A U.S. Open primer

Last update: April 19, 2008 - 9:53 PM

TELEVISION

June 25: 4-4:30 p.m., ESPN2

June 26: 11 a.m.-3 p.m., ESPN

June 27: 2-6 p.m., ESPN; June 28, 2-5 p.m., Ch. 11; June 29: 2-5 p.m., Ch. 11

TICKETS

$20 per day for practice rounds (June 23-25); $45 per day for the first two days of competition (June 26-27); $50 for the final two days of competition (June 28-29); $130 for all four days of competition; $150 for a weeklong pass; and $250 for a weeklong pass with access to the Patty Berg Pavilion. For more ticket information or to buy tickets, call 877-281-OPEN (6736) or go to www.2008uswomensopen.com. ... Kids 17 and younger with a ticketed adult will be admitted free of charge, with a limit of nine free admissions per ticketed adult.

U.S. OPEN DETAILS

2007 U.S. Open recap: Cristie Kerr was 1 over par through 54 holes before finishing 66-70 for a 5-under-par 279 and a two-shot victory over Angela Park and Lorena Ochoa. It was Kerr's first major championship. She won $560,000 of the $3.1 million purse.

2008 field: 156 professionals and amateurs will compete the first two days. The field will be cut to the low 60 and ties, plus anyone within 10 strokes of the leader through 54 holes.

"Lorena Slam?" This year's U.S. Women's Open will draw much more attention if No. 1-ranked Lorena Ochoa wins the LPGA Championship in early June. Ochoa would head to Interlachen looking for an unprecedented fourth consecutive women's major championship and the third leg of a women's single-season Grand Slam. Ochoa won the Women's British Open last year and the Kraft Nabisco Championship earlier this month.

INTERLACHEN DETAILS

A classic, tree-lined par-72, Interlachen Country Club began on Nov. 16, 1909. The original course was designed by William Watson and was opened as a nine-hole track on July 29, 1911. Famed architect Donald Ross redesigned the course in 1921. It remains basically his design, with some modifications from Robert Trent Jones in the 1960s. Interlachen has played host to many significant tournaments through the years. The Western Open, a men's major many decades ago, was the first in 1914. The most famous was the 1930 U.S. Open. Bobby Jones won it to capture the third leg of his Grand Slam that year.

U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN HISTORY

The U.S. Women's Open was started by the now-defunct Women's Professional Golfers Association in 1946. Minneapolis' own Patty Berg, who grew up playing Interlachen, won the first of her women's-record 15 major titles that year, beating Betty Jameson 5 and 4 in the only Women's Open conducted at match play. The Ladies Professional Golf Association assumed control when it was formed in 1950. In 1953, the United States Golf Association took over the tournament and continues to run it today. Betsy Rawls won the second of her four Women's Open titles in 1953 and remains tied with fellow women's golf pioneer Mickey Wright for the most titles won. Catherine Lacoste of France was the only amateur to win a Women's Open (1967). She was one of only four foreign-born champions in the first 40 years of the event. Times have changed, however, as six of the past 10 winners have been foreign-born players.