Wednesday, March 26, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.
One month before the biggest first of the golf year, Las Vegas will be the site for a handful of other firsts when the LPGA Takefuji Classic hits town in three weeks.
The LPGA returns to the Valley for the first time since 1999 when the Takefuji Classic moves from Hawaii to Las Vegas Country Club from April 17-19. Of course, those facts become trivial compared to the biggest story in the game -- Annika Sorenstam's unprecedented entry into a PGA tournament, the Bank of America Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sorenstam is the defending champion of the Takefuji Classic, having downed Lorie Kane in a sudden death playoff after shooting a three-round total of 196 (-14) in 2002. The world's No. 1 female golfer will be in Las Vegas to take aim at the $165,000 first-place cut of the $1.1 million purse. That is a far cry from the $5 million purse and $900,000 winner's cut at Colonial, where Sorenstam will compete in a PGA event.
Tournament director Jim Webb said that although more commitments will roll in as the event approaches, the list of golfers expected to come is already impressive. Included in that group are Cimarron-Memorial High graduate Stephanie (Keever) Louden, Grace Park, Dottie Pepper, Laura Davies, Betsy King, Amy Alcott, Kelly Robbins, Patty Sheehan, Helen Alfredsson, Dorothy Delasin, Michele McGann, Beth Bauer, Natalie Gulbis and Kane.
Although the tournament is still weeks away, Webb might as well slip on a reflective vest, grab those orange sticks, and start directing traffic into Las Vegas Country Club. The tournament director said that his three-person staff is busy trying to arrange the arrival of everything from TV and scoring trucks, to port-a-potties.
"It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle figuring out who will be here when," Webb said. "You try to put it all together and hope it looks like a picture."
The par-72 course will play 6,494 yards. For more information on tickets or volunteering, call 894-9746.
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