Japan's Ai Miyazato has been invited to compete in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major tournament of the year on the U.S. LPGA tour, the Ladies Professional Golfers' Association of Japan said Tuesday.
The March 24-27 in Rancho Mirage, Calif., will be the second major championship for the 19-year-old Miyazato following the Women's British Open last year and the first official tournament she will play in the United States.
Miyazato will take part in the event as a sponsor's invitee, through which the top two Japanese players in last season's money rankings are selected.
Miyazato won five tour titles to become the first teenager on either the men's or women's circuit to earn 100 million yen in one season.
Yuri Fudo, who led the Japanese women's tour in earnings in 2004, has also been invited.
In her major debut last summer, Miyazato fell two strokes short of the qualifying score and failed to advance to the final two rounds.
The Kraft Nabisco Championship is the fourth event of the U.S. LPGA tour and offers total prize money of $1,800,000.