Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Sometimes we Arkansans don't realize how lucky we are.

For the purposes of today's column, realize how lucky we were to have a entrepreneurial businessman like Sam Walton. We were lucky he went into the five-and-dime business and decided to have more than one store in his region. We were lucky he saw that discount retail could be a huge moneymaker, which naturally led to Wa-Mart, which grew into what's probably the greatest public-company success story in American history. We're lucky that Wal-Mart remained based in Northwest Arkansas, which just 40 years ago was small town as it came, even with a university in Fayetteville.

We're lucky all those Wal-Mart vendors had to have a base in or around Bentonville, and we're lucky that astronomical growth in that region followed. We're lucky somebody decided all these vendors and Wal-Mart stock millionaires and others needed a big-time golf course and country club.

And, lastly, Arkansas is lucky because Wal-Mart, which has put so much money into the region, and many of its vendors are tied in to the LPGA.

That's why the LPGA's Northwest Arkansas Classic (presented by Wal-Mart) has the best field that could be assembled in all of golf.

Only two players in the LPGA's top 10 are missing, not that they didn't want to play but because either injury or a conflict forced them to withdraw. Pretty much the entire LPGA is convening this week at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.

If they wanted to call it an LPGA major, they could — it has that great an assemblage of talent.

If we were to compared the field on hand to a PGA event — well, nothing compares. The Players doesn't draw every PGA star from around the world. The Masters, by invitation, misses out on some big names (it's still hard to believe Billy Payne and Augusta National couldn't have found a place for Ernie Els this April). The qualifying process for the U.S. and British opens leave out the occasional good PGA player.

But for whatever reason — and it appears Wal-Mart, its vendors and Octagon, the sports event company that runs the tournament would be those reasons — Arkansas has the best the LPGA can muster for this week in Rogers.

The world's No. 1-ranked woman, Yani Tseng, is back to defend the past two NWA championships. University of Arkansas All-American Stacy Lewis is, of course, also on hand to take it from Tseng.

Alan Shipnuck, the Sports Illustrated golf writer, recently heralded Lewis as the hottest woman golfer on the planet. She's tossing 64s and 65s on the scoreboard regularly. She's invariably in contention to win every week now, while Tseng has maybe fallen back a little. Lewis has two wins this season and won her first LPGA major, the Kraft Nabisco. She announced her arrival when, as an amateur, she finished ahead of all the pros in a rain-shortened NWA Championship four years ago.

(The UA announced Wednesday that Lewis, a Houston-area native, became the first female member of the Razorback Century Club by making a $100,000 donation to the school's golf program.)