Editor’s Note: Join CNN at The Clubhouse Thursday for all the first day’s action from the 2015 Evian Championship.
Story highlights
Women's golf set for the Evian Championship on Thursday
Event in France is the sport's fifth major tournament
Korean Inbee Park is favorite to win an eighth major
When is a career grand slam not a career grand slam?
That’s the question that has been rattling round women’s golf since world No. 1 Inbee Park won the British Open in August.
The South Korean stormed through the field at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort to claim the fourth different major title of her career, and the seventh overall.
But unlike the men’s game, the women now play five majors in a season, after the Evian Championship was elevated to exalted status.
Park has won the tournament – in the stunning setting of Evian-les-Bains close to France’s border with Switzerland – but before it was upgraded for the 2013 installment.
Park was in no doubt she had completed the career grand slam, becoming the second youngest player in the history of the sport to do it, behind 14-time major champion Tiger Woods.
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is unequivocal too; it says players who have won four different majors will continue to be acknowledge as having achieved a career grand slam.
“The LPGA did not add a fifth major championship to change history, alter discussion or make the accomplishment of a “grand slam” more difficult,” it said in a statement.
“We added a fifth major to create an incremental opportunity for the women’s game,” it said after Park won the British Open in August.
“For players (active or retired) who have won four different majors available in their careers, the LPGA has and will continue to acknowledge them as having accomplished a career grand slam.”
By that interpretation, Park is now member of an elite club that includes Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright, Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam.
But some were skeptical.
Golf journalist Doug Ferguson said the LPGA couldn’t have it both ways, announcing a fifth major but rubber-stamping Park’s career grand slam when she had only won four.
There is one way for Park to stop the conversation dead: by winning in Evian on Sunday. Should she do so, she’ll join last year’s runner-up Karrie Webb as a super career grand slam winner. The Australian has also won five different majors, including the Canadian Open in 1999 before it lost its top-level status.
Park can also complete a major hat-trick in the season, having also won the Women’s PGA Championship as well as the British Open.
No wonder she is overwhelming favorite.
Top of the official Rolex rankings and leading the money list on the LPGA Tour, Park has won six of the last 14 major championships.
“Of course I’d like to win in Evian,” she was quoted as saying on the tournament’s official website. “And I’ve still got many other goals I want to achieve.
“For example, breaking records set by (10-time major winner) Annika S?renstam, my idol, Patty Berg (a 15-time major winner), and other golfing legends.
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“I still feel like a baby in comparison to these incredible champions. I’ve still got a long way to go before I match them.”
Park will face stiff competition though, with all the world’s top 10 players jostling for the title in France this weekend.
World No. 2 Lydia Ko, from New Zealand, is gunning for her first major title. The 18-year-old was overtaken by Park at Turnberry, finishing second – her best return in majors to date.
She remains the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour, taking the Canadian Open title in 2012 as a 15-year-old amateur.
Stacy Lewis, a two-time major champion, leads America’s charge and is ranked third in the world, having had two spells in the top spot.
The Evian acts as the precursor to the Solheim Cup – the biennial team competition between the United States and Europe – and all 20 players are in the field.
The 2014 U.S. Open champion Michelle Wie is one of the most high-profile names in a formidable-looking American contingent, alongside Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel.
Suzann Petterson, a seven-time veteran of the Solheim Cup and the 2013 Evian champion, spearheads the European charge for the season’s final major.
Last year’s winner, Hyo-Joo Kim, is back to defend her title and is joined by fellow South Korean Ryu So-yeon, the 2011 U.S. Open champion.