LPGA players love Kingsmill, and they prove it

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WILLIAMSBURG - LPGA players bestowed a lofty compliment upon the Michelob Ultra Open when, in December, they voted the Kingsmill Resort's 6-year-old tournament the "best overall event on tour." They have since bestowed another by signing up in droves for the 2008 installment.

Each of this year's top 10 moneywinners and 49 of last year's top 50 have committed to play in the $2.2 million tournament set for May 8-11 on Kingsmill's River Course. The $330,000 first prize is but part of the appeal.

"No question, this is one of the players' favorite places to come to," said reigning champion Suzann Pettersen of Norway. "It's a great course. It's challenging, and it's always in great shape. We love this place. We love the resort. We love the course. Everything about [the tournament], everything about the way they treat us, is great."

Pettersen, of course, has good reason to be enthusiastic. She captured the first victory of her five-year LPGA career last May by surviving a three-hole playoff with Jee Young Lee. Thus inspired, Pettersen went on to collect four more victories, one a major, in 2007. She finished second to Lorena Ochoa in both earnings and player of the year points.

"Probably this was the tournament that turned my season around," said Pettersen, speaking at yesterday's media day event at Kingsmill. "It's nice to be back in the neighborhood."

Others soon will follow. The 2008 player participation list, announced yesterday, includes virtually all of the sport's contemporary stars. Among them: Ochoa, the reigning two-time player of the year; Annika Sorenstam, who won five consecutive player-of-the-year trophies between 2001 and 2005 and who owns eight overall; and Paula Creamer, who rang up 13 top-10 finishes, including two victories, in 2007.

So robust is the field that Michelle Wie, widely regarded as a legend-in-the-making when she made her Michelob Ultra Open debut in 2004, required a sponsor's exemption to gain entry to the 2008 event.

Tournament director Wayne Nooe said Kingsmill and event sponsor Anheuser-Busch "were hopeful, certainly, but frankly I'm not sure we anticipated this sort of response" when the LPGA played at Kingsmill for the first time in 2003. In retrospect, Nooe said, Kingsmill's comprehensive experience as a men's professional venue — the resort played host to a PGA event from 1980 until 2002 — has paid handsome dividends.

"First and foremost," Nooe said, "we wanted this to be a players event. So we've been careful not to put too many demands on them." In addition, he said, "we basically haven't changed our approach to hospitality — not very much, certainly — from when we were dealing with the PGA."

He offered examples: a par-3 tournament for caddies; courtesy cars for players ranked among the top 75 on the money list; an evening party for players, caddies and families at the Busch Gardens theme park; a commitment to providing "very good" food for competitors at breakfast and lunch. The menu, he said, has been tweaked since 2003. It now includes Asian cuisine in deference to the abundance of Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese players on tour.

The Michelob Ultra Open won three other awards in the December player poll: best caddie hospitality, best family hospitality and best party. Said Nooe: "We'd like to think [the players' applause] validates and justifies everything we've been trying to do."

The tournament's qualifying round, set for May 5 on Kingsmill's Plantation Course, will not lack a Virginia accent. Two of the state's top amateur girls, No. 1-ranked Courtney Ellenbogen of Blacksburg and No. 2 Meredith Swanson of Roanoke, will participate.

Contact Vic Dorr Jr. at (804) 649-6442 or vdorr@timesdispatch.com.