Let's Hear It for the Boys!

Nice to see Ryo Ishikawa, Tadd Fujikawa, and Danny Lee all go under par on the first day of their respective tournaments! Well done, lads! But it's already time to put on the rally caps for Ryo and Tadd over on the JGTO--round 2 is not being as kind to either just yet....

[Update 1 (5/1/09, 7:42 am): Ouch! It's up to Danny now to put up the first and only good # of round 2...Tadd missed the cut and Ryo fell back to the middle of the pack after both blew up in Japan. And not in a good way.]

[Update 2 (5/2/09, 10:54 am): Ryo stayed in the middle of the pack on moving day, but Danny has a great chance for a great finish this weekend at Quail Hollow.]

[Update 3 (5/4/09, 4:39 am): Ryo ended up with a top 30, Danny with a top 40. Nothing to write home about, but every round's a learning experience....]

Is Momoko Ueda Tougher Than Juli Inkster?

Earlier this month we found out from Ron Sirak that Juli Inkster was in labor for an entire year, but thanks to the wonders of teh intertubes, we now know that Momoko Ueda is playing in the Crystal Geyser Ladies JLPGA event a mere week after having her wisdom teeth removed. Why is it my Momo-chan news always makes you go, "itai!"?

Atsui, Samui, Daijo Bu: Asian-Pacific Edition

It's going to be even tougher to make my hot list, cold list, and just-fine list after this week, as we've finally got enough tournaments played on the JLPGA and LPGA to combine what I've been keeping separate. And pretty soon, we'll have the LET and KLPGA to throw in the mix, too. But for now, here's a still-truncated look at the world of women's golf!

Atsui

1. Lorena Ochoa: Strangely enough, most bloggers I'm following are at a loss for words after her down-to-the-wire showdown win over Suzann Pettersen in Mexico. Ryan Ballengee joins the chorus bemoaning the lack of tv coverage; Armchair Golfer is so impressed he can't wait for the Michelob Ultra to start (hint: it's not next week); Shane Bacon tries to revive last season's Tiger vs. Lorena meme but ends up taking the swine flu worries angle; Jay Busbee takes the broken-foot caddie route; Geoff Shackelford shows how two photos are worth more than 2K words. Here's a hint, y'all: it's not that she leads the LPGA in victories, winnings, and scoring average. These are the 2 stats that matter. Even with her recent struggles, Ochoa has won 3 of her last 12 LPGA events. And yet, the same score that got her an 11-stroke win last season got her a 1-shot victory this one--and 10 golfers finished within 11 shots of her this time around. There's no doubt she's the best--and hottest--female professional golfer on the planet. But she'll need her A-game to stay there.

2. Angela Stanford: She skipped Tres Marias, so even though she has 3 wins and no finish worse than 15th in her last 11 events, she's no longer the hottest player in the world of women's golf in my book.

3. Ji-Yai Shin: A top-10 and a runner-up finish the last 2 weeks on the JLPGA suggest to me that her game is starting to come around.

4. Cristie Kerr: Ho-hum, another top 5 for her. Her hot streak dates back to last May, for in her last 24 tournaments, she's only finished outside the top 20 twice (her worst being a T34 in China), while garnering 14 top 10s (including 4 in a row), with a win and 2 runner-ups in that stretch. But when's she going to get another win?

5. Sakura Yokomine: She's got a 20-event JLPGA top-20 streak going, with 2 wins, 9 top 5s, and 16 top 10s in that run. The last 3 weeks, she's finished 1-2-3.

Honorable Mention

Suzann Pettersen: I'll update the numbers and ask it again: with 5 top 20s in a row, 4 top 10s, and 3 top 5s, she's got a bunch of great streaks going--can a win be far away?

Ji-Hee Lee: She's only finished in the top 10 in 10 of her last 12 JLPGA events, including 2 wins, a runner-up, and 7 top 5s. Even though her 5-event top-10 streak came to an end last week (T14), the single blemish in that run, a T31, is her only finish outside the top 20 since her missed cut in the opening event of 2008. That's the longest run of great play in the world of women's golf.

Ya Ni Tseng: Fell off the pace on the weekend in Tres Marias, but still tied Kerr for 5th at -16. With a 9-event LPGA top-20 streak and no finish worse than 17th in 2009 on any tour, I'm expecting win #2 any given week.

Karrie Webb: Kept her 6-event top-20 run going, but her top-10 streak ended at 3. Still, any week you go double digits under par is a good week. She's certainly among the world's hottest, what with her win and runner-up already this year.

Yuko Mitsuka: Last season ended well for her on the JLPGA, with 3 straight top-5 finishes and 5 straight top 20s. She already has a win and 2 other top-5 finishes this season, plus she's coming off a T7 last week.

Samui

1. Shiho Oyama: No bounce-back on the JLPGA, just another missed cut....

2. Julieta Granada: She broke her oh-fer streak when she made her 1st cut of the season at Tres Marias, but couldn't come close to making it 3 runner-ups in her last 3 times playing there. Still, when your best finish of the year is a T53....

3. Louise Friberg: With her 5th missed cut in 7 official starts on the LPGA in '09, this rookie winner stays at the top of the "sophomore jinx" club.

4. Minea Blomqvist: Finished 50th or worse in 5 out of 6 '09 events. Sure, she's a streaky player and could bounce back big any time, but this long a bad run is unlike her.

5. Shanshan Feng: Still hasn't cracked the top 20 all season, but at least she broke her 2-event MC streak with a T32 in Mexico.

Daijo Bu

1. Na Yeon Choi: Great week at Tres Marias is the right kind of antidote to her recent struggles.

2. Brittany Lang: Yet another strong tournament for her last week--T7 and -15 is pretty awesome, no matter how you slice it.

3. Paula Creamer: Struggling with a mystery intestinal illness, she's playing on guts alone and it's starting to show.

4. Jee Young Lee: Missed only her 2nd top 20 in her last 12 events last week, but has 7 top 10s and 3 top 5s in that stretch, so I'm not too worried.

5. Katherine Hull: Too many bad holes taking away her momentum lately. But could put herself in contention any given week.

Honorable Mention

Ai Miyazato: Bounced back from her only really bad finish in a long time (at the KNC) with a near-miss for a win on the JLPGA and a near-miss for the top 10 on the LPGA in her last 2 events.

[Update 1 (4/28/09, 12:16 am): If I were to do a hot and cold list for the media...no, wait, when it comes to the golfy media, there's no hot list. The SI guys are unreadable and Jason Sobel's so-so at best. They've all made it pretty clear that they won't pay attention to the LPGA until Wie gets her 1st win. Then they criticize the tour for having no "buzz." Um, guys? Your attitude is a big part of the reason for what you're criticizing. Hello!]

[Update 2 (12:42 am): Add Alan Shipnuck to the so-so list. He's right that Lorena's back and that this win had to be particularly satisfying to her. But he's also right that the chase pack is closing on her. If the golfy media were to follow that story starting in May, the LPGA might actually build up buzzy momentum heading into the summer.]

[Update 3 (12:45 am): The AP has spelling problems--it's Brooker and Cristie, y'all!--but at least they get the top story heading forward just right:

Ochoa, who won last year's tournament by 11 shots, didn't have such an easy time on Sunday despite finishing the tournament with the exact same score.

"In a golf tournament, where one [stroke] is enough to win, there is no difference. This is a complicated year, there are many players who want to win, you can see that every week," Ochoa added. "This year, it will be very hard to win by 10. That is why I keep practicing, trying to improve--to remain on top of them."

Bingo! It's a sad day when I point to the AP as a leader in golf writing.]

[Update 4 (4/29/09, 6:10 am): Lorne Rubenstein makes a good case why Canadians, at least, should be paying attention to women's golf!]

Corona Championship Sunday: Ochoa Beats Pettersen Over Last 6 Holes

It all came down to the last 6 holes today in the Corona Championship. With her birdie on the 12th hole, Suzann Pettersen had finally caught Lorena Ochoa at -23. But catching Ochoa and beating her are two entirely different things. The world #1 made back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th holes to take a 2-shot lead heading into the final hole, making Pettersen's walkoff birdie moot. Congrats to La Reina!

Many other players went low--9 were -15 or lower and 16 were -10 or lower--but none could join Ochoa and Pettersen lower than -20. I'll have more details after my delayed connection to Buffalo here at the Philadelphia airport gets me back to western NY!

[Update 1 (4/27/09, 11:01 am): Hound Dog's got more, as do LPGA.com and Jason Sobel.]

Corona Championship Saturday: Pettersen Pulls Within 1 of Ochoa

Once again, Hound Dog has schooled the AP: if you want to know how Lorena Ochoa maintained her 1-shot lead on Suzann Pettersen on moving day at the Corona Championship, the only thing missing from his account is the fact that Pettersen missed a short birdie putt on the 18th hole to tie her.

What you can only get here, though, are the following fun facts:

• Pettersen is currently riding a 50-hole bogey-free run and on pace to surpass Na Yeon Choi's 52-hole streak that Hound Dog pointed out came to an end on her last 2 holes yesterday. Irene Cho went 40 holes without a bogey, by the way, while Ya Ni Tseng went 39 holes and Ochoa 37. No one else has come close to Pettersen and Choi, although Cristie Kerr could pass the trio behind them if she has another bogey-free round tomorrow. These are the players I'm watching to see if they can chase down Pettersen, at least.
  
• Morgan Pressel made an eagle yesterday--how rare is that?
  
• Karrie Webb made 4 bogeys in her 1st 8 holes, but bounced back with 5 birdies in her last 11.
  
• Don't look now, but Anna Nordqvist passed Michelle Wie and Vicky Hurst and Stacy Lewis are gaining on her. And Lewis closed with 2 bogeys after having pulled even with Wie. The rookies may be waking up!
  
• How 'bout that 30 on the back from Charlotte Mayorkas! It included an eagle and a hole-in-one!
  

Darn it, LPGA.com beat me to some of this. Anyway, I'll be travelling almost all day tomorrow, checking to see if the Mexican authorities shut down the tournament because of the swine flu. Cross your fingers, everyone. We get a global pandemic on top of the economic crisis and who know what's the result?

Fujisankei Ladies Classic Saturday: Hurry Up and Wait

You can't quite call what I do with Japanese "reading" just yet, so let's say I'm gathering that the 2nd round of the Fujisankei Ladies Classic has been suspended until 7:00 am Sunday morning. With the leaders just having made the turn, Tamie Durdin has made up a 3-shot deficit on 1st-round leader Chie Arimura, while Ami Shiozaki sits 1 stroke behind them at -4. Bogeys by Durdin and Arimura and a double by Shiozaki--all on the par-4 7th hole--have brought them back to the field. Julie Lu and Shinobu Moromizato are 2 back, Sakura Yokomine, Ji-Yai Shin, and Kuniko Maeda are 3 back, and Asako Fujimoto and Tomoko Kusakabe are 4 back.

Of all the rounds that have been completed, only Akane Iijima's 71 and Ah-Reum Hwang's 72 avoided moving backward, often in a big way, today. In fact, the only players in the field who are currently under par on their rounds are Durdin (-1 through 9) and Moromizato (-1 through 12) and only 5 players are at E on the day, including Ji-Yai Shin and Erina Hara. The cut line will likely fall somewhere between +6 and +9, depending on the scoring conditions when play resumes. Look for an update tonight!

Update 1 (4/26/09, 2:18 am): Well, that was an optimistic estimate of when I'd be free. But how things have changed now that the 2nd round is complete:

1st/-7 Tamie Durdin (68-69)
2nd/-4 Ji-Yai Shin (70-70)
T3/-2 Shinobu Moromizato (70-72), Kuniko Maeda (70-72), Sakura Yokomine (68-74), Ami Shiozaki (67-75)
7th/-1 Yuko Mitsuka (71-72)
T8/E Akane Iijima (73-71), Akiko Fukushima (71-73)
T10/+1 Ah-Reum Hwang (73-72), Miho Koga (71-74), Asako Fujimoto (71-74), Chie Arimura (65-80)

If Yokomine hadn't doubled the 18th, she'd be tied with Shin in 2nd! And what happened to Arimura? Oh, she bogeyed 3 straight holes down the stretch and doubled the last....

T14/+2 Bo-Bae Song (73-73), Sakurako Mori (71-75), Ji-Hee Lee (70-76), Julie Lu (69-77)
T22/+3 Erina Hara (76-71), Hiromi Mogi (72-75), Saiki Fujita (71-76)
T27/+4 Ji-Woo Lee (75-73), Miki Saiki (74-74), Yukari Baba (74-74)
T32/+5 Maiko Wakabayashi (75-74), Nikki Campbell (75-74), Midori Yoneyama (73-76), Esther Lee (73-76)
T40/+6 Mie Nakata (72-78)

The cut line came at +7 and it got a lot of good golfers.

T51/+8 Ritsuko Ryu (78-74), Eun-A Lim (77-75), Ai-Yu Tu (77-75), Hiroko Yamaguchi (73-79), Na Zhang (72-80)
T62/+9 Kumiko Kaneda (75-78), Namika Omata (73-80)
T74/+11 Rikako Morita (77-78), Hyun-Ju Shin (75-80), Ayako Uehara (74-81), Yuko Saitoh (74-81)
T88/+13 Li-Ying Ye (75-82)
T97/+16 Woo-Soon Ko (82-78)
WD Yun-Jye Wei (75-WD), Rui Kitada (76-WD)

Wow, what a tough day!]

[Update 2 (9:08 am): They called it! Last night I noticed they had started playing, but this morning I saw the announcement that Durdin is the winner! Another 36-hole champion on the JLPGA this year--already!]

[Update 3 (6:41 pm): Stuck in the Philadelphia airport, waiting for my flight to Buffalo, so it's a great time to update the JLPGA money list!

1. Yuko Mitsuka ￥25.57M
2. Sakura Yokomine ￥25.53M
3. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥21.63M
4. Ayako Uehara ￥19.25M
5. Ji-Hee Lee ￥18.55M
6. Erina Hara ￥18.29M
7. Tamie Durdin ￥15.05M
8. Ji-Woo Lee ￥11.57M
9. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥11.05M
10. Ji-Yai Shin ￥8.48M
11. Julie Lu ￥8.17M
12. Bo-Bae Song ￥8.05M
13. Shinobu Moromizato ￥7.80M
14. Midori Yoneyama ￥7.26M
15. Kuniko Maeda ￥7.07M
16. Kaori Aoyama ￥6.61M
17. Miho Koga ￥6.34
18. Rui Kitada ￥5.74M
19. Hiromi Mogi ￥5.69M
20. Yukari Baba ￥5.48M
21. Yuri Fudoh ￥4.85M
22. Yuko Saitoh ￥4.79M
23. Nikki Campbell ￥4.78M
24. Yayoi Arasaki ￥4.38M
25. Mie Nakata ￥4.33M
26. Tomoko Kusakabe ￥4.32M
27. Chie Arimura ￥4.27M
28. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥4.10M

That walkoff double bogey on Saturday cost Yokomine the money-list lead!]

Corona Championship Friday: Going Low

Lorena Ochoa shot her 2nd straight 65 in the Corona Championship today, making her 1st eagle of the tournament to go with her 14 birdies. Suzann Pettersen's 64 made her the only player in the field to actually gain ground on Ochoa, but she's managed to make "only" 12 birdies and has a bogey to offset her eagle, so she's 3 shots back with 36 holes to go. Others getting to double digits under par include Ya Ni Tseng, who's made 13 birdies in her last 31 holes of bogey-free golf, Na Yeon Choi, who joins her at -11 thanks to 9 birdies and an eagle, and Kristy McPherson, who's fired a pair of 68s.

As Hound Dog points out, everyone else in the field is going to need a combination of extraordinary play on their part and help from Ochoa to have a chance to overtake her. It's all fine and dandy that a host of players moved up the leaderboard with sweet 67s, but it's one thing for Karrie Webb and Irene Cho to catch Michelle Wie and Sarah Lee at -9, for Morgan Pressel to catch Eunjung Yi at -8, or for Paula Creamer to catch Ai Miyazato and Jill McGill at -7, and it's another thing to do the same to Ochoa.

If it can be done, though, maybe Tres Marias is the place to do it. If anyone could put together Pettersen's 7-birdie barrage on the back with, say, Alena Sharp's hole-in-one-aided 31 on the front, I doubt even Ochoa would be able to keep her from making up some significant ground tomorrow. When someone playing as well as Katherine Hull can make a double and a triple in her 1st 36 holes, what are the odds that Ochoa can keep her bogey-free run going all weekend? Although it might be just as pertinent to ask whether she has a legitimate shot to break -30 this week...!

Fujisankei Ladies Classic Friday: Arimura's Albatross Lifts Her to the Top of the Leaderboard

Chie Arimura is a 21-year-old in her 4th season on the JLPGA who made the top 15 on the money list in 2007 and got her 1st win in 2008, but has gotten off to a slow start this season, never finishing below par in 5 previous events heading into the Fujisankei Ladies Classic. So I'm sure she appreciates the 2 she made on the par-5 5th hole today, not to mention her 5 birdies that accompanied it. Her 65 lifted her into the lead, but she can't rest on her laurels. Sakura Yokomine, who's finished 1-2 the last 2 weeks on the JLPGA, had a chance to break 30 on the back if she could just birdie the par-4 18th. Instead, she bogeyed it and had to settle for a 68. And there are plenty of other strong golfers within striking distance of Arimura:

1st/-7 Chie Arimura (65)
2nd/-5 Ami Shiozaki (67)
T3/-4 Sakura Yokomine, Tamie Durdin, Makoto Takemura (68)
T6/-3 Julie Lu, Yuriko Ohtsuka, Tomoko Kusakabe (69)
T9/-2 Ji-Hee Lee, Ji-Yai Shin, Shinobu Moromizato, Kuniko Maeda, Yoshie Suzuki (70)

T14/-1 Miho Koga, Yuko Mitsuka, Ayako Uehara, Akiko Fukushima, Saiki Fujita, Sakurako Mori, Asako Fujimoto (71)
T25/E Na Zhang, Mie Nakata, Hiromi Mogi (72)
T36/+1 Ah-Reum Hwang, Bo-Bae Song, Akane Iijima, Midori Yoneyama, Hiroko Yamaguchi, Esther Lee, Namika Omata (73)
T50/+2 Miki Saiki, Yuko Saitoh, Yukari Baba (74)
T67/+3 Hyun-Ju Shin, Ji-Woo Lee, Nikki Campbell, Yun-Jye Wei, Maiko Wakabayashi, Kumiko Kaneda, Li-Ying Ye (75)
T79/+4 Erina Hara, Rui Kitada (76)
T86/+5 Ai-Yu Tu, Eun-A Lim, Rikako Morita (77)
T96/+6 Ritsuko Ryu (78)
106th/+10 Woo-Soon Ko

Can Arimura make like Ah-Reum Hwang earlier this season and run away from the field? Or will some of the JLPGA's hottest players make like Yokomine and try to overtake the 1st-round leader?

Corona Championship Thursday: Instant Buzz

Blogging from Minneapolis this weekend and pumped up about the 1st round of the Corona Championship, where Lorena Ochoa's 65 only gave her a 1-shot lead over Na Yeon Choi and Michelle Wie and a 2-shot lead over Sarah Lee, Sandra Gal, Anna Nordqvist, and Eunjung Yi. If a lot of those names aren't familiar to you, you're not alone. Shane Bacon, for instance, doesn't bother mentioning anyone but Ochoa and Wie. Hound Dog, of course, gives his usual comprehensive overview, but fails to contextualize the top of the leaderboard.

Consider this: except for Lee and Ochoa, everyone else there is a rookie or sophomore on tour. Wie needs no introduction, but Choi is the best player on the LPGA without a win, Nordqvist could move up the LPGA priority list in a big way with a good finish this week and in the process do much to make up for a disappointing Q-School last season, and Gal and Yi are due to break through. So, yeah, the level of competition on the LPGA has never been better.

That said, if Ochoa drops another mid-60s round on the field tomorrow, my claim that the era of her effortless dominance on tour is over may be a bit premature. We'll see how many of the 21 players who broke 70 yesterday on the par-73 Tres Marias course can do it the 3 or 4 times they'll need to do it this week to keep pace with a hot Ochoa. But with 33 players within 5 shots of the lead, this is far from over, particularly when you look at some of the scorecards. Katherine Hull fired a 68 despite making a bogey and a double bogey in her final 7 holes. Ai Miyazato birdied her 1st 4 holes and added another one on her 6th hole of the day, but ended up at -4, tied with Anna Grzebien, who made 5 birdies in a row between the 6th and 10th holes, and Karin Sjodin, who made 5 birdies in a row to close out her 2nd 9, the front. Cristie Kerr was -5 and bogey-free heading into her final hole, the par-5 18th, but walked away with a double bogey. She'll get no sympathy from Mollie Fankhauser, though--she was -7 heading into 18 and suffered a walkoff snowman! Meanwhile, In-Kyung Kim saved her stumble for her penultimate hole--her double on 17 dropped her back to -3.

Well, today's a new day. But when 52 players failed to break 75 yesterday, you know the course isn't playing that easy, even if it is a bit softer than in previous years. If the above players have gotten their bad holes of the week out of the way, watch out for them. If not, Ochoa, Choi, Wie, and Nordqvist will have a great chance to separate themselves from even the lead chase pack over the next couple of days. We'll see....

[Update 1 (4/25/09, 10:15 pm): Jay Busbee asks why we can't get the Corona on the telly when the leaderboard is so great. Why not ask ESPN or Golf Channel instead of blaming Bivens for something not under her control?]

Recommended Reading: Sirak and Ballengee on Globalization

Ron Sirak and Ryan Ballengee show how interrelated business, sports, and politics are these days in their rundowns of options the major professional golf tours have for coming out of globalization's latest and greatest economic tsunami stronger than ever. I'm particularly glad to see Sirak combining his utopian One World Tour idea with more practical suggestions for coordination of schedules and co-sponsorship of events that I've been floating for a long time. Admittedly, there are huge obstacles to any of this--no matter how great your plans for highlighting the quality of competition in the world of women's golf, will your existing sponsors go along with them and will you be able to draw new sponsors to make it possible?--but I'm hoping this upcoming LPGA summit will unveil a strategy that goes beyond the players of the LPGA being even nicer and more accessible to their fans than they already are. It's nice to see LPGA.com already featuring more human-interest type stories on players who aren't already international stars, but there's so much more to be done.

[Update 1 (4:33 am): Certainly the LPGA should be able to outdo Golf365's rundown of top players and young guns of Korean descent on tour, especially when Matt Cooper leaves Christina Kim off his first list and Amy Yang and Jane Park off his second. But he makes up for it with a great photo gallery. Thanks to Happy Fan for the links.]

Corona Championship Preview/Predictions/Pairings

What a difference a year makes! This time last year, Lorena Ochoa beat down a brave charge by Inbee Park and ended up winning by double digits over Song-Hee Kim as she broke 70 4 times in a row at the Corona Championship, prompting the golfy media to begin wondering about an Ochoa Slam, not to mention the quality of competition on the LPGA. In retrospect, those were the good old days, when Ochoa's great play allowed even the laziest of golf journalists to pretend they were paying attention to the top women's tour in the world. Now, they're not even trying, even as the fantastic competition I was going on and on about this time last year is there for everyone to see.

Just take a look at the strength of this year's field. Michelle Wie is coming back from Korea and Ai Miyazato from Japan to join the rest of the Best of the LPGA (except Ji-Yai Shin, who's staying in Japan at least another week, as well as Angela Stanford, Eun-Hee Ji, Angela Park, Helen Alfredsson, Hee-Won Han, Sun Young Yoo, Lindsey Wright, and Hee Young Park, who have no such excuse). Hound Dog points out how much stronger the field is this season than last, noting that Maria Hjorth is making her return to the LPGA this week after giving birth earlier in the year.

Looking over the tournament history and 2007, 2006, and 2005 results, it's clear the winner's going to have to go low early and often. Here are my picks to do just that:

1. Ochoa
2. Kim Song-Hee
3. Tseng
4. Kerr
5. Webb
6. Pettersen
7. Lee Jee Young
8. Kim In-Kyung
9. Miyazato Ai
10. Lang
11. Creamer
12. Choi Na Yeon

Alts: McPherson, Hull, Pat Hurst

There are a lot of other young players I'm rooting for this week, besides Ai-chan and Inky. I'd love to see Senior Standouts Seon Hwa Lee and Morgan Pressel, along with Junior Mints Jane Park and Inbee Park and Super Sophs Shanshan Feng and Amy Yang, start playing better again. I'd love to see Futures Tour regulars Haeji Kang, Song-Yi Choi, and Angela Oh perform well in the big leagues.

But most of all, I'm curious to see how quickly the elite golfers playing Tres Marias for the 1st time figure out how to go low there. Looking at the pairings, they'll have to learn fast! Probably the most packed prime-time quadrant in terms of momentum and tournament experience goes off the back in the early afternoon:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Alena Sharp
Karin Sjodin
Sarah Lee

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Morgan Pressel
Song-Hee Kim
Meaghan Francella

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Karrie Webb
Taylor Leon
Na On Min

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Michelle Wie
Ai Miyazato
Stacy Lewis

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Kristy McPherson
Brittany Lincicome
Katherine Hull

Pressel, McPherson, Min, Kim, and Francella have put in great finishes here, while Miyazato, Lincicome, Lee, and Sjodin have put in some good ones. But Tres Marias is brand-new territory for Webb, Wie, and Lewis, and Hull hasn't played well in 3 previous tries. Good mix of more and less experience in the late-morning front-side quadrant, as well:

Start Time: 8:36 AM
Marcy Hart
Laura Diaz
Seon Hwa Lee

Start Time: 8:47 AM
Inbee Park
Sandra Gal
Ya Ni Tseng

Start Time: 8:58 AM
Juli Inkster
Louise Friberg
Brittany Lang

Start Time: 9:09 AM
Pat Hurst
Na Yeon Choi
Stacy Prammanasudh

Start Time: 9:20 AM
Suzann Pettersen
Cristie Kerr
Shanshan Feng

Newbies Tseng, Kerr, Lee, and Friberg will be trying to keep pace with Pat Hurst, Na Yeon Choi, Prammanasudh, and Pettersen, who have the best record at Tres Marias in this bunch. Going off the 10th at the same time is a very different mix of golfers:

Start Time: 8:36 AM
Anja Monke
Heather Young
Irene Cho

Start Time: 8:47 AM
Jee Young Lee
Jane Park
Katie Futcher

Start Time: 8:58 AM
Louise Stahle
Jimin Kang
Hye Jung Choi

Start Time: 9:09 AM
Allison Fouch
Ji Young Oh
Kris Tamulis

Start Time: 9:20 AM
Lorena Ochoa
Paula Creamer
Silvia Cavalleri

That last pairing is one to watch--both Ochoa and Cavalleri have won the Corona, and Creamer has 1 top 3 here. Rounding out the last of the prime-time quadrants off the 1st tee are some lesser-known and veteran players, many of whom have a pretty decent history here:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Johanna Mundy
Brandie Burton
Young Kim

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Janice Moodie
Teresa Lu
Vicky Hurst

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Michele Redman
Lorie Kane
Il Mi Chung

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Maria Hjorth
In-Kyung Kim
Moira Dunn

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Meena Lee
Nicole Castrale
Wendy Ward

Ward has 2 top 5s dating back to the 1st 2 Corona Championships, Lu has a top 10, and Dunn and Young Kim each have a top 20, while IK Kim and Vicky Hurst are playing Tres Marias for the 1st time.

If you're looking for a real dark horse, though, go with Julieta Granada (7:41 am off #1), who has 2 runner-ups here. Kyeong Bae (1:38 pm off #10) has also gone low at Tres Marias before. Something about this course seems to go well with the Senior Standouts. Hope history repeats itself for them--and that Jee Young Lee's momentum makes a new start for her here this week.

What's Wrong with This Picture?

The Corning Classic will be no more after this year (cf. Hound Dog, Ryan Ballengee, Brent Kelley, Golf Girl, and Rosie Jones's reaction for more). So why is Golf Channel doing a better job promoting the Futures Tour than the LPGA? At first I was thinking, "Tom Abbott is a really good golf reporter," but then I realized his story was basically a promo for the new Big Break. It's all about the ratings, baby!

On the bright side, guess who's committed to play in the last Corning Classic? Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Christina Kim, Brittany Lincicome, Natalie Gulbis, defending champion Leta Lindley, Jee Young Lee, Eun-Hee Ji, Momoko Ueda, Amy Yang...and Jeong Jang! Yup, looks like she's starting her comeback from wrist surgery in New York state. Here's hoping the rest of the LPGA's best decide to send off the Corning in style.

[Update 1 (4/22/09, 1:00 am): IceCat at Seoul Sisters.com pointed me toward the Michelob Ultra field list, and lo and behold Jang's comeback starts in VA! Crushing another speculation of mine, Ji-Yai Shin, Momoko Ueda, and Shiho Oyama are also listed in this field--no Salonpas Cup for them. But Ai Miyazato's name is not listed in either field right now....]

[Update 2 (1:11 am): Strangely, Ueda's not playing this week on the JLPGA (Shin and Oyama are), but she is on next week's Crystal Geyser Ladies field list. I wonder if she's keeping her options open and trying to qualify for the Salonpas Cup somehow?]

[Update 3 (2:42 am): Ron Sirak has a good story on the state of Creamer's health as she continues to globetrot this spring.]

Atsui, Samui, Daijo Bu: Back to the JLPGA Edition

It's sequel time in this weekly Mostly Harmless feature on the hottest, coldest, and all-rightest players in the world of women's golf. We'll see how many of these JLPGA stars make next week's post-Corona Championship list!

Atsui

Who are the hottest among the finest? Read on....

1. Ji-Hee Lee: No longer "looking for her 1st win" of '09, like I mentioned last week. Making 4 birdies in your last 5 holes on a Sunday will do that for you!

2. Sakura Yokomine: She was the victim of Lee's charge, but is still on a 19-event top-20 streak, with 2 wins, 8 top 5s, and 15 top 10s in that run.

3. Yuko Mitsuka: Last season ended well for her, with 3 straight top-5 finishes and 5 straight top 20s. She already has a win and 2 other top-5 finishes this season.

4. Erina Hara: She closed out last season with 4 straight top 20s, but no top 10s. This season, she already has 3 top-3 finishes in 5 starts.

5. Ji-Yai Shin: Despite her uncharacteristic final-round 77 last week, she got her 1st JLPGA top 10 in her last 3 starts there.

Honorable Mention

Bo-Bae Song: Having sat out last week's event, she's still riding a 4-event streak in which she hasn't finished worse than 7th. And she's not even putting well in '09 yet!

Eun-A Lim: She, too, sat out last week's event. But with 4 top 5s in her last 6 events of '08 and a T16 and a T9 this season, her lone missed cut is only her 3rd finish outside the top 20 in her last 14 starts.

Miho Koga: Just after I praised her consistency this season, she goes and finishes outside the top 20 for the 1st time! But she still has 2 wins in her last 6 starts, dating back to last season.

Mi-Jeong Jeon: WDed last week after failing to break 80 in bad weather conditions. Still feeling the effects of her 2nd thrown-away victory chance since the last event of 2008. But how many players in the world can say they had 2 such chances in their last 5 events?

Samui

This is the list you don't want to be on and especially near the top of--it consists of those golfers who have been playing the furthest below expectations so far in 2009.

1. Akiko Fukushima: Feast or famine last week--mostly famine. She needs to show more than flashes of brilliance to get off the cold list!

2. Shiho Oyama: Brought her frigid play from the LPGA over to Kumamoto, missing the cut in her 1st JLPGA appearance of '09.

3. Miki Saiki: DFL among those who made the cut last week isn't the way to break out of her post-LPGA Q-School funk.

4. Mayu Hattori: Made the cut last week, but still hasn't finished a tournament under par this season and has disappointed since getting her 1st career win and finishing 15th on the money list last season.

5. Yuki Ichinose: Another JLPGA young gun who's underperforming this season, she didn't break 80 last week for her 1st MC of '09.

Daijo Bu

Here's where I keep track of players threatening to break into the hot list.

1. Yuri Fudoh: Bounced back from her MC the previous week with her 2nd top 10 of the season last week--and right off the cold list.

2. Yuko Saitoh: Now riding a 5-event top-20 streak in '09, a nice bounceback from some seriously bad play in the 2nd half of '08.

3. Ji-Woo Lee: Couldn't keep her 2-event top-5 streak going last week, but at least she has a 3-event top-20 run to build onfor next week.

4. Momoko Ueda: Struggled before the home crowd in Kumamoto last week, but still managed a top 10.

5. Ai Miyazato: A threat to win every time she goes back to Japan. Wonder when the next time will be?

Honorable Mention

Ayako Uehara: Two disappointing results in a row drop her off the hot list and all the way down here.

Kumiko Kaneda: Made her 1st professional made cut her 1st professional top 10, thanks to a Sunday charge that took her off my cold list.

Spring Fiddling

What would Sparkychan and Gojochan think?

Louisiana Pelican Sunday: Richdale Wins in 36

Lisa Mickey has the news: Canada's own Samantha Richdale fired a 66 Sunday afternoon at the aptly-named The Wetlands to motor past Christine Song, Danah Ford, and Haeji Kang in the 2nd and final round of the Louisiana Pelican Classic. It was a day of frustration for 1st-round leader Liz Janangelo, who followed up her 65 with a 77 to drop to 9th place, but almost everyone else I'm following on the Futures Tour this season did better in the soft and soggy conditions Sunday. Except, that is, my projected #1, who missed the cut badly and languishes well down the money list. Oh well, there's always next week--and the week after--both in Texas!

Life Card Ladies Sunday: Ji-Hee Lee Roars Past Yokomine Down the Stretch

Korean golfers have been playing great on the JLPGA for a long time, but of late they've been finding the winner's circle harder to find than usual. Ji-Yai Shin hasn't contended since winning the Mizuno Classic, Ji-Hee Lee has found herself in contention several times since she beat Ai Miyazato in the JLPGA's next-to-last major of 2008 but hasn't been able to close the deal, Mi-Jeong Jeon handed wins to Sakura Yokomine last week and Miho Koga last season with late collapses, Hyun-Ju Shin has been playing steadily but not spectacularly since her return from injuries, and Bo-Bae Song has found her game again after losing it in a big way but has really contended only once. But Ji-Hee Lee may just have ended this trend with her amazing comeback in the Life Card Ladies to beat Sakura Yokomine by 1 shot. A walkoff birdie for the wire-to-wire win capped a run of 4 birdies over Lee's final 5 holes that brought her back from way back in the pack.

Most of the day, it looked like the day belonged to Yokomine, who had been cruising despite a 2nd-hole bogey that had dropped her 2 shots behind Lee; she would hold steady at -2 for the rest of the way. And for a long time, that seemed like it would be just fine, as her fellow leaders were struggling mightily. Ji-Yai Shin started the day tied with Yokomine, only 1 behind Lee, but bogeyed 4 holes between the 5th and 10th to drop to +1. Momoko Ueda started the day 4 behind Lee, but also found herself at +1 as she entered the back 9. But as Ueda made her 3rd, 4th, and 5th bogeys of the day on the 12th, 14th, and 15th holes, and Shin made her 5th on the 15th, as well, it became clear they weren't going to threaten Yokomine's lead. Nor, when Lee made her 5th consecutive bogey on the 11th hole to drop to +1, did it seem like she would be a threat, either. And when Erina Hara bogeyed the 8th to fall 4 off the pace and Yuko Mitsuka bogeyed the 10th to fall 2 back, it seemed that not only was Yokomine on track to rack up from her 2nd straight win, but also that she might well end up the only player in the field to stay under par through 54 holes. Sure, Kaori Aoyama had played bogey-free golf over her 1st 11 holes, making 3 birdies in that stretch to battle back to E, but her bogey on the 12th seemed to end her momentum. And Yuri Fudoh fought back to +1 with her birdie on the 10th, but hadn't distinguished herself from everyone else 1 or 2 strokes over par and well back of Yokomine.

Lee's improbable run began precisely where she almost threw the tournament away on Saturday. She had moved backward in a big way on the 12th through 14th, making a pair of bogeys and a double bogey to fall from -6 to -2 at that point in the tournament. But it was a par save on the 396-yard 12th that got her off the bogey train today. She followed it up with a solid par on the 13th, a long par 3, and a birdie on the 14th, a long par 4. Birdies on the short par 4 15th and short par 3 16th pulled her even with Yokomine at -2. By then, Mitsuka was only 1 back after her own birdie on the 14th, while Hara birdied the 14th and 16th to get back to E, but her own walkoff birdie was too little, too late, for anything but a tie for 3rd with Mitsuka at -1, who parred out over her last 4 holes. Lee and Yokomine, meanwhile, traded pars on the long par 4 17th. But, just like on the previous 15 holes, Yokomine couldn't birdie the 456-yard par 5 18th, while Lee made up for her earlier bogeys on the par-5 9th and 11th with a birdie that brought her her 13th career JLPGA victory.

Here's how they ended up:

1st/-3 Ji-Hee Lee (68-72-73)
2nd/-2 Sakura Yokomine (73-68-73)
T3/-1 Erina Hara (76-69-70), Yuko Mitsuka (73-70-72)
5th/E Kaori Aoyama (76-71-69), Yuri Fudoh (73-72-71)
T7/+2 Kurumi Dohi (73-74-71), Ji-Yai Shin (72-69-77)
T9/+3 Kumiko Kaneda (76-76-67), Mie Nakata (73-74-72), Li-Ying Ye (80-65-74), Momoko Ueda (74-70-75)

Great top 10s for Ye and Kaneda, in addition to Aoyama and Dohi. Kaneda made her 1st professional made cut her 1st professional top 10, on the strength of 7 Sunday birdies.

T13/+5 Chie Arimura (73-76-72), Yuko Saitoh (75-71-73)
T19/+6 Ji-Woo Lee (73-73-76)
T22/+7 Maiko Wakabayashi (73-77-73), Rui Kitada (77-72-74), Midori Yoneyama (76-73-74), Yukari Baba (71-78-74), Hiroko Yamaguchi (73-72-78)
T29/+8 Miho Koga (75-71-76), Kaori Higo (72-76-76)
T32/+9 Tamie Durdin (77-74-74)
T35/+10 Ayako Uehara (77-74-75), Mayu Hattori (75-75-76), Julie Lu (68-82-76)
T39/+11 Shinobu Moromizato (73-79-75), Akiko Fukushima (80-69-78)
T44/+12 Akane Iijima (76-74-78)
T48/+15 Sakurako Mori (76-76-79), Miki Saiki (73-77-81)

The money list race is already heating up this season:

1. Yuko Mitsuka ￥23.47M
2. Sakura Yokomine ￥22.20M
3. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥20.48M
4. Ayako Uehara ￥19.25M
5. Ji-Hee Lee ￥17.70M
6. Erina Hara ￥17.70M
7. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥11.05M
8. Ji-Woo Lee ￥11.04M
9. Julie Lu ￥7.32M
10. Bo-Bae Song ￥7.20M
11. Midori Yoneyama ￥6.82M
12. Kaori Aoyama ￥6.61M
13. Rui Kitada ￥5.74M
14. Miho Koga ￥5.19M
15. Hiromi Mogi ￥5.10M
16. Yukari Baba ￥4.95M
17. Yuri Fudoh ￥4.85M
18. Yuko Saitoh ￥4.79M
19. Shinobu Moromizato ￥4.47M
20. Nikki Campbell ￥4.34M
21. Tamie Durdin ￥4.25M
22. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥4.10M

Next up is the Fujisankei Ladies Classic, where Ji-Yai Shin will once again try to return to the JLPGA winner's circle.

Life Card Ladies Saturday: Ji-Hee Lee Leads Shin and Yokomine by 1

Ji-Hee Lee got it to -6 at the halfway point of the Life Card Ladies, but a terrible stretch on the back (bogey-bogey-double bogey on the 12th through 14th holes) let many players back into the tournament. The chief beneficiaries were Sakura Yokomine, who went birdie-birdie-par-birdie on the 13th through 16th just as Lee was struggling, and Ji-Yai Shin, who responded with back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th. Just when it seemed we'd have a logjam at the top of the leaderboard, Yokomine birdied the 18th to get to -3. But then Lee battled back with a birdie on the 17th to tie her. And Shin birdied the 18th to tie them. But then Lee birdied the 18th to regain the lead. So even though Momoko Ueda had earlier birdied 3 of her 5 closing holes, she still trailed Lee by 4 when all was said and done. The only other player with a very good shot at victory tomorrow, Yuko Mitsuka, also birdied the defenseless 18th to get back under par for the tournament.

Here's how the top 10 and notables stand as we head into Sunday:

1st/-4 Ji-Hee Lee (68-72)
T2/-3 Sakura Yokomine (73-68), Ji-Yai Shin (72-69)
4th/-1 Yuko Mitsuka (73-70)
5th/E Momoko Ueda (74-70)
T6/+1 Li-Ying Ye (80-65), Erina Hara (76-69), Yuri Fudoh (73-72), Hiroko Yamaguchi (73-72)
T10/+2 Itsumi Okada (75-71), Ji-Woo Lee (73-73)

Pretty awesome move by Ye there. If she could replicate it tomorrow, my guess is she'd win the tournament! I suppose I shouldn't count out Fudoh or Hara, either, but the 5 players ahead of them are going to be tough to pass.

T12/+3 Mie Nakata (73-74)
T20/+4 Miho Koga (75-71), Yuko Saitoh (75-71), Kaori Higo (72-76)
T26/+5 Akiko Fukushima (80-69), Rui Kitada (77-72), Midori Yoneyama (76-73), Chie Arimura (73-76), Yukari Baba (71-78)
T33/+6 Akane Iijima (76-74), Mayu Hattori (75-75), Miki Saiki (73-77), Maiko Wakabayashi (73-77), Julie Lu (68-82)
T42/+7 Ayako Uehara (77-74), Tamie Durdin (77-74)
T46/+8 Kumiko Kaneda (76-76), Sakurako Mori (76-76), Shinobu Moromizato (73-79)

Nice to see Kaneda making her 1st JLPGA cut and most of the other young guns following suit. But so many players moved backward today, led by 1st-round co-leader Lu and defending champion Baba. Even Fukushima, who got to -6 on her round through her first 14 bogey-free holes, stumbled with a double and a bogey as she closed out the front.

T51/+9 Rikako Morita (81-72)
T64/+11 Shiho Oyama (78-77), Woo-Soon Ko (78-77), Nikki Campbell (78-77)
T72/+12 Ai-Yu Tu (77-81), Rui Yokomine (77-81)
T98/+19 Yuki Ichinose (80-83)

The most painful stumble probably belongs to Morita, who doubled her last hole, the 9th, to miss the cut by a shot. The only real big surprises among others who missed the cut were Campbell, who had been playing fairly solidly coming into this week, and Oyama, who cements her status as one of the coldest players on the planet with yet another MC. But perhaps the biggest surprise was the number of withdrawals today:

Saiki Fujita (76-WD)
Ah-Reum Hwang (77-WD)
Mi-Jeong Jeon (81-WD)
Esther Lee (85-WD)

Except for Fujita, all of them simply disappeared from the leaderboard. Odd.

What's not odd is the fact that 5 of the top golfers from Asia will be battling it out tomorrow. Should be a classic showdown!

[Update 1 (9:30 am): Speaking of classic showdowns, congratulations to Hee Kyung Seo for winning hers on the KLPGA. That makes 7 wins in less than a year there for Seo!]

[Update 2 (4/19/09, 11:12 am): The Japan Times was getting excited abut Yokomine's chances for her 2nd-straight and 11th-career JLPGA victry, but no such luck.]

Louisiana Pelican Friday: Janangelo Shoots 29 on the Front, Leads by 4

Lisa Mickey has the key details about the top rounds of the day at the Futures Tour's Louisiana Pelican Classic, starting with Liz Janangelo's 65. Dave Andrews is no doubt following brand-new pro Hannah Yun this week; her opening 73 was not too shabby on a day only 4 players broke 70 and only 8 others went under par. Me, I'm glad to see Haeji Kang was one of those 4 players, but disappointed that Alison Walshe finished with 4 straight bogeys for her 72, the Thai players I predicted to do so well this season have so much ground to make up this weekend, and Kristie Smith WDed. And where are Mina Harigae and Angela Oh?

[Update 1 (4/18/09, 8:36 am): Oh, there's Harigae, back at E after a 74 yesterday, but having to wait to finish her 2nd round until tomorrow due to dangerous (and soaking wet) weather conditions that stopped play early today. Song Yi Choi has also battled back to E. If they can get some decent weather tomorrow, the course should be soft and we should see lots of birdies!]

Life Card Ladies Friday: Ji-Hee Lee and Julie Lu Lead the Way

The 2nd-hottest golfer among the JLPGA's finest was one of only 4 players to go under par today at the Life Card Ladies event in Kumamoto. In fact, the only other player in the entire field to join Ji-Hee Lee in breaking 70 was Julie Lu, and she needed to make 4 birdies in her last 7 holes to do it. A lot of big names have a lot of ground to make up this weekend. Ji-Yai Shin is 4 behind the leaders, Sakura Yokomine and Yuri Fudoh are 5 back, Momoko Ueda is 6 back, and Miho Koga is 7 back. Yup, scoring was high, but you know conditions were brutal when neither Akiko Fukushima nor Mi-Jeong Jeon could even break 80--and Fukushima even eagled the 18th!

Here's how the top 10 and notables stand after round 1:

T1/-4 Ji-Hee Lee, Julie Lu (68)
T3/-1 Yukari Baba, Michie Ohba (71)
T5/E Ji-Yai Shin, Kaori Higo (72)
T7/+1 Sakura Yokomine, Yuri Fudoh, Yuko Mitsuka, Shinobu Moromizato, Ji-Woo Lee, Chie Arimura, Miki Saiki, Maiko Wakabayashi, Mie Nakata, Hiroko Yamaguchi, Kuniko Maeda, Kurumi Dohi, Na-Ri Lee (73)

T20/+2 Momoko Ueda (74)
T28/+3 Miho Koga, Yuko Saitoh, Mayu Hattori (75)
T42/+4 Erina Hara, Akane Iijima, Saiki Fujita, Midori Yoneyama, Kumiko Kaneda, Sakurako Mori (76)
T57/+5 Ayako Uehara, Ah-Reum Hwang, Ai-Yu Tu, Tamie Durdin, Rui Kitada, Rui Yokomine (77)
T76/+6 Shiho Oyama, Woo-Soon Ko, Nikki Campbell (78)
T88/+8 Akiko Fukushima, Yuki Ichinose, Li-Ying Ye (80)
T96/+9 Mi-Jeong Jeon, Rikako Morita (81)
107th Esther Lee (85)

What makes Lu's round particularly impressive is that she only birdied 1 par 5, saving it for her final hole; most of those who kept it near par birdied 2 or more of them. The other thing that distinguished the leaders from the field was the ability to avoid big numbers. Except for a double bogey by Arimura on the 7th hole, a double bogey by Saiki on the 14th, and a triple bogey by Dohi on the 10th--all fairly long par 4s--nobody at +1 or better did worse than a bogey.

With only Hyun-Ju Shin, Bo-Bae Song, Eun-A Lim, Hiromi Mogi, and Na Zhang among the JLPGA's finest sitting this one out, and with so many top players so far behind, this weekend represents a great opportunity for Ji-Hee Lee to get her 1st win of 2009 and protect her #1 ranking from Sakura Yokomine. It'll be interesting to see if anyone take a big run at her on moving day.

Recommended Reading: Wie in Korea, Frankenstats Revisited, Jill McGill Brings the Funk

Happy Fan has the lowdown on the first round of the KLPGA's Lotte Mart Women's Open featuring Michelle Wie. Hound Dog has the LPGA's driving and putting numbers for '09 nice and crunched for us. Armchair Golfer has Jill McGill guest blogging. Me, I got nothin'. For the time being, one hopes.

[Update 1 (5:10 pm): I still got zip, but Happy Fan has a Round 2 update.]

NCAA News

Ryan Herrington notes that Amanda Blumenherst won for the 1st time this season and Maria Hernandez for the 4th, while Maria Jose Uribe announced she's leaving UCLA after the NCAA Championships to spend some time at home in Colombia as she prepares to turn pro. Golfweek's on all these stories, too.

Oh, and if you've ever wondered how well NCAA teammates know each other, head on over to Lance Ringler's Room for one of the funniest quizzes evah!

Atsui, Samui, Daijo Bu: JLPGA Edition

It's too soon to update my ranking of the JLPGA's Finest--that's for the week before their 1st major of 2009, the Salonpas Cup (featuring Paula Creamer). What I can do now, though, is check in on who the hottest and coldest golfers in the world of Japanese women's golf are, along with those doing fine, thank you.

Atsui

Who are the hottest among the finest? Read on....

1. Sakura Yokomine: Hasn't finished worse than 6th all season. With her win last week, she's now on an 18-event top-20 streak, with 2 wins, 7 top 5s, and 14 top 10s in that run.

2. Ji-Hee Lee: Also hasn't finished worse than 6th all season, but still looking for her 1st win. Still, she's finished in the top 10 in 9 of her last 10 events, including a win, a runner-up, and 5 top 5s, to go with her 5-event top-10 streak. The single blemish in that run, a T31, is her only finish outside the top 20 since her missed cut in the opening event of 2008. Now that's a hot streak!

3. Miho Koga: Has only played twice in '09, finishing 12th and 4th--which is a lot more consistent but less explosive than her stretch run last season when she sandwiched a missed cut between 2 wins to steal the money title from Ji-Hee Lee.

4. Mi-Jeong Jeon: Hasn't finished worse than 16th all season, with 3 top 10s in 4 starts capped off by last week's disappointing playoff loss--a bad flashback to the end of last season, when she handed a major and a money title to Koga with a bogey-double finish. But at least she's back in contention again after disappearing for virtually all of the JLPGA's stretch run in 2008. I'm hoping it was just a coincidence that her bad play began soon after I ranked her #1 on tour!

5. Yuko Mitsuka: Last season ended well for her, with 3 straight top-5 finishes and 5 straight top 20s. She started off this season with a win and followed up a disappointing end to her top-20 streak with a top 5. So never mind last week's missed cut.

Honorable Mention

Ayako Uehara: She followed up her season-opening runner-up with a win, then nabbed her 3rd straight top 10 of the season before missing the cut last week. Great bounceback from a disappointing 2nd half of last season.

Ji-Yai Shin: Yes, her T15 last week was her worst finish on the JLPGA since an exhaustion-induced 16th-place finish at the last event of '08. But that's only disappointing because her other worst finishes last season were her 3 runner-ups, which just happened to be sandwiched between her non-member win and convincing win at the Mizuno Classic.

Erina Hara: She closed out last season with 4 straight top 20s, but no top 10s. This season, she already has 2 runner-ups to go with her T12 last week. Never mind that missed cut in between--she's definitely among the hottest players on the JLPGA.

Bo-Bae Song: Speaking of bouncebacks, she disappeared for most of last season after a super-hot start to it, until finishing strong with 3 top 10s in her last 4 events. She now has a 4-event streak going in which she hasn't finished worse than 7th. And she's not even putting well in '09 yet!

Eun-A Lim: One of the hottest players on the JLPGA at the end of last season--she finished with 4 top 5s in her last 6 events--she's sandwiched a missed cut between a T16 and a T9 this season, for only her 3rd finish outside the top 20 in her last 14.

Samui

This is the list you don't want to be on and especially near the top of--it consists of those golfers who have been playing the furthest below expectations.

1. Akiko Fukushima: Has only played in 1 event all season and finished T38 there. It's her 6th finish outside the top 20 since she got her 2nd win last season, which may not sound that bad, but it's quite a nosedive for any elite JLPGA player, not to mention the one in 2nd place on the career money list.

2. Mayu Hattori: Had a run at the end of last season when she squeezed a win, a runner-up, and 2 other top 5s into 5 events, but she's only managed to finish 1 of 4 tournaments this season, and it wasn't even a good finish.

3. Kumiko Kaneda: One of the hot young things I've been keeping an eye on for awhile now, she hasn't come close to making a cut in her 1st 4 professional starts.

4. Miki Saiki: Struggled mightily for most of '08, but seemed to be getting it back just in time for LPGA Q-School, as she nabbed top 10s in 3 of her last 4 and 5 of her last 8 events on the JLPGA. But she flubbed Q-School and hasn't broken into the top 20 in her 4 JLPGA events in '09.

5. Yuri Fudoh: Barely made the top 10 in her 1st event of the season, then missed the cut in the 2nd. She still knows how to win, to be sure, as evidenced by her tying Koga for most wins on tour in '08, with 4. And yes, that run at the end of the season--when she won twice, had a runner-up and 1 other top 5, and never finished worse than 14th--shows she's still able to string a lot of great events together. But the days of her Annika- or Lorena-like dominance over the JLPGA seem to be over.

Dishonorable Mention

Actually, most of the JLPGA's young guns--from Maiko Wakabayashi, Yuki Ichinose, and Ritsuko Ryu in last year's rookie class to Sakurako Mori, Rikako Morita, Yuki Sakurai, and Mai Arai in this year's--are off to slow starts.

Daijo Bu

Here's where I keep track of players threatening to break into the hot list.

1. Ai Miyazato: Dating back to 2007, she's made the top 10 in 6 of 8 JLPGA starts. But it's her inability to close the deal, despite being in serious contention in almost every one of those top 10s, that defines the player who won 13 times on tour between 2004 and 2006 (and once as an amateur in 2003). She had a great chance to break the streak last week, but couldn't do it. I'm not putting her on the hot list b/c I'm not sure when she's next playing on the JLPGA.

2. Ji-Woo Lee: She followed up her 1st runner-up on the JLPGA with a T4 last week. That's the 1st time in her JLPGA career that she's strung together 2 top 5s in a row.

3. Ah-Reum Hwang: What a difference a week makes! Last weekend, she went 67-65 to run away from the field for her 1st JLPGA win. This weekend, she faded to T37 with a 79-75 weekend showing. But still, what a start for a player who only had 2 Step-Up Tour wins and a late-season runner-up on the big tour to her name until 2009.

4. Hyun-Ju Shin: She was the hottest golfer on tour for a stretch last season when she capped off a 7-event top-10 streak with a win. But injuries forced her to the sidelines for far too long. So it's a good sign that she's got 4 straight top 20s to start the new season, but too soon to tell if she's all the way back.

5. Yuko Saitoh: Also riding a 4-event top-20 streak in '09, a nice bounceback from some seriously bad play in the 2nd half of '08.

Honorable Mention

Nikki Campbell: She really only had a 4-tournament stretch last JLPGA season when she played well, so her solid start this season--2 top 10s in 4 starts, with no missed cuts--is hopefully a sign of better things to come for her.

Hiromi Mogi: It's been either feast (2 top 10s) or famine (2 missed cuts) for her thus far this season. She was steadier last season, but rather unimpressive since her mid-season win. So it's good to see her getting her 1st top 5 since October, but troubling that she's already missed more cuts this season than all of last year.

Further Evidence of Globalization in Women's Golf

Even as the LPGA appears to be fading from network tv--starting in 2010, there are likely to be more LPGA events on networks in Japan than the U.S.--it's actually a great time to be one of the best players in the world of women's golf. With the Corona Championship still a week away, and another week off between it and the Michelob Ultra, many of the tour's top stars are experimenting with a more worldly 2009 schedule than even the LPGA's own. We already know that Michelle Wie will be visiting the KLPGA this week and that Ji-Yai Shin will be spending her 2nd week in a row on the JLPGA. Well, looking ahead on the JLPGA schedule, Shin plans to make it 3 weeks in a row in Japan at the Fujisankei Ladies Classic, in which she'll be playing instead of the Corona Championship. I can't help but think she's gearing up for the Salonpas Cup. But who else is likely to be skipping the Michelob Ultra for the JLPGA's 1st major of 2009?

Momoko Ueda, who's competing with Shin this week on the JLPGA, will also be playing the Crystal Geyser Ladies, the final tune-up before the Salonpas Cup. So even though the tournament organizers haven't yet announced their full field, it's highly likely that Ueda will be in it. Less clear are the plans of Ai Miyazato and Shiho Oyama. The former played last week and the latter is playing this week in Japan, so they still may decide to submit last-second entries to any of the JLPGA's tune-up events and its main event of May. But what the tournament organizers have announced may surprise you: Paula Creamer will be joining 2008 LET money list leader Gwladys Nocera at the Salonpas Cup!

This is a huge deal, as Creamer's vying for the #1 spot on the LPGA money list and the Michelob Ultra boasts one of the biggest purses in women's golf. It's not like Creamer has hacked up Kingsmill, either. Although last season she finished outside the top 10 for only the 2nd time in 4 career starts there, she was in contention for a time on Sunday in 2007 and was in the lead chase pack well behind Karrie Webb in 2006. Maybe she figures that somebody's likely to run away from the field like Karrie did then and Annika did last season--and it's not likely to be her. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as she won a shootout at the Jamie Farr last year and has shown over the course of her career that she's perfectly capable of going low. A more likely explanation is that she wants to get more experience playing in majors. Whatever her reasoning, Creamer will be returning to Asia for the 2nd time in 2009 this May.

Even the LPGA's veterans are getting in the globetrotting act. In what seems like a bid to promote the Solheim Cup in Europe and scout out the likely competition, Beth Daniel and Meg Mallon will be representing the U.S. at the Communitat Valenciana European Nations Cup.

With another big gap in the LPGA schedule coming in August and a limited number of spots on the Solheim Cup, I wonder how many Americans will be joining their international competitors and trying to get into JLPGA, KLPGA, and LET events?

[Update 1 (12:44 pm): Speaking of Momo-chan, she just threw out the first pitch at the Dodgers/Padres Opening Day game.



Now we know why she delayed her visit to Japan by a week.]

[Update 2 (4:44 pm): Holy coincidence, Batman! Happy Fan just posted his 2009 KLPGA primer. Here's hoping he helps the English-speaking world follow all the action there all season! I'm curious to see how many LET events Hee Kyung Seo decides to play this season, as well.]

[Update 3 (4/16/09, 2:27 am): Oh great, just as Anheuser-Busch announces they're expanding their Futures Tour commitments, word comes out that the future of the Michelob Ultra is up in the air! (h/t Dennis at Seoul Sisters.com) Funny how Creamer's absence is buried in the notes at the end of the latter link, isn't it?]

Studio Alice Ladies Open Sunday: Yokomine Hauls Down Jeon over Last 4 Holes, Wins in Playoff

Sunday at the Studio Alice Ladies Open started off as a duel between 36-hole leaders Ai Miyazato and Mi-Jeong Jeon. Miyazato, however, peaked at -5 for the tournament after the 6th hole, but bogeyed 4 of her next 6 holes to fall 4 behind Jeon after 12 holes. So it was up to golfers playing in earlier pairings to pick up the slack and try to put some pressure on Jeon. 1st-round co-leader Rui Kitada was one of them. Starting the day in the next-to-last group, she fluctuated between -2 and -3 for the tournament for most of the day, until a birdie on the 399-yard par-4 14th brought her to -3 for good. And Sakura Yokomine was playing even better. Having started the day at even par, she rattled off 3 birdies in her 1st 7 holes, but a bogey in that stretch kept her at -2, where she stayed for the next 7 holes. Others making runs included Ji-Woo Lee (-3 through her 1st 11 holes to get to -1 for the tournament) and Ji-Hee Lee (who fell back to -1 for the tournament as well when she bogeyed the 11th), but they had caught Miyazato, not Jeon, who continued chugging along after a birdie on the par-5 10th hole brought her to -3 on the day and -6 for the tournament. In fact, when she stepped onto the 15th tee, she was 3 up on Kitada and Yokomine, who had birdied that hole a few minutes earlier. But Jeon bogeyed the 15th as Kitada birdied the 16th and Yokomine birdied the 17th, so all of a sudden she sat at -5 and her two challengers were only 1 shot back at -4. It all came down to 18, a 405-yard par 4. Yokomine parred it, Kitada bogeyed it...and Jeon did, too. Playoff time!

The only English-language account of the final round I could find, Breitbart.com's feed to the Kyodo news story, didn't bother to mention Kitada or anything that happened on the climactic 54th hole. Nor did it say anything about the playoff except that Yokomine won on its 2nd hole when she made a 3-footer for par on 18 after Jeon bogeyed it for the 2nd time that day.

Typical pitiful coverage from the people who are supposed to be pros. This is, after all, the 2nd huge collapse for Jeon over the final holes of a tournament that was hers for the taking. At the very end of last season, she gave a gift to Miho Koga, who won the JLPGA's season-ending major and the money title thanks to Jeon's bogey-double bogey finish. This time, another telegenic JLPGA star was the beneficiary of Jeon's collapse. And who deserved it more than Yokomine, who endured an epic fail of her own just over a year ago when duelling with Ji-Yai Shin?

So here are the final results:

1st/-4 Sakura Yokomine (71-73-68) [won in playoff]
2nd/-4 Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-72-71)
3rd/-3 Rui Kitada (69-73-71)
T4/-2 Ji-Woo Lee (74-72-68), Ji-Hee Lee (72-72-70)
T6/-1 Yukari Baba (77-68-70), Bo-Bae Song (72-70-73), Ai Miyazato (69-72-74)
T9/+1 Chie Arimura (72-75-70), Shinobu Moromizato (72-73-72), Eun-A Lim (75-68-74)

T12/+2 Erina Hara (76-69-73)
T15/+3 Ji-Yai Shin (74-75-70), Hyun-Ju Shin (73-71-75), Mie Nakata (71-72-76), Da-Ye Na (73-69-77)
T20/+4 Yuko Saitoh (73-72-74)
T23/+6 Maiko Wakabayashi (74-77-71), Nikki Campbell (75-72-75)
T27/+7 Saiki Fujita (76-71-76)
T30/+8 Yuki Ichinose (75-76-73), Na Zhang (74-74-76)
T34/+9 Hiroko Yamaguchi (74-74-77)
T37/+10 Ah-Reum Hwang (72-79-75), Esther Lee (74-75-77)
T46/+12 Tamie Durdin (76-71-81)

Here's how the JLPGA money list now stands:

1. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥20.48M
2. Yuko Mitsuka ￥18.92M
3. Ayako Uehara ￥18.78M
4. Sakura Yokomine ￥16.04M
5. Erina Hara ￥13.15M
6. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥11.05M
7. Ji-Woo Lee ￥10.32M
8. Bo-Bae Song ￥7.20M
9. Julie Lu ￥6.85M
10. Midori Yoneyama ￥6.19M
11. Rui Kitada ￥5.11M
12. Ji-Hee Lee ￥5.10M
13. Hiromi Mogi ￥5.10M
14. Miho Koga ￥4.63M
15. Nikki Campbell ￥4.34M
16. Yukari Baba ￥4.32M
17. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥4.10M
18. Shinobu Moromizato ￥4.06M

Next up is the Life Card Ladies, where Ji-Yai Shin will try her luck on the JLPGA once again. This time she'll be joined by fellow LPGAers Momoko Ueda and Shiho Oyama (but apparently not Ai-chan, darn it!), as well as JLPGA superstars Yuri Fudoh, Akiko Fukushima, and Miho Koga.

[Update 1 (12:58 pm): Looks Japanese tv made the same mistakes as their English-language print media:



Wouldn't you think they'd want to show a couple of the key shots down the stretch?]

Benzon-a-rama

Apparently Bill Benzon, who has all the privileges of the author function here at Mostly Harmless, was too embarrassed to post this himself:



Yes, it's Carson and Rickles at a Tonight Show studio onsen in 1968--I truly have no shame. And on the morning of the most sacred Sunday in the world of golf.

As penance, I'm linking to Uncle Bill's robo-subaltern post over at The Valve.

Studio Alice Ladies Open Saturday: Miyazato and Jeon Share the Lead

Mi-Jeong Jeon looked like she was on track to finish stronger today than the bogey and 12 pars she made to close out yesterday's round--quite a let-down from her 4-birdies-in-five-holes start to the Studio Alice Ladies Open--as she made birdies on the 6th and 11th holes to open up a 2-shot lead on Ai Miyazato, who could only manage a birdie and a bogey--quite a let-down from her 6-birdie Friday--through her 1st 14 holes. But even though Ai-chan held steady with an even-par round today, she still finds herself tied for the lead, as Jeon bogeyed 2 of her last 4 holes to drop back to -3.

Several players took advantage of the co-leaders' struggles to move into position to contend tomorrow. Yukari Baba's 68 (including the lowest score on the back in the tournament, a 33) lifted her to T11 at +1, where she joined Erina Hara (69) and Shinobu Moromizato (73), among many others; Eun-A Lim's 68 lifted her into a tie for 6th with Mie Nakata (72); and Da-Ye Na's 69 pulled her into a tie for 3rd with Bo-Bae Song (70) and 1st-round co-leader Rui Kitada (73), just 1 shot behind the co-leaders. Even though they didn't do anything special today, Ji-Hee Lee, Sakura Yokomine, and Hyun-Ju Shin are only 3 shots out of the lead.

Here are the top 10 and notables:

T1/-3 Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-72), Ai Miyazato (69-72)
T3/-2 Da-Ye Na (73-69), Bo-Bae Song (72-70), Rui Kitada (69-73)
T6/-1 Eun-A Lim (75-68), Mie Nakata (71-72)
T8/E Hyun-Ju Shin (73-71), Ji-Hee Lee (72-72), Sakura Yokomine (71-73)

In fact, given how tough the back is playing, I'd say anyone within 6 shots of the lead has a legitimate chance if they can break 70 tomorrow or make a final charge on the back 9.

T11/+1 Yukari Baba (77-68), Erina Hara (76-69), Yuko Saitoh (73-72), Shinobu Moromizato (72-73)
17th/+2 Ji-Woo Lee (74-72)
T18/+3 Saiki Fujita (76-71), Tamie Durdin (76-71), Chie Arimura (72-75)
T24/+4 Na Zhang (74-74), Hiroko Yamaguchi (74-74)
T33/+5 Nikki Campbell (75-72), Ji-Yai Shin (74-75), Esther Lee (74-75)
T43/+7 Yuki Ichinose (75-76), Maiko Wakabayashi (74-77), Ah-Reum Hwang (72-79)

Very surprising to see Shin down there near the cut line; she's now shot 3 straight sides over par. Almost as surprising was seeing last week's winner Hwang going in the wrong direction in a big way on moving day. But at least they made the cut, something neither Yuko Mitsuka nor Ayako Uehara could accomplish despite their hot starts to the 2009 season--until this week.

T54/+8 Woo-Soon Ko (75-77), Ayako Uehara (74-78), Mayu Hattori (74-78)
T66/+9 Yuko Mitsuka (80-73), Midori Yoneyama (77-76), Sakurako Mori (76-77), Rui Yokomine (75-78)
T73/+10 Akane Iijima (81-73), Miki Saiki (80-74), Hiromi Mogi (79-75)
T85/+12 Rikako Morita (81-75), Kumiko Kaneda (76-80)
Yun-Jye Wei (82-WD or DQ)

So heading into the final round, this could end up being a free-for-all or a photo finish between the few golfers who pull away from the lead pack. I'll be rooting for Ai-chan all the way!

[Update 1 (4/13/09, 12:17 pm): The Daily Yomiuri has more details on the conditions the players struggled under Saturday.]

Happy News from Happy Fan

In his updates on the first KLPGA event of the season over at the Seoul Sisters discussion boards--which was won by one of the 5 players on tour named Jung Eun Lee--Happy Fan announced that he'll start blogging on KLPGA events. It just so happens that his first time will coincide with Michelle Wie's 1st KLPGA appearance of 2009. So be sure to check out his Seoul Sisters blog next week.

Studio Alice Ladies Open Friday: Miyazato Shares Lead with Jeon and Kitada

Yup, I'm referring to the LPGA's own 33rd-ranked Ai Miyazato, who bounced back from last week's horrible Kraft Nabisco Championship and shrugged off this week's jet lag to fire a fine 69 today at the Studio Alice Ladies Open. She shares the lead with JLPGA regulars Mi-Jeong Jeon and Rui Kitada, the only other players to break 70 in the field.

And what a field it is! Sure, there's no Yuri Fudoh, Miho Koga, Momoko Ueda, Akiko Fukushima, or Shiho Oyama, but the rest of the JLPGA's finest are there, including the returning Na Zhang and the visiting Ji-Yai Shin. Too bad for Ai-chan she followed up three-hole birdie trains on each side with a 3-hole bogey train down the home stretch.

But she wasn't the only player to suffer on the back. Kitada was -5 and playing bogey-free golf through her first 14 holes, so of course she bogeyed the par-3 15th and par-4 17th to close out her round. And Jeon cooled off fast after making birdies on 4 of her 1st 5 holes. After a bogey on the par-4 6th, she rattled off 12 straight pars. In fact, the best round on the back belonged to last week's winner, Ah-Reum Hwang, a bogey-free 34...marred only by a crushing walkoff double bogey. And Shin? A 39 on the back dropped her all the way back to T18. Even with a late double, Zhang made up a stroke on Shin on that side to match her 74. So we know the course isn't playing easy....

Here are the top 10 and notables:

T1/-3 Ai Miyazato, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Rui Kitada (69)
T4/-1 Sakura Yokomine, Mie Nakata, Natsu Nagai, Yui Mukaiyama (71)
T8/E Ji-Hee Lee, Bo-Bae Song, Shinobu Moromizato, Chie Arimura, Ah-Reum Hwang, Azumi Katoh (72)

T14/+1 Hyun-Ju Shin, Yuko Saitoh, Da-Ye Na (73)
T18/+2 Ji-Yai Shin, Ayako Uehara, Na Zhang, Maiko Wakabayashi, Mayu Hattori, Ji-Woo Lee, Esther Lee, Hiroko Yamaguchi (74)
T36/+3 Eun-A Lim, Nikki Campbell, Yuki Ichinose, Woo-Soon Ko, Rui Yokomine (75)
T51/+4 Erina Hara, Saiki Fujita, Tamie Durdin, Sakurako Mori, Kumiko Kaneda (76)
T67/+5 Midori Yoneyama, Yukari Baba (77)
T82/+7 Hiromi Mogi (79)
T87/+8 Yuko Mitsuka, Miki Saiki (80)
T94/+9 Akane Iijima, Rikako Morita (81)
T100/+10 Yun-Jye Wei (82)

Mitsuka, one of the hottest players on tour coming into this event, accounted for 40% of the triples in the field--of course, both came on the back.

Lucky Imoto!

Turns out nobody in the Constructivist household shares a birthday with an active LPGA member. Except imoto, who turns 3 this month. If anyone can correctly guess who it is, I'll mail you an autographed piece of original imoto artwork. To make it easier for my regular readers (all 5 of you!), I'll throw out one other hint: she comes from the same state imoto was born in! To protect imoto's identity, I'm closing comments on this post--email me your contest entry at the coordinates listed in my profile.

The Best of the LPGA: April 2009 Edition

Wow, is it already time to update my final 2008 Best of the LPGA ranking? It must be: Hound Dog's new Top 70 just came out! OK, so let's mix in this week's Rolex Rankings, Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, and LPGA Official Money List, stir, bake, cool, and voila! I present Mostly Harmless's latest Best of the LPGA ranking.

Hmmm, last time I wrote, "Identifying the world #1 is still a no-brainer...but this may be the last time I'll be able to write that for a while." Choosing the #1 actually took a tiny bit of thought this time.

1. Lorena Ochoa: #2 money ($430.2K), #1 RR (14.02), #1 GSPI (68.51), #1 HD. It was no April Fool's Day joke when I wrote, "It's official. The era of Ochoa's effortless dominance on the LPGA is over." To wit, Cristie Kerr has been as close as anyone to outplaying her over the past calendar year, Angela Stanford has more recent wins and top 10s than she has gotten, and Ji-Yai Shin is running slightly hotter and colder than she has been since last summer. But it's going to take quite a bit more than that for me to actually rank anyone in her lead chase pack in her league.

Because HD and the GSPI did it, I'm including Annika Sorenstam in my system until she drops out of it. Funny thing is, she's still in the lead chase pack!

2. Ji-Yai Shin: #1 money ($470.9K), #3 RR (7.39), #5 GSPI (69.33), #2 HD. Shin beats Creamer in 3 of the 4 major ranking systems. We have a new #2!
3. Paula Creamer: #9 money ($255.8K), #4 RR (7.17), #2 GSPI (69.25), #3 HD. Creamer beats Tseng in 2 of the 4 major ranking systems. Even though Tseng is hotter in '09, Creamer's ability to win multiple times puts her ahead of last year's ROY, at least for now.
4. Ya Ni Tseng: #6 money ($316.9K), #2 RR (9.11), #6 GSPI (69.58), #4 HD. Tseng beats Kerr in 2 of the 4 major ranking systems. Sure, Kerr is slightly hotter in '09 and more consistent over the past calendar year, but Tseng has put herself in contention much more often.
5. Cristie Kerr: #4 money ($332.1K), #6 RR (6.35), #4 GSPI (69.32), #6 HD. Kerr beats Stanford in 2 of the 4 major ranking systems. Sure, Stanford's been hotter lately and has won a lot more often, but Kerr's been beating her lately and has been much more consistent over the long run. Stanford has been more in the zone since the end of the last season, to be sure, but will she be able to maintain her standing when she comes out of it? Kerr's never quite been in it, but still has only 2 finishes outside the top 20 over the past calendar year.
6. Angela Stanford: #3 money ($374.0K), #7 RR (6.04), #11 GSPI (69.93), #5 HD. Yes, I've named her the hottest female player on the planet after every LPGA event since the start of the season, but that's only good enough for me to give her the nod over Pettersen, who's coming on strong as she seems to be fading a bit. The two-week break couldn't have come at a better time for my new #6.
7. Suzann Pettersen: #13 money ($217.6K), #5 RR (6.49), #3 GSPI (69.29), #7 HD. Beats Webb in 3 of the 4 major ranking systems. With Sorenstam out of the LPGA picture for at least awhile, Pettersen is now officially the Head Euro in Charge on the LPGA. I've always thought she played better when Sorenstam wasn't in the field; if I'm right, she's going to start winning again on the LPGA, and soon.
8. Karrie Webb: #5 money ($329.3K), #8 RR (5.60), #7 GSPI (69.86), #9 HD. On a tear lately and still the Head Aussie in Charge on the LPGA.
9. Annika Sorenstam: n.r. money (she's at least on extended maternity leave and at most retired from the LPGA), n.r. RR (they removed her from their rankings at her request), #9 GSPI (69.39), #8 HD. Going on the assumption that she'd still easily be in the RR top 10 had she not asked for her name to be removed from it, she meets my minimal standards for being grouped in Ochoa's lead chase pack. For now. It'll be very interesting to see how quickly she falls by next ranking--and who passes her.

Isn't it a bit shocking how few players there are who are close to the lead chase pack with at least 2 top 10s and/or 4 top 20s? And how young all of them are? Where are the rest of the LPGA's prime-time players and veteran stars?

10. Na Yeon Choi: #15 money ($175.7K), #20 RR (3.36), #10 GSPI (69.91), #10 HD. I keep expecting her to break through, and I keep having to wait another week. But she's my pick for best player on tour without a win.
11. Eun-Hee Ji: #20 money ($161.1K), #12 RR (3.70), #12 GSPI (69.94), #11 HD. Starting off 2009 in style!
12. Angela Park: #11 money ($236.4K), #15 RR (3.61), #19 GSPI (70.71), #14 HD. Starting off 2009 in style, but just can't buy her 1st win.

But those with a top 10 in only 1 of the 4 systems and/or top 20s in 3 of the 4 are poised to join them.

13. Seon Hwa Lee: #34 money ($67.4K), #10 RR (3.89), #17 GSPI (70.64), #13 HD. Off to a very slow and inconsistent start by her standards. Hopefully will come back from the LPGA's spring break focused and prepared t compete at the LPGA's highest levels.
14. Katherine Hull: #10 money ($241.4K), #11 RR (3.85), #26 GSPI (70.89), #16 HD. Not quite as hot as she was coming off the Australian Swing or had been at the end of '08, but still capable of moving even further up this ranking.
15. Helen Alfredsson: #29 money ($90.1K), #9 RR (5.50), #33 GSPI (71.05), #15 HD. Mostly coasting off her 2 wins in the 2nd half of last season. We'll have to see if she can avoid falling down these rankings.
16. Jeong Jang: n.r. money (still recvering from wrist surgery), #14 RR (3.62), #8 GSPI (69.88), #22 HD. Another player whose inactivity will cause her to fall in my rankings. Like with Sorenstam, it'll be interesting to see how many people can pass her, and how quickly.
17. Pat Hurst: #8 money ($259.0K), #42 RR (2.34), #64 GSPI (71.86), #45 HD. Will she be the Alfredsson of '09? Or the Hurst of '06? Let's see how quickly her rankings catch up with her winnings! And whether she can earn her way onto the Solheim Cup team for maybe the last time in her career....
18. Brittany Lincicome: #7 money ($310.4K), #22 RR (3.20), #133 GSPI (73.55), #70 HD. I'll stop going on and on about how shocking her win at the KNC was. But I'm shocked, I tell you. I'm shocked. And I'd be even more shocked to see her stay at this level in this ranking system.
19. Song-Hee Kim: #18 money ($170.8K), #25 RR (3.04), #13 GSPI (70.10), #12 HD. Movin' on up and will continue to do so as her results more closely approximate her stats. Once she gets used to being in contention on the LPGA, wat out for her!
20. Jee Young Lee: #22 money ($125.2K), #18 RR (3.51), #14 GSPI (70.29), #17 HD. Off to a good start in '09. But like with Choi, I'm waiting for that quantum leap to LPGA greatness. Just been waiting for a longer time with Lee.
21. In-Kyung Kim: #21 money ($148.5K), #19 RR (3.43), #15 GSPI (70.38), #18 HD. Off to a good start in '09, too, but less steady than Kim or Lee's. I picked her to be the top Junior Mint by the end of the season. No time like the present to start movin' on up, Inky! Or rather, the very near future.

Surprisingly, there are only 2 players with top 20s in at least 2 of the 4 systems.

22. Brittany Lang: #17 money ($171.4K), #31 RR (2.69), #24 GSPI (70.81), #20 HD. Off to a good start in '09, even if she couldn't sustain that fantastic top-10 streak.
23. Hee-Won Han: #35 money ($62.7K), #16 RR (3.55), #18 GSPI (70.69), #21 HD. Blah start to '09 for her. But she's still built up enough of a cushion from her solid return from maternity leave last season to be in my top 25, which is more than I can say of many of her peers who have been equally blahhy to kick off '09.

But there are a decent number of players with 1 top 20 and/or at least 3 top 30s:

24. Sun Young Yoo: #19 money ($170.0K), #39 RR (2.37), #22 GSPI (70.79), #23 HD. Last year, I wrote, "I think she's made a quantum leap and will be a top 30 threat for years to come." When I'm right, I'm right. Look for her to keep moving up this list as she gets more comfortable getting into and being in contention.
25. Kristy McPherson: #12 money ($234.5K), #32 RR (2.59), #32 GSPI (70.99), #31 HD. Huge jump from #48 last time. But then, almost winning a major should count for something! What's even more impressive to me is that her other rankings are pretty close to her place on the money list.
26. Lindsey Wright: #14 money ($184.9K), #37 RR (2.48), #43 GSPI (71.27), #27 HD. Back from the injuries that hurt her play in the 2nd half of '08. She could threaten Webb and Hull for top Aussie this season.
27. Hee Young Park: #15 money ($181.0K), #44 RR (2.23), #48 GSPI (71.41), #35 HD. Got hot in Thailand but probably overrated by my ranking system. Longfellow would have loved her--you never know what to expect from her from round to round, or even hole to hole!
28. Inbee Park: #56 money ($36.2K), #26 RR (3.02), #42 GSPI (71.26), #19 HD. She's 1 good tournament away from turning things around. Could her post-major sophomore jinx be coming to a close?
29. Maria Hjorth: n.r. money (on maternity leave), #17 RR (3.54), #29 GSPI (70.93), #41 HD. Even though she hasn't played this season, she hung onto her top 30 status for 1 last time. It'll be interesting to see when and how well she returns to the LPGA.
30. Jane Park: #23 money ($119.5K), #45 RR (2.21), #30 GSPI (70.94), #26 HD. I'll repeat what I said last year: "Still isn't close to realizing her potential, but she's getting closer."
31. Karen Stupples: #49 money ($40.0K), #24 RR (3.07), #27 GSPI (70.91), #29 HD. An emergency appendectomy has been cramping her style, but she should be back competing on tour by late May if all goes well.

A huge number of players have 1 or 2 top 30s and/or at least 3 top 40s:

32. Momoko Ueda: #43 money ($52.3K), #21 RR (3.24), #23 GSPI (70.79), #38 HD. Hanging on by her well-manicured (and fully-recovered) fingernails to her standing as the JLPGA's finest on the LPGA right now.
33. Ai Miyazato: #25 money ($114.0K), #35 RR (2.50), #28 GSPI (0.92), #36 HD. But don't look back, Momo-chan, because Ai-chan is back! (Never mind that blip at the KNC.)
34. Candie Kung: #45 money ($51.0K), #23 RR (3.15), #34 GSPI (71.05), #25 HD. A very blah start to '09 for her. But still a great top 30 candidate.
35. Laura Diaz: #46 money ($46.3K), #27 RR (2.94), #21 GSPI (70.76), #33 HD. Ditto.
36. Christina Kim: #28 money ($93.0K), #38 RR (2.44), #37 GSPI (71.12), #28 HD. Finally showed some signs of life at the KNC.
37. Ji Young Oh: #32 money ($75.1K), #53 RR (1.92), #35 GSPI (71.07), #24 HD. Lost a great chance to move up the rankings when her ball was blown off the 18th green on Friday at the KNC, but she didn't recover well over the weekend. With everyone at this level so closely bunched, she just can't afford too many weeks like that.
38. Juli Inkster: #40 money ($58.8K), #29 RR (2.81), #25 GSPI (70.83), #34 HD. Not an encouraging start to her final Solheim Cup run. Would love to see her earn her way in.
39. Mi Hyun Kim: #38 money ($60.9K), #33 RR (2.57), #36 GSPI (71.11), #30 HD. Still not playing like the Kimmie of old, but at least her knee seems fully recovered.
40. Morgan Pressel: #41 money ($57.2K), #30 RR (2.78), #46 GSPI (71.35), #32 HD. This is about as low as I expect her to fall in this ranking system. Just a feeling.
41. Stacy Prammanasudh: #26 money ($97.9K), #57 RR (2.08), #47 GSPI (71.38), #39 HD. That 1 fantastic round on the Asian Swing is the only thing saving her season so far. Time to get going or she won't be doing much this August.
42. Jimin Kang: #30 money ($85.8K), #66 RR (1.41), #44 GSPI (71.33), #44 HD. Quietly having a solid start to her '09 season.
43. Sophie Gustafson: #39 money ($59.6K), #36 RR (2.50), #57 GSPI (71.68), #37 HD. Still waiting for her comeback.... She's not doing much to take advantage of Hjorth's absence and build up a bigger cushion on her rival.
44. Michelle Wie: #24 money ($117.0K), #80 RR (1.04), n.r. GSPI (71.60 in too few starts to be in their system officially), #49 HD. A mystery wrapped in an enigma steeped in WTF?! Who knows which Wie will show up--or how many times she'll compete on the LPGA, even after she steps away from Stanford for a term or two?
45. Meaghan Francella: #27 money ($94.2K), #81 RR (1.14), #120 GSPI (73.05), n.r. HD. First time she's made it back into this ranking in a long time. Could her great KNC performance herald a more serious comeback from this Senior Standout?

There's a smaller group with at least 1 top 40 and/or at least 3 top 50s:

46. Teresa Lu: #33 money ($67.6K), #59 RR (1.66), #39 GSPI (71.21), #42 HD.
47. Meena Lee: #36 money ($62.6K), #56 RR (1.71), #38 GSPI (71.18), #43 HD.
48. Nicole Castrale: #44 money ($51.1K), #40 RR (2.36), #49 GSPI (71.42), #46 HD.
49. Stacy Lewis: #71 money ($17.9K), #75 RR (1.21), #54 GSPI (71.53), #40 HD.
50. Natalie Gulbis: #37 money ($62.6K), #43 RR (2.24), #62 GSPI (71.75), #50 HD.
51. Se Ri Pak: #31 money ($81.0K), #34 RR (3.51), #75 GSPI (72.11), #56 HD.
52. Michelle Redman: #42 money ($54.5K), #64 RR (1.44), #41 GSPI (71.24), #48 HD.
53. Catriona Matthew: #104 money ($7.9K before beginning her early maternity leave), #54 RR (1.90), #40 GSPI (71.22), #47 HD.

And here are the best of the rest--the only other players with at least 1 top 50:

54. Giulia Sergas: #47 money ($44.7K), #68 RR (1.38), #45 GSPI (71.35), #51 HD.
55. Allison Fouch: #48 money ($41.7K), #77 RR (1.19), #93 GSPI (72.55), n.r. HD.
56. Shanshan Feng: #60 money ($32.8K), #49 RR (2.04), #96 GSPI (72.60), #58 HD.
57. Janice Moodie: #50 money ($39.4K), #97 RR (.92), #65 GSPI (71.89), n.r. HD.

Atsui, Samui, Daijo Bu: Masters Edition

Yeah, yeah, it's a week unlike any other and all that. It was good to see the boys' club that is the mainstream golfy media take some notice of Brittany Lincicome's absolutely clutch win at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. I still think the LPGA should move their 1st major after the PGA's, though. Now that they're on a 2-week hiatus, let's take a closer look at their 2009 Performance Chart and stats pages to help us figure out who really are the hottest golfers in the world of women's golf (atsui), who among the players you'd expect to be doing better are the coldest (samui), and who are on the verge of breaking through (daijo bu).

Atsui

1. Angela Stanford: Yes, her 9-event top 10 streak ended in Phoenix and she fell just outside the top 10 at the KNC, but with 3 wins and no finish worse than 15th in her last 11 events, she's still the hottest player in the world of women's golf in my book.

2. Cristie Kerr: Her driver kept her from getting her 2nd win in a major last week. But shed no tears for Kerr. Her hot streak dates back to last May, for in her last 23 tournaments, she's only finished outside the top 20 twice (her worst being a T34 in China), while garnering 13 top 10s (including 3 in a row), with a win and 2 runner-ups in that stretch.

3. Lorena Ochoa: Judging from her fiery reactions to quite un-Ochoa-like play at the KNC, it seems that she's well aware that the era of her seemingly effortless dominance on the LPGA is over. But let's put that in perspective: she's only gone 2 tournaments without being in contention in '09. Problem is, they're her last 2 events, both of which she won convincingly in '08. The other problem is that this fits the pattern since her last win that season at the Navistar. She contended in the 2 events after that but then could only manage 3 top 20s to finish off the season. So she's definitely been running hot and cold by her standards since the end of last September.

4. Ji-Yai Shin: Here's why I can't put her higher on the hot list, despite her 4 wins in her last 11 LPGA starts. First, she has more bad finishes for a player of her caliber than those ahead of her. Nothing wrong with a T21 at the KNC, but clearly it means she's not on the run that Stanford and Kerr are on. Second, she's run even hotter and colder so far in '09 than Ochoa. Except for winning and finishing 2nd, she hasn't finished inside the top 10 all year, and she's actually fallen outside the top 20 twice. No problem--Happy Fan, who's followed her career more closely than anyone, says she tends to heat up in the summer.

5. Karrie Webb: Her final-round 69 at Mission Hills extended her 5-event top-20 run and 3-event top 10 streak, during which she's snagged a win and a runner-up.

Honorable Mention:

Suzann Pettersen: With 4 top 20s in a row, 3 top 10s, and 2 top 5s, she's got a bunch of great streaks going. Can a win be far away?

Ya Ni Tseng: Underwhelmed at the KNC, but with an 8-event LPGA top-20 streak and no finish worse than 17th in 2009 on any tour (even with food poisoning down under!), she should come back from the LPGA's spring break rested, refreshed, and ready for win #2.

Paula Creamer: Snuck into the top 20 at the KNC thanks to a final-round 69, but except for her 2 top 3 finishes on the Asian Swing, she hasn't cracked the top 10 in '09.

Jee Young Lee: The wind blew away her chances at Mission Hills, but a final-round 68 got her her 5th top 20 in 6 starts in '09 and 10th in her last 11. 7 of 'em were top 10s and 3 were top 5s, so I'd say she's trending toward a win, too.

Katherine Hull: Snuck into the top 10 at the KNC to end that 2-event stumble of hers, but couldn't capitalize on her opening 69 at Mission Hills. Not playing nearly as well or as consistently on the LPGA lately as she did in Australia earlier this season, not to mention the end of last season on tour.

Sun Young Yoo. Riding a 5-event top-20 streak, which could easily have been a top-10 streak. Her final-round 66 at the KNC shows she can go low. Next step is to get into contention.

Angela Park: With 2 top 3s in her 1st 3 official starts on the LPGA in '09 and 4 top 10s in her last 6, she has to be bitterly disappointed by her play at Mission Hills, where she never went under par and finished T49. Hopefully just a blip.

Eun-Hee Ji: The KNC snapped a 7-event top-20 run of hers. Look for her to start a new one when the LPGA returns to action.

Song-Hee Kim: Broke her 2-event top-10 run last week at the KNC, but blame the Friday winds for that. She's still a threat to win any given week.

Samui

1. Julieta Granada: Hasn't made a cut all season and finished DFL among those who missed it at Mission Hills. Sounds like the LET is beckoning to her....

2. Shiho Oyama: Thankfully, she didn't qualify for the KNC. Looking for her to bounce back from a slow start this season, just like she did last season on the JLPGA.

3. Louise Friberg: With her 4th misseed cut in 6 official starts on the LPGA in '09, she shoots to the top of the "sophomore jinx" club.

4. Minea Blomqvist: Missed her 2nd cut in a row at Rancho Mirage, now making it 5 out of 6 '09 events she's finished 50th or worse. Sure, she's a streaky player and could bounce back big any time, but this long a bad run is unlike her.

5. Shanshan Feng: She's missed 2 cuts in a row and hasn't cracked the top 20 all season. Still not as horrific a start as in her rookie season last year, but not what I had expected or hoped for out of her to start '09.

Dishonorable Mention: I sense the end of Inbee Park's long slump coming very soon, as she's missed only 1 cut in 5 '09 starts.

Daijo Bu

1. Brittany Lang: Except for a gale-aided 80, she did well at Mission Hills, bouncing back for a top 20.

2. Kristy McPherson: How about that week she had at the KNC? She went from "quietly assembling a solid start to her season, with 2 top 20s in a row and no finish worse than 31st" 2 weeks ago to having her 1st major victory stolen from her last week! I said it before and I'll say it again: "she keeps this up, and she won't be #8 in her rookie class much longer"!

3. Lindsey Wright: Her top 5 at the KNC could easily have been a win, plus she's put together 3 top 20s in a row and hasn't finished outside the top 30 in her last 5 starts. She's going to be challenging Webb and Hull for top Australian on tour honors pretty soon.

4. Brittany Lincicome: Last Wednesday, I wrote: "Has now made 2 cuts in a row and stayed at par or better over her last 3 rounds. Could this be the start of a comeback?" Well, she answered that question with a definitive "YES!!" What in incredible--and incredibly unexpected--win at the KNC last week!

5. Na Yeon Choi: Struggled at Mission Hills, but still on the cusp of breaking through to LPGA greatness.

Honorable Mention: Jane Park's 68 Saturday on a tough Mission Hills set-up shows what kind of talent she has. Still waiting for her to harness it, though. I still believe in Ai Miyazato, even though the KNC was her worst finish in recent memory. Probably just a blip, for she's garnered 5 top 10s on the LPGA, ALPG/LET, and JLPGA in a run dating back to last November. Similarly, I still believe Se Ri Pak is back and ready to return to the winner's circle on the LPGA. And Pat Hurst is still her hot-and-cold golfing self, but with a win and a top 10 in her last 3 starts, she definitely deserves a shout-out here--she keeps this up, and she could surpass her million-dollar '06 season!

LPGA Showdown: Senior Standouts vs. Junior Mints

I've gotta admit it: as happy as I am for Brittany Lincicome and as much respect as I have for Cristie Kerr, I was rooting for Junior Mint Kristy McPherson last weekend at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, not least because I would have loved the irony of her proving me wrong and right at the same time. At the end of March, I had this to say about McPherson:

Showing signs of building toward a breakthrough this spring. She has the talent to win on tour, particularly once her putter comes around. Playing in her 1st KNC, though, so I'm not expecting that much out of her this week.

If McPherson had made that short birdie putt on Mission Hills's long, tough par-3 17th and taken a 2-shot lead into the final hole, the Junior Mints might well have taken the lead in class majors against what Hound Dog and I consider to be the strongest rookie class in LPGA history, the Senior Standouts. If McPherson had become the 5th Junior Mint to enter the winner's circle in just over 2 seasons on tour, her class would have pulled out of that tie with the Senior Standouts, as well. As it is, they remained stuck at half the total number of wins of the Class of 2006ers, with no multiple winners against 2 for the Senior Standouts. It's pretty clear the Junior Mints are not as deep or as large a class as the Senior Standouts, but their top 9 and even top 12 stack up pretty well against their slightly more experienced peers.

Here's a rundown of how the top players in each class have fared thus far this season:

Angela Park vs. Seon Hwa Lee: Advantage Park. She already has 2 top 3s and 3 top 10s this season, while Lee has not cracked the top 10 and missed the cut in Phoenix.

Eun-Hee Ji vs. Morgan Pressel: Advantage Ji. Her T36 at the KNC was her only finish outside the top 20 all season, whereas Pressel has yet to break into the top 20.

In-Kyung Kim vs. Jee Young Lee: Advantage Lee. Although Kim has a better top finish (3rd in Phoenix) than Lee (T9 in Mexico), Lee's worst finish (T27 in Phoenix) is almost as good as Kim's 2nd best finish (T26 in Singapore).

Inbee Park vs. Ai Miyazato: Advantage Miyazato. Although Park seems to be coming out of the worst of her slump, she still has one missed cut to zero and one top 20 to 2 top 10s for Ai-chan.

Song-Hee Kim vs. Brittany Lang: Advantage Lang. Both golfers have been playing great this year, but Lang has played in one more event and has 4 top 20s to 3 for Kim.

Jane Park vs. Sun Young Yoo: Advantage Yoo. She's been more consistent than Park, with no missed cuts to one for Park and a 5-event top 20 streak.

Ji Young Oh vs. Teresa Lu: Advantage Oh. Her best finish (T6 in Mexico) outdoes's Lu's best (T11 in Thailand). Although Lu has played one more event than Oh and has one more top 20, she also has one more missed cut and two finishes worse than Oh's worst.

Kristy McPherson vs. Hye Jung Choi: Advantage McPherson. Her worst finish (T31 in Singapore) is better than Choi's best finish (T33 in Phoenix).

Jin Joo Hong vs. Julieta Granada: Advantage Hong. Granada has not made the cut in any of her 4 events this season, and while Hong has missed the last 2 in a row, she finished T40 in Thailand and 62nd in Singapore.

Na On Min vs. Meaghan Francella: Advantage Francella. Her T5 at the KNC outdoes Min's best finish, T11 in Phoenix; while both have missed one cut, Francella's worst finish in her other two events is much better than Min's only ther made cut (T36 vs. T50 in Mexico).

Charlotte Mayorkas vs. Allison Fouch: Advantage Fouch. Her best finish of the year by far came last week (T25), but she hasn't missed any cuts and has played in every event thus far, whereas Mayorkas has only played 3 events, missing the cut twice and finishing 70th in Mexico.

Irene Cho vs. Kyeong Bae: Advantage Bae. Both have played only 3 events in 2009, but whereas Bae missed the cut in Phoenix, finished T65 in Mexico, and T26 in Hawaii, Cho missed the cut in the latter two events and finished T25 in Phoenix.

So the Senior Standouts come out ahead, 7-5. For now....

Futures Tour Sunday: Misun Cho the Second Surprise Winner of 2009

Lisa Mickey has all the key details of Misun Cho's 4-shot victory over Mina Harigae at the iMPACT Invitational after 1st-round leader Paola Moreno and 2nd-round leader Christi Cano stumbled in their final rounds with a 75 and a 79, respectively, and Alison Walshe faded with a 73 on the site of LPGA Q-School. I was happy to see many good bounce-backs from those in my preseason top 20, but surprised again that someone I didn't even bother to include in my top 50 walked away with a win. Looks like that Australian pipeline to the LPGA for Korean players is alive and well. Here's what the money list looks like after the FT's 2nd event of the season. Next up is the Louisiana Pelican Classic, which features a packed field that includes 4-time LAGT winner Pornanong Phatlum.

Kraft Nabisco Championship Sunday: Lincicome! Lincicome! Lincicome!

Congratulations to Brittany Lincicome, your winner of the Kraft Nabisco Championship!

Go to Armchair Golfer for the deciding hole and reaction from the winner. Go to Golf Babes for the capsule summary of Lincicome's last 2 years. Go to Michael Arkush for the USA! USA! angle. Go to Bill Jempty for his quick reaction. But, if you're a true LPGA aficionado, you'll go to Hound Dog for his live blog and overview/reaction. Not to mention LPGA.com for decidedly better notes than was the norm in previous seasons as well as interviews with Lincicome and the two runner-ups, Cristie Kerr and Kristy McPherson.

OK, now you're ready to tackle the AP story--not a bad effort by Bernie Wilson, but I'll take Randall Mell's article (and his on-course blogging, which once again kicked The Tour Blog's Sean Martin's and Beth Ann Baldry's butts). And, finally, Golf Channel's highlights, interviews, and analysis. Well done, y'all!

As for me, I had left off checking the leaderboard while still waiting to see if Suzann Pettersen could eagle 18 to put some pressure on the leaders down the stretch--onechan and imoto had a playdate at a playground and with them it takes forever to get ready to get out the door. Once I got back home, it didn't take me long to realize that her par there made her bogey-free 66 moot (betcha she wishes she could have borrowed Sun Young Yoo's walkoff eagle--they would have had a 61 best-ball, btw). I also had been in some personal suspense as to whether Ai Miyazato (my favorite player) could hold off Michelle Wie and avoid last place (she couldn't but did). Mostly, though, I had been curious to see if McPherson could become the 1st player all season on the LPGA to turn a 3rd-round lead into an LPGA victory. Instead, Kerr had seemed to be pulling an Ochoa--when the world #1 passed Paula Creamer on the front back in Thailand and never looked back--which made my belated discovery of her bogey-birdie-double stretch midway through the back a big shock. In retrospect, Kerr's stumbles off the tee could have brought almost the entire field back into the tournament, except that really they just kept Lincicome alive. (I kept waiting for Lindsey Wright to get hot after that eagle in the par-5 11th--just like I waited for Meaghan Francella to return to the form that saw her birdie 4 of her 1st 6 holes and get to -6. But Wright parred out and so did Francella, after a bogey on the 7th. No Sunday free-for-all, after all.)

And what a way to take advantage of the moment for Lincicome! Here's someone who had finished out of the money on a Florida mini-tour event while the LPGA was on its early-season Asian Swing in early March. What a difference a month makes! Just last week, I was complimenting her for making 2 consecutive cuts and shooting 3 rounds of par or better in a row. She may be forgiven for having considered that an April Fool's Day joke, as it seems I haven't said anything complimentary about her play in a couple of years. To tell you the truth, I had thought Bill Jempty was more than a little foolish to name her his comeback player of the year in his preseason predictions! Her 1 top 10 last season had come out of nowhere, and unlike 2007 when she followed up her runner-up at the KNC and win at the Ginn with 9 top 20s, her 2008 only had one other decent result, a top 15 against a relatively weak field in Mexico, while the rest was simply horrible--11 missed cuts, a DQ at the Ginn Tribute, and, of her 10 finishes in the money, only 1 other was even in the top 30.

The challenge for Brittany now will be to avoid going MIA once again, as she did after that 2nd career LPGA win. She had always seemed uncomfortable with the Young Americans hype back in late 2006 and early 2007. I distinctly recall an interview not long after that win where she basically admitted she wasn't ready to devote herself to her game enough to compete against the best in the world, so I wasn't at all surprised that she struggled over the rest of the season, nor was I surprised at her undistinguished Solheim Cup performance. At some point in 2008 I figured she had crossed the same kind of event horizon as Julieta Granada and might never escape her own personal black hole. Turns out it was some weird kind of wormhole! A combination of a major off-season swing change and a commitment to better conditioning and not getting down on herself after a bad shot was all she needed. Now she sounds excited about the Solheim Cup, which is a good thing, because she's 1 of 15 players scrapping it out for those top 10 spots. Nobody's going to knock Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, or Angela Stanford off the U.S. team, but with just less than 120 points separating #4 and #15, anything can happen, particularly when you consider that Lincicome's win in this week's major earned her exactly 120 points and put her at the top of the heap in a crowded Player of the Year race!

Viva the Corona in 2 weeks! Should have a great field....

[Update 1 (3:45 am): Nice job by Karen Crouse for the NYT and Brent Kelley for about.com!]

[Update 2 (4:24 am): Nice to see the SI guys remember there was an LPGA major this week. Although I guess it's too much to expect Bamberger to remember the LPGA's going to Torrey Pines this year.]

[Update 3 (4:30 am): Hope somebody from CBS takes note of Bradley Klein's critique. And that at some point the Constructivist household can afford to upgrade the cable modem to include, well, tv.]

[Update 4 (11:45 am): Here's Hound Dog's epilogue.]

[Update 5 (10:27 pm): Nice of Golf Babes to show Tiffany Joh some love, but The Squire missed out on 2 key things everyone needs to know about T-Joh: 1) she was a leader on the Curtis Cup U.S. team; 2) she was a Waggle Room guest blogger back when Mulligan Stu was running the joint.]

[Update 6 (10:33 pm): Pretty awesome little essay over at Golf Channel by Annika Sorenstam on watching the end of the final round. A lot more substantive than what she usually posts on her own blog.]

[Update 7 (4/7/09, 12:45 pm): Nice piece by Daniel Wexler on Lincicome's win and the struggles of the LPGA's elite players at Mission Hills.]

[Update 8 (12:54 pm): Enjoyed Steve Elling's LPGA-centric ups and downs piece, even if I completely disagree with one of his premises. Guess which one!]

[Update 9 (12:58 pm): Gotta love Gerald Gallagher's case for the KNC being the most exciting major in golf. Wonder if all the writers dwelling on the recent lack of Masters Sunday excitement will draw the connection?]

[Update 10 (4/9/09, 12:10 am): Great overview by Ron Sirak! When he's on, he's on. I'd love to see him give Seon Hwa Lee the Lincicome treatment next time she wins!]

Yamaha Ladies Open Sunday: Ah-Reum Hwang Routs the Field

2nd-round leader Ah-Reum Hwang, a 21-year-old graduate of the Step-Up Tour, where she won twice last season, took control of the Yamaha Ladies Open with 4 birdies in her 1st 8 holes and never looked back today, winning by 8 shots over Erina Hara, Ji-Woo Lee, and Julie Lu on the strength of a bogey-free 65.

1st/-11 Ah-Reum Hwang (73-67-65)
T2/-3 Julie Lu (74-70-69), Ji-Woo Lee (72-71-70), Erina Hara (73-68-72)
5th/-1 Yuko Mitsuka (73-73-69)
6th/E Junko Omote (72-72-72)
T7/+1 Nikki Campbell (73-74-70), Hiromi Mogi (75-71-71), Kaori Aoyama (73-73-71), Kuniko Maeda (71-75-71), Ritsuko Ryu (73-72-72), Yasuko Satoh (73-72-72), Bo-Bae Song (72-73-72), Ayako Uehara (72-73-72), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-74-72), Mi-Jeong Jeon (73-69-75)

T17/+2 Sakurako Mori (72-75-71), So-Hee Kim (74-71-73), Mie Nakata (71-70-77)
T20/+3 Yuko Saitoh (75-72-72), Midori Yoneyama (70-76-73)
T24/+4 Miki Saiki (74-77-69), Maiko Wakabayashi (78-70-72)
T30/+5 Hiroko Yamaguchi (76-74-71)
T36/+6 Shinobu Moromizato (75-75-72), Saiki Fujita (73-76-73)
T42/+7 Akane Iijima (77-72-74)
T44/+8 Yuki Ichinose (75-75-74), Rui Kitada (75-74-75)
T46/+9 Yun-Jye Wei (75-75-75)
T49/+10 Chie Arimura (78-73-75)
[WD or DQ: Mayu Hattori]

So in the end it was Hwang for whom the 3rd time was the charm, not Hara, as I had anticipated yesterday. Hwang had notched a top 20 in the JLPGA's 1st event and finished 2nd behind Ayako Uehara in the rain-shortened 2nd event, and with her win this week has already won more this season than she did all last season. Meanwhile, the big names in this week's field who finished far behind her--and those struggling at Mission Hills--have some catching up to do in the 4-week run-up to the JLPGA's 1st major, the Salonpas Cup.

Here's how the JLPGA money list now looks:

1. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥20.11M
2. Yuko Mitsuka ￥18.92M
3. Ayako Uehara ￥18.78M
4. Erina Hara ￥12.13M
5. Ji-Woo Lee ￥7.02M
6. Julie Lu ￥6.24M
7. Midori Yoneyama ￥6.19M
8. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥5.77M
9. Sakura Yokomine ￥5.24M
10. Bo-Bae Song, Hiromi Mogi ￥5.10M
12. Miho Koga ￥4.63M

Next up is the Studio Alice Ladies Open, which despite its tied-for-smallest purse on the JLPGA schedule, boasts a strong field that includes the visiting Ji-Yai Shin. Should be interesting!

Kraft Nabisco Championship Saturday: Moving on Up, Moving Backwards

A lot of great players moved backwards yesterday at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, failing to keep pace with Kristy McPherson's charge past the -7 barrier that has repelled other top contenders this week. While McPherson carded 3 birdies in a row to start the back and get to -8 for the tournament, only a bogey-free 34 on the same side enabled Cristie Kerr to keep within 1 shot of her. Meanwhile, Angela Stanford, who was -7 through her first 32 holes, but who finished bogey-bogey-double bogey-bogey as the winds came up in the early afternon Friday, continued to struggle Saturday, finishing +3 over her final 13 holes for a 74 that dropped her back to E and solo 11th place. And Christina Kim, who was -7 through 27 holes, shot a birdieless 75 that dropped her back to -3 and a solo 6th through 54. Others who culdn't make a dent in the defenses of a relatively calm Mission Hills on moving day included Suzann Pettersen (74, +1, T12), In-Kyung Kim (75, +2, T15), Ya Ni Tseng (75, +3, T20), and Paula Creamer (77, +3, T20). And with no major moves from Song-Hee Kim (72, +3, T20), Ji-Yai Shin (71, +3, T20), Lorena Ochoa (72, +2, T15), Brittany Lang (71, +2, T15), or Karrie Webb (72, +1, T12), McPherson and Kerr will have neither the hottest players in the world of women's golf nor the hottest players from the 1st half of the tournament to worry about.

Instead, it'll be Brittany Lincicome again in contention at the KNC after a long time away, who'll start Sunday 2 shots behind McPherson. Others returning to the top of the leaderboard after long absences include Jimin Kang, who rode the roller coaster yesterday to a 71 that brought her within 4 of the lead; Lindsey Wright, who got it to -6 before back-to-back bogeys late in her round dropped her back to T4 with Kang; Meaghan Francella, whose bogey-free 32 on the back got her within 6 of McPherson; Katherine Hull, wh's coming off 2 bad starts for the 1st time in months and had to overcome an early triple bogey Thursday and wind-aided bogeys on Friday to join Francella at -2; and veterans Helen Alfredsson (-2) and Pat Hurst (-1), who know a thing or 2 about stealing victory from the jaws of hungry young guns and players in the prime of their careers. If Jane Park (68) and Allison Fouch (69) weren't 10 shots back, I'd add them to this list.

As it is, there are only 2 players within 2 shots of McPherson and only 5 within 5. But given the pressures of a major on a Sunday, I'm thinking there are better odds for another crazy KNC free-for-all than Hound Dog does. Still, it sure would be awesome if the 8th-ranked Junior Mint went ahead and proved me wrong in her 1st KNC!

[Update 1 (4/6/09 (1:40 am): Nice little profiles of the top Americans in the field by Beth Ann Baldry]

[Update 2 (4:34 am): Is it just me, or is Karen Crouse of the NYT getting hooked on the LPGA?]

Yamaha Ladies Open Saturday: Will the 3rd Time Be the Charm for Erina Hara?

Will the 3rd time be the charm for Erina Hara this season on the JLPGA? She contended in the 1st event of 2009 but missed the cut in the 2nd. Today, she was 1 of only 3 players to break 70 at the Yamaha Ladies Open and finds herself within 1 shot of the lead. But she has plenty of company. Ah-Reum Hwang's 31 on the back lifted her to the front of the pack, while Mie Nakata's walkoff eagle pulled her even with Hara, 1 shot ahead of Mi-Jeong Jeon, who finished eagle-par-birdie to pull herself into contention. With 15 players within 5 shots of the lead heading into the final round, though, just about anything can happen.

1st/-4 Ah-Reum Hwang (73-67)
T2/-3 Erina Hara (73-68), Mie Nakata (71-70)
4th/-2 Mi-Jeong Jeon (73-69)
5th/-1 Ji-Woo Lee (72-71)
T6/E Julie Lu (74-70), Yuriko Ohtsuka (73-71), Junko Omote (72-72)
T9/+1 So-Hee Kim (74-71), Mikiyo Nishizuka (74-71), Ritsuko Ryu (73-72), Yasuko Satoh (73-72), Bo-Bae Song (72-73), Ayako Uehara (72-73), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-74)

T16/+2 Hiromi Mogi (75-71), Yuko Mitsuka (73-73), Midori Yoneyama (70-76)
T25/+3 Yuko Saitoh (75-72), Nikki Campbell (73-74), Sakurako Mori (72-75), Mayu Hattori (71-76)
T31/+4 Maiko Wakabayashi (78-70)
T33/+5 Akane Iijima (77-72), Rui Kitada (75-74), Saiki Fujita (73-76)
T39/+6 Hiroko Yamaguchi (76-74), Shinobu Moromizato (75-75), Yun-Jye Wei (75-75), Yuki Ichinose (75-75)
T48/+7 Chie Arimura (78-73), Miki Saiki (74-77)

T56/+8 Na Zhang (76-76), Yukari Baba (76-76)
T64/+9 Eun-A Lim (79-74)
T73/+10 Riko Higashio (78-76), Esther Lee (77-77), Rikako Morita (76-78)
T85/+11 Woo-Soon Ko (81-74)
T91/+12 Kumiko Kaneda (75-81), Kaori Higo (81-75)
105th/+32 Yuki Sakurai (91-85)

Looks like bad weather is affecting the entire world of women's golf this weekend! Hopefully conditions will improve for those who were able to make it to Sunday's round.

Futures Tour Friday: Q-School Preview

The Futures Tour comes to LPGA International this week for the iMPACT Invitational, the site of 2009 Q-School. Coincidentally, one of the sectional qualifiers will be held at Mission Hills, site of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and just like in Rancho Mirage, the wind was blowing hard in Daytona Beach today. Paola Moreno was the only player in the field to break 70, and she did it in style with a fantastic 67. When you look at the bottom of the leaderboard and see that Hannah Yun and Su A Kim (84), Kristie Smith and Sara Brown (81), Sarah Lynn Sargent and Briana Vega (80), Nicole Hage and Angela Oh (79), Kim Welch and Esther Choe (78), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (77), Violeta Retamozo and Dewi Claire Schreefel (76), and Maru Martinez and Naree Song (75) all failed to break 75, you know the conditions were tough. Still 16 players broke par and 26 shot par or better, 7 and 12 more than who did so the 1st round of Q-School, so you know that the competition on the FT will be equally tough. Only 3 of my preseason top 10--Song-Yi Choi (71, T10), Mina Harigae (72, T17), and Alison Walshe (72, T17)--handled the wind well. Let's see where they stand after 54 holes, though.

Kraft Nabisco Championship Friday: ...Or I'll Huff and I'll Puff....

Before you take a look at the leaderboard for the Kraft Nabisco Championship, consider the language of this high wind warning from the National Weather Service:

AREAS OF WEST TO NORTHWEST WINDS 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH... INCREASING TO 25 TO 35 MPH TODAY WITH GUSTS TO 65 MPH. WINDS WILL BE STRONGEST NEAR THE BANNING PASS AND EAST OF INTERSTATE 10. WINDS WILL DECREASE DURING THE EVENING AND OVERNIGHT.

Let's see, the Mission Hills Country Club is just barely west of I-10, so maximum gusts were probably between 50 and 65 mph (LPGA.com went with the lower number). So players would be dealing with anything from, say, a 2-club wind in lulls to, I don't know, say, a 7-club wind in gusts? That sounds like fun!

Well, that might not be quite the word that Jill McGill (89), Louise Friberg (87), Julieta Granada (86), or the 18 other players who failed to break 80 today would use. Consider the following swings:

Brittany Lang 67-80
Jee Young Lee 69-80
Ji-Hee Lee 69-82
Michelle Wie 71-81

And they all made the cut! Not so fortunate were

Akiko Fukushima 70-83
Minea Blomqvist 73-81
Stacy Prammanasudh 73-84
Candace Schepperle 72-86

Just for comparison's sake, McGill did 17 shots worse today than yesterday, while Friberg went 15 shots higher.

Among the 18 players who scored better today than yesterday, only 1--amateur Jennifer Johnson--missed the cut (she went 77-76). And guess how many players in the afternoon pairings improved on yesterday's score? Hmmm, that would be Hee-Won Han (75-73) at 12:32 pm and Soo-Yun Kang (78-74) at 1:36 pm, so 2.

Yup, the Big Bad Wolf visited Mission Hills today. So who made like a postmodern Little Red Riding Hood--and, more important, what were their starting times?

8:57 am Cristie Kerr 71-68 (3rd)
8:49 am Christina Kim 69-69 (T1)
8:09 am Shi Hyun Ahn 75-69 (T15)
8:01 am Alena Sharp 76-69 (T18)
9:21 am Helen Alfredsson 72-70 (T7)
8:33 am Joo Mi Kim 73-70 (T11)
8:25 am Kristy McPherson 68-70 (T1)
8:01 am Jimin Kang 71-70 (T5)
8:09 am Lindsey Wright 70-71 (T5, thanks to a little 'ol eagle on the par-4 16th!)
8:49 am Pat Hurst 71-71 (T7)
9:13 am Suzann Pettersen 71-72 (T11)
9:05 am Karrie Webb 73-72 (T18)
9:05 am Eun-Hee Ji 75-72 (T31)
9:05 am Momoko Ueda 76-72 (T38)
8:49 am Paula Creamer 70-72 (T7)
8:49 am Wendy Ward 75-72 (T31)
8:01 am Alexis Thompson 72-72 (T15)

So who had the best round of the day? My vote is for Sakura Yokomine, who, playing in the last twosome on the course, bogeyed 3 of her last 4 holes but still shot a 73. Han's 73 started an hour earlier than Yokomine's, while Meaghan Francella's and In-Kyung Kim's started even earlier in the afternoon.

Let's wait and see what kind of revenge those fortunate enough to make the cut will take on Mission Hills tomorrow in much calmer weather. I leave you with choice quotations from today's survivors:

Kerr: "You just try and survive. Your golf swing doesn't matter. Putting doesn't matter. You've just got to try and see kind of what the shot is laid out for you, and then you've got to play the conditions. Whether you think--I mean, on number eight, the par 3, I had to aim 30 yards left, and the wind brought it in and I hit a great shot. So you've just got to translate the conditions and survive, and I'm glad I'm done."

McPherson: "Downwind, you can get up to 30 yards of release on to the greens, so you just have to really pay attention to where you can and cannot be on this golf course."

Stanford: "Last week, I went early/later, late/early, and missed the wind. As the year goes on, it all balances out. Unfortunately this week, it's a major, and I got a bad draw."

Ochoa: "I'm even more upset because I was in good position on certain holes, but I couldn't control my swing. With so much wind I kept losing my balance."

Too bad they couldn't get a reaction from the player to whom this happened on 18:

[A] player had marked her ball on the putting green, replaced it, had backed up from the ball, and the ball subsequently rolled into the water, for which she received a one-stroke penalty, and her option was at that point in time to--she chose to go back and play from the previous spot. She placed the ball where it originally laid and then played from there.

The ruling, the main thing you need to know about the ruling is when a player places her ball back in position, it's in play, and if the wind subsequently blows it to a new position, that's where the ball is to be played from.

For instance, if the ball had rolled into the hole, it would have been counted as being holed on the previous shot. Unfortunately this time it rolled into the hazard so we had the one stroke penalty.

Hey kids, just remember, next time you play in really windy conditions, try to leave your approach shots upwind from the hole!

[Update 1 (11:11 pm): Golfweek is again giving the KNC the major treatment. Sean Martin identifies the player whose ball rolled in the water on 18--Ji Young Oh--over at The Tour Blog. Randall Mell is kicking his and Beth Ann Baldry's butts, however, over at Golf Channel's Shag Bag blog.]

[Update 2 (11:18 pm): OK, cue the video!]

[Update 3 (4/4/09, 10:27 am): Check out Say_You_SeRi's 2nd day of on-course Pakitude. Makes you wonder why the tournament organizers didn't follow the Houston PGA event's lead...]

[Update 4 (10:32 am): Here's Hound Dog!]

[Update 5 (10:36 am): Pretty darn good job by Karen Crouse for the Times.]

Yamaha Ladies Open Friday: When Most Cats Are Away, the Others Will...

...not play all that well, it appears. Actually, poor weather conditions probably account for the fact that nobody in the field at the Yamaha Ladies Open broke 70. But that alone can't explain Yuki Sakurai batting for the quadruple quad and failing to break 90. Or Mi-Jeong Jeon finishing +3 over her final 5 holes to drop from a share of the lead to a 73. With most of the JLPGA's finest acquitting themselves well at Mission Hills, it was a great opportunity for #9 Jeon, #11 Yuko Mitsuka, #12 Hyun-Ju Shin, and #13 Bo-Bae Song to make a big statement to the rest of the field. Instead, they're lurking after today's round--in a huge crowd.

T1/-2 Midori Yoneyama, Ikue Asana, Yuka Shiroto (70)
T4/-1 Hyun-Ju Shin, Mayu Hattori, Mie Nakata, Kuniko Maeda, Mihoko Takahashi, Mika Takushima, Maki Sasayama, Nachiyo Ohtani (71)

T12/E Bo-Bae Song, Ayako Uehara, Ji-Woo Lee, Sakurako Mori (72)
T18/+1 Mi-Jeong Jeon, Yuko Mitsuka, Erina Hara, Saiki Fujita, Ritsuko Ryu, Nikki Campbell (73)
T30/+2 Miki Saiki, So-Hee Kim (74)
T38/+3 Shinobu Moromizato, Hiromi Mogi, Yun-Jye Wei, Rui Kitada, Yuki Ichinose, Kumiko Kaneda (75)
T51/+4 Na Zhang, Hiroko Yamaguchi, Yukari Baba, Rikako Morita (76)
T63/+5 Akane Iijima, Esther Lee (77)
T69/+6 Chie Arimura, Maiko Wakabayashi, Riko Higashio (78)
T79/+7 Eun-A Lim (79)
T96/+9 Kaori Higo, Woo-Soon Ko (81)
106th/+19 Yuki Sakurai (91)

Those at +4 could just as easily jump into contention as miss the cut. Moving day tomorrow should be quite interesting!

How Tough Is Juli Inkster?

Just ask Ron Sirak:

She missed all of 1990 to give birth....

Could Chuck Norris do that? Bouncing back from a 1st-round 76 in the Kraft Nabisco Championship should be no problem for her!

[Update 1 (12:25 am): This 6-year-old is plenty tough himself. One of onechan's best friends is also a retinoblastoma survivor.]

Kraft Nabisco Championship Thursday: Big Surprises in Round 1

When earlier this week I noted that Brittany Lincicome was on a 3-round par-or-better run and wondered whether this could mark "the start of a comeback," I was envisioning a finish somewhere in the top 50 this week for her at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Never in my wildest dreams did I entertain the glimmer of a wisp of a hope that this 2-time winner on the LPGA would open the tour's 1st major with 16 greens in regulation, 8 birdies, and a tournament-leading 66, her best score on tour since the opening round of the 2007 Evian Masters. (Let's just forget that she finished 74-82-74 that week).

But Lincicome wasn't the only pleasant surprise for fans of American golfers today, as Christina Kim came out of her early-season hibernation with a 5-birdie 69, but was surpassed by 2 shots by a pair of players looking to start new top 10 streaks after having long ones recently broken: Angela Stanford and Brittany Lang both eagled the par-5 18th to stay 1 behind Lincicome. Other Americans opening impressively included a sick Paula Creamer and a resurgent Moira Dunn (70), as well as Cristie Kerr, Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis, Pat Hurst, Nicole Castrale, and Tiffany Joh (71).

That's not to say the international stars of the LPGA didn't throw a few surprises at the leaderboard today, as well. Junior Mint Ji Young Oh, playing with Lincicome, had a fantastic 67. Others making impressive bouncebacks from recent struggles included Katherine Hull, who shot a 69 despite triple bogeying the par-4 3rd hole in an otherwise bogey-free round, and Jee Young Lee who made walkoff eagles on each side on her way to the same score. Meanwhile, other players whose games have recently been on the upswing, from Kristy McPherson (68) to Lindsey Wright (70) to Se Ri Pak (71) to Inbee Park (71), played very good golf on a very difficult course. And as you'd expect, Ya Ni Tseng (69) made a ton of birdies despite hardly ever finding the fairway off the tee, Song-Hee Kim (69) scrambled her way around Mission Hills, while In-Kyung Kim (70), Sun Young Yoo (70), and Suzann Pettersen (71) did what they needed to to stay under par.

The JLPGA's finest acquitted themselves well today, from #1 Ji-Hee Lee (whose 69 was actually disappointing, as she had it to -5 with 6 holes left to play) to #8 Akiko Fukushima (70) to #3 Yuri Fudoh (71) to #2 Sakura Yokomine (whose walkoff birdie brought her back to 72 after she had suffered a 3-hole bogey train down the stretch).

Less fortunate were #4 Miho Koga (74) and #6 (and LPGA regular) Momoko Ueda (76). They'll be joined by KLPGA stars Ha Neul Kim (75) and Hee Kyung Seo (76) in trying to bounce back quickly. Among the LPGA's hottest players who underperformed today, Ji-Yai Shin is 6 behind Lincicome, Lorena Ochoa and Karrie Webb are 7 back, Angela Park and Seon Hwa Lee 8 back, and Eun-Hee Ji, Ai Miyazato, and Na Yeon Choi 9 back. That's a lot of ground to make up, but if anyone can do it over 54 holes, someone from this bunch surely can.

[Update 1 (11:36 pm): Nice to see Golfweek giving the full major treatment.]

[Update 2 (11:51 pm): Heee-ere's Golf Channel! Nice to see something more than the minute-and-a-half treatment from them.]

[Update 3 (4/3/09, 12:29 am): From Say_You_SeRi's on-course updates, it sure sounds like Pak could easily have gone low yesterday.]

[Update 4 (12:41 am): Golf Channel's Shag Bag blog is out in force at Mission Hills, too. Can Randall Mell outdo Beth Ann Baldry and Sean Martin at Golfweek's Tour Blog?]

[Update 5 (10:22 am): Nice job as usual from Hound Dog with his 1st-round recap, but he also did some great detective work in figuring out that Karen Stupples had to have an emergency appendectomy last week.]

[Update 6 (2:56 pm): Jay Busbee gives a quick and well-done overview of day 1.]

Vagaries of Golf Journalism

A few puzzlers for you all as we head into the pre-Masters frenzy that consistently overshadows the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Why is it that Jason Sobel knows how to write a great piece on the coming changing of the guard in the world of men's professional golf, as heralded by Rory McIlroy, Danny Lee, and Ryo Ishikawa, but nobody knows how to write about the exact same thing that's been happening on the LPGA over the last several years--except to whine about the lack of American dominance? Recent writing on the LPGA has felt like a bad flashback to the late '90s--anyone remember how golf journalists then were more anxious than excited at the fact that the international trio of Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, and Se Ri Pak was pushing a generation of great American stars down the leaderboard? Where's the journalist today to declare that the transnationalism of the LPGA's Young Guns and New Blood is something to be celebrated?

It stands to reason that Ron Sirak would be your man for the job. Why, then, didn't he save his column on the holes in the LPGA's schedule for next week and produce as good a preview of the competition then to come in the very strong field at the J Golf Phoenix International last week as good as his Kraft Nabisco Championship preview this one? (Although even in the recent one it would have been great to end with a look at the current contenders as searching as his look at the course and the ways past champions won on it. Is he worried about what Brent Kelley has recently noted--that the LPGA's 1st major has no clear favorite?) The irony here is that Jon Show, who's done as much as anyone to document the LPGA's financial crisis, came out with the most optimistic article in recent memory on the LPGA's prospects the very same week Sirak decided to write on the schedule rather than the players in Phoenix.

Look, Sirak is a talented writer, as his profile of twin sisters Aree and Naree Song shows. But when is he going to get comfortable with the fact that he can't just replicate his success with Annika Sorenstam today with Michelle Wie? With the rise of Ji-Yai Shin, Ya Ni Tseng, Seon Hwa Lee, and Angela Park, joined by another couple of dozen international golfers international players who are capable of winning any given week (and, yes, naturalized U.S. citizen Park is joined by Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lang, Jane Park, Vicky Hurst, and, yes, Wie, to name a few Americans who have already excelled in this cohort), golf journalists who focus on the LPGA have to get a handle on more players and story lines than just the stuff that flies on the PGA: the awesomeness of Tiger's awesome awesomeness and the follow-the-will'o'wisp search for a legitimate rival for him. This is most definitely the Ochoa Era on the LPGA, but the PGA's future is the LPGA's present: that changing of the guard that Sobel wrote about coming in the next 10 years there is happening here right now. When will Sirak write about that?

Speaking of present and future PGA revolutionaries, I want to give credit to Jaime Diaz and Max Adler for writing fantastic profiles of Tiger's mom Tida (in the great Steve Elling tradition) and Danny Lee, respectively. Don't get me wrong, Corina Knoll got some great tidbits in her idiot's guide to identifying some of the top players of Korean descent on the LPGA (outdoing Matt Cooper's fine survey), but wouldn't it be nice for some of them to get the long-form treatment? Until then, we'll just have to endure more great American hope stories, I guess.

[Update 1 (4/3/09, 12:34 am): Hey, is Randall Mell a MH reader? Probably not, but nice job on the Ochoa-Shin pairing and its larger significance, Randall!]

Kraft Nabisco Championship Preview/Predictions/Pairings

It's major time on the LPGA this week! With Hound Dog's excellent preview of the Kraft Nabisco Championship joined by a stepped-up local media effort (led by Larry Bohannan) and posts from large-traffic golf blogs (such as Devil Ball Golf and Golf Girl), the attention level on the LPGA is much higher than usual, although less than it would be if the KNC came after rather than before the Masters (for Exhibit A, I give you Steve Elling and Ross Devonport). One thing I'm particularly excited about is that we're finally having an event where the historical stats and tournament history matter, so I don't just have to go by my hot list and guesswork. Here are my picks:

1. Ochoa
2. Tseng
3. Kerr
4. Stanford
5. Pak
6. Park Angela
7. Webb
8. Shin
9. Ji
10. Kim Song-Hee
11. Pettersen
12. Miyazato

Alts: Choi Na Yeon, Lang, Creamer

With a field this awesome--including top amateurs Tiffany Joh, Azahara Munoz, Candace Schepperle, and Alexis Thompson, Jennifer Johnson, JLPGA greats Yuri Fudoh, Akiko Fukushima, Ji Hee Lee, Miho Koga, and Sakura Yokomine, KLPGA stars Ha Neul Kim and Hee Kyung Seo, and even top LETers Gwladys Nocera and Martina Eberl--literally anything can happen. What thickens the plot even more is the way the tournament organizers set up the pairings--with such a limited field, the players are going off in pairs from day 1.

Off the 10th tee at 8:01 am, for instance, Wie and Miyazato should get the slightest bit of media and spectator attention, allowing Ha Neul Kim and Miho Koga to go off the 1st 22 minutes later comparatively incognito. And those aren't even among the prime-time pairings! Where to start with them? How about off the back in the late morning?

Start Time: 8:49 AM
Lorena Ochoa
Ji-Yai Shin

Start Time: 8:57 AM
Ya Ni Tseng
Natalie Gulbis

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Angela Stanford
Louise Friberg

Start Time: 9:13 AM
Ji Young Oh
Brittany Lincicome

Start Time: 9:21 AM
Leta Lindley
Seon Hwa Lee

Start Time: 9:29 AM
Brittany Lang
Inbee Park

Or maybe those going off the front in the early afternoon?

Start Time: 12:00 PM
Paula Creamer
Pat Hurst

Start Time: 12:08 PM
Cristie Kerr
Juli Inkster

Start Time: 12:16 PM
Momoko Ueda
Karrie Webb

Start Time: 12:24 PM
Jane Park
Morgan Pressel

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Nicole Castrale
Na Yeon Choi

Start Time: 12:40 PM
Jee Young Lee
Michele Redman

But what about those going off the back opposite them?

Start Time: 12:00 PM
Sun Young Yoo
Rachel Hetherington

Start Time: 12:08 PM
Wendy Ward
Christina Kim

Start Time: 12:16 PM
Young Kim
Candie Kung

Start Time: 12:24 PM
Eun-Hee Ji
Katherine Hull

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Suzann Pettersen
Grace Park

Start Time: 12:40 PM
Helen Alfredsson
Laura Diaz

Or those going off the front in the late morning:

Start Time: 8:49 AM
Song-Hee Kim
Silvia Cavalleri

Start Time: 8:57 AM
Mi Hyun Kim
In-Kyung Kim

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Stacy Prammanasudh
Liselotte Neumann

Start Time: 9:13 AM
Meaghan Francella
Angela Park

Start Time: 9:21 AM
Hee-Won Han
Se Ri Pak

Start Time: 9:29 AM
Carin Koch
Sophie Gustafson

Wow--amazing stuff! Here's hoping I have time to combine 2007's final-round not-quite-live-blogging and 2008's final-round overview and contextualization in 2009.

[Update 1 (6:28 am): Definitely give the Seoul Sisters.com KNC thread a look-see this week. The gang is going all out and Tim Maitland, whose work at the HSBC I so admired, is giving inside scoops galore!]

[Update 2 (6:52 am): Given how fired up Momoko Ueda is over Japan's huge victory in the World Baseball Classic, I wonder if we'll be seeing something special this week from the Japanese contingent!]

[Update 3 (12:16 pm): Here's Brent Kelley's preview.]

[Update 4 (1:08 pm): Here's Jay Busbee's case for Karrie Webb as KNC contender.]

[Update 5 (4/2/09, 6:02 am): Nice little piece by Sean Martin n 5 things to watch at the KNC.]

[Update 6 (5:16 pm): Here's Bill Jempty's preview.]

[Update 7 (4/3/09, 12:01 am): Whoops, missed Ryan Ballengee's preview.]

Atsui, Samui, Daijo Bu: April Fool's Day Edition

It's April Fool's Day today, but I'm still guardedly hopeful that Golf Channel's tribute to Se Ri Pak during last week's event in Phoenix was no joke.



You never can tell with GC, it seems. They pander as bad as anyone in the golfy media to the notion that the only LPGA members who deserve mention on TV (much less space on the highlights reel) are named Michelle, Lorena, and Paula (and sometimes Natalie, Suzann, Cristie, and Morgan). And they sure seem to have their own unofficial Asian exclusion act when it comes to highlights. Thankfully, between the LPGA's 2009 Performance Chart and stats pages, anyone can look and see who really are the hottest golfers (atsui), the coldest (samui), and those on the verge of breaking through (daijo bu). That's no joke, particularly heading into the LPGA's 1st major of 2009.

Atsui

1. Angela Stanford: Yes, Stanford's 9-event top 10 streak ended in Phoenix, but with 3 wins, 9 top 10s, and no finish worse than 15th in her last 10 events, she's still the hottest player in the world of women's golf in my book.

2. Ji-Yai Shin: Just missed a great chance to get her 5th win in her last 10 LPGA starts last week in Phoenix. It took a Hall of Famer to deny her. Read those 2 sentences again and you'll see why some have called her the favorite in this season's Player of the Year race.

3. Lorena Ochoa: It's official. The era of Ochoa's effortless dominance on the LPGA is over. But you know what? She's still my favorite to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

4. Cristie Kerr: Her hot streak dates back to last May, for in her last 22 tournaments, she's only finished outside the top 20 twice (her worst being a T34 in China), while garnering 12 top 10s (including 2 in a row), including a win and a runner-up in that stretch.

5. Ya Ni Tseng: Her 67-67 finish on the weekend in Phoenix was the best in the field. Even though she couldn't chase down the leaders, that charge was reminiscent of how she won her 1st major. With a 7-event LPGA top-20 streak and no finish worse than 11th in 2009 on any tour (even with food poisoning down under!), she's so due for win #2--could it come this week?

Honorable Mention:

Karrie Webb: Her dramatic win last week put an exclamation point on a 4-event top-20 run in which she's also gotten a runner-up (to the woman she beat in Phoenix!).

Angela Park: With 2 top 3s in her 1st 3 official starts on the LPGA in '09 and 4 top 10s in her last 5, she's one of the players to beat at the KNC.

Eun-Hee Ji: She's now got 3 top 10s in 5 events this season and top 20s in her last 7 starts.

Paula Creamer: Apparently, Mexico was crueler to her than I had first thought, for she couldn't even start in Phoenix. [Update (5:07 am): Whoops, Reuters reports it all started in Asia.]

Katherine Hull: 2 bad results in a row and only 1 good one to start her season on the LPGA are not what she needs headed into the year's 1st major. Could her run of great play be over?

Jee Young Lee: Had trouble with Papago, but look for her to bounce back at the KNC from her T27.

Suzann Pettersen: She's back, even if her knee is bothering her.

Song-Hee Kim: Don't look now, but she's got 2 top 10s in a row and is playing great on Sundays.

Sun Young Yoo. Riding a 4-event top-20 streak, which could easily have been a top-10 streak.

Ai Miyazato: She's playing the best golf of her career since at least 2006, yet hasn't even gone low like her birdie rate suggests she's capable of. There's a reason she hasn't finished worse than 26th all season on the LPGA and has garnered 5 top 10s on the LPGA, ALPG/LET, and JLPGA in a run dating back to last November.

Samui

1. Julieta Granada: Another badly missed cut for her, this time in Phoeniz.

2. Shiho Oyama: She's making Shinobu Moromizato's struggles when she tried the LPGA a couple of years back a little more understandable. But she started slow last season on the JLPGA and got hotter as the weather did.

3. Inbee Park: Got her 1st top 20 in ages!

4. Minea Blomqvist: Missed her 1st cut of the season in Phoenix, now making it 4 out of 5 LPGA events she's finished 50th or worse. Sure, she's a streaky player and could bounce back big any time, but this long a bad run is unlike her.

5. Brittany Lincicome: Has now made 2 cuts in a row and stayed at par or better over her last 3 rounds. Could this be the start of a comeback?

Dishonorable Mention: Ashleigh Simon has been MIA on the LPGA and ALPG/LET in '09, but I've decided to take someone dealing with an injury off the main cold list.

Daijo Bu

1. Na Yeon Choi: Still on the edge of LPGA greatness. Can she break through in the tour's 1st major of the year?

2. Brittany Lang: Needs to get back in the saddle again!

3. Jane Park: Hopefully that MC in Phoenix was just a blip.

4. Se Ri Pak: Is Pak back? All signs point to "yes"! If she ever puts together 4 good rounds in a row, watch out for her to join Karrie Webb in the Hall of Famer winner's circle this season.

5. Kristy McPherson is quietly assembling a solid start to her season, with 2 top 20s in a row and no finish worse than 31st. While other "daijo bu" candidates Seon Hwa Lee, Momoko Ueda, Meena Lee, Teresa Lu, and Mi Hyun Kim missed the cut in Phoenix, McPherson kept chugging along, definitively washing the taste of a disappointing late fall Asian Swing out of her mouth in the process. She keeps this up, and she won't be #8 in her rookie class much longer.

Honorable Mention: Lindsey Wright has put together 2 top 20s in a row and hasn't finished outside the top 30 in her last 4 starts. She started last season as the hottest Australian on the LPGA before suffering an injury, so looks like she's on the mend and on the comeback trail.

So with the KLPGA season kicking off soon, the JLPGA season getting into gear, and the LPGA taking two weeks off this month, this list will soon start looking a lot less LPGA-centric. We'll get a sneak peek at several of the top Korean and Japanese players at the KNC this week. Enjoy!