The first major of the LPGA Tour season began today at Mission Hills with the playing of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.  There appears no real clear favorite this year, though world number one Lorena Ochoa is the defending champion.  As Larry Bohannan alludes to, perhaps that is because she doesn't enter the event on the kind of blistering pace that she was at the start of the 2008 campaign.

Rather than write a lengthy preview of my own, I'd like to point you to a couple of already done previews that do a good job in summing up the field, the course, and the tournament.

First, Mostly Harmless has a good preview, along with pairings and The Constructivist's picks.

Hound Dog is in on the party, too.  He has the vid of Lorena's pond dive from last year with Mariachi band.  Also, he is picking Cristie Kerr to win the whole thing.

Speaking of Hound Dog, I joined him and Karen Palacios-Jansen to offer our thoughts on the championship on Inside the LPGA.

Sal Johnson has the historical data of field performance by average finish.

Bill Jempty has his preview as well.  (Sorry for not getting the shout out in the first time!)  He bats around the names being floated in the pool of about 10 that could win.

The Constructivist pointed me to Seoul Sisters' topic on the KNC that is worth the read.

Golfweek's Sean Martin has a piece which tells you five things about the KNC.  They're pretty universally known, but a good primer for LPGA Tour noobs.

As for me, I should make some picks.  So, here we go: