This morning, two of the former LPGA players that will be broadcasting the LPGA Championship on Golf Channel next week were a part of a conference call to preview the event with the media.  (Somehow, I'm a part of the media.  It still shocks me.)  Former major champions Dottie Pepper and Beth Daniel took questions from some scribes about the event.

Pepper and Daniel both emphasized that this tournament has a special place on the schedule because it is the signature event of the LPGA Tour - much in the same sense of the PGA Tour's Players Championship. 

Pepper mentioned that the event suffers some from the lack continuity in the Tour's schedule but that this event could really being to show if " somebody could really take a choke hold on this entire season over the next eight weeks."  With only 7 events - three of them majors - until the formation of the Solheim Cup team under Beth Daniel's guidance, the Captain expects " a lot is going to happen in those Solheim Cup points" beginning with the LPGA Championship.

As for favorites, Pepper and Daniel had a tough time in handicapping the field to a very short list of favorites.  Both, though, liked Brittany Lang as a darkhorse to win the event.  Daniel liked Cristie Kerr as her favorite, which Pepper echoed but noted that " Paula Creamer who feels like she's owed a major championship and a veteran at age 22, so I think you have to put her in there."

Regardless of who is on the leaderboard come Sunday, neither Daniel nor Pepper seem to believe that having an American at the top of the leaderboard - or as the face of the Tour - is essential for its growth.  Pepper noted that she didn't " think it could hurt to have an American up there, especially in the events that are so big."  In the last 34 LPGA majors played, only a paltry 7 have been won by American players.  Despite that, the Tour has grown significantly with Swede Annika Sorenstam as the face of the Tour - who Daniel noted could connect with American fans not just because she speaks Enlish, but is a "dynamic personality."

For Golf Channel's part, they're broadcasting all four rounds of the event in HD.  They'll feature Aimpoint on holes 16 (where I will marshall two days) and 18.  Christina Kim will be mic'd for sound and the leaders will be interviewed at the turn down the stretch.  But as for the use of Twitter during tournament play, Pepper called the notion "absurd."  That sentiment that was echoed by Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel on Twitter today.

Pepper added, " There are ways to use mediums like that to build a fan base, to keep up with what's hip right now, but I think it's absurd in a round of golf."

Of course, Waggle Room isn't playing in the LPGA Championship but will be at the event as well with posts, Tweets, video, and audio from Bulle Rock.