SemGroup Championship Preview/Predictions/Pairings

The SemGroup Championship is fast approaching, so be sure to check out Hound Dog's tournament preview, the history of finishes for those in this year's field, the Cedar Ridge course map, and, for the truly LPGA-obsessed, my final-round not-quite-live-blogging post from last May.

The biggest question, as Hound Dog reminds us, is whether Lorena Ochoa can tie Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam by winning her 5th straight start. Cedar Ridge reminds me of the Showdown in Singapore's course--long with lots of water--which definitely favors someone like Ochoa who drives the ball so well, but in fact she has not yet been able to get a victory on it. Still, having 4 shots at it rather than the usual 3 means that whoever challenges her is going to have to be on top of their physical and mental game. At the same time, everyone will have more time to recover from the occasional bad hole--particularly people who can make a lot of birdies but who have been prone to big numbers like Jee Young Lee, Maria Hjorth, Christina Kim, and Minea Blomqvist. So whom to pick in this week's exercise in futility?

1. Ochoa
2. Lee Jee Young
3. Creamer
4. Hjorth
5. Kerr
6. Stupples
7. Kim Mi Hyun
8. Kung
9. Lu
10. Lee Seon Hwa
11. Ueda
12. Park Hee Young

Alts: Kim Young, Kim Christina, Blomqvist

I know, I know: 3 Junior Mints, 2 rookies, and no Super Sophs, with lots of vets I'm not sure I can count on. But that's what parity outside the top 4 in the LPGA means week in and week out.

Rather than worry about the cracks in my 100-Yen Nishijin Mostly Harmless Crystal Ball, I'd prefer to celebrate some great first-round pairings for my two favorites:

Start Time: 8:32 AM (#1)
Ai Miyazato
Teresa Lu
Maria Hjorth

Start Time: 8:32 AM (#10)
Lorie Kane
Angela Stanford
Moira Dunn

And of course prime time off the back in the early afternoon rocks:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Morgan Pressel
Stacy Prammanasudh
Nicole Castrale

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Lorena Ochoa
Mi Hyun Kim
Paula Creamer

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Juli Inkster
Natalie Gulbis
Carin Koch

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Karen Stupples
Cristie Kerr
Louise Friberg

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Momoko Ueda
Sherri Steinhauer
Jee Young Lee

Not to mention Grace Park/Young Kim (9:16 am), Jane Park/Sun Young Yoo (12:10 pm), Minea Blomqvist/Hee Young Park (12:43 pm), and Eun-Hee Ji/Laura Diaz (12:54 pm) off #1 and Vicky Hurst/Kelli Kuehne (8:21 am), Seon Hwa Lee/Julieta Granada (8:54 am), Jeong Jang/Ji Young Oh (9:05 am), Laura Davies/Christina Kim (9:16 am), and Sandra Gal/Ashleigh Simon (1:49 pm) off #10.

I can't close this post without thanking bangkokbobby at Seoul Sisters for posting this clip of Mi Hyun Kim explaining her donation of almost half last year's winner's check to tornado victims in Kansas:



[Update: How about that? This was MH's 600th post!]