The LPGA returns to the Montgomery, Alabama area this week for the fifth playing of the Navistar LPGA Classic Presented by Monaco RV. An elite field of 144 players will compete for a total purse of $1,300,000 and a first place prize of $195,000 when the tournament kicks off on Thursday on the Robert Trent Jones Trail's Capitol Hill Senator Course.

The star-studded field features 11 of the top 15 players in the Rolex Rankings including Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng, No. 2 Suzann Pettersen, No. 3 Cristie Kerr, No. 4 Na Yeon Choi, No. 8 Paula Creamer, No. 9 Brittany Lincicome, No. 10 I.K. Kim, No. 11 Stacy Lewis, No. 12 Michelle Wie, No. 13 Karrie Webb and No. 14 Inbee Park. Tseng, who looks to capture her sixth LPGA tournament and ninth tournament victory world-wide this year, is coming off a win at last week's Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G.

Solheim Cup Buzz
This week’s Navistar LPGA Classic is the final event before the biennial Solheim Cup takes place next week at Killeen Castle in Ireland. All 12 of the U.S. Solheim Cup team members and six of the 12 European Solheim Cup members are in the field for this week’s tournament in Alabama.

On Wednesday, two of the European Team members – Sandra Gal and Maria Hjorth—and three of the American Team members – Paula Creamer, Christina Kim and Michelle Wie – took part in a press conference to look ahead to the big event.

Of the five players who met with the media, Gal is the only one who has never taken part in a Solheim Cup. Hjorth is playing in her fifth Solheim Cup for Team Europe while Creamer is gearing up for her fourth appearance on Team U.S.A. For Kim, it’s her third stint wearing the Stars and Stripes and Wie is playing in her second Solheim Cup.

Wie was a rookie on the 2009 U.S. Solheim Cup team and while this will be her first time playing in the event overseas, she knows what the three U.S. rookies (Stacy Lewis, Ryann O’Toole and Vicky Hurst) will be going through when they tee it up for the first time in a match.

“I’m sure Ryann is a little bit nervous, but at the same time she's got us,” Wie said. “She's got the entire team, the captains, all the families, we're going to get her going, we're going to get everyone going, and I can say that we've got each other's back, especially overseas.”

The Americans have dominated the event in recent years, winning four of the last five Solheim Cups. The lone victory for Europe during that stretch was in 2003 at Barseback Golf & Country Club in Sweden. So even though the event will be played in Ireland this year, Team U.S.A. is still considered to be the heavy favorite – although the Europeans are not necessarily viewing that as a bad thing.

“I think, too, the Europeans seem to be the underdogs every time,” said Hjorth. “I think in a way we have nothing to lose. If we lose, everybody will say, okay, they were expected to lose. If we win, it's going to be huge and it's going to be remarkable. I don't think we've got anything to lose. We've got everything to win and just go out there and play the best that we can and we're going to put up a good match. “

Ch-ch-ch-changes
The Capitol Hill Senator Course, which is hosting this week’s event, recently underwent a significant renovation to resurface all 18 green complexes with Champion Bermuda Grass. It’s part of a project by the Robert Trent Jones Trail to make upgrades to all 11 of its properties in honor of the Trail’s 20th anniversary in 2012. The Senator Course reopened on Sunday for the first time since renovations began on June 1.

“You can tell that there's been a massive change to the golf course in terms of the grass that they're using around the greens,” said Christina Kim. “I was told earlier in the week that there hasn't been any play since June, which is a huge testament to the commitment that the people with RTJ have with the LPGA. It makes us feel like queens. You come here and the fairways are pristine, there hasn't been a pitch mark on the greens. It's pretty remarkable.

“The greens are very, very fast, they're rolling true, and they're rolling really quick. But considering that they've been put in in June, they seem like they're very mature greens, which is a wonderful thing.”

Many of the LPGA Tour pros in this week’s field, including Kim, have also taken notice of the re-design on the fifth hole, which has been changed to entice more players to go for the par-5 in two.

Cha-ching
This year’s Navistar LPGA Classic Presented by Monaco RV is going above and beyond to help raise funds for this year’s beneficiary, the Wounded Warrior Project. The 152-yard par-3 16th has been designated as the “military hole”. Navistar will donate $100 for every birdie made during this year’s tournament to the Wounded Warrior Project. Over the past four years, the hole has averaged 83 birdies. In addition, a member of the military will be on the green to tend the flag during tournament play.

Navistar is also providing free admission to all fans. In an effort to raise awareness and funds for the Wounded Warrior Project, fans are asked to consider making a donation to the cause upon entrance.

Of Note
The Monaco RV LPGA Rally is taking place this week at the Navistar LPGA Classic. Admission to the Rally is free and open to anyone who has an RV. While fans roll their RV’s into the River Region, several LPGA players, including Karen Stupples and Stacy Prammanasudh, often take their own RV’s on the LPGA Tour road…Prammanasudh is playing in her first tournament of the season this week as she’s getting ready to take maternity leave for the birth of her first child. Prammanasudh, who fired at career-low 63 in the opening round of the inaugural Navistar LPGA Classic in 2007, is one of six active LPGA players to either give birth or be pregnant in 2011.