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(Filler) Top-ranked Ochoa goes for three-peat at J Golf Phoenix LPGA

(LPGA.com) PHOENIX, Ariz. - The LPGA Tour makes its 30th annual trip to Phoenix this week for the J Golf Phoenix LPGA International Presented by Mirassou Winery. The event will be played at the newly renovated Papago Golf Course. Centrally located in Phoenix, Rolex Rankings' number one Lorena Ochoa will seek to defend her 2008 title March 26-29. One year ago, Ochoa hung around the top of the leaderboard all four rounds and secured her victory by firing a 6-under-par 66 on the final day, seven strokes better than Jee Young Lee. This week at Papago Golf Course, a field of 144 talented competitors will be looking for a victory of their own and a portion of the $1.5 million purse..

In addition to Ochoa, a 25-time LPGA Tour winner who won the Honda LPGA Thailand in February, the top-10 players in the world and 79 of the top-80 players on the 2009 LPGA Official Money List will be in contention for this week's $225,000 winner's check. Seven entrants are past champions of the Phoenix event, including Ochoa, 2007, 2008; Juli Inkster, 2006; Se Ri Pak, 2003; Rachel Hetherington, 2002; Karrie Webb, 1999; Liselotte Neumann, 1998; and Laura Davies, 1994-97.

If Ochoa were to come out ahead once again this week, she would join Davies and Annika Sorenstam (2001, 2004, 2005) as the only players to win the LPGA's Phoenix event three or more times. Accomplishing a three-peat, Ochoa would be only the second player, after Davies, to win the tournament at least three straight times.

Along with the veterans, 10 rookies are in the field, nine of whom have their eyes set on becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner. Rookie Jiyai Shin won the HSBC Women's Champions earlier this year in Singapore - her fourth overall LPGA Tour victory - but first as an official member of the LPGA Tour. Other season winners from 2009 in the field are Angela Stanford (SBS Open at Turtle Bay) and Arizona resident Pat Hurst, who earned her first Tour victory in more than two years at last week's MasterCard Classic Honoring Alejo Peralta Presented by Nextel.