Steady start to the year for Coakley

The Irish ladies on the European Tour have had a slow start to the season with just Australian-born Rebecca Coakley in action thus far in 2007.

Coakley finished in a tie for 62nd and 138th place in the Australian Open and the ANZ Ladies Masters respectively. She will next head into action in the Tenerife Ladies Open in early May. Last year in Tenerife Rebecca achieved her best result on the Tour to date, wrapping up in third place on the final day.

On the world scene we are just in excess of two months into the season and Lorena Ochoa is chasing down Annika Sorenstam at the top of the world rankings.

Ochoa has already taken victory in the Safeway International in Arizona while achieving top 10 finishes in both the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the Mastercard Classic. This came after a February that saw her take fourth place at the SBS Open and her one blip so far – a 45th place finish in the Fields Open in Hawaii.

Sorenstam has yet to register a victory but will be looking to the Ginn Open in Florida later this month to rectify that. She is currently is tenth place in the LPGA table for the current season. Karrie Webb has suffered from much worse fortune than Sorenstam and has, from four starts on the LPGA Tour, finished in he top 10 on just one occasion.

Another big mover so far this year has been Morgan Pressel. In just her second year on the LPGA Tour she has forced herself to the top of the earnings list and has also dragged herself up to fourth on the world rankings ladder. She captured the Kraft Nabiasco Championship at the tail end of March, her first victory on the Tour and in a Major.

She had two shots to spare over Scotland's Catriona Matthew on the final day, carding an overall three-under par.

Back in Europe Spain's Paula Marti heads the rankings having finished third in the Australian Open and 18th in the ANZ Ladies Masters. She is closely trailed by Minea Blomqvist of Finland.

There is no action on the Ladies European Tour in the coming month but across the Atlantic things are slightly busier. The Ginn Open, home to Mi Hyun Kim's two-shot win over Karrie Webb and Loren Ochoa in 2006, takes place in Florida while Ochoa will be defending her crown in the Corona Championship in Mexico towards the end of the month.

Looking at the Solheim Cup table ahead of September's showdown at the Halmstad Golfklubb, Sweden and there are three nationalities represented in the top five that would qualify if the team were to be finalised today. Gwladys Nocera from France leads the pack, just ahead of England's experienced start Laura Davies.

World number one Annika Sorenstam is further back in third, followed up by Stephanie Arricau of France and Rebecca Hudson of England.