Though they’ll tee off nearly four hours apart today, there’s a good chance Kyeong Bae and Virada Nirapathpongporn will be close all weekend on the leaderboard.

The second-year Futures Tour members — who go by ‘KB’ and ‘NP3’ — enter this weekend’s Lawrence Futures Classic as two of the hottest players on tour.

They rank 1-2 on the Futures money list after four tournaments, they each have a victory this season and each has reason to feel right at home at Eagle Bend Golf Course.

Bae, who is riding a wave of momentum after winning last weekend’s IOS Futures Classic in El Paso, Texas, made herself familiar with Eagle Bend just a couple of weeks ago, playing a series of practice rounds.

“It’s really windy, so I’ll need a really smooth putter,” Bae said.

If there’s any player on tour who knows how to handle windy conditions, it has to be Bae. She earned the $9,800 check in El Paso while combating winds that whipped up around 45 mph.

“I’ve got confidence, so I’m going to play aggressive if the weather is nice,” she said. “The greens are a lot drier, and the rough is going to be deeper than a few weeks ago. I’ll need more accuracy with my tee shots.”

Hitting the ball true with her woods has been no problem so far for Bae, as she currently ranks third on tour in birdies with 40.

But before Bae shot into first on the money list, the top spot was claimed by Nirapathpongporn, whose opening-round 66 helped her win the Jalapeño Futures Classic in McAllen, Texas, two weeks ago.

Futures Tour pro Virada Nirapathpongporn, right, and caddy Chris McCalmont decide on how to play a hole during the Futures Tour Pro-Am. Nirapathpongporn, whose group shot a 62 Thursday at Eagle Bend, is among the favorites to win this weekend's Lawrence Futures Classic.

NP3 recovered nicely last weekend after a 73 in the first round to finish in a sixth-place tie. She, too, has experience at Eagle Bend, when she competed in the 2000 AJGA event before going on to become a four-time All-American at Duke. Though she said she vaguely remembered the course from that tournament, she feels comfortable after two practice rounds.

That event was won by current Futures member Naree Song, who is not in Lawrence for this weekend’s tournament.

Some other names to keep an eye on will be Hye Jung Choi, Tara Bateman and Sarah Huarte. Choi and Bateman finished right behind Bae last weekend, and both are in the top 10 on this year’s money list.

Huarte, who was the individual winner of the 2004 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship while at Cal-Berkeley, notched her first top-10 finish on the Futures Tour last week — a fourth-place tie — after placing in the middle of the pack in her first three events.

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But there are much bigger goals in mind for the 144 Futures Tour golfers teeing off this weekend than getting the largest cut of the $70,000 purse. The ultimate prize is finishing in the tour’s top five, which awards an automatic exemption through qualifying school in December and a spot on next year’s LPGA tour.

“It is still early in the season, and a lot can happen, but I’m excited and pleased where I am,” Nirapathpongporn said. “It’s always nice to have a little cushion, but I still have a lot of goals to accomplish the rest of the year.”