Webb's return to top based on adjustment

Swing changes have kept her from winning consistently.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- Karrie Webb walked away from the LPGA Championship three years ago with another runaway victory in a major that made her, at age 26, the youngest woman to complete the career Grand Slam.
Her game was the best in women's golf. Her future looked enormous.
So much has changed in the last few years that even though Webb arrived at DuPont Country Club having won for the 30th time on the LPGA Tour, she is taking baby steps back to the top.
Her goal still is to win majors, but right now she is realistic while she continues to make swing changes.
Finding her place
"I think for the first time in my career, I have someplace to go," Webb said Wednesday. "I finished 11th on the money list last year. It's not a bad year by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't my best.
"I wanted to get back to being a lot more consistent. I wanted to get back to the top five on the money list, definitely the top 10."
The swing -- still a work in progress -- has Webb hitting more of a fade, the total opposite of how she once hit the ball while dominating the LPGA Tour from the time she arrived from Australia nine years ago.
Eventually, she believes she will be able to hit the ball both directions with ease. But that takes time.
"I think it's going to be 12 months to 18 months before I really feel comfortable with what I'm doing," Webb said.
That's not to say she ruled herself out at DuPont.
She won the Kellogg-Keebler Classic outside Chicago by five shots, a large margin for a 54-hole event. The fairways started looking wider, the cup bigger.
"It didn't hurt my confidence any," she said.
Challenging field
So many others are loaded with confidence at the second major of the LPGA season.
It starts with Annika Sorenstam, the most dominant player in more than 40 years on the LPGA Tour. While her goal of the Grand Slam this year ended with a tie for 13th at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the 33-year-old Swede now wants to win the final three majors.
She is the defending champion at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, and still recalls the 7-wood she hit into the 18th green to secure par and get into a playoff, where she defeated Grace Park on the first extra hole.
"Wonderful memories," Sorenstam said.
Not so for Park, the 25-year-old native of South Korea who also will be a top favorite this week.
Park was playing a practice round at DuPont earlier in the week when she came to the 18th and swore she was in about the same spot in the fairway as she was last year in the playoff.
It made her wonder why she tried to hammer a 4-iron when she had been hitting controlled, punch shots with more club throughout the final round of 67. In a sense, Park feels like she let that one get away.
And she has promised not to do it again.
So far, that's worked.
First major
Three months ago, she holed a 6-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Mission Hills to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of her career and a clear sign the awesome potential she showed as an amateur is ready to come to fruition.
"Finishing second here last year makes me want to win this more," she said. "Winning the first major of the year makes me crave my second major. I really want to do it. Since winning Kraft Nabisco, I've kind of slowed down, and I think it's finally time for me to step up again.
"This is the week to do it."
Second on the money list and in the player of the year standings, Park comes into the LPGA Championship with another "No. 2" in mind -- trying to capture the second leg of the Grand Slam.