Thursday, June 29 2006 15:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Newport (Rhode Island): In order for an American to break the longest US major drought in LPGA history this week, they will have to go through a pipeline of potential South Korean champions.

South Koreans have won three of the last four majors, including defending US Open champion Ju-Yun (Birdie) Kim who holed 30-foot bunker shot on the final hole for a surprise two-shot victory last year.

Meg Mallon was the last American female to win a major when she captured the 2004 US Open.

South Korea's Se Ri Pak and Australia's Karrie Webb won the first two majors of 2006 and will be contenders at this week's 3.1 million dollar tournament with a 560,000 dollar first prize, making it the richest in women's golf.

"My game is not really quite the way I want it, but I know it's so close," Pak said. "Just last winter I worked so hard on my swings and physically I was a little bit off last year but I'm kind of getting back now," he said.

Pak won her first major in two years with a birdie on the first playoff hole of the 2006 LPGA Championship.

Teenage phenom Michelle Wie, Sweden's Annika Sorenstam and Mexico's Lorena Ochoa are also in the field at the Newport Country Club course.

Wie, a Korean-American, came close last year and was tied for the lead but stumbled to an 82 in the final round.

Wie, who needed an exemption to play in 2005, finished one stroke off the lead in the 2006 Kraft Nabisco and two shots back in the LPGA Championship.

"I feel like I've been close to winning the last couple of events," Wie said.

Kim admits she is a longshot this year as she has struggled with no top ten finishes in 12 tournament starts. Just seven of her 32 rounds have been under par and she is ranked a woeful 101st on the tour in birdies with just 79. "It's a totally different golf course than last year," Kim said.

"Last year was short but very narrow and this week there is a lot of wind and it is wide open and long. It's going to be very tough for me," he said.

Kim won last year with a three-over-par 287, the first time in seven years that the winner failed to break par.

Sorenstam flirted with US Open wins in 2002, 2003 and 2004 but it has been nine years since her last US Open victory.

This is the first time in six years she has gone winless in the first two majors of the year.

"It really doesn't matter what I've done previously this year," Sorenstam said.

"It's kind of now and on Thursday and through Sunday that really matters. So that's really what goes through my head, is just play my game and we'll see what happens," he said.