Wednesday, July 2, 2008

NW Arkansas Championship Preview/Predictions

It's take two for the NW Arkansas Championship, the 54-hole LPGA event that begins on July 4th. In its inaugural year, then-amateur Stacy Lewis shot a 65 in the first round, but the tournament was washed out by floods of biblical proportions, so her brilliance went for nought. This year's field is strong, despite the absence of Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Ya Ni Tseng, Suzann Pettersen, Karrie Webb, Maria Hjorth, Sophie Gustafson, Laura Diaz, Angela Stanford, Juli Inkster, and Teresa Lu. The rest of The Best of the LPGA are there, so let's see how good my system is at predicting future results (the player's ranking in it is in parentheses).

1. Paula Creamer (3)
2. Jeong Jang (6)
3. Seon Hwa Lee (8)
4. Mi Hyun Kim (16)
5. Inbee Park (12)
6. Na Yeon Choi (13)
7. Cristie Kerr (9)
8. Song-Hee Kim (15)
9. Stacy Prammanasudh (18)
10. Stacy Lewis (n.r.)
11. Ai Miyazato (n.r.)
12. Eun-Hee Ji (19)

Alts: Morgan Pressel (25), Nicole Castrale (33), Jane Park (34)

I figure the tournament is a blank slate, so I'm going into it with a blank slate, too, although I did make a few adjustments to take into account recent trends and whom I'm guessing that Pinnacle Country Club just might favor just a little bit. Time to start a new streak at the Pakpicker this week!

[Update 1 (7:04 pm): Check out Hound Dog's preview.]

No comments: