly no outside bet.

Royal Lytham & St. Annes has been the venue for two previous Women’s British Opens and is certain to generate huge public interest. As well as in 2003, the Championship was played at Royal Lytham and St Annes was in 1998 when Sherri Steinhauer won the first of her two consecutive Women’s British Open Championship titles.

The par 72 Royal Lytham and St Annes layout, originally built in 1886, measures 6480 yards for this week’s event. The course was originally designed by the club’s first professional George Lowe but later fine tuned by the great Harry Colt around 1920.

The venue has of course been the home for many Open Championships, the last of which was in 2001 when David Duval beat Niclas Fasth and prior to that in 1996 when Tom Lehman edged out Ernie Els and Mark McCumber.

The third Weetabix Women’s British Open title to take place here promises to be the best ever with a mixture of youthful players such as Wie and US player Paula Creamer, as well as the experienced and resurgent 2006 major champions Sorenstam, Webb and Pak.

The championship commences on Thursday morning with the first tee time of 6:30am.

Gwladys Nocera, the European no.1 and a three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour this year will tee off at 7:25am with Webb and Japanese phenomenon Ai Miyazato.

Wie and Davies will play in the same group together as they did in the final round of Evian last week. They tee off at 7:36am with Sakura Yokomine of Japan.