Monday, October 27, 2008

Questions for the LPGA's Home Stretch

A few not-so-idle questions as the LPGA enters its home stretch.

With Lorena Ochoa sitting out the Asian Swing, Paula Creamer is the 1st but won't be the only player to get within $1M of her on the money list before the ADT Championship. (Assuming Lorena doesn't win her invitational in mid-November, Ya Ni Tseng and Annika Sorenstam should, too.) So does any one of these players--or others who could end up pulling ahead of her on the money list with a win in the ADT--have a legitimate shot at wresting Player of the Year honors from her? (Yes, I know she has almost double the points of her nearest challengers....)

Ya Ni Tseng has a 301-point lead on Na Yeon Choi in the Rookie of the Year race. But what if Choi wins twice and Tseng continues to find that 2nd win elusive? Who should be ROY? Would your answer change if Tseng stayed #2 in the Rolex Rankings and Choi only moved up, say, to #12 after her wins?

Helen Alfredsson is now only a couple of hundred thousand dollars and 1 win behind Annika Sorenstam. Who has a better case for Comeback Player of the Year?

Who is the best player without a win on the LPGA? Angela Park? Na Yeon Choi? Song-Hee Kim? Jane Park? Shanshan Feng? Hee Young Park? Ai Miyazato? Brittany Lang? Sun Young Yoo?

How many millionaires will the LPGA produce this season? 11? 15?

How much of a fight will the top KLPGA and JLPGA players put up against the LPGA's finest over the next two weeks?

Consider this an open-ish thread!

[Update 1 (10/28/08, 1:11 pm:) Here's one possible hint of an answer to my last question: Annika kicked Paula's, Ai-chan's, and Momo-chan's butts in the skins game they just played in Japan.]

1 comment:

Hound Dog said...

I'll take a shot at answering your questions, not that my prognosticating has been any good this year...

Nobody has a legitimate shot at taking POY from Ochoa.

If Choi wins twice, Tseng would probably still win ROY because Yani is playing great right now and her point total keeps going up.

Alfredsson is the Comeback Player of the Year. She came from nowhere last year. Annika was definitely a Top 20 player in 2007 even with the injury. I ranked her #12.

The best player without a win this year? Or without a win in her career? Both answers are Na Yeon Choi (Pettersen very close this year).

Millionaires? Put me down for 14.

The Korean event is quite likely to be won by a KLPGA regular, if only because Shin is in the field. At least two JLPGA players will finish Top 10 at Mizuno.