FOUR US CURTIS CUP PLAYERS WILL

SHARPEN UP IN FIRST LPGA

MAJOR OF THE SEASON

Seven amateur golfers - five of them named earlier this week in the US Curtis Cup team to play Great Britain & Ireland at St Andrews at the end of May - have received invitations to play in the first major of the LPGA Tour season - the Kraft Nabisco championship - during the week March 31 to April 3 at Mission Hills Country Club, Rancho Mirage in California.
The Curtis Cuppers who will sharpen up for the three-day international over the Old Course are Amanda Blumenherst (pictured right), Mina Harigate, Kimberley Kim and Alison Walshe. Stacy Lewis, also in the US team, declined the invitation.
Topping the list of amateurs invited to compete is Maria Jose Uribe, a freshman at UCLA. As the reigning USGA women's amateur champion, Uribe earned an automatic spot in the 2008 Kraft Nabisco championship field. She is currently ranked joint sixth in US women's amateur play in the January 13 edition of GolfWeek.
Originally from Bucaramanga, Colombia, Uribe turns 18 on February 27. Not being a United States citizen, Uribe was not eligible for Curtis Cup selection.
Invitations have also been extended to Mallory Blackwelder, Amanda Blumenherst, Mina Harigae, Kimberly Kim and Alison Walshe.
University of Arkansas star Stacy Lewis, who earned low amateur honors at last year's Kraft Nabisco championship with a tie for fifth place, qualified automatically for the 2008 tournament but has declined the take up the place in the LPGA Tour event.
Mallory Blackwelder, a junior at the University of Kentucky, won the Women's Western Golf Association National Amateur Championship last year. Blackwelder is the daughter of Myra, a former LPGA Tour professional and the new head coach for the women's golf team at the university.
The No 3 ranked US female amateur golfer, Mallory was the runner-up at last year's Women's Trans National and finished seventh at the Harder Hall Women's Invitational earlier this month. Blumenherst, a junior at Duke University, is a two-time National Player of the Year and led the Blue Devils to their third consecutive NCAA championship last year.
The 21-year-old finished runner-up in the 2007 USGA Women's Amateur Championship and is currently ranked No 1 among US women collegiate players and No 2 among amateurs as a whole, according to GolfWeek.
Making her first appearance at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, Blumenherst tied for 50th at last year's U.S. Women's Open.
Mina Harigae, a senior in high school in Monterey, California, won the U.S. Women's AmateurPublic Links Championship last year and is currently ranked No 3 in GolfWeek's junior rankings. A quarter finalist in the 2007 USGA Women's Amateur Championship, Harigae also played in last year's U.S. Women's Open where she finished 66th.
Making her second consecutive appearance at the Kraft Nabisco is Kimberly Kim of Hilo, Hawaii. Now 16, Kim won the 2006 USGA Women's Amateur as a 14-year-old (the youngest winner in the history of the event) and reached the semi-finals at last year's USGA Women's Amateur Championship.
Kim is the top-ranked US junior girl golfer according to the most recent GolfWeek rankings.
Wrapping up the list of invitees is University of Arizona senior Alison Walshe. Walshe is the No 5 ranked college player in America and the eighth-ranked female amateur.
She won the 2008 Harder Hall Invitation and the 2007 North and South Golf Championship.
The field will be cut after two rounds to 70 low professional scores and ties and any amateurs within the cut. Last year, three amateurs, including Lewis, made the cut. The other two players were Taylor Leon and Esther Choe.