Philadelphia, PA -- (Sports Network) - There have been significant winning streaks in golf over the years, and there have also been plenty of players who have stressed family over golf. Occasionally the two intersect.

Consider the case of Juli Inkster, who will miss the upcoming McDonald's LPGA Championship because her daughter is graduating from grade school.

Inkster last missed a major in 1994, missing the Kraft Nabisco Championship that year due to the birth of her youngest daughter, the same one on the verge of graduation. Inkster has played every major since. That is 56 straight majors played, the seventh-longest unbroken string on the all-time LPGA list.

The soon-to-be-snapped streak trails those of Amy Alcott (74), Betsy King (73), Meg Mallon (68), Liselotte Neumann (62), Jane Geddes (60) and Laura Davies (57). Davies' streak is the only active one on that list.

If she hadn't missed the '94 Kraft, Inkster's streak would be at 73 straight majors.

During this stretch, Inkster has missed just five cuts and was disqualified once. She collected four of her seven major championship titles along the way, including back-to-back wins at the 1999 LPGA Championship and U.S. Women's Open. Those were her first wins at both of those majors.

In the midst of picking up titles, Inkster also posted at least one major top-10 finish in 10 of the 14 years of the streak. Her best year in the stretch was 1999, when she finished tied for sixth, first, first and third at the four majors.

There have been many notable players who have taken time off to be with their families, or in Jack Nicklaus' case, taken a plane after a round to see a child's performance and flown right back to the tournament site.

Add Inkster to that list of notables.

CADDIE BENEFITS

Tour caddies normally have pre-arranged deals with their players regarding how they get paid on a weekly basis. Two of the past three PGA events have had an added bonus for the loopers.

At the Byron Nelson Championship, Adam Scott defeated Ryan Moore for the title. That meant Scott's caddie, Tony Navarro, was awarded a brand new Cadillac XLR-V courtesy of tournament sponsor EDS.

Couple that with his 10-percent cut of the $1.2 million paycheck Scott collected, and Navarro had a huge week.

At this week's Players Championship, the island green 17th has traditionally hosted some of the best drama on the PGA Tour. The drama of hitting the island green switched to the caddies on Wednesday.

Players used to stuff money in a jar on the tee box, and the winning caddie collected whatever was stuffed into the jar.

According to Michael Collins from the Golf Channel, winning caddie Jeff Willett was given a new laptop from the PGA Tour and CDW after knocking his shot to 17 inches.

Willett didn't get the jar money, which instead went to a cause near and dear to the tour caddies' hearts, the Bruce Edwards Foundation. Edwards was Tom Watson's regular caddie for many years and passed away due to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, on April 8th, 2004.

WHO CAN WIN ON THE LPGA TOUR?

The LPGA is playing its' 11th event this week. There are 22 more after this. So far, just four players have won titles.

Not surprisingly, Lorena Ochoa has continued her remarkable play this year with five wins in seven starts. That comes after she won eight events last year.

Along with Ochoa, the other three winners are Paula Creamer (two), Annika Sorenstam (two) and Louise Friberg (one).

The field has its work cut out for it this week at the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill. Sorenstam is one back and Ochoa two back after the opening round. Ochoa has shared second place here three times in the five years of the event.

ODDS AND ENDS

- Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo missed the cut a U.S. Open qualifier this week. Romo, who said afterwards that he hadn't practiced enough, shot 75 at a local qualifying event and missed a playoff by four strokes. If he had played in the playoff, he could have won a spot in a sectional qualifying event.

- Michelle Wie returned to action this week, marking her first appearance since the Fields Open in Hawaii in February. She continues to battle wrist injuries, and opened with a four-over 75 on Thursday. Wie will need to shoot 68 or better to stay around for the final two rounds. She hasn't posted a top-10 finish since tying for second at the 2006 Evian Masters.