Samsung World Championship

In the men's game the World Championship events are both welcome and necessary. In the ladies' game, the strength and internationalism of the LPGA Tour makes them less so. Only one place apiece is awarded to two other ladies' Tours - the Japan LPGA Tour is ignored altogether - and the exempted player for the Evian Ladies European Tour, Maria Hjorth, had already qualified from her position on the LPGA Tour money list. The Korean LPGA Tour player, Ah Ram Suh, should struggle in this company and in California, though things might be a little different when the LPGA Tour resumes in Korea in two weeks' time.

They play at the Arnold Palmer-designed Hiddenbrooke Golf Club, which received mixed reviews last year. The course plays through the local canyons and so there are many elevation changes. The greens are very undulating and the lies away from the center of the fairway are never flat. This course was used for the first time last year and it would appear that those players who played here last year have a distinct advantage.

The three selections this week are Se Ri Pak, Lorie Kane and Michele Redman. Pak won last week's select-field event as a selection and is tipped to repeat the feat this week. That victory brought her run of top-3 finishes to five in six events which three of those being victories. This week she has Annika Sorenstam as her main challenger, but the Swede has only won once in the last five months and now Pak has a real chance to win the Rolex Player of the Year award. Pak finished 6th last year when defending champion and has much better than 6/1 chance of winning this event.

Kane has been in sparkling form since the resumption of the Tour, finishing 4th and 2nd in the last two weeks. She also played last year and secured 5th place, so in her current form and with four places on offer in a field of just twenty players, she stands a very good chance of securing a place win. A more speculative choice is Redman, though her odds with such a small field are very attractive. She has been playing some consistent golf recently with six top-15 finishes in her last nine events and importantly, she played this course last year. On that occasion she finished 9th when no-one had course experience. She could produce a very profitable surprise.

Outright plays:

Se Ri Pak to win 6/1 @ Sportfanatik (or other starnet books), Centrebet or Simon Bold

Lorie Kane to win 14/1 e.w. @ William Hill among others

Michele Redman to win 66/1 e.w. @ Victor Chandler

72-hole plays:

Dottie Pepper to beat Laura Diaz -130 @ Five Dimes
Pepper has been slowly regain her form after a very barren spell after the US Women's Open. She has secured two top-10s in her last two events and these have been the first since Pine Needles. With gaining confidence she should beat Diaz most weeks

Maria Hjorth to beat Sophie Gustafson -110 @ Surrey
Boom or bust with Gustafson and the indications are that this week it will be bust. She finished 36th of 40 last week at 15-over-par and two of the four behind her were JoAnne Carner and Nancy Lopez. And last year she finished 17th of 20 on this course at 12-over-par. Hjorth is in much the better form having finished 10th last week and in the top-20 in all of her last five events

Wendy Ward to beat Sophie Gustafson -115 @ Five Dimes
Ward disappointed for three rounds last week as a selection, but came back with a fine 66 on Sunday when it mattered little. It ended her run of top-6 finishes, but her form is still solid and she should easily beat the struggling Swede

Se Ri Pak to beat Karrie Webb -110 @ Five Dimes
Webb's chances of winning last week were written off and she finished only 8th of 40 players. She is simply not playing as well as the Korean and will struggle to beat either Pak or Sorenstam this week

Michele Redman to beat Ah Ram Suh -111 @ Simon Bold [2 units]
This is the second time that the leading player on the Korean LPGA Tour money list has been invited to play in this event since it returned to the United States and last year qualifier, Soo Yun Kang, finished 19th of 20 players. Ah Ram Suh has never played in a LPGA Tour event and the step up in class and on foreign soil will be too much for her. Redman should use her course experience to finish in the top-10 and with this match with ease

Mid-point update:

No cut in this event and just as well! Only one of the five plays is ahead after 36 holes: Redman leads Suh by 15 shots. At least the other plays are reasonably close. Pepper trails Diaz by one, Hjorth and Ward both trail Gustafson by three and Pak trails Webb by three. In the outrights, Pak lies 3rd behind Webb, while Kane and Redman lie 12th and 15th respectively.

Final update: 1-2-2 and -0.40 units

Disappointing tournament with only the top play of the week winning: Redman beat Suh by 15 shots. In the rest, Pepper lost to Diaz by eight shots and Hjorth lost to Gustafson by four, while Ward and Pak both tied with their opponents.

Update on outright plays: 0-3 and -3.00 units

Pak came close to securing the necessary win but three dropped shots in her last six holes and she would only tie the matchup with Webb and finished 2nd, four shots behind Delasin. The other two were not so close. Kane finished 8th and Redman 15th.