ROGERS — Stacy Lewis is the fan favorite, but Inbee Park is the odds-on favorite.
Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2009, Lewis has returned every year to Pinnacle Country Club and faced an obvious question. Sometimes, the topic is hinted at by reporters.
Even when it goes unmentioned, the question seems to loom over Lewis during her brief time back in Rogers.
Will this be the year that the former Arkansas All-American plays well enough to win the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, giving the hometown crowd even more reason to call the Hogs on the 17th hole?
Nothing has changed. In fact, the expectations for Lewis to win this week’s tournament might be even greater considering the success that she has enjoyed over the past two years.
However, Park is having such a dominant season that it will be tough for anyone — including Lewis with the support of thousands of Razorback fans — to slow her down.
“I think I put more pressure on myself. I don’t feel pressure by anybody outside or anything like that,” Lewis told reporters earlier this month. “It’s just it’s golf. You go through cycles where you play well.
“You go through cycles where you don’t play well, and you just kind of have to ride it out a little bit.”
The first round of the tournament tees off Friday morning. And while Lewis will likely attract the biggest galleries, much of the field will be paying attention to Park.
The 24-year-old Korean golfer has shown an unwillingness to relinquish the world’s No. 1 ranking since overtaking Lewis earlier this year. She has held the top spot for nine consecutive weeks, and she’s making a strong push in the Rolex Player of the Year race.
Not long ago, Yani Tseng was the LPGA’s most dominant player and Lewis’ biggest competition. But now it’s Park.
“It’s tough to believe that I am the top player of this great tour,” Park said. “I mean, not just myself, but there is a lot of players that’s very competitive.
“And this is a world tour with so many diff erent players representing so many diff erent countries.”
Park continued her recent dominance on June 9, when she sank an 18-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to capture her second major championship of the season at the Wegmans LPGA Championship.
Park finished at 5-under-par, and with her $337,500 check, she became the first player to eclipse $1 million in earnings this season. Lewis ranks third on the money list at $745,129.
Along with her Kraft Nabisco Championship in early April, Park is the first LPGA player since Annika Sorenstam in 2005 to win the first two majors of the year.
“After I won the Kraft, I thought about how much I would like to achieve a career grand slam,” Park said. “I wasn’t thinking about achieving it this year as I know I have time on my hands.
“I have had the best possible start to my year, and all I can do from here is try my best and see what happens.” Lewis, on the other hand, has expressed some frustration lately with her game.
She got off to a strong start to the season and earned back-to-back wins at the HSBC Women’s Champions and the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup in March.
While Lewis leads the LPGA in scoring average (69.8) and top 10 fi nishes (8) this season, she hasn’t fi nished better than a tie for 27th place in her last three tournaments.
“My game hasn’t quite been where I’ve wanted it, and so I have my coach in town,” Lewis told reporters prior to the start of the Wegmans.
“We’ve been working on a few things and just really trying to get back under control my golf swing.”
All but two players ranked in the top 100 on the LPGA’s money list have committed to play this week, including defending champion Ai Miyazato.
Even with Park winning four events this season and Lewis capturing another two titles, there remains some parity in the LPGA.
And a chance exists that a golfer other than one of the two favorites wins at Pinnacle.
“I don’t think there’s been two or three players consistently paired together in the last round,” LPGA legend Karrie Webb told reporters. “There’s probably been four or five players over the last five years that have been up there.”
At the moment, though, it is Park’s turn at the top.
But will this be the year that Lewis wins on one of her home courses?