If you need more evidence of the worldwide impact of golf, take a look at the Rolex World Women's Golf Rankings, or the inaugural Kapalua LPGA Classic, which tees off tomorrow at Kapalua's Bay Course. There are only five Americans in the Top 25 of the Rolex Rankings and four are on Maui — Cristie Kerr (6), Angela Stanford (11), Juli Inkster (21) and Morgan Pressel (23), who represents Kapalua on tour.

The Classic also has 11 of this year's 16 winners and seven players from among the Top 10 on the money list, including the two best women's players in the world — Mexico's Lorena Ochoa and Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, who will retire after this year.

Sorenstam, who recently teamed with Wente Vineyards to produce a Syrah named Annika (to be released in May), started her final year by making the SBS Open at Turtle Bay her 70th LPGA victory. The Hall of Famer has won her past two Hawai'i starts. They came six years apart.

She is one of 15 players from Sweden on the LPGA tour. There are 45 from South Korea and 11 from Australia. The tour has 121 active international players from 26 countries and this is their last event in the U.S. until the ADT Championship the end of November. The LPGA plays in China, Korea and Japan next, then goes to Guadalajara for the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. The $61 million season ends with Lexus Cup in Singapore.

Ochoa did not play the two Hawai'i events to start the year, then went on a tear — even by her standards — to win six of the first nine tournaments she did play. She won a seventh last month and has earned $2.7 million this season and more than $13 million in her six-year career. She ranks third in career earnings behind Sorenstam and Karrie Webb, who is also at Kapalua. Ochoa has already completed the requirements to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame, but must wait until 2012 when she has 10 years of membership.

Along with victories, Ochoa leads the tour in rounds under par (56 of 73), rounds in the 60's (42), Top-10 finishes (17 of 19), greens hit (.721), scoring average (69.38), and driving average (270.1) this season. She won eight times last year, earning her second straight Player of the Year honor and passing Sorenstam in the Rolex Rankings in April.

Ochoa was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year the last two years and was recognized as one of Newsweek magazine's 11 Most Powerful Women and Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year last year. This year, Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, in part because of her Lorena Ochoa Foundation, which has opened three elementary schools in Mexico.

Hawai'i is one of the few places where Ochoa has not won. She came closest two years ago, falling in a Turtle Bay playoff ultimately won by Joo Mi Kim.

Yani Tseng, who beat Punahou graduate Michelle Wie in the 2004 Women's Amateur Public Links final, is on Maui trying to extend her lead in the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race. Tseng, from Taiwan, won this year's McDonald's LPGA Championship and has six other top-three finishes.

Wie was offered a sponsor's exemption to play at Kapalua but declined because she had already committed to her limit of six. She is back at Stanford this semester and will play in the LPGA's final qualifying school in December after advancing out of a sectional last month, where she finished fourth. Wie needs a Top-20 finish to earn full exempt status next year.

Stacy Lewis accepted Kapalua's sponsor exemption. She tied for third at this year's U.S. Women's Open. Yesterday, A.J. Eathorne (68) and Jeanne Cho-Hunicke (72) earned the qualifying slots, Cho winning a playoff over Amy Read. Hawai'i juniors Cyd Okino (74) and Kristina Merkle (81) were also in the field of nine.

NOTE

There will be a Mattel Golf Clinic Saturday, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at Kapalua's practice facility.