The Best of the Young Guns: Senior Standouts, June 2009 Edition

With the rookie class of 2009 rocking the Wegmans and Ji-Yai Shin getting her 2nd LPGA victory as a rookie (and 5th overall) last week, Hound Dog's suggestion that the reign of the rookie class of 2006 as the LPGA's best ever may be a short one is well taken. But even if the '09ers surpass the '06ers over the course of a single season, what about the long run? Let's put it this way: the Senior Standouts have 7 players in the million-dollar club in career winnings (and 3 more could get there by season's end). How many other rookie classes are that deep? We'll check in on their closest competition in the Young Guns generation--the Junior Mints--next month, but now let's take a closer look at the frontrunners.

Simply the Best

1. Seon Hwa Lee: She's suffering through the 1st so-so season of her career. But if she can just start hitting a few more greens per tournament, she could be back in the winner's circle any given week. Her putting's been pretty solid and has been improving of late, so she just needs to give herself more birdie chances to get back to contending. She's hitting an astounding 82.7% of her fairways and has average distance, so clearly it's time to work on her irons. Check out Happy Fan's career overview to see why I've put her at #1 in her class for what feels like forever.
2. Morgan Pressel: Isn't it so typical of golf that just as the swing changes you've been working on for a long time start to groove, your putter heads south? That was the story of Pressel's season until the Wegmans last week, when her putter came back online and she put herself in contention through 63 holes. But even though she's added distance this season (she's now averaging just over 240 yards off the tee), she's not quite accurate enough off the tee (her 74.1% average is down from 77.1% in 2008 and 76.7% in 2006, which is worse than it sounds because so many more players are hitting 70% or more of their fairways this year than in previous years) to compete with the LPGA's elite on a regular basis. Still, even with her disastrous final 9 at the Wegmans, she still hit over 78% of her fairways, so maybe she's on the right track for the rest of the season. It couldn't happen any sooner, as Jee Young Lee is ahead of her in every major statistical category except wins. So I'm going to go against both major ranking systems and keep Pressel at #2 in her class over her career--for now.
3. Jee Young Lee: Her driving stats are remarkably similar to Ya Ni Tseng's, but she's hitting far fewer greens and taking more putts than the best player among the Young Guns. I suspect she, like her namesake at the top of this list, needs to work on her approach shots. Why? So she can either move to #1 on my ranking of the best players on tour without a member win or get off it completely. Check out this profile by Brian Heard and career overview by Happy Fan to understand why Hound Dog and I are so high on her prospects.

The Contenders

4. Ai Miyazato: She's having the best season of any of the Senior Standouts thus far and still has loads of room for improvement. She's only put together 3 rounds in the mid-60s this season, despite being on in every aspect of her game, which helps explain why her ongoing 6-event top-20 streak only has 3 top 10s mixed in the stretch and why she hasn't been able to crack the top 3 just yet. I still think she made a mistake to go home to play in the Suntory Open and celebrate her birthday in Japan, but she should be fully recovered from jet lag and ready to contend from now on.
5. Brittany Lang: She's having the 2nd-best season of the Senior Standouts, is one of the best drivers on tour, and has been hitting a ton of greens, so she could win any week her putter gets hot. It wouldn't hurt to work on her irons, too. She should be making a lot more birdies than she has been this season and it can't all be her putter's fault.
6. Sun Young Yoo: This late bloomer continues to quietly impress this season. She's one of the better drivers on tour, is hitting a bunch of greens, and putting pretty well, so it was great to see her get her 2nd top 10 of the season last week at the Wegmans, breaking a 5-event string in which she struggled just to make cuts. Perhaps this is the start of another top-20 streak like the 5-event one she started the season with? Or something a bit more impressive? In any case, she deserves a promotion--her quantum leap has been made.

Quantum Leap Candidates

7. Meaghan Francella: She's finally healthy and playing well again. If she could capitalize more on her ability to hit fairways (she's doing so 77% of the time), she'll hit more greens, give herself better birdie chances, and start making more birdie putts. That 1.83 PPGIR rate needs improvement if she's going to contend for win #2 any time soon--or beat Teresa Lu and Kyeong Bae to the $1M mark in career winnings.
8. Teresa Lu: I think she's playing hurt, as she WDed from the Sybase and hasn't broken into the top 50 since. But if she ever gets her irons going, watch out for her. With a 1.87 PPGIR rate, she clearly isn't putting the ball close to the hole that often, but still is averaging 3.19 birdies per round, despite hitting the green in regulation 64.4% of the time. Brian Heard argues she's here to stay, and I agree.
9. Kyeong Bae: Finished 4th at the LPGA Championship, but a final-round 79 at the Wegmans torpedoed what had been a decent comeback from her 1st-round 74. If she could become a better wind and rain player, she'd be a lot more consistent, but when the weather's good, watch out for her. She's averaging 3.25 birdies per round despite hitting the fairway less often (just under 66% of the time) than she hits the green (just over 68% of the time) and averaging 1.85 PPGIR. If she's ranked this high when she's struggling as much as she has this season (and frankly, over much of her LPGA career), I wonder where she'll be when she starts realizing her potential?
10. Hye Jung Choi: Enduring the worst season of her LPGA career thus far, she needs to improve almost every aspect of her game. Minea Blomqvist is hot on her heels and showing signs of life.
11. Minea Blomqvist: She's still not hitting many greens this season, but is making a bunch of birdies, so watch out for her once her ballstriking improves, as it's bound to do soon.
12. Julieta Granada: She's finally got a decent run going, having made her last 3 cuts in a row, but unless she plays great the next 2 weeks, look for her to spend most of the summer in Europe, where she has full status on the LET.

On the Bottom Looking Up

13. Allison Fouch: After a hot 2008, she's enduring a cold 2009. She's only made 2 cuts since the Corona, and finished T68 both times. Just about every aspect of her game needs serious improvement.
14. Linda Wessberg: If Fouch has been cold this season, Wessberg has been frigid. She's played 3 events on the LET, but only sits at #66 on their money list. Still, she's made more money there than on the LPGA, where she's riding a 3-event missed cut streak and hasn't played since the Corning. As she isn't in the final field for the Farr, my guess is she's trying to find her game in Europe in hopes of qualifying for the Evian Masters and Women's British Open--and may stay there even if she doesn't.
15. Karin Sjodin: Having a fine 2009 stats-wise, if not yet results-wise. She's now Blomqvist's top competition for best Euro among the Senior Standouts.
16. Katie Futcher: I used to think of her as the Kristy McPherson of the Senior Standouts, but whereas McPherson has clearly made a quantum leap this season, Futcher has stalled out. A top 10 at the MasterCard Classic is the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal season thus far.
17. Louise Stahle: Has played terribly since her 1st career LPGA top 10 at the Sybase. She's trying to break a 3-event missed cut streak this week at the Farr.
18. Kim Hall: The 2nd half of the last 2 seasons, she nabbed a great finish out of the blue to allow her to keep her card, but I'd be amazed if she can pull the feat off this season.
19. Sarah Jane Smith: Has cracked the top 50 once in 10 starts in her 1st full season on the LPGA. Will need to do much better if she wants to have a 2nd.
20. Danielle Downey: I have to guess she's injured, as she hasn't played since late March, despite sitting pretty at #129 on the current priority status list.
21. Na Ri Kim: With Category 16 status, she has gotten into a few LPGA events already this season, but hasn't done anything special. In that, at least, she's been consistent. Still, she got into the Farr, so at least she gets to keep trying to play her way through her troubles.

On the Outside Looking In

22. Virada Nirapathpongporn: Recovering from shoulder surgery, she'll spend a lot of time on the Futures Tour in 2009. So far she's played 2 events and is languishing near the bottom of the money list. It's all practice for Q-School, unless her recovery proceeds quicker than expected.
23. Nina Reis: Playing the LET full-time in '09 and sits at #51 on their money list through 7 events.
24. Veronica Zorzi: Ditto, except she's at #34 in only 5 events.
25. Ashley Johnston: She's listed as a former member--guess she didn't get that medical exemption that she didn't use last season extended.

***

For your reference--and mine--here are the stats on which I'm basing the June ranking.

2009 LPGA Money List (rank), stroke average (rank), birdies per round average (rank [in total birdies]), greens in regulation rate (rank): I focus on four key indicators of how well someone is playing this season--how much money they've made, how they've scored, how many birdies they've averaged per round, and how many greens they've hit in regulation on average per round, plus how they rank in each category (except for birdies, which LPGA.com ranks by total and not by average). I figure I can figure out how well they're hitting their irons and putting by comparing the last three figures, so I don't include putts per green in regulation here. Some of the figures Hound Dog thinks are the most important I'm looking at in the career stats (below), where I think they belong. These stats are all about the present and future.

1. Ai Miyazato, $328.6K (#19), 70.84 (#10), 3.67 (#12), 70.3% (#15)
2. Brittany Lang, $286.0K (#20), 71.12 (#17), 3.38 (#9), 72.7% (#5)
3. Jee Young Lee, $260.5K (#24), 71.56 (#24), 3.67 (#7), 68.4% (#32)
4. Sun Young Yoo, $241.4K (#28), 71.26 (#18), 3.45 (#19), 70.4% (#13)
5. Seon Hwa Lee, $207.4K (#31), 71.35 (#19), 3.21 (#22), 67.1% (#42)
6. Meaghan Francella, $186.4K (#34), 72.24 (#44), 2.87 (#50), 67.4% (#40)
7. Kyeong Bae, $159.0K (#38), 72.88 (#73), 3.25 (#58), 68.2% (#33)
8. Morgan Pressel, $132.8K (#41), 71.76 (#28), 3.07 (#36), 65.7% (#59)
9. Teresa Lu, $131.9K (#42), 72.49 (#52), 3.19 (#26), 64.4% (#81)
10. Louise Stahle, $83.7K (#63), 72.69 (#64), 2.92 (#98), 69.6% (#23)
11. Minea Blomqvist, $75.2K (#69), 72.80 (#68), 3.35 (#28), 57.5% (#138)
12. Karin Sjodin, $70.2K (#75), 72.00 (#35), 3.46 (#66), 69.0% (#26)
13. Katie Futcher, $68.3K (#77), 73.68 (#106), 2.60 (#58), 62.5% (#99)
14. Hye Jung Choi, $52.2K (#87), 73.82 (#111), 1.94 (#114), 58.1% (#135)
15. Allison Fouch, $50.4K (#90), 74.55 (#132), 2.73 (#50), 65.4% (#63)
16. Julieta Granada, $27.3K (#112), 75.33 (#146), 2.33 (#106), 54.6% (#145)
17. Sarah Jane Smith, $18.5K (#123), 73.96 (#115), 2.65 (#108), 64.8% (#74)
18. Na Ri Kim, $16.9K (#126), 74.18 (#119), 2.71 (#137), 60.7% (#112)
19. Kim Hall, $10.8K (#135), 74.91 (#141), 2.44 (#127), 59.3% (#123)
20. Linda Wessberg, $8.1K (#139), 75.32 (#145), 2.10 (#141), 55.1% (#144)
21. Danielle Downey, $3.1K (#149), 76.38 (n.r.), ? (n.r.), ? (n.r.)

Career LPGA Money List (rank), # of LPGA events entered/majors/wins/top 3s/top 10s/top 20s/cuts made (made cut rate): About the only thing these stats are useful for is comparing people who entered the LPGA in the same year (although if you count generations by 3 years, it can be interesting). Between inflation, changing purses, and length/timing of careers, it's very hard to compare and contrast winnings across generations of LPGA greats. Fortunately the Senior Standouts haven't been at this all too long, so the career money list is a decent stat for comparing them, even if it's a bit unfair to people who have not been exempt both years. What would really be great is if we had a world money list in inflation-adjusted dollars, with inflation- and exchange-adjusted other cash denominations added in (or just totalled up separately to avoid comparing dollars and yen), which included all each golfer earned as a professional on any tour. But even the guys don't have that, so that'll have to remain a dream for now--although Thomas Atkins has posted an inflation-adjusted LPGA Career Top 50 as of the end of the 2008 season and a Top 50 ranking over at Hound Dog's place. In any case, I include these other ways of seeing how the Senior Standouts finished relative to their competition in the tournaments they entered because they reveal a lot about how well someone is able to compete at every level, from just making cuts to grinding out top 20s and top 10s to contending for wins. Many thanks to the LPGA for updating their 2009 Performance Chart after every event!

1. Seon Hwa Lee, $3.39M (#47), 98/0/4/10/25/50/91 (.929)
2. Jee Young Lee, $2.60M (#68), 91/0/0/7/27/51/85 (.934)
3. Morgan Pressel, $2.28M (#83), 85/1/2/6/24/40/73 (.859)
4. Julieta Granada, $2.17M (#87), 93/0/1/5/10/21/60 (.645)
5. Ai Miyazato, $2.06M (#89), 80/0/0/4/22/34/66 (.825)
6. Brittany Lang, $1.80M (#103), 94/0/0/4/20/38/72 (.766)
7. Sun Young Yoo, $1.29M (#134), 91/0/0/1/11/26/71 (.780)
8. Kyeong Bae, $.92M (#190), 85/0/0/2/8/14/60 (.706)
9. Teresa Lu, $.92M (#191), 81/0/0/1/6/19/60 (.741)
10. Meaghan Francella $.82M (#207), 64/0/1/1/6/12/39 (.609)
11. Minea Blomqvist, $.65M (#232), 70/0/0/1/3/8/47 (.671)
12. Hye Jung Choi, $.61M (#240), 65/0/0/0/7/11/44 (.677)
13. Karin Sjodin, $.49M (#270), 74/0/0/0/3/10/44 (.595)
14. Katie Futcher, $.45M (#278), 75/0/0/0/4/6/51 (.680)
15. Alison Fouch, $.43M (#281), 43/0/0/1/3/6/27 (.628)
16. Kim Hall, $.35M (#304), 67/0/0/1/3/4/28 (.418)
17. Linda Wessberg, $.34M (#310), 43/0/0/0/5/6/26 (.605)
18. Virada Nirapathpongporn, $.23M (#367), 57/0/0/0/1/4/28 (.491)
19. Nina Reis, $.23M (#369), 52/0/0/0/3/4/28 (.538)
20. Louise Stahle, $.14M (#429), 31/0/0/0/1/2/16 (.516)
21. Danielle Downey, $.14M (#430), 35/0/0/0/1/2/11 (.314)
22. Sarah Jane Smith, $.12M (#444), 28/0/0/0/1/3/11 (.393)
23. Na Ri Kim, $.11M (#457), 43/0/0/0/0/2/18 (.419)
24. Veronica Zorzi, $.09M (#488), 16/0/0/0/0/1/13 (.813)
25. Ashley Johnston, $.05M (#550), 13/0/0/0/0/0/6 (.462)

Other Career Measures: Rolex Ranking (as of 6/29/09) and rank, Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index (as of 6/28/09) and rank, International and Non-Member LPGA Wins (as of the end of the 2008 season): This is a way of seeing how those Senior Standouts who sometimes or regularly or often compete on other tours stack up over the course of their careers to date (the RR includes results over the past 104 weeks on the LPGA, LET, JLPGA, KLPGA, and Futures Tour; the GSPI includes results over the past 52 weeks on all these tours except the KLPGA).

1. Seon Hwa Lee, 3.75 (#16), 70.77 (#23); 3
2. Jee Young Lee, 3.33 (#20), 70.73 (#21); 2
3. Ai Miyazato, 2.96 (#27), 70.51 (#16); 14
4. Brittany Lang, 2.85 (#31), 70.88 (#26); 0
5. Morgan Pressel, 2.51 (#37), 71.66 (#44); 0
6. Sun Young Yoo, 2.50 (#38), 71.11 (#31); 0
7. Teresa Lu, 1.73 (#60), 71.89 (#57); 0
8. Minea Blomqvist, 1.39 (#71), 72.08 (#66); 5
9. Meaghan Francella, 1.31 (#77), 71.89 (#56); 0
10. Allison Fouch, 1.09 (#83), 73.50 (#157); 0
11. Kyeong Bae, 1.06 (#185), 73.40 (#212); 3
12. Hye Jung Choi, .84 (#108), 72.55 (#89); 1
13. Katie Futcher, .78 (#114), 72.26 (#76); 0
14. Louise Stahle, .72 (#123), 73.30 (#140); 0
15. Karin Sjodin, .59 (#141), 73.31 (#142); 1
16. Linda Wessberg, .55 (#151), 74.18 (#141); 6
17. Kim Hall, .54 (#153), 74.53 (#249); 0
18. Julieta Granada, .46 (#173), 74.29 (#224); 0
19. Sarah Jane Smith, .40 (#191), 73.21 (#134); 0
20. Danielle Downey, .35 (#204), 74.22 (#218); 0
21. Na Ri Kim, .29 (#226), 73.92 (#185); 0
22. Veronica Zorzi, .28 (#230), 74.15 (#206); 2
23. Nina Reis, .21 (#257), 73.66 (#168); 5
24. Virada Nirapathpongporn, .14 (#301), n.r. [too few events in database]; 0

FYI, here's the rest of my 2009 schedule:

July: Class of 2007 (pre-WBO)
August: Class of 2008 (post-Safeway)
September: Young Guns (post-Longs Drugs)
October: Class of 2006 (post-Korea)
November: Class of 2007 (post-Stanford)
December: Class of 2008 (post-Q School)
January '10: Young Guns (final 2009 ranking)

Dear Media: Women's Golf Cheat Sheet

Pssst. You there, golfy media. Want a few tips for understanding the world of women's professional golf? Here they are. You can make your editors and audiences think you've done a lot of homework just by knowing the following fun facts.

LPGA

Let's start with the most competitive and wealthiest women's tour in the world. You're going to have to stop writing stories that replace "Tiger Woods" with "Lorena Ochoa" (as in "Tiger Woods Lorena Ochoa is the most incredibly dominant golfer in the history of the planet" or "the era of Tiger Woods's Lorena Ochoa's incredible dominance may well be over") and instead dust off the stories from the late 1990s and early 2000s on the LPGA, when the "Big 4" of Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak, and Juli Inkster were winning like nobody's business. Because get this, see? There's now a Big 6 on the LPGA: Lorena Ochoa, Ji-Yai Shin, Ya Ni Tseng, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, and Suzann Pettersen. Guess which one of them was the 1st to get 2 wins this season. How about the 1st to make a million dollars? Time to focus on the rivalries among the LPGA's elite--and keep watch to see if anyone else can break into the new cartel on tour.

JLPGA

There's a fantastic face-off going on this season between 2 3-time winners, Sakura Yokomine and Shinobu Moromizato, both of whom have won as much or more money as everyone in the LPGA's Big 6 (depending on exchange rate calculations) except the current leader of the pack. But within striking distance of them on the money list are Yuko Mitsuka, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Chie Arimura, and Ji-Hee Lee, and lurking are Miho Koga, Akiko Fukushima, and Yuri Fudoh.

KLPGA

The rivalry between Hee Kyung Seo, who started the season hot, and So Yeon Ryu, who's come on strong with 3 wins in her last 4 starts, is what you need to know. But watch out for Ha Neul Kim, He Yong Choi, and Sun Ju Ahn to try to cut into their dance when the 2nd half of the season resumes.

Futures Tour

The rivalry between Mina Harigae and Jean Reynolds is the one to watch right now, as each has 2 wins and they're racing to see who can get the 1st battlefield promotion in FT history (not to mention finish at the top of the money list), but Misun Cho is hot on their heels and the tour's newest pros, most notably Pernilla Lindberg and Amanda Blumenherst, may still end up being a factor over the 2nd half of the season.

LET

I think you can make a case that the LET is the weakest of the major women's tours now. But check out their money list to see if Gwladys Nocera continues her hot play there and whether Melissa Reid can continue to challenge her over time. Note that Tania Elosegui is an LPGA rookie with very low status on tour, yet she's #4 on this season's LET money list, and try to figure out what that means.

With the U.S. Women's Open on the horizon, not to mention the Evian Masters, Women's British Open, and Solheim Cup, it's time to pan out for awhile and try to take in the big picture. Good luck!

[Update 1 (9:54 am): The SI guys need a special tutorial of their own. It's all well and good that Van Sickle was into Shin early and that Shipnuck thinks the LPGA is the most interesting tour, but they sure bring the stupid otherwise. Cheyenne Woods should avoid the Michelle Wie path b/c LPGA pros are a bunch of catty, jealous bitches? How about b/c she doesn't have 1/10 of Michelle's game and needs to develop as a player first before she can even think about making cuts on any professional tour? Wie missed the top 10 at the Wegmans? That's news to me. She got a very unexpected top 10 on a course that doesn't suit her game at all. Lincicome among the LPGA's elite? The Solheim Cup is a joke b/c it excludes most of the world's best women players? What a news flash! And now that the Lexus Cup is dead, there's even more impetus to reconfigure the Solheim. Wie as a great captain's pick for the Solheim Cup? Don't count out her earning her way onto the team just yet, boys. Everyone ahead of her on the list that's not already a lock for the team is either playing badly (Kim, Diaz), injured (Park), wildly inconsistent (Pressel, Lincicome, Hurst), or capable of playing great but a question mark to outplay Wie over the summer (Ward, Inkster). Heck, Stacy Lewis could make the team if she wins a major.]

[Update 2 (9:15 pm): The national media can take some lessons from the Buffalo News and Rochester Democrat and Chronicle during Wegmans week. If you read their entire coverage (as Jay Flemma failed to do), they did profiles on a range of players and not just the usual suspects. Would still be nice if they had done more before the tournament started on likely contenders like Ji-Yai Shin, In-Kyung Kim, and Ai Miyazato....]

Futures Tour Horseshoe Casino Classic Sunday: Reynolds Tames the Wind and Wins Again

For the 2nd week in a row, a showdown I expected between some of the Futures Tour's newest stars got preempted, but unlike last week when a relative unknown stole a win, this week it was a familiar name who took advantage of wind troubles by Misun Cho and Mina Harigae at the Horseshoe Casino Classic. The week's only 65-Club members both shot 79s today--and they only dropped to T2 and T4. So despite finishing +2 over her final 6 holes, it was Jean Reynolds who got win #2 of '09 and vaulted to the top of the FT money list.

Pornanong Phatlum's walkoff bogey kept her out of a playoff with Reynolds, but it was her best finish on tour and jumped her from #71 to #25 on the money list. With Haeji Kang playing so well at the Wegmans, it's looking more and more like my projected top 50 may well have problems at the top. I'm going to need for Kang, Sattayabanphot, Phatlum, and Jun to move out of the mid-20s to mid-30s doldrums on the money list when the tour returns to action in mid-July (assuming Kang, who now has over $100K in LPGA winnings this season, bothers to play any more FT events). And I'm going to need Emily Bastel, Eunjung Yi, and Sarah Kemp to actually start playing on tour this season.

Wegmans Sunday: Shin Wins Agin

Well, it probably took her longer than she expected, but Ji-Yai Shin got her 2nd win of 2009 and 5th LPGA victory in her short career at the Wegmans today, thanks to her ability to hold her game together in wet weather. Challengers Morgan Pressel and Stacy Lewis struggled to keep pace with her during the dryer parts of the day--both peaked at -13, Pressel when she birdied the 9th and Lewis when she birdied the 12th--but must have gotten wet grips or something, as they fell apart in the rain, Pressel by firing a 44 on the back and Lewis by closing with 2 pairs of bogeys over her last 6 holes. Not that it mattered much, as Shin fell from her peak of -18 after 10...all the way to -17 at the end of the day. But it did open the door for Ya Ni Tseng and Kristy McPherson to sneak into 2nd place with their matching 66s, the former with a 31 on the back and the latter thanks to 6 birdies and an eagle between the 3rd and 14th holes. And it allowed rookies Mika Miyazato and Haeji Kang to tie Lewis for 4th despite shooting unremarkable 71s.

With her win, Shin became the 1st player of 2009 to break the $1M barrier in official winnings (she'd have even more if the LPGA counted the winnings from her T13 at the Honda Thailand event, for which she had gotten a sponsor exemption into the limited field). Plus, she joins Lorena Ochoa as the only repeat winner on tour this season. And you know what? Like the rookies who have recently been getting their games in gear--in addition to Lewis, Miyazato, and Kang, Michelle Wie and Mindy Kim also got top 10s at Locust Hills--Shin has only recently found her sea legs on the LPGA. Now that she's putted the well the last few events, she's going to be tough to beat the rest of the season. With her peers among the game's elite in one form of trouble or another--Ochoa firing her long-time caddie, Paula Creamer nursing an injured thumb, Suzanne Pettersen fighting off a tough virus, Cristie Kerr being both very very good and horrid (often on the same side), and Ya Ni Tseng's lack of accuracy off the tee her Achilles heel--the rest of the LPGA's current Big 6 may not be Shin's toughest competitors in the short run. I'm looking at up-and-coming stars like Angela Stanford, In-Kyung Kim, Kristy McPherson, Lindsey Wright, Ai Miyazato, Na Yeon Choi, and Song-Hee Kim to give Shin the toughest run for her money in the early summer.

[Update 1 (6:27 pm): Hound Dog confirms that the weather changed in a big way at Pittsford. When onechan and I left the course, we passed a pissed-off looking Ya Ni Tseng heading to the 11th tee (little did I know she had just made her 1st of what would be 6 birdies on the back!) and we caught a glimpse of Ai Miyazato hitting a good approach shot into the 10th green. By the time we hit the Thruway, it was raining hard--and it kept raining unil we cleared Buffalo after 3:30, so we knew Rochester was going to be soaking for awhile. To tell you the truth, I half expected another 2-hour rain delay, but I guess the tournament organizers wanted to get this thing over with without any further delays. Can't say I blame them. We missed all the rain and I'm still exhausted. But more on our experiences in another post!]

[Update 2 (10:25 pm): LPGA.com has notes and interviews with Shin and Lewis. But no updates to their stats pages. Come on, y'all, the Futures Tour is quicker than you on this!]

[Update 3 (10:35 pm): Randall Mell does a good job putting Shin's win in perspective.]

[Update 4 (6/29/09, 9:10 am): Hound Dog does a great job putting the tournament in perspective.]

[Update 5 (8:35 pm): Ryan Ballengee revisits his earlier comparison of the challenges facing Lorena Ochoa and Ji-Yai Shin this season.]

[Update 6 (8:58 pm): Jay Flemma is fed up with the media focus on Wie, and his critique of the Buffalo News piece that annoyed him is mostly spot on, but he's dead wrong on his central point: that there's no "there" there with Wie. A T10 for her is a big deal on a tight, tree-lined course like Locust Hills. When you hit as few fairways as she does, you'd think just making the cut would have been a good goal. Before the tournament started I said I'd be "amazed" if she broke into the top 15--and I am. So I respectfully disagree with Flemma's assessment of where Wie's game is headed. But Jay, Rochester is a city and the field was missing only a few top players. I wonder what you'd make of the fact that I got double my usual number of visits this past week because everyone wanted to find out about how Cheyenne Woods did?]

Way to Go, Ryo!

Ryo Ishikawa won this week on the JGTO, qualifying for the British Open in the process. Maybe his game is finally coming back around after his struggles in the States?

[Update 1 (10:44 pm): Stupid jet lag! John Strege beat me by a couple of hours on this.]

Promise Ladies Sunday: Moromizato Wins Going Away for Her Own JLPGA Hat Trick

Many of the JLPGA's finest went low Sunday at the Promise Ladies, but to no avail. Miki Saiki shot a 67, Yuri Fudoh and Saiki Fujita 66s, and Sakura Yokomine a 65, but they all lost ground to Shinobu Moromizato, who matched Friday's 64 to finish at -18 and win by 5 shots over Ji-Hee Lee, who shot a fine 68 of her own. Wire-to-wire winner Moromizato now joins Yokomine as the only 3-time winners on tour in 2009.

Here are the final results:

1st/-18 Shinobu Moromizato (64-70-64)
2nd/-13 Ji-Hee Lee (67-68-68)
3rd/-12 Sakura Yokomine (70-69-65)
4th/-10 Saiki Fujita (71-69-66)
5th/-9 Miki Saiki (69-71-67)
T6/-8 Yuri Fudoh (71-71-66), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-70-69)
T8/-7 Chie Arimura (72-68-69), Rui Kitada (70-69-70), Junko Omote (71-67-71), Yuko Mitsuka (70-67-72), Yui Kawahara (66-70-73)

13th/-6 Rikako Morita (71-70-69)
T14/-5 Yuko Saitoh (73-70-68), Eun-A Lim (71-68-72), Miho Koga (70-69-72)
T20/-3 Mayu Hattori (71-72-70), Tamie Durdin (70-71-72)
T23/-2 Akiko Fukushima (73-71-70), Sakurako Mori (72-72-70), Li-Ying Ye (72-70-72), Mie Nakata (72-70-72)
T28/-1 Ji-Woo Lee (70-72-73)
T34/E Kumiko Kameda (70-76-72)
T41/+1 Yukari Baba (74-72-71), Akane Iijima (72-73-72), Yun-Jye Wei (67-78-72)
T48/+2 Hiromi Mogi (76-68-74), Erina Hara (71-72-75)

Moromizato's win makes the money list race a tight one again:

1. Sakura Yokomine ￥75.78M
2. Shinobu Moromizato ￥72.38M
3. Yuko Mitsuka ￥52.38M
4. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥47.04M
5. Chie Arimura ￥38.88M
6. Ji-Hee Lee ￥37.18M
7. Yuko Saitoh ￥29.90M
8. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥27.36M
9. Ayako Uehara ￥26.98M
10. Eun-A Lim ￥25.99M
11. Tamie Durdin ￥24.90M
12. Erina Hara ￥24.13M
13. Miho Koga ￥23.26M
14. Akiko Fukushima ￥22.49M
15. Yuri Fudoh ￥21.38M
16. Rui Kitada ￥20.11M
17. Li-Ying Ye ￥19.56M
18. Yukari Baba ￥18.22M
19. Ji-Woo Lee ￥18.00M
20. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥15.61M
21. Miki Saiki ￥14.52M
22. Bo-Bae Song ￥14.23M
23. Saiki Fujita ￥13.63M
24. Hiromi Mogi ￥13.54M
25. Julie Lu ￥12.15M
26. Mie Nakata ￥12.15M
27. Akane Iijima ￥12.06M
28. Rikako Morita ￥11.87M
29. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥11.09M
30. Midori Yoneyama ￥10.73M

Futures Tour Horseshoe Casino Classic Saturday: Cho 1-ups Harigae

Misun Cho matched Mina Harigae's 1st-round 65 today on the Futures Tour to take a 2-shot lead into the final round, thanks in part to a walkoff bogey by the tour's money list leader that erased her birdie on the previous hole. Hannah Jun shot a 65 of her own to remain 4 behind Cho, tied with Janell Howland (66), Stephanie Otteson (67), Tzu-Chi Lin (70), and Sara Brown (71). FT #2 Jean Reynolds is one of the few other players within 5 shots of the leader after she backed up yesterday's 69 with a 71, but as she again started hot (with 3 birdies in her 1st 4 holes), she has to be frustrated with her play on the majority of the course. Also 5 back is new pro Jennie Lee, who leapfrogged Pornanong Phatlum, Song Yi Choi, Seo-Jae Lee, and Samantha Richdale with a hot 67. Tiffany Joh made her 1st professional cut, and she's tied with Alison Walshe and Jane Chin at +2, so that's not half bad. It'll be interesting to see if anyone can go low and preempt a Cho-Harigae showdown tomorrow.

[Update 1 (6/28/09, 10:00 am): Lisa Mickey has lots of player reactions to their rounds yesterday in her game story, plus some tales from the casino.]

Wegmans Saturday: Shin Pulls Away from Lewis and Pressel

At the end of play in round 2 Saturday morning at the Wegmans, 4-time LPGA winner Ji-Yai Shin held a 1-shot lead on a resurgent Morgan Pressel and Stacy Lewis, 2 rising American stars who have struggled more than many expected early in their professional careers. And after Lewis eagled the par-5 11th to get to -12, pulling 1 shot ahead of Pressel, who shot a 34 on the front, it looked like Shin was going to be in a dogfight, even with her pair of birdies to open the back that got her to -13. But she reeled off 3 more in her final 6 holes to post a 32 and open up a 4-shot lead on Pressel, who only made 1 more over her last 10 holes, and a 5-shot lead on Lewis, who bogeyed the 18th (following up her double there in the 1st round).

Sure, fellow rookie Haeji Kang bounced back from a 2nd-round 75 with 4 straight birdies to close out her round for a 31 on the front and 65 on the day, but nobody else made up ground on the 2nd-round leader on a moving day that was perfect for scoring. Sure, Lindsey Wright (-10, T4), Mika Miyazato (-8, T7), Brittany Lincicome (-4, T21) didn't lose any ground to Shin, but even those who shot 68s today (Ji Young Oh, In-Kyung Kim, Wendy Ward, and Irene Cho) did, and many lost far more than them. Scores were surprisingly high, particularly for Natalie Gulbis (74), Jee Young Lee (75), Michelle Wie (75), Lindsey Wright (76), Jane Park (78), and Amanda Blumenherst (79). Cheyenne Woods's 75-74 missed cut is looking better and better by the hour, eh?

Onechan and I followed Mika Miyazato's group from the 1st through 4th tees and Ai Miyazato's from the 4th through 8th before I had to give in to her demands to play at the Sports Zone. More on our experiences walking the front in a separate post, but I was sure glad to see that Ai-chan could finally get some birdie putts to drop late in her round. She made some great par saves while we were watching her, but missed a real short one on the 4th and a makeable one on the 7th.

As I sign off on this post, please follow my advice and check out Cristie Kerr's scorecard. Which Kerr will show up tomorrow?

[Update 1 (7:50 pm): Hound Dog, who got to watch the tv coverage this afternoon, adds important details to my post. Onechan's still sleeping from our early afternoon nap and I didn't get up until 6:30!]

[Update 2 (8:03 pm): More recommended reading, this time the notes and interviews from LPGA.com. The interviews with Shin, Pressel, and Lewis were hilarious. Sounds like they had a great time playing together today.]

[Update 3 (8:37 pm): Ben Dobbin does a good job for the AP.]

Wegmans Update: Creamer WDs

Was just checking the LPGA.com leaderboard for the Wegmans as onechan and I get ready to meet Grandpa Bob and Grandma Joy at Locust Hill, and noticed that Paula Creamer had withdrawn from the tournament. Will try to get the story from on-site.... We're heading out now--should be there by 10:30 at the latest!

[Update 1 (7:54 pm): My dad said at the course she injured her thumb and I've seen that repeated in print. Don't know if it's a nagging thing or if it just happened. No idea now whether she'll pull out from the Farr to rest it before the Open....]

Promise Ladies Saturday: Lee and Mitsuka Make Up Ground on Moromizato

Moving day at the Promise Ladies saw many big moves, but none was bigger than Yuko Mitsuka's finish over her last 6 holes in which she made 5 birdies, posting a 67 to get to solo 4th and pull within striking distance of the leader, Shinobu Moromizato, who broke her 35-hole bogey-free run on the final hole to drop back to -10 for the tournament. Ji-Hee Lee, playing with Moromizato, made up 2 big shots on her with a bogey-free 68 (her only bogey in the tournament came on the 18th yesterday), while Junko Omote made up 3 shots. Others saw strong play sabotaged by late struggles. Sakura Yokomine fired a 32 on the front to move to -6, but parred out after bogeying the 10th, Miho Koga made 6 birdies in her middle 9 holes, but also bogeyed the 10th and 18th, and Mi-Jeong Jeon doubled her last hole to drop back to -5. On the flip side, Chie Arimura made 5 birdies in her last 10 holes to pull within 1 of them, while Hiromi Mogi made 4 in her last 7 to ensure she made the cut.

Here's how they stand heading into the final round:

1st/-10 Shinobu Moromizato (64-70)
2nd/-9 Ji-Hee Lee (67-68)
3rd/-8 Yui Kawahara (66-70)
4th/-7 Yuko Mitsuka (70-67)
5th/-6 Junko Omote (71-67)
T6/-5 Eun-A Lim (71-68), Aoi Nagata (71-68), Sakura Yokomine (70-69), Miho Koga (70-69), Rui Kitada (70-69), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-70), Ai Nishikawa (69-70)

T13/-4 Chie Arimura (72-68), Saiki Fujita (71-69), Miki Saiki (69-71)
T17/-3 Rikako Morita (71-70), Tamie Durdin (70-71)
T23/-2 Li-Ying Ye (72-70), Mie Nakata (72-70), Yuri Fudoh (71-71), Ji-Woo Lee (70-72)
T34/-1 Yuko Saitoh (73-70), Erina Hara (71-72), Mayu Hattori (71-72)
T41/E Hiromi Mogi (76-68), Akiko Fukushima (73-71), Sakurako Mori (72-72)
T45/+1 Akane Iijima (72-73), Yun-Jye Wei (67-78)
T50/+2 Yukari Baba (74-72), Kumiko Kameda (70-76)

58 players made the cut, but not the following notables:

T66/+4 Ah-Reum Hwang (74-74)
T74/+5 Julie Lu (75-74), Nikki Campbell (73-76), Yuki Ichinose (70-79)
T79/+6 Mai Arai (79-71), Maiko Wakabayashi (77-73), Ai-Yu Tu (74-76)
T92/+8 Esther Lee (78-74)
WD Midori Yoneyama (75-WD)

With 12 players within 5 shots of the leader, this promises to be a barnburner tomorrow!

Futures Tour Horseshoe Casino Classic Friday: Harigae Drops 65 on Field

Mina Harigae fired a bogey-free 65 today at the Futures Tour's Horseshoe Casino Classic to take the lead among the early groups. But Jean Reynolds, who trails Harigae by less than $4000 on the money list, has already birdied 3 of her 1st 4 holes to pull into a tie for 3rd at the moment. Further down the leaderboard, Tiffany Joh got her 1st birdie of the day on the par-5 16th to fight back to +1 (T43 right now). As long as play is suspended at the Wegmans, I'll update this post every so often.

[Update 1 (3:38 pm): Well, dang it, they just started play again at the Wegmans! While the girls are sleeping, I'll do some double not-quite-live-blogging, then.]

[Update 2 (4:03 pm): Reynolds is now -4 through 6.]

[Update 3 (4:11 pm): Joh finished with 2 pars for a 73. Beth Ann Baldry has a nice little piece on Harigae that gets into the specifics of what a 3rd win on tour would mean, in terms of the battlefield promotion rule new this season for entry into LPGA events.]

[Update 4 (4:25 pm): Had never heard of Christina Jones, who shot a 68 today. Well, she's never made a cut or even broken 75 in her 7 previous events as a rookie this season, so there's a reason for that.]

[Update 5 (11:18 pm): Whoops, fell asleep and then got caught up in LPGA blogging. Here's how they finished the 1st round. Joh ended up tied with Pernilla Lindberg and Alison Walshe, in the pile-up at T40. Reynolds couldn't sustain her pace and ended up with a 69 (T5), only 1 shot better than Misun Cho, who came back for a 70 (T9). Hound Dog will be disappointed to hear that lefty Malinda Johnson had to withdraw with an injury. Lisa Mickey has the story on Harigae's record-setting round.]

Wegmans Friday: Rain, Rain, Go Away!

What to do during the 2-hour-plus weather delay at the Wegmans? Check out the Democrat and Chronicle's live blog, the tournament's webcast (the McPherson-Lincicome-Gulbis segment was excellent, as was the Friday noon segment), and look at some scorecards.

Ji-Yai Shin joined Sandra Gal at -9 with her 2nd straight birdie of the day, while Brittany Lang has made 4 birdies in her 1st 6 holes and fought back to -3 for the tournament before the 2nd rain delay of the day (still ongoing) kicked in. Carolina Llano has made 3 birdies and no bogeys through her 1st 12 holes to fight back to E.

Right now there are 82 players at +1 or better. Hopefully we'll see major comebacks by Cristie Kerr, Seon Hwa Lee, Hee-Won Han, and Jeong Jang, all of whom tied Cheyenne Woods yesterday, when play begins again.

[Update 1 (3:54 pm): Looks like I'll be double not-quite-live-blogging this afternoon while the girls are asleep. Mina Harigae just shot a 65 on the Futures Tour, but #2 on tour Jean Reynolds is off to a hot start. At Pittsford, the afternoon groups won't start playing till 5-ish and the last players won't tee off till 7-ish, so it's looking like onechan and I will be able to see lots of Ai-chan and others tomorrow. We plan to have an early breakfast with my folks, convince them to use their free tickets and join us in the morning, then last as long as we can into the afternoon until jet lag kicks in. Maybe I'll let onechan nap near a green somewhere and watch a bunch of groups go by. Gotta study that course map!]

[Update 2 (4:13 pm): She probably won't match yesterday's closing 31 on the back today, but Michele Redman has 2 birdies in her 1st 7 holes there and has crept within 2 of the co-leaders.]

[Update 3 (4:17 pm): After 7 straight pars on the front, Mika Miyazato just birdied the par-5 8th to join Jennifer Rosales, Alena Sharp, and Sarah Kemp at -4.]

[Update 4 (4:27 pm): Ouch. Redman bogeyed the eagle-able par-5 17th to drop back to -6.]

[Update 5 (4:31 pm): Seon Hwa Lee remains at +3 after 8 straight pars on the back. She heads to the long par-4 18th, the site of her 3rd bogey of the day yesterday. She needs to get to +1 at least to make the cut. Momoko Ueda bogeyed 3 in a row on the back, then failed to birdie the 17th, to fall to +3 for the tournament, as well. But she made 2 good pars on the tough 18th and 1st holes, so here's hoping she starts putting up more circles on her scorecard. I would really love to follow her with onechan for a few holes on the weekend!]

[Update 6 (4:39 pm): Rosales birdied the par-3 7th to get to -5! Her 69 yesterday, by the way, was the first time she broke 70 all season. Same thing happened last season, too. That kick-started a run at the top 80 in which she made 7 of her last 8 cuts, but finished 82nd b/c the MC came in her last event of the season. I'd love to see her make a bigger comeback this year. I want to hear Johnny Miller say, "J Ro is back!"]

[Update 6 (4:44 pm): Oh, man! Redman bogeyed 18, too, to fall back to a tie with Rosales at -5. That puts them 5 behind Gal, who just birdied the 10th to take the solo lead again.]

[Update 7 (8:11 pm): Whoa, there! Imoto got up from her nap, but she looked so tired I put her down and laid down with her to help her sleep--and wham! I was out for 3 hours-plus. And so much happened while I was sleeping. Let's start at the bottom. Song-Hee Kim went on a birdie barrage to close out her round on the front, making 5 in her last 8 holes for a 69 that brought her to +2. She won't know if she's made the cut until tomorrow, though, as there are 77 players at +1 or better as the sun gets low. With her on the bubble are Mi Hyun Kim (72), Paula Creamer (+1 through 9), Jane Park (+1 through 11), Candie Kung (+2 through 11), Julieta Granada (-2 through 7), and Cheyenne Woods (-1 through 8), among others. Definitely out are Llano, who bogeyed 3 of her last 6 holes to fall back to a 72 today, Momoko Ueda, Hee Young Park, Shanshan Feng, and Anna Rawson--all at +3--as well as Katherine Hull, who shot a 41 on the back for a 77 that brought her to +4. Still fighting are Moira Dunn, who's -2 through her 1st 8 on the back to get back to +3, Hee-Won Han, who needs to make at least 2 birdies in her last 6 holes, and Jeong Jang, who needs at least 3 in her last 6.]

[Update 8 (8:18 pm): Man, imoto woke up, but at least she's playing quietly next to me. Let's continue with those who made the cut or who are on the right side of the cut line right now. Seon Hwa Lee birdied her last 2 holes--the 8th and 9th--for a 70 that brought her back to +1. What a way to avoid her 3rd missed cut of the season--a big deal for someone who had only missed 5 in her previous 3 seasons. On the bubble in a good way are Jane Park now (E through 12), Vicky Hurst (-1 through 11), Christina Kim (-2 through 10), and 4 others still on the front. But add Anna Nordqvist to those on the bubble in a bad way: she's now +2 through 11....]

[Update 9 (8:28 pm): There are several players still on the course who need to finish well to move from making the cut to thinking about making a move tomorrow on the leaders. Ya Ni Tseng is -1 through 10 and Inbee Park is -2 through 12 to fight back to E, joining Minea Blomqvist (74), Aree Song (73), and Chella Choi (69) among others. Cristie Kerr is -4 through 10, Karrie Webb is -1 through 10, In-Kyung Kim is -1 through 10, and Amanda Blumenherst is E through 9--they're all at -1 for the tournament, tied with Jee Young Lee (69), Helen Alfredsson (73), and Amy Yang (73). Ai Miyazato is -3 through 11, Natalie Gulbis is -2 through 11, Lindsey Wright is -2 through 13, and Se Ri Pak is E through 13, bringing them all to -3 for the tournament and into a tie with Na Yeon Choi (72), Mika Miyazato (72), and Haeji Kang (+1 through 7).]

[Update 10 (8:38 pm): That brings those with a great shot to be in contention Sunday up to bat. Sun Young Yoo is -3 through 13 to get to -4 for the tournament, tied with Alena Sharp, who shot her 2nd straight 70. Lang ended up shooting a 66 (with a 34 on the back) to join Meaghan Francella (68) and Sarah Kemp (70). And Kristy McPherson is -1 through 12, pulling her even with Rosales (69) at -6. If you can't get excited about the bunch at -7, you can't get excited about golf. Michelle Wie is -4 through 10, Stacy Lewis is -3 through 14, and McPherson has now joined them in a tie with 1st-round leader Sandra Gal, who blew up to a 73 after getting it to -11 through 11 today. Replaying last year's role as a pre-weekend contender, Morgan Pressel is -4 through 13 to get to -8, but she'll need to pour it on tomorrow to bring Ji-Yai Shin into reach. The rookie with 4 LPGA victories already shot a great 68, making 3 birdies over her last 6 holes to take control of the tournament.]

[Update 11 (8:43 pm): So with play suspended, there are 78 golfers at +1 or better. Cheyenne Woods just birdied the 10th to be one of them. But Moira Dunn bogeyed both the 18th and the 1st to drop back to E on her day and +5 for the tournament. Defending champ Eun-Hee Ji birdied 2 of her last 5 holes to fight back to +6 with 5 left to play. She'll need to birdie out to make the cut, it looks like. Here's hoping all have great Saturday mornings!]

[Update 12 (6/27/09, 2:20 pm): Check out LPGA.com's notes and interviews--turns out Shin set a 36-hole scoring record.]

[Update 13 (7:47 pm): Hound Dog chronicles how the 2nd round went Friday evening and Saturday morning.]

Promise Ladies Friday: Shinobu Moromizato Goes Low

Yes, Sakura Yokomine is both the hottest and best player on the JLPGA right now. But Shinobu Moromizato is looking to become the tour's 2nd 3-time winner of 2009 this week at the Promise Ladies, thanks to her opening bogey-free 64. But the top of the leaderboard is packed with players looking to get their 2nd win of the season. Ji-Hee Lee is only 3 back (and would have been 1 closer without that walkoff bogey), Mi-Jeong Jeon is 5 behind, and Yuko Mitsuka and Tamie Durdin are 6 back, along with Yokomine herself and Miho Koga, who's still looking for her 1st win of the season.

Here's how the top 10 and notables stand heading into the weekend:

1st/-8 Shinobu Moromizato (64)
2nd/-6 Yui Kawahara (66)
T3/-5 Ji-Hee Lee, Yun-Jye Wei (67)
T5/-3 Mi-Jeong Jeon, Miki Saiki, Hiromi Takesue, Orie Fujino, Ai Nishikawa (69)
T10/-2 Sakura Yokomine, Yuko Mitsuka, Miho Koga, Tamie Durdin, Ji-Woo Lee, Rui Kitada, Yuki Ichinose, Kumiko Kameda, and 5 others

There are some big names who will need to make big moves tomorrow to get into contention.

T23/-1 Yuri Fudoh, Eun-A Lim, Erina Hara, Saiki Fujita, Rikako Morita, Mayu Hattori (71)
T37/E Chie Arimura, Akane Iijima, Li-Ying Ye, Mie Nakata, Sakurako Mori (72)
T53/+1 Akiko Fukushima, Yuko Saitoh, Nikki Campbell (73)

And there will be others struggling just to make the cut.

T62/+2 Ah-Reum Hwang, Yukari Baba, Ai-Yu Tu (74)
T73/+3 Midori Yoneyama, Julie Lu (75)
T83/+4 Hiromi Mogi (76)
T91/+5 Maiko Wakabayashi (77)
T96/+6 Esther Lee (78)
T100/+7 Mai Arai (79)

I'm already missing the Chiba TV coverage of the JLPGA. That 407-yard 18th hole is looking like a monster finishing hole. Back in Dunkirk, we don't even have basic cable hooked up.

WAPL Update: Kimberly Kim and Jennifer Song in Final 4 Finals

There have been lots of match play upsets at the Women's Amateur Public Links. Stephanie Kono, who beat Tiffany Lua 2 and 1 in the Round of 32, narrowly lost to Jisoo Park in the Round of 16. Advantage Lizette Salas, the other big name in the bracket, right? Well, she got beat by Cydney Clanton in the same round. In the battle of underdogs, Park made it to the final 4 with her 2nd straight 1-up win. Joanna Coe has been the giant killer in the other upset bracket. She beat Leanne Bowditch on the 19th hole in the Round of 16, then topped Sydney Michaels (who had just won a tough match against Whitney Neuhauser in the previous round) to get into the final 4. So it'll be Jennifer Song against Park and Kimberly Kim against Coe to decide who will face off in a 36-hole showdown tomorrow. Some great golf being played here. The rounds start in a few minutes....

[Update 1 (11:10 pm): Awesome! We have a Kim-Song showdown, after all. Song won 2 and 1 and Kim won 4 and 3!]

[Update 2 *6/27/09, 8:30 pm): Congratulations to Jennifer Song on her dominating win at the WAPL!]

[Update 2 (6/27/09, 1:28 am): T-Joh sets up the showdown as only she can.]

Wegmans Thursday: It Was a Hot and Stormy Day...

Sorry about the title, I just pictured Snoopy up there on his dog house typing the lead story on the Wegmans' incomplete 1st round yesterday. Take it as an example of what jet lag can do to you (in addition to my enjoying far too much the Speed Racer movie I watched and the putt-putt computer game I played while the girls were sleeping for most of the flight from Narita to Chicago). Anyway, there are tons of post-round interviews out there for what seems like half the players who completed their rounds--30 are going out in less than 3 and a half hours to do so. Me, I need to convince the girls to finally stay in bed and then get some sleep. You need to check out Brent Kelley's take on Cheyenne Woods's 1st LPGA round and Hound Dog's reminder about what's at stake this week for those pros whose seasons haven't been going quite as planned as yet.

[Update 1 (12:03 pm): Hound Dog gives you the overnight results. Among those playing well yesterday who finished this morning, Becky Lucidi stayed at -6 for the lowest round of her LPGA career, Sarah Kemp moved to -3, and Sarah Lee stayed at E.]

[Update 2 (2:42 pm): Funny piece by Jay Busbee on Cheyenne Woods's 1st round.]

U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Update

Hey all, on the road to Dunkirk today, so to speak, but feast your eyes on the live match play tree for the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links. Here's how those who made it that far got there via the 36-hole stroke play part of the competition. (Note the huge comebacks by Sydnee Michaels, Kimberly Kim, Tiffany Lua, Yueer Cindy Feng, Ashley Medders, Jennifer Hahn, Jisoo Park, Sarah Brown, and Mary Carmody.) While I'm away, you can follow the coverage at Golfweek and expect Ryan Herrington to cover this over at The Campus Insider. The Kono-Lua showdown should be awesome, as should the Caroline Kim-Kimberly Kim match.

I was halfway hoping Tiffany Joh, who recently rejoined the golfoblogosphere at The UnderDog Diaries, would remain an amateur long enough to go for her 2nd win in a row in this national championship. But, no, she's competing in her 2nd event as a professional and trying to make her 1st cut (and more) over on the Futures Tour this week. Go, T-Joh!

News Flash: Michelle Wie Says Something Smart

One of the reasons I blog so much about women's golf is to keep a record of my reactions to the ways in which women golfers, particularly those of Asian descent, are represented by fans, critics, and the media. One of the things that's bothered me the most about the public image of Michelle Wie, who remains a lightning rod almost halfway into her 1st season as an LPGA member, is the way in which her critics try to present her as a ditzy, spoiled teenager. Well, I have news for those who don't understand what getting into Stanford means. Michelle is smart. Check out what she said in the pre-tournament interviews for the Wegmans:

I always feel like if you hit the ball well, if you putt well, and if you are playing good, you can play good on any type of golf course. And that's how I want my golf game to be. I don't want my game to just be suited for a certain type of golf course. Because golf is going to take you in places that maybe you aren't feeling as comfortable, or maybe, you know, you can't hit the driver 14 times. But you know, you have to adapt to the situation. You have to adapt to the environment. I really want my game to be at a place where I feel comfortable playing on any type of golf course.

Here she acknowledges that Locust Hill doesn't exactly suit her game as it stands now--how could a course with tree-lined, tight fairways, thick rough, and small greens suit someone who's keeping it out of the rough less than 58% of the time off the tee and hitting less than 66% of her greens in regulation?--but expresses the aspiration to get it to the point where she feels comfortable playing it.

I'll still be amazed if Wie breaks into the top 15 this week, but I'm more and more convinced that she's got her head in the right place and working to make herself into a more complete golfer.

Wegmans LPGA Preview/Predictions/Pairings

The Wegmans is finally here, and the Constructivist family will be back in western NY in time to catch some weekend action at Locust Hills in person. I had a great time blogging the tournament last year, which started on Ai Miyazato's birthday, featured great players going in different directions Friday, a big Saturday decision for me and my family--resulting in my 1st attendance at an LPGA event since I was a kid and 1st-ever post about my kids' 1st-ever LPGA tournament--and a surprise win for Eun-Hee Ji over Suzann Pettersen on Sunday.

As usual, Hound Dog is the place to start for this year's tournament preview and list of the 20 hottest LPGA golfers coming into the event. But the local media coverage will also be excellent this year, from the Democrat and Chronicle's articles to the tournament webcast. If you're going to the tournament or playing the PakPicker this week, don't miss Sal Maiorana's tour of Locust Hill, Golf Observer's performance chart for those in the field, the Weather Channel's 10-Day Forecast for Pittsford, and the discussion at Seoul Sisters.com.

As for me, I'm going with the precision players this week, but maybe in a different order than many might expect:

1. Shin Ji-Yai
2. Miyazato Ai
3. Kim In-Kyung
4. Wright
5. McPherson
6. Ji
7. Han
8. Kerr
9. Creamer
10. Lee Seon Hwa
11. Pressel
12. Miyazato Mika

Alts: Park Inbee, Kim Song-Hee, Kim Mi Hyun

The pairings are especially well done this week. Amanda Blumenherst is 1st off the 10th with fellow Dukie Anna Grzebien, followed by Cheyenne Woods. Central NYer Moira Dunn is going off opposite Woods on the front side. But the prime-time pairings are a sight to behold. Probably the most recognizable players are going off the 10th tee in the late morning:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Lindsey Wright
Jeong Jang
Jane Park

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Morgan Pressel
Vicky Hurst
Kristy McPherson

Start Time: 8:54 AM
Natalie Gulbis
Brittany Lincicome
Eun-Hee Ji

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Karrie Webb
Cristie Kerr
Ya Ni Tseng

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Michelle Wie
Paula Creamer
In-Kyung Kim

I'm just hoping Jang's wrist is well enough for her to actually tee it up tomorrow. (I'm worried it's in about the same state Leta Lindley's back was in before the Corning, which she pulled out of after fulfilling all her defending champion responsibilities). If Jang does play, her pairing would be among those I'd be most interested in following if I weren't going to be crossing the Pacific during the 1st round. But the one I'm most excited about is going off the back in the early afternoon:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Teresa Lu
Brittany Lang
Katherine Hull

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Young Kim
Meg Mallon
Lorie Kane

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Rachel Hetherington
Louise Friberg
Laura Diaz

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Jee Young Lee
Mika Miyazato
Sandra Gal

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Na Yeon Choi
Amy Yang
Ji-Yai Shin

Yup, that last trio: it might just have the 3 most talented players of Korean descent in the last 2 rookie classes. Going off the 1st tee in the late morning are 2 Korean greats they're looking to surpass someday:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Se Ri Pak
Hee-Won Han
Stacy Lewis

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Candie Kung
Inbee Park
Sun Young Yoo

Start Time: 8:54 AM
Wendy Ward
Nicole Castrale
Anna Nordqvist

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Pat Hurst
Meena Lee
Ai Miyazato

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Kyeong Bae
Christina Kim
Soo-Yun Kang

I really like putting Lewis with Pak and Han--great learning experience for her and more American exposure for them. The last of the top Korean players of the trailblazing generation in the field (Grace Park is still recovering from hip surgery) can be found at the end of the early afternoon pairings on the front side:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Meaghan Francella
Jimin Kang
Hee Young Park

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Stacy Prammanasudh
Ji Young Oh
Momoko Ueda

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Brandie Burton
Silvia Cavalleri
Amy Hung

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Helen Alfredsson
Michele Redman
Seon Hwa Lee

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Song-Hee Kim
Leta Lindley
Mi Hyun Kim

It's a great deal for Song-Hee Kim to be paired with such cool veterans as Mi Hyun Kim and Leta Lindley. Hopefully she can learn a few pointers about winning LPGA tournaments from them.

If anyone's going to be at the Wegmans on the weekend and wants to meet up, let me know.

Condolences to the Dunn Family

Just heard from my folks that Moira Dunn's father, Richard F. Dunn, passed away June 19 at the age of 79. Mostly Harmless regulars know that Moira's an old friend of mine going back to our junior golf days in central NY. We were paired together in my 1st tournament (I believe we tied) and I had one of my best rounds of college golf at Cedar Lake, the course she grew up playing. Moira hasn't pulled out of the Wegmans this week, evidently deciding to honor her dad's memory by playing the game they both love, just as she has done since 1995 as a professional. Onechan and I will be going to Locust Hill for the 2nd year in a row (imoto-less, as our cute little 3-year-old is still convinced her rebelliousness is hilarious), so I hope to catch up with Moira on the weekend to pass along my condolences personally. If all goes well, we'll be back home late Thursday night (or early Friday morning) and driving to Pittsford Saturday morning. Here's hoping Moira plays great while grieving.

Tiger Woods Sparks International Incident

Young girls and otaku all over Japan are petitioning anime fan and Prime Minister Taro Aso to issue a formal protest to the USGA for the U.S. Open coverage on TV Asahi preempting Fresh Pretty Cure Sunday morning. A 3-year-old asked for comment screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Her older sister, 5, had a different reaction. "Didn't we watch it?" she asked. When it was explained to her that we had watched a taped show from the previous weekend, she didn't seem that concerned. When asked to give her reaction to being able to watch 2 episodes in the same day (had she been able to), she replied, "I'd be tired." When told older episodes are on youtube, she said, "Let's watch!"

Duramed Championship Sunday: Whitney Wade Walks Away with 1st Professional Win

Lisa Mickey tells the story of the University of Georgia shootout Sunday at the Duramed Championship. 2nd-year pro Whitney Wade fired a 66 to edge Jean Reynolds by 1 shot. Misun Cho finished 3rd, 2 shots back, and Cindy LaCrosse caught Pernilla Lindberg for a tie for 4th, 3 off the pace. A 67 earned Amanda Blumenherst her 1st professional top 10, pulling her 1 shot ahead of Alison Walshe and Sophia Sheridan, 2 up on Maria Hernandez and Nontaya Srisawang, 4 up on Mina Harigae, and 5 up on Jane Chin and Dewi Claire Schreefel.

Reynolds has now pulled within a few thousand dollars of Harigae on the Futures Tour money list. Lindberg and LaCrosse jumped from 84th and 85th, respectively, to 33rd and 34th, while Blumenherst moved from 129th to 63rd. With Blumenherst playing at the Wegmans this coming week, she can only move down the list, though, as all the top players will be meeting again in Hammond, Indiana.

Duramed Championship Saturday: Lindberg-LaCrosse Newbie Showdown in the Works

Yesterday at the Duramed Championship, Pernilla Lindberg followed up yesterday's 63 with a 69, extending her lead over fellow new pro Cindy LaCrosse to 3 strokes thanks to a great finish. Maria Hernandez shot her 2nd straight 70 to move into the top 10, while Mina Harigae struggled to a 74 and fell back to T18, tied with Amanda Blumenherst, which is better than Jane Chin's 76 and Esther Choe's 80 (which cost the latter a missed cut). Tiffany Joh got a moral victory by shooting a 72, the lowest score among those who missed the cut. As usual, Lisa Mickey overviews the best stories from moving day. The leaders head off just before 10 today. Let's see if Misun Cho, playing sick and 5 behind Lindberg, can make a move on the newbies.

Nichirei PGM Ladies Sunday: Yokomine Gets Her Hat Trick in Rain-Shortened Event

Well, they called the final round of the Nichirei PGM Ladies due to the heavy rains moving across the entire country today. So Sakura Yokomine joins Ayako Uehara and Tamie Durdin as a winner of a 36-hole tournament on the JLPGA in 2009. It's an anticlimactic way to become the 1st 3-time winner of the season on tour--certainly not as impressive as So Yeon Ryu's huge come-from-behind victory on the KLPGA this week (her 2nd in a row and 3rd in the last 4 events)--but a win's a win.

Plus, it gives her some breathing room ahead of 2-time winner Shinobu Moromizato on the money list:

1. Sakura Yokomine ￥70.18M
2. Shinobu Moromizato ￥57.98M
3. Yuko Mitsuka ￥50.61M
4. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥44.04M
5. Chie Arimura ￥37.11M
6. Ji-Hee Lee ￥30.14M
7. Yuko Saitoh ￥28.89M
8. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥27.36M
9. Ayako Uehara ￥26.98M
10. Eun-A Lim ￥24.97M
11. Tamie Durdin ￥24.18M
12. Erina Hara ￥23.80M
13. Miho Koga ￥22.25M
14. Akiko Fukushima ￥21.83M
15. Li-Ying Ye ￥18.90M
16. Yuri Fudoh ￥18.38M
17. Rui Kitada ￥18.35M
18. Yukari Baba ￥17.85M
19. Ji-Woo Lee ￥17.44M
20. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥15.61M
21. Bo-Bae Song ￥14.23M
22. Hiromi Mogi ￥13.21M
23. Julie Lu ￥12.15M
24. Akane Iijima ￥11.69M
25. Mie Nakata ￥11.49M
26. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥11.09M
27. Midori Yoneyama ￥10.73M
28. Rikako Morita ￥10.57M
29. Miki Saiki ￥10.52M
30. Nikki Campbell ￥10.20M

With a 70.39 scoring average, a 3.84 birdie rate, and a scorching 1.7367 putts per green in regulation rate, Yokomine looks like she's ready to compete on the LPGA. As one of the top 5 money winners on the JLPGA last season, she's eligible to compete in the U.S. Women's Open. To do so, though, she'd have to remove her name from the field list for the Meiji Chocolate Cup. Yuri Fudoh, the defending champ of the JLPGA event, is listed on the USGA site as fully exempt for the Open, as is #2 on the JLPGA career money list, Akiko Fukushima, and the #2-ranked player on the JLPGA right now, Ji-Hee Lee. Their names don't appear on the Meiji Chocolate Cup field list, so I have to wonder if Yokomine chose not to submit an entry for the Open or missed the May 6th deadline, just like the #1 on the 2008 money list, Miho Koga. I've seen Yokomine and Koga together on a Srixon commercial on Chiba TV this week, so maybe their sponsor is giving them some incentive to stay in Japan, but even so, it's almost as weird a decision as Ai Miyazato's to skip the LPGA Championship.

Nichirei PGM Ladies Saturday: Yokomine Has a Great Chance for a Hat Trick

Sakura Yokomine is poised for her 3rd win of 2009 on the JLPGA after a sweet 67 on moving day at the Nichirei PGM Ladies. Even a +1 finish over her final 5 holes didn't hurt her all that much, as her closest challengers also lost momentum down the stretch. Chie Arimura went 34-37 to stay 2 back, but she missed a great birdie chance on the final hole, a short, downhill par 5 that she hit in 2. Miho Koga squandered some great momentum down the stretch with a bogey on the 18th after she had made a great birdie on the tough 17th (thanks to a curling 9-foot downhiller) and a nice par save on the short par-4 16th, so she fell 3 back. Mi-Jeong Jeon went 34-37 and Rikako Morita 34-38 (and her back could have been worse) to join Koga, while 1st-round co-leader Mai Arai shot a birdie-less 39 on the back to drop 5 back. I'm beginning to think that Yokomine's biggest challenge tomorrow may well be Ji-Hee Lee, who roared back from an opening 74 with a bogey-free 66 today to pull within 4 of the lead.

Here are the top 10 and notables:

1st/-8 Sakura Yokomine (69-67)
2nd/-6 Chie Arimura (67-71)
T3/-5 Miho Koga (69-70), Mi-Jeong Jeon (68-71), Rikako Morita (67-72)
T6/-4 Ji-Hee Lee (74-66), Natsu Nagai (72-68), Li-Ying Ye (71-69)
T9/-3 Chiharu Yamaguchi (73-68), Tomomi Hirose (73-68), Yuriko Ohtsuka (70-71), Mai Arai (67-74)

Yuko Mitsuka has her work cut out for her to continue her 5-event top-10 streak, but her 9-event top-20 streak will be safe with an under-par round tomorrow. But Maiko Wakabayashi, who's been almost as hot lately, took a 40 on the back to come close to missing the cut. 3 straight bogeys down the home stretch hurt Bo-Bae Song's chances for her 1st top 10 in a while, although a walkoff birdie kept hope alive.

T13/-2 Yukari Baba (73-69), Saiki Fujita (72-70), Yuki Ichinose (71-71), Bo-Bae Song (70-72)
T17/-1 Midori Yoneyama (72-71)
T25/+1 Shinobu Moromizato (75-70), Miki Saiki (75-70), Nikki Campbell (74-71), Sakurako Mori (74-71), Yuko Mitsuka (73-72), Eun-A Lim (73-72), Akane Iijima (72-73), Ayako Uehara (71-74)
T35/+2 Julie Lu (72-74), Maiko Wakabayashi (71-75), Hyun-Ju Shin (69-77)
T41/+3 Rui Kitada (76-71), Mie Nakata (76-71)

A lot of good players missed the cut on this Robert Trent Jones, Jr., layout:

T52/+4 Esther Lee (77-71), Ah-Reum Hwang (75-73), Yuko Saitoh (75-73), Ritsuko Ryu (74-74), Tamie Durdin (73-75)
T59/+5 Kumiko Kaneda (76-73)
T70/+7 Yun-Jye Wei (76-77)
T76/+8 Erina Hara (75-77)
T84/+9 Akiko Fukushima (78-75)
T87/+10 Woo-Soon Ko (80-74)
T90/+11 Da-Ye Na (80-75)
T95/+12 Ji-Woo Lee (81-75)

Hara made a triple, double, and 2 bogeys on the back to miss her 5th cut of the young season. Ouch!

Here's hoping I'll be able to watch the final round--we may take the girls to Tokyo Dome City tomorrow if we have the energy. The pairings are awesome, with Yokomine and Arimura paired with Koga and Ji-Hee Lee joining Morita and Jeon. It sure would be nice to see more of Lee and Jeon on screen; the only time I saw Jeon today was a missed birdie putt on the 17th. In fact, the only other non-Japanese golfer I saw (and just for a second) was Li-Ying Ye, who also missed a birdie putt. The closing holes certainly offer plenty of opportunity for final-round drama--there's plenty of water and bunkers, elevated and undulating greens, and birdie holes sandwiching the long par-4 17th. If Yokomine gets her 3rd win of the season tomorrow, she'll certainly have earned it.

Duramed Championship Friday: Lindberg Drops 63 on Field

It seems like only yesterday I was extolling the chances of this year's crop of new pros from the NCAA to buck the odds and find fairly immediate success on the LPGA. No, wait, that was 2 days ago. Well, Pernilla Lindberg followed up on her 1st professional top 10 with a 63 at the Duramed Championship yesterday. She overshadowed Cindy LaCrosse's own 65, not to mention 69s by Mina Harigae and Jane Chin, a 70 by Maria Hernandez, and 71s by Song Yi Choi and Esther Choe.

As usual, Lisa Mickey tells the story like no one else can, but she kindly left out the details on the players who didn't go under par, like Dewi Claire Schreefel (72), Virada Nirapathpongporn (73), Amanda Blumenherst (73), Pornanong Phatlum (74), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (75), Violeta Retamoza (76), and Tiffany Joh (80). Joh, by the way, is not listed as an amateur. If she's really turned pro, I would have expected a little more fanfare. I don't think she has, though, as her status is listed as A-5 on the players page, so I guess this week she's taking one of 3 (or more) spots reserved for top amateur and collegiate players each event. Here's hoping her game comes around in time for those inevitable LPGA sponsor exemptions.

[Update 1 (9:58 pm): Dianemarie over at Waggle Room clarified that Joh is indeed playing as a pro. She asked Joh herself. I'll add my voice to the many who would love to see Joh back blogging at Waggle Room!]

Nichirei PGM Ladies Friday: The Kids Are Alright

The JLPGA's finest have completed the 1st round of the Nichirei PGM Ladies and the 21-and-under crowd have taken hold of 1st place. 19-year-old Rikako Morita, 20-year-old Mai Arai, and 21-year-old Chie Arimura shot 67s, Arai and Arimura by playing bogey-free golf and Morita by making 7 birdies. But some of the biggest names on the JLPGA--among them, Mi-Jeong Jeon (1 back) and Sakura Yokomine (2 back)--are in the lead chase pack. Defending champion and #3-ranked Yuko Mitsuka isn't among them, however, as she opened with a 73. Nor is #2-ranked Ji-Hee Lee, who's 1 behind Mitsuka, or U.S. Women's Open qualifier Miki Saiki, who's 1 more back. It'll be interesting to see if Miho Koga, Hyun-Ju Shin, and Bo-Bae Song can get their seasons going this weekend. Koga closed with 4 straight birdies, so she's got some momentum, at least.

Here's how the top 10 and notables stand heading into the weekend:

T1/-5 Chie Arimura, Rikako Morita, Mai Arai (67)
4th/-4 Mi-Jeong Jeon (68)
T5/-3 Sakura Yokomine, Miho Koga, Hyun-Ju Shin (69)
T8/-2 Bo-Bae Song, Yuko Fukuda, Yuriko Ohtsuka (70)

T11/-1 Ayako Uehara, Maiko Wakabayashi, Li-Ying Ye, Yuki Ichinose (71)
T16/E Akane Iijima, Midori Yoneyama, Saiki Fujita, Julie Lu (72)
T31/+1 Yuko Mitsuka, Eun-A Lim, Tamie Durdin, Yukari Baba (73)
T40/+2 Ji-Hee Lee, Nikki Campbell, Ritsuko Ryu, Sakurako Mori (74)
T59/+3 Shinobu Moromizato, Erina Hara, Ah-Reum Hwang, Yuko Saitoh, Miki Saiki (75)
T69/+4 Rui Kitada, Mie Nakata, Kumiko Kaneda, Yun-Jye Wei (76)
T81/+5 Esther Lee (77)
T88/+6 Akiko Fukushima (78)
T101/+8 Woo-Soon Ko, Da-Ye Na (80)
106th/+9 Ji-Woo Lee (81)

Hoping to be able to catch some of this on the weekend on Chiba TV. It's our last weekend here before we head back to Western NY.

The College Kids Are Alright

Anna Nordqvist's surprise win at the LPGA Championship got me rethinking something I've believed for a long time: that NCAA success is not much of a predictor of LPGA success. For every Annika Sorenstam or Lorena Ochoa, who, after short adjustment periods, went on to LPGA greatness, it seems there are a couple of dozen players who rocked it in college but aren't able to make that adjustment to life and competition on the big tour. For a long time, I've believed that those who turned pro early (like Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie, and Vicky Hurst) or who had great success on other tours (like Se Ri Pak, Mi Hyun Kim, Hee-Won Han, Ai Miyazato, and Ji-Yai Shin) had much better chances of LPGA success than those who played college golf. Sure, turning pro early is no guarantee (just ask Esther Choe and Hannah Yun), and success on other tours doesn't always translate quickly on the LPGA (just ask Amy Yang and Momoko Ueda), but over the years I've been closely following the LPGA, it's seemed that the ballyhooed NCAA stars coming onto tour have never met expectations.

Now, it's true that Nordqvist didn't play 4 years of college golf. And that Mina Harigae, who has won 2 in a row on the Futures Tour, left Duke even earlier than Nordqvist left Arizona State. So it's something of a stretch to point to their early success and identify a trend. But consider this: Cindy LaCrosse got a top 10 in her 1st pro event two weeks ago on the Futures Tour and followed it up with a top 25 last week, Pernilla Lindberg finished T10 in her 2nd pro event that same week (following up on a top 30 the previous week), Amanda Blumenherst got a top 25 in her 1st pro event last week, Jane Chin did the same in her 2nd, Jennie Lee got a top 30 in her 2nd, and Maria Hernandez made her first professional cut. Sure, they have a ways to go to catch Alison Walshe, who's in the top 10 on the FT money list, but they're off to solid starts.

Yes, this is only on the Futures Tour. But given Nordqvist's learning curve--you may recall she was one of the biggest Q-School disappointments in my book last December--not to mention the fact that Stacy Lewis just got her 1st top 10 as an LPGA member, I'm wondering if the new pros coming out of the NCAA ranks are going to be able to figure out how to compete at a top level in the big leagues quicker than such fantastic ex-NCAAers as Angela Stanford, Lindsey Wright, Brittany Lang, and Kristy McPherson have done. In that respect, I really like seeing how high Blumenherst finished in her U.S. Women's Open sectional qualifier--reminds me of how Nordqvist won the LET's Q-School in January to bounce back from her December disappointment. Blumenherst tees it up again on the FT tomorrow before her LPGA debut next week at the Wegmans, so we'll get to plot some more points on her early learning curve very soon. And if Harigae makes it a hat trick....

The Best off the LPGA: The JLPGA's Finest, May-Plus 2009 Edition

Who are the best players on the JLPGA? With Ji-Yai Shin, Momoko Ueda, Ai Miyazato, and Shiho Oyama dropping from their spots in my final 2008 ranking due to paucity of play on tour this season, the fight for the top 10 is wide open. As usual, this functionally illiterate expert will combine the Rolex Rankings, the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, the current JLPGA money list, and 2008 JLPGA money list to rank the JLPGA's finest. You'll notice that U.S. Women's Open qualifier Miki Saiki is not on this list. That's how deep the talent pool is on the JLPGA.

We've got a new #1 in town...but she's got lots of company.

1. Sakura Yokomine: #1 2009 money (￥59.38M), #19 GSPI (70.57) [1], #21 RR (3.33) [2], #3 2008 money (￥103.19M). Last season, she had 1 win, 8 top 3s, 14 top 5s, and 20 top 10s in 29 starts--plus, she finished out of the top 20 only twice and never missed a cut--so I put her at #2, right behind Ji-Hee Lee, who was even better. This may turn out to be Yokomine's breakout season, however. She already has 2 wins, 5 top 3s, and 10 top 10s in 12 starts, with her worst finish of the year being T11 (twice). Last year, I speculated that when she finally wins a JLPGA money title, she would be headed for the LPGA. This may be that year.

2. Ji-Hee Lee: #7 2009 money (￥28.04M), #23 GSPI (70.79) [3], #35 RR (2.53) [3], #2 2008 money (￥119.65M). Last season, she had 1 major, 2 wins, 9 top 3s, 15 top 5s, and 21 top 10s in 27 starts--and finished outside the top 20 only once, at the Mizuno Classic (in addition to her MC her 1st start)--so I made her my #1 JLPGA golfer of 2008. This season, she has 9 straight top 20s and an early win, but only 4 top 10s.

3. Yuko Mitsuka: #3 2009 money (￥50.11M), #27 GSPI (71.05) [4], #44 RR (2.27) [4], #7 2008 money (￥83.56M). A great 2nd half to her 2008 season leapfrogged her to the head of the up-and-coming pack, bringing her to 1 win, 5 top 3s, 9 top 5s, and 14 top 10s, to go with 2 MCs, 2 WDs, and 4 finishes outside the top 20 in 32 events. This season, she's elevated her game even further, with a win, a runner-up, and 7 other top 10s in 13 starts, along with 1 missed cut and 1 other finish outside the top 20. With a 5-event top-10 streak and 9-event top-20 streak going, she's one of the hottest golfers on the JLPGA right now.

4. Mi-Jeong Jeon: #4 2009 money (￥40.44M), #37 GSPI (71.42) [5], #47 RR (2.21) [6], #6 2008 money (￥90.85M). Last season, although she had 2 wins, 4 top 3s, 7 top 5s, and 15 top 10s in 30 starts--to go with 2 missed cuts, 1 WD, and 9 finishes outside the top 20--her +3 finish in her final pair of holes cost her her 3rd straight 100-million yen year. This season, she's got 1 win and 2 more heartbreaking runner-ups, along with 5 other top 10s in 11 starts, but she also has a WD and 1 other finish outside the top 20.

Still waiting for the other elite JLPGA players to jump-start their seasons. But as you can see, it takes a lot for the up-and-coming stars on tour to catch them.

5. Shinobu Moromizato: #2 2009 money (￥57.48M), #57 GSPI (71.85) [8], #54 RR (1.81) [9], #12 2008 money (￥64.37M). Last season, she had 1 win, 2 top 3s, 8 top 5s, and 16 top 10s to go with 4 MCs and 7 finishes outside the top 20 in 34 events, and ranked #15. This season, she already has 2 wins (including the year's 1st major) and 5 other top 10s in 13 starts, but she's also finished outside the top 20 5 times.

6. Yuri Fudoh: #15 2009 money (￥18.38M), #21 GSPI (70.70) [3], #19 RR (3.39) [1], #5 2008 money (￥91.86M). Last season, her 4 wins, 6 top 3s, 8 top 5s, and 10 top 10s in 22 starts would have been a great year for anyone but the JLPGA's career money leader and first billion-yen winner in tour history. But she missed 2 cuts and finished outside the top 20 4 times in '08. This season, she's already missed a cut and finished outside the top 20 1 other time, but also has a runner-up finish and 4 other top 10s in 8 starts, so look for her to challenge for the top again.

7. Akiko Fukushima: #13 2009 money (￥21.83M), #47 GSPI (71.60) [6], #51 RR (2.06) [7], #4 2008 money (￥96.50M). Last season, her 2 wins, 5 top 3s, 8 top 5s, and 14 top 10s in 30 events and no missed cuts was great, but she did finish outside the top 20 9 times and really faltered in the last third of the season, missing the best opportunity for her 1st career 100-million yen season, so I ranked her #8, behind Shin, Ueda, and Miyazato. This season, she's been coming on strong since finishing outside the top 20 in her 1st 2 events, with a runner-up and 3 other top 10s, for a total of 6 straight top 20s out of 8 starts.

8. Miho Koga: #14 2009 money (￥18.65M), #62 GSPI (72.03) [10], #45 RR (2.26) [5], #1 2008 money (￥120.85M). Even though she lead the 2008 money list and had 4 wins (including 1 major), 7 top 3s, 11 top 5s, and 17 top 10s in 33 starts, I put her at #4 at the end of last season due to her 5 finishes outside the top 20 and 3 missed cuts. This season, she's already missed a cut and finished outside the top 20 2 other times, so her 4 top 10s (including a runner-up) in 10 starts move her down this ranking.

The next group of players are very closely bunched and if they can find more consistency can easily join the lead chase pack.

9. Ayako Uehara: #9 2008 money (￥26.48M), #73 GSPI (72.23) [13], #72 RR (1.39) [13], #14 2008 money (￥63.31M). Last season was the best in her career, with 1 win, 3 top 3s, 6 top 5s, and 8 top 10s, along with 4 MCs and 10 finishes outside the top 20 in 33 starts. This season, she started hot with a runner-up and a win in her 1st 2 events, but since then has only gotten 3 other top 10s in her other 9 starts to go with 2 missed cuts and 4 other finishes outside the top 20.

10. Chie Arimura: #5 2009 money (￥31.71M), #114 GSPI (72.91) [23], #74 RR (1.33) [14], #23 2008 money (￥47.35M). Last season, she got her 1st career win in an incandescent mid-year stretch, but only ended up with 3 top 3s, 4 top 5s, and 10 top 10s to go with 8 MCs, 1 WD, and 12 finishes outside the top 20 in 35 events. This season, she started slow, with a missed cut and 2 other finishes outside the top 20 in her 1st 3 starts, but in her last 10 events, she's fallen out of the top 20 only once and has 6 top 10s, including a runner-up finish and her 2nd career win.

11. Eun-A Lim: #10 2008 money (￥24.47M), #67 GSPI (72.10) [12], #53 RR (1.96) [8], #9 2008 money (￥73.41M). Last season, her 1 win, 5 top 3s, 6 top 5s, and 10 top 10s, along with 3 MCs and 9 finishes outside the top 20 in 29 events made her the 6th Korean in the top 15 on the JLPGA. This season, she already has a win and a runner-up finish, but with only 1 other top 10 in 10 starts to go with 2 missed cuts and 3 other finishes outside the top 20, her status as #3 Korean on tour is in jeopardy.

12. Erina Hara: #12 2009 money (￥23.80M), #63 GSPI (72.03) [11], #68 RR (1.43) [11], #10 2008 money (￥65.87M). Last season she had 1 win, 3 top 3s, 7 top 5s, and 10 top 10s, along with 3 MCs and 10 finishes outside the top 20 in 37 starts. This season, she got off to a fast start with 2 runner-ups in her 1st 3 starts, but she's only gotten 2 other top 10s, has missed the cut 4 times, and has fallen outside the top 20 2 other times in her 10 other starts.

The next set of players could go either way, but there's still not that much that separates them from those ahead of them.

13. Ah-Reum Hwang: #8 2009 money (￥27.36M), #107 GSPI (72.81) [21], #70 RR (1.40) [12], #44 2008 money (￥18.28M). She didn't make my ranking last season, but she started this season with a bang, finishing T2 her 2nd event and following it with her 1st career JLPGA victory. Since then, however, her best finish has been T10, and she's WDed from 1 event, missed the cut in another, and fallen outside the top 20 2 other times.

14. Yuko Saitoh: #6 2009 money (￥28.89M), #108 GSPI (72.83) [22], #100 RR (.95) [25], #34 2008 money (￥25.87M). She didn't make my ranking last season, but this season, she got her 2nd career win (her 1st came in 2004), one other top 3, and has finished out of the top 20 only 4 times in 11 starts (including 1 missed cut).

15. Bo-Bae Song: #21 2009 money (￥13.30M), #56 GSPI (71.83) [7], #66 RR (1.53) [10], #13 2008 money (￥63.47M). Last season, she had 1 win, 3 top 3s, 6 top 5s, and 14 top 10s, to go with 1 MC, 1 WD, and only 3 finishes outside the top 20 in 26 events. This season, she's been quite steady, with 1 missed cut her only finish outside the top 20 in her 10 starts, but hasn't gotten a top 10 since her hat trick to start the year.

16. Ji-Woo Lee: #17 2009 money (￥17.44M), #60 GSPI (71.93) [9], #88 RR (1.02) [18], #22 2008 money (￥47.63M). Last season, she had 1 top 3, 3 top 5s, and 12 top 10s in 34 events, along with only 4 missed cuts (all of which came in the 1st third of the season) and 9 finishes outside the top 20. This season, she just missed her 1st cut in 12 starts this past week, but has 4 other finishes outside the top 20 to offset her 3 top 10s.

17. Hyun-Ju Shin: #26 2009 money (￥10.69M), #75 GSPI (72.30) [14], #65 RR (1.57) [9], #11 2008 money (￥64.63M). If injuries hadn't cut her 2008 season short, she would definitely have been a top 10 player, with her 2 wins, 4 top 3s, 6 top 5s, and 10 top 10s in only 21 events with no missed cuts and 8 finishes outside the top 20. This season, has been a strange one, with 4 missed cuts but no other finishes outside the top 20, yet only 3 top 10s in 11 starts.

18. Tamie Durdin: #11 2009 money (￥24.18M), #125 GSPI (73.04) [26], #94 RR (.97) [22], #55 2008 money (￥14.65M). She didn't make my ranking last season, but this season she's already gotten her 1st career JLPGA victory and notched 4 other top 10s, offsetting her 2 missed cuts and 4 finishes outside the top 20.

This last set of players could be higher next ranking, or they could be out of it. The next dozen or so players are breathing down their necks.

19. Rui Kitada: #16 2009 money (￥18.04M), #94 GSPI (72.64) [17], #103 RR (.90) [26], #28 2008 money (￥36.34M). Last season, she had a win, 2 top 5s, and 6 top 10s, along with 9 MCs, 1 WD, and 10 finishes out of the top 20 in 35 events. This season has been a strange one for her, with an early top 3 in the midst of a 10-event run where she didn't finish inside the top 20, including a WD and 2 MCs. Over her last 3 events, however, she has 2 top 5s (and another finish outside the top 20). Perhaps she's recovered from an early injury?

20. Maiko Wakabayashi: #20 2009 money (￥15.21M), #97 GSPI (72.66) [19], #82 RR (1.11) [18], #21 2008 money (￥50.06M). Last season, she had 1 win, 3 top 3s, and 6 top 10s to go with 11 MCs (most in the 1st half of the season), 1 WD, and 13 finishes outside the top 20 in 37 starts. She started slow this season, as well, with 5 straight finishes outside the top 20 (including 1 missed cut) in a row, but since then, she's played very well, with no finish worse than T14 (except another missed cut) and a run of 3 straight top 10s that she's looking to extend this week. Even though she couldn't get her 2nd career win last week, look for her run to continue. She's 6th on tour in both birdie rate and putts per green in regulation.

21. Hiromi Mogi: #22 2009 money (￥13.21M), #96 GSPI (72.66) [18], #89 RR (1.02) [19], #18 2008 money (￥52.62M). Last season, she won the most money in her career but had her lowest finish on the money list, with 1 win, 2 top 3s, 3 top 5s, and 9 top 10s in 33 events, along with 2 MCs and 10 finishes outside the top 20 (half of them coming in her last 6 events of the season). This season, she just got her 3rd top 10 (and 2nd top 5), breaking a streak of 5 finishes outside the top 20 (including 1 of her 3 missed cuts in the season).

22. Yukari Baba: #18 2009 money (￥16.91M), #142 GSPI (73.40) [30], #98 RR (.96) [24], #26 2008 money (￥44.14M). Last season, she got her 5th straight top 30 season and the most lucrative in her career, thanks to her 2nd career win in '08, but had only 1 other top 3, an additional top 5, and 7 total top 10s--all in the 1st half of the year--to go with 10 MCs and 8 finishes outside the top 20 in 33 starts. This season she has 4 top 10s in 13 starts, with only 1 missed cut but 6 finishes outside the top 20.

23. Li-Ying Ye: #19 2009 money (￥16.80M), #136 GSPI (73.31) [27], #194 RR (.38) [very low--she's a rookie]. Her 4th top 10 of the young season this past week could easily have been her 1st career JLPGA win--she lost in a playoff to Shinobu Moromizato, despite closing with a 68 and a 66 on the weekend. Sure, she has 3 missed cuts and 3 other finishes outside the top 20 among her 11 starts, but most came in the opening of the season. As she gains more experience on tour, look for her to rise up these rankings.

24. Akane Iijima: #25 2009 money (￥11.19M), #88 GSPI (72.30) [15], #91 RR (1.01) [21], #19 2008 money (￥51.40M). Last season, she had 1 win, 3 top 3s, 4 top 5s, and 7 top 10s in 37 starts, along with 4 MCs, 3 WDs, and 9 finishes outside the top 20. This season has been a tough one for her, with 4 missed cuts and 5 other finishes outside the top 20, but she still has gotten 4 top 10s in 13 starts.

25. Nikki Campbell: #29 2009 money (￥9.69M), #104 GSPI (72.76) [20], #115 RR (.77) [29], #33 2008 money (￥27.04M). Last season, her 2 top 5s and 3 top 10s--all coming in her last 7 events--helped this 28-year-old salvage what would otherwise have been a disappointing year, what with her 5 MCs, 1 WD, and 12 finishes outside the top 20 in her 29 starts. This season, she already has 3 top 10s in 11 starts, but has missed the cut twice and finished outside the top 20 4 other times, as well.

U.S. Women's Open Sectional Qualifying

Sorry, all, I took June 15th off to celebrate Momoko Ueda's birthday. So no live blogging of the sectional qualifiers for the U.S. Women's Open. Brent Kelley lists who's in--and 2 big names who aren't (Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis). Others I was rooting for who also didn't advance include China's Tao-Li Yang, Hawaii's Stephanie Kono and Ayaka Kaneko, Evian Cup teammates Annie Park and Kyung Kim, and former Waggle Room regular Tiffany Joh. But I was glad to see both Mika Miyazato and Shiho Oyama qualify, along with Meaghan Francella, Kyeong Bae, and Hye Jung Choi. Still waiting on a few qualifier results to be posted, but the Kenosha News is reporting that Mina Harigae and Amanda Blumenherst finished 1-2 at the Wilmette, IL, qualifier. Can't wait to see how heralded youngsters Kimberly Kim, Alexis Thompson, and Victoria Tanco stack up against the competition at Saucon Valley this July!

[Update 1 (8:55 pm): Brent's updated his lists and the Kenosha News was right. Other Futures Tour regulars who qualified at Wilmette include Naree Song, Walshe, Sophia Sheridan, Hannah Jun, and Esther Choe, as well as new pros Maria Hernandez, Jennie Lee, and Cindy LaCrosse. The JLPGA's Miki Saiki was the lone Hawaii qualifier; looks like she's serious about playing in the States--look for her at Q-School again this year.]

[Update 2 (9:01 pm): Whoops, Ryan Ballengee and Hound Dog were on this, too! Ryan's got lots of links, and both note that Vicky Hurst was another non-qualifier.]

[Update 3 (9:39 pm): Golfweek has micro-bios on some of the qualifiers.]

[Update 4 (9:44 pm): My dad, a former golf coach, notes that Libby Smith, who played on the U of Vermont men's team (the only woman he knows of to do this), also qualified.]

Mina Harigae Gets Futures Tour Win #2

No time to do anything but link to the leaderboard and Lisa Mickey story on how Mina Harigae's playoff win over Sofie Andersson kept it from being a Swedish sweep of the majors on American soil this week. More later!

LPGA Championship Sunday: Rookie Nordqvist Gets Major Win

Anna Nordqvist did this week in the LPGA Championship what Stacy Lewis couldn't do last year in the U.S. Women's Open: put together 4 great rounds and hold off a packed field for her 1st LPGA win. With an amazing week on the greens--she only took 101 putts over 72 holes--it didn't matter that she hit the ball short off the tee and didn't hit all that many greens in regulation. Hound Dog has the play-by-play covered and Brent Kelley puts her win in context, so I'll do my usual thing and hack away at random details from the final round.

Who Will Be Next to Get Their 1st LPGA Member Win? Lindsey Wright made a great effort today to get hers, while Kristy McPherson played the kind of steady golf (4 straight 70s) that usually wins majors, Na Yeon Choi and Stacy Lewis couldn't get anything going on the weekend, and Song-Hee Kim and Amy Yang made up for that one bad early round to snag top 10s. With Ai Miyazato finishing only T17 at the Suntory Ladies Open this week and never getting anything going, and the rest of my ranked players doing even worse this week, it's looking like it'll be one of those 7.

Is Suzann Pettersen OK? Stephanie Wei linked to Suzann Pettersen's tweets on her WD. Good thing for her there's a 2-week layoff for the LPGA, but there are a lot of huge tournaments coming up right after that. The European Solheim Cup side would be hurting without her, that's for sure, even with Nordqvist's surprisingly quick learning curve.

What's Up with Angela Park? Speaking of injuries and WDs, Angela Park WDed after a 1st-round 83. Is she hurt, too? If so, it would certainly explain her bad play since May.

Is Inbee Park Back? Even with a double bogey on the back, Inbee Park closed strong with a 69 that got her her 2nd top 15 of the year. Last season, Park finished 6th at the Wegmans, won the Open, and finished 10th at the NW Arkansas Championship, so she may be the kind of golfer who heats up at the start of the summer. Or she may go back to missing cuts like she did all May. The Wegmans will be a huge tournament for her this year.

Is Eun-Hee Ji Ready to Defend Her Wegmans Title? Speaking of the Wegmans, Eun-Hee Ji seems to be recovering from her mid-spring mini-slump. Even though she finished just outside the top 20 this week, at least she's not finishing outside the top 50 any more.

Is the Kyeong Bae Birdie Machine Back on Track? Kyeong Bae made a great back-9 charge up the leaderboard, making 4 birdies in her 1st 5 holes on the back. She used to make birdies in bunches with great regularity, but this was her 1st top 10 since last July's State Farm Classic. It would be great to see this Senior Standout make a comeback.

There's more to be said, but we're taking onechan and imoto's oldest male cousin to the airport today to fly back (alone) to his family in Okinawa. More later!

Suntory Ladies Open: Moromizato Gets 2nd Big Win of 2009

Shinobu Moromizato and Li-Ying Ye finished 72 holes of the Suntory Ladies Open at -12, after final rounds of 68 and 66, respectively, put them 3 shots ahead of Rui Kitada and 4 ahead of Sakura Yokomine. 2 holes later, Moromizato was the winner. I wish I could tell you more than the Kyodo news piece I linked to, but that trip to the JR Railway Museum I mentioned before took all day, so I didn't get to see any of the tournament's final round. All I know is how they ended up:

1st/-12 Shinobu Moromizato (69-70-69-68) [won in playoff]
2nd/-12 Li-Ying Ye (74-68-68-66)
3rd/-9 Rui Kitada (72-68-70-69)
4th/-8 Sakura Yokomine (71-71-70-68)
5th/-6 Hiromi Mogi (73-68-69-72)
T6/-5 Yuko Mitsuka (71-73-70-69), Tamie Durdin (75-67-72-69)
T8/-4 Yuri Fudoh (72-73-72-67), Noboku Kizawa (73-70-70-71), Na-Ri Lee (72-71-69-72), Saiki Fujita (73-67-72-72), Ha-Na Jang (68-71-73-72), Chie Arimura (73-68-68-75), Maiko Wakabayashi (72-68-67-77)

Fudoh beat yesterday's leader Wakabayashi by 10 shots today, but it was too little, too late to climb into the top 5. It's about the same story for Kitada's and Yokomine's closing 32s--too little, too late to catch the leaders.

T15/-3 Mai Arai (73-72-69-71)
T17/-2 Ah-Reum Hwang (76-70-71-69), Akiko Fukushima (73-71-72-70), Ai Miyazato (75-70-70-71), Kumiko Kaneda (73-71-71-71), Nikki Campbell (70-69-74-73), Ji-Hee Lee (73-71-68-74), Bo-Bae Song (74-69-69-74), Rikako Morita (69-70-71-76)
25th/-1 Yuki Ichinose (67-76-73-71)
T26/E Akane Iijima (74-69-72-73)
T30/+1 Ayako Uehara (69-75-71-74)
T36/+2 Eun-A Lim (75-70-73-72), Mie Nakata (73-71-71-75), Yuki Sakurai (74-72-68-76), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-73-70-77)
T43/+3 Yukari Baba (68-76-76-71), Miho Koga (75-70-72-74), Na Zhang (70-69-75-77)
T50/+5 Mayu Hattori (75-70-77-71)
53rd/+6 Hiroko Yamaguchi (74-72-73-75)

So there you have it. Ai-chan's visit to Kobe wasn't a total waste, but it does highlight how tough the competition on the JLPGA has gotten. She got beaten or tied by 3 rookies who have frankly been having terrible seasons to date. She wasn't alone in struggling, as witnessed by her tying Lee and Fukushima and beating Jeon and Koga, but in my mind this was still a disappointing performance and a sub-par finish.

Here's how the top of the JLPGA money list now looks:

1. Sakura Yokomine ￥59.38M
2. Shinobu Moromizato ￥57.48M
3. Yuko Mitsuka ￥50.11M
4. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥40.44M
5. Chie Arimura ￥31.71M
6. Yuko Saitoh ￥28.89M
7. Ji-Hee Lee ￥28.04M
8. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥27.36M
9. Ayako Uehara ￥26.48M
10. Eun-A Lim ￥24.47M
11. Tamie Durdin ￥24.18M
12. Erina Hara ￥23.80M
13. Akiko Fukushima ￥21.83M
14. Miho Koga ￥18.65M
15. Yuri Fudoh ￥18.38M
16. Rui Kitada ￥18.04M
17. Ji-Woo Lee ￥17.44M
18. Yukari Baba ￥16.91M
19. Li-Ying Ye ￥16.80M
20. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥15.21M
21. Bo-Bae Song ￥13.30M
22. Hiromi Mogi ￥13.21M
23. Julie Lu ￥11.75M
24. Mie Nakata ￥11.19M
25. Akane Iijima ￥11.19M
26. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥10.69M
27. Midori Yoneyama ￥10.05M
28. Miki Saiki ￥10.02M
29. Nikki Campbell ￥9.69M
30. Kaori Aoyama ￥9.65M

The visiting LPGAers now stand at #32 (Ji-Yai Shin, ￥8.47M in 3 events), #62 (Ai Miyazato, ￥3.16M in 2 events), #77 (Momoko Ueda, ￥2.29M in 2 events), and #132 (Shiho Oyama, 1 missed cut). Not too impressive.

LPGA Championship Saturday: It's Not Looking Good for the LPGA's Biggest Names

With play suspended at the LPGA Championship, it's a good time to take a moment and reflect on the performances of the LPGA's biggest names through 45 holes or so.

Lorena Ochoa? Closing with a pair of bogeys Thursday and bogeying 2 of her 1st 6 holes today is not the way to strike fear into her competition. With 6 holes to play, she's -3 and will need to get several more birdies to put some pressure on Anna Nordqvist, who's -10 after a bogey-free 34 on the front, not to mention Lindsey Wright (-9 with 8 to play), Na Yeon Choi (who's fallen back to -8 with 7 to play after shooting a bogey-free 32 on the front), and Kristy McPherson (who's birdied 3 in a row at the turn to get to -7, but failed to birdie the par-5 11th). Ochoa only has 1 more par 5 left to play, which she's birdied twice in a row already, so she'll need to improve on her 2 birdies on par 4 and 1 birdie on pars 3s this week if she wants to win this thing. She's hitting plenty of greens, so it's a question of accuracy and putting the rest of the way.

Paula Creamer? She's hitting an insane amount of fairways, but fewer greens than the record-setting pace she's set so far this season (70% and change rather than 80% and change). So it's no surprise that she's having trouble making birdies this week. Still, she's fought back to -1 and sits at T24 thus far, so yet another top 10 is well within her reach. And who knows? She's had several Sunday charges already this season, so why couldn't she make like Irene Cho (who shot a 65 despite bogeying the 18th hole) and go low tomorrow?

Cristie Kerr? She's playing like Ai Miyazato on the JLPGA this week: terrible 1st round, then 2 solid rounds but with too many mistakes to make a serious move up the leaderboard. With her distance (over 260 yards) and accuracy (hitting close to 70% of her greens in regulation), I would have expected her to be scoring much better, but one of the LPGA's best putters hasn't shone at Bulle Rock. With 91 putts through 54 holes, she's on pace to take a dozen more strokes on the greens than Nordqvist. So I guess it's no surprise, then, that she's T36 at E, tied with Natalie Gulbis, Brittany Lang, Eun-Hee Ji, and Mika Miyazato.

Suzann Pettersen? With her distance (she's averaging over 270 yards off the tee), I would have thought she'd have a huge advantage this week, but her scorecard is littered with bogeys (12 of 'em) and doubles (3 of 'em in her 1st 2 rounds alone). Nobody makes enough birdies to recover from that amount of mistakes, so it's no surprise she's trying to avoid DFL among those who made the cut. What is a surprise is that as steady and accurate a player as Seon Hwa Lee is down there with her.
Both are +5, trying to finish better tomorrow than Julieta Granada. Yikes!

Ya Ni Tseng? She finally played a good round of golf today, but a bogey-free 69 only gets her to -3, T16 right now. She'll need help from the leaders to have a realistic chance to defend her title. It's too bad, because she's actually striking the ball well this week (over 260 yards off the tee with better accuracy than usual for her, so she's hitting 76% of her greens in regulation), but she's making many fewer birdies than usual for her, too. Which means those twin pairs of consecutive bogeys over her 1st 2 rounds are looming larger than usual for her.

Ji-Yai Shin? She's recovered nicely from those 2 doubles in her 1st round, but at -5 with 6 to play is going to have to start hitting the ball a lot better to have a chance to win this thing. She's relied on a hot putter the last 2 weeks, but her GIR rate is actually lower than her fairways hit rate in those tournaments. Still, a hot finish can put her 2nd major victory well within reach.

[Update 1 (6:55 pm): Looking over the history of players' finishes at the LPGA Championship, I'm struck in retrospect by how badly Pettersen has played Bulle Rock, except for the year she won it. Ditto for Se Ri Pak. Stanford has never played the course all that great, either. The rest, though, have pretty good records at the course. When putting together my picks this week, I figured the good momentum of Pettersen and Pak would override their bad records. And I was hoping Stanford would come through for me. There's a lot of golf yet to be played, and anything can happen over the last 27 holes or so of a major, but so far it's looking like this is a week for the newest elite players on tour like Stanford and Hull, who were among the LPGA's hottest at the end of last season and start of this one, and Wright, Choi, and McPherson, who are overdue for a win. But wouldn't it be cool if new mom Hee-Won Han got her 7th career win and 1st major this week?]

[Update 2 (7:00 pm): Writing this in a rush, because we're taking onechan and imoto's oldest cousin to the JR Train Museum this morning, but didn't mean to leave Michelle Wie off the list of the LPGA's biggest names. She's +1 and T46, right with Hall of Famers Juli Inkster and Karrie Webb, but even a hole in one today hasn't helped her much this week. She's just not hitting that many greens or making that many putts and she squandered the momentum from her follow-up birdie with a birdie-less back. Just like Angela Park (who WDed), Jee Young Lee (who's playing even worse than Wie), and Brittany Lang (who's shot 3 straight 72s), this is not going to be their week to finally get that LPGA win (or member win, in Lee's case).]

[Update 3 (6/14/09, 7:45 am): They got a few more holes in before darkness fell at Bulle Rock. Nordqvist continued to hang tough. Despite a bogey on the par-5 11th, she birdied the par-5 15th to stay at -10. She has 3 left to play this morning. Wright had the lead for a few minutes when she birdied the 11th to get to -10, but a bogey on the 13th dropped her back to -9. She has 2 holes left to play. Choi once again suffered a bad stretch--bogeying the 11th and par-4 12th and failing to birdie the 15th, but she made a great birdie on the par-4 16th and is at -8 with 1 to play. Wait, she just bogeyed the 18th to fall back into a tie with Jin Young Pak, who birdied 3 of her last 6 holes yesterday evening. Shin would have joined them, but she, too, bogeyed the 18th. She's tied with Kristy McPherson, who shot her 3rd straight 70 thanks to a bogey on the par-3 17th. A final-hole bogey knocked Angela Stanford back to -5 and a tie with Stacy Lewis, who parred out. A bogey on the 13th knocked Ochoa back to -2 for the tournament. Won't be able to update how the final groups do this morning, as it's the girls' bedtime!]

Futures Tour Players Championship Thursday and Friday: It's Major Time!

It's major time on the Futures Tour this week, and Amanda Blumenherst made her professional debut in style Thursday, as she shot the 2nd-best score of the day, a 68, behind only Sofie Andersson. But Friday was a different story, as her 76 dropped all the way from T2 to T34. With 54 players at E or better, Kim Welch can't take her foot off the gas pedal this weekend. After rounds of 68 and 69, she's only 2-up on Christi Cano, Lisa Ferrero, and Ashley Prange and 3-up on Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Sophia Sheridan, Gina Umeck, and Kylene Pulley. Lisa Mickey has more on the 1st 2 days. Here's how the leaders and notables stand with 36 holes left to play:

1st/-7 Kim Welch (68-69)
T2/-5 Ashley Prange (70-69), Christi Cano (69-70), Lisa Ferrero (69-70)
T5/-4 Sophia Sheridan (71-69), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (70-70), Gina Umeck (70-70), Kylene Pulley (70-70)
T9/-3 Mina Harigae (71-70), Misun Cho (71-70), Nicole Hage (69-72), Sofie Andersson (67-74)

T13/-2 Liz Janangelo (72-70), Alison Walshe (70-72), Pornanong Phatlum (69-73), Jane Chin (69-73)
T26/-1 Pernilla Lindberg (71-72), Cindy LaCrosse (70-73)
T34/E Maria Hernandez (73-71), Su A Kim (71-73), Nontaya Srisawang (70-74), Samantha Richdale (70-74), Amanda Blumenherst (68-76)
T55/+1 Jennie Lee (72-73), Hwanhee Lee (71-74)

Despite shooting a 75 yesterday, Hound Dog's fave and rare female lefty Malinda Johnson made the cut on the dot. Missing it were such fine players as Song Yi Choi, Dewi Claire Schreefel, Lucy Nunn, and Mallory Hetzel (by 1 shot), Stephanie Kim and Seo-Jae Lee (by 2), Naree Song, Violeta Retamoza, and Caroline Larsson (by 3), Hannah Jun (by 4), and Briana Vega, Angela Buzminski, and Hannah Yun (by more). Me, I'd love to see good weekends from my preseason picks still playing. Time for Sattayabanphot and Phatlum to make big moves up the money list. This tournament marks the end of the 1st half of the season--only 9 events left!

Suntory Ladies Open Saturday: Is Wakabayashi Ready for Win #2?

Several players went low today at the Suntory Ladies Open, and for awhile, it looked like Ai Miyazato would be one of them. She birdied her 1st 2 holes after sticking her approach shots on each, then made another pair of birdies on the par-3 6th and par-4 7th to get to -2. But the putts stopped dropping after that. Despite a handful of good chances for birdie the rest of the way, Ai-chan ended up with her 2nd straight 70, thanks to a bogey on the par-5 12th. Although many great JLPGA players did worse than her, including several of yesterday's leaders who moved in the wrong direction on moving day, there are still 28 players ahead of her, and it doesn't look like many of those who have put 2 or 3 good rounds together will falter in the final round.

Maiko Wakabayashi hasn't finished worse than 6th her last 2 events and will be looking for her 2nd career win in the final group tomorrow, thanks to a bogey-free 67 that could have been much better. She just couldn't get the ball to drop over her last 4 holes when the cameras came on, but she's swinging the club wonderfully and giving herself a lot of birdie chances. I didn't get to see any of Chie Arimura's 2nd-straight 68, which included 4 birdies in her last 7 holes that brought her to -7, 2 shots behind Wakabayashi, not to mention Li-Ying Ye's 3 birdies over that same stretch that pulled her into a tie for 4th, but I did see a lot of Shinobu Moromizato's 69 and Rikako Morita's 71. Both were hitting the ball a long way, but Morita's irons were a little loose and her putting couldn't save her from a +1 finish over her last 5 holes to drop into a tie with Ye, Rui Kitada, and Hiromi Mogi at -6. But she definitely has a lot of potential. She has a very upright backswing and really attacks the ball on her downswing. Moromizato's swing is a little flatter, but still pretty powerful. Her bogey-free 69 was a little bit of a letdown, though, as she parred her last 10 holes despite giving herself a ton of birdie chances. Still, she's only 1 shot behind Wakabayashi and in great position to get her 2nd win of 2009.

As a result of the leaders' solid-to-excellent golf, it was difficult for those back in the pack to make up ground on them, despite making nice moves up the leaderboard. A walk-off bogey was the only thing keeping Ji-Hee Lee out of solo 8th place; as it was, her 68 brought her within shouting distance of the lead at -4. But Yuki Sakurai's 68 only brought her to T22 at -2. The hottest player on the JLPGA, Sakura Yokomine, made 6 birdies in her round, but could only manage a 70. Joining her in the top 10 were Bo-Bae Song and Na-Ri Lee, who had fine 69s today, with good recoveries from rocky starts to their back 9s.

Here's how the top 10 and notables stand after round 3:

1st/-9 Maiko Wakabayashi (72-68-67)
2nd/-8 Shinobu Moromizato (69-70-69)
3rd/-7 Chie Arimura (73-68-68)
T4/-6 Li-Ying Ye (74-68-68), Hiromi Mogi (73-68-69), Rui Kitada (72-68-70), Rikako Morita (69-70-71)
T8/-4 Ji-Hee Lee (73-71-68), Bo-Bae Song (74-69-69), Na-Ri Lee (72-71-69), Sakura Yokomine (71-71-70), Saiki Fujita (73-67-72), Ha-Na Jang (68-71-73)

T14/-3 Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-73-70), Nikki Campbell (70-69-74)
T22/-2 Yuki Sakurai (74-72-68), Mai Arai (73-72-69), Yuko Mitsuka (71-73-70), Tamie Durdin (75-67-72), Na Zhang (70-69-75),
T29/-1 Ai Miyazato (75-70-70), Mie Nakata (73-71-71), Kumiko Kaneda (73-71-71), Ayako Uehara (69-75-71), Akane Iijima (74-69-72)
T36/E Akiko Fukushima (73-71-72), Yuki Ichinose (67-76-73)
T40/+1 Ah-Reum Hwang (76-70-71), Miho Koga (75-70-72), Yuri Fudoh (72-73-72)
T45/+2 Eun-A Lim (75-70-73)
T48/+3 Hiroko Yamaguchi (74-72-73)
T50/+4 Yukari Baba (68-76-76)
T57/+6 Mayu Hattori (75-70-77)

With 13 players with a legitimate chance to win tomorrow, it's not just going to be a battle between Wakabayashi, Moromizato, and Arimura in the final pairing. But they certainly have a chance to pull away from the field early in the final round. I'm hoping the high-wattage pairing of Miyazato, Na Zhang, and Kumiko Kaneda can make some noise starting at 9:15 am. It'll also be interesting to see if the 8:35 pairing of Yuri Fudoh and Miho Koga produces a lot of birdies. Looking forward to seeing the ending live--thank you, Chiba TV!

LPGA Championship Friday: Nordqvist Leads at the Halfway Point, But Ochoa and Shin Are Lurking

It's taken Anna Nordqvist only 48 putts to get around the 1st 36 holes of the LPGA Championship, so it's no surprise that she leads Nicole Castrale by 1. What is surprising are the huge dives down the leaderboard by some of yesterday's best players. Shanshan Feng was -4 with 6 holes to play, but took a 9 on the par-4 6th and then missed the cut with a double on the par-4 9th. Meaghan Francella was hanging tough at -3 with 4 holes to play, but bogeyed out for a 40 on the back that dropped her all the way back to T45. Moira Dunn and Ashleigh Simon were -5 with 8 holes to play, but stumbled on the front side to drop to T15. Amy Yang birdied 3 of her 1st 6 holes to get to -7, then played the last 12 in +5, thanks to a double-bogey-bogey stretch on the 4th through 6th holes, joining them and 7 others at -2. They got leapfrogged by Ji-Yai Shin (who was -5 over her last 12 holes), Lorena Ochoa (whose 69 also brought her to T11 at -3), Kyeong Bae (whose bogey-free 69 brought her to -5), Hee-Won Han (who also shot a 69 to join Bae and my pick Na Yeon Choi at T5), Katherine Hull (whose 2nd straight 69 moved her to T3), and Lindsey Wright (who matched Shin's 68 for low round of the day despite making a late bogey each side and joined Hull at -6). All in all, there are 14 players within 5 shots of the lead as we head into the weekend.

But there are many more players who can count themselves lucky to be playing on the weekend. People playing as well lately as Jee Young Lee, Natalie Gulbis, Ji Young Oh, and Sun Young Yoo made the cut on the dot at +3. It took a 71 from Momoko Ueda to join them after her opening 76. Others making nice bouncebacks included Cristie Kerr and Teresa Lu (76-70), Paula Creamer (74-70), Suzann Pettersen, Seon Hwa Lee, and Helen Alfredsson (74-71), Eun-Hee Ji and Mindy Kim (74-69), but they have a lot of ground to make up. So do those who moved in the wrong direction today, like Sophie Gustafson (69-74), Michelle Wie (70-74), Paige Mackenzie (68-77), Maria Hjorth (71-75), and Se Ri Pak, In-Kyung Kim, and Mika Miyazato (72-74). Still, at least they have a chance to make up the ground. Missing the cut by a single shot were such notables as Mi Hyun Kim and Brittany Lincicome (73-75), Morgan Pressel (74-74), and Christina Kim (who went +4 over her last 6 holes to go 71-77). Vicky Hurst (74-76) and Shiho Oyama (78-72) missed it by 3, Jane Park (75-76) missed it by 4, Karen Stupples (77-75) missed it by 5, and Laura Diaz (75-79) missed it by 7. And Angela Park, Laura Davies, and Sophie Giquel WDed after terrible 1st days.

It'll be interesting to see if those with hot putters can keep it going on moving day. I'm hoping I'll be able to watch some of this on early-morning Chiba TV the next couple of days!

[Update 1 (8:24 pm): Here's Hound Dog's 2nd-round recap.]

[Update 2 (8:26 pm): Jamie did some live-blogging at Crosscourt Birdies--welcome back!]

[Update 3 (8:56 pm): Nice focus on Nordqvist by Ryan Ballengee.]

[Update 4 (9:01 pm): Ryan also has posts on Lorena Ochoa, Katherine Hull and Lindsey Wright, and his experience as a marshall at Bulle Rock.]

[Update 5 (9:15 pm): Wondering if there's a New York Times jinx after reading Karen Crouse's post-first-round profile of Shanshan Feng.]

[Update 6 (6/13/09, 4:48 am): Chose to watch Ai-chan highlights and the leaders live at the Suntory Ladies Open on Chiba TV this afternoon, but watched the 1st half-hour of the tape-delay of the LPGA Championship and flipped back during commercials (nothing interesting to me on the men's side, with both Ryo Ishikawa and Shigeki Maruyama struggling big-time on the JGO). Saw how Hull and Wright slipped back to -6, and a few shots from Nordqvist, but of course the coverage mainly focused on Mika Miyazato and Momoko Ueda, neither of whom did much right. Ueda was moping around the course like she expected to miss the cut, thanks to all her missed birdie putts, while Miyazato at least had her game face on while she struggled to a 74. Both their swings looked really great to me, which is probably a function of being away from the course for so long (haven't played competitively in, yeesh, 5 years), but it could just be that they really are that good. I know Michelle Wie gets roundly mocked whenever she talks about that "fine line" between a good and a bad round after she shoots one of the latter, but the fact is, she's right. A few shots bounce differently, a few putts drop, and you could have a completely different day. The competition is so tough on the LPGA these days, players have to figure out how to get at least B results even when they only have their D game.]

Suntory Ladies Open Thursday and Friday: Miyazato Fights Back to Make Cut, 6 Back of Logjam at -5

I never liked Ai Miyazato's decision to play in the Suntory Ladies Open this week, and after her opening-round birdie-less 75 that put her in a tie for 75th place, I was even less happy about it. But she stormed back today with 3 birdies and no bogeys in her last 13 holes to make the cut with a stroke to spare, climbing to 41st with the weekend still to be played, so at least she's given herself a chance to still win the tournament. In fact, she's only 6 out of the lead, which is shared by young guns Shinobu Moromizato and Na Zhang, rookie Rikako Morita, Aussie expat Nikki Campbell, and amateur Ha-Na Jang.

Here are the 1st- and 2nd-round results:

T1/-5 Na Zhang (70-69), Nikki Campbell (70-69), Shinobu Moromizato (69-70), Rikako Morita (69-70), Ha-Na Jang (68-71)
T6/-4 Saiki Fujita (73-67), Maiko Wakabayashi (72-68), Rui Kitada (72-68), Mika Takushima (71-69), Toshimi Kimura (69-71)

T11/-3 Chie Arimura (73-68), Hiromi Mogi (73-68)
T15/-2 Tamie Durdin (75-67), Li-Ying Ye (74-68), Sakura Yokomine (71-71)
T20/-1 Akane Iijima (74-69), Bo-Bae Song (74-69), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-73), Yuki Ichinose (67-76)
T30/E Ji-Hee Lee (73-71), Akiko Fukushima (73-71), Mie Nakata (73-71), Kumiko Kaneda (73-71), Yuko Mitsuka (71-73), Ayako Uehara (69-75), Yukari Baba (68-76)
T41/+1 Ai Miyazato (75-70), Miho Koga (75-70), Eun-A Lim (75-70), Mayu Hattori (75-70), Mai Arai (73-72), Yuri Fudoh (72-73)
T49/+2 Ah-Reum Hwang (76-70), Yuki Sakurai (74-72), Hiroko Yamaguchi (74-72)

As you can see, the scoring has not only been high, but also uneven. Nobody's broken 70 twice, and most everyone in the top 30 either mounted a major bounceback or fell back sharply from a great 1st round. And Ai-chan was certainly not alone in storming back to make the cut. But everyone would be a few more back if Morita had not made an early double and 2 late bogeys.

Some very good golfers missed the cut:

T62/+3 Yun-Jye Wei (75-72), Hyun-Ju Shin (74-73), Erina Hara (72-75), Ji-Woo Lee (72-75)
T73/+4 Midori Yoneyama (75-73), Kaori Higo (73-75)
T87/+5 Da-Ye Na (73-76)
T97/+6 Sakurako Mori (78-72), Esther Lee (78-72)
T102/+7 Woo-Soon Ko (76-75)
T112/+9 Riko Higashio (79-74)

With more experience in 4-round tournaments than most of her competition, I'm hoping Ai-chan can make a big move on moving day. There have only been 4 67s shot all week thus far. If she can go lower than that tomorrow, she'll be right back in this thing. Crossing my fingers for her...and looking forward to watching some of this on TV this weekend, if Chiba TV decides to air it, that is.

How Would You Fix the LPGA's Approach to Web 2.0?

The LPGA has been talking a good game about social networking and reaching new audiences through new technologies, but so far I'd rate their actual efforts a C- at best. I know a thing or two about blogging, and one thing I know is that they ought to hire Hound Dog as their official blogger. He's informative, interesting, level-headed, and consistently covers a wider range of players and issues than any professional golf writer out there. Plus he could help upgrade the stats and preserve the historical record. What can I say? The guy is multi-talented!

I don't do twitter or facebook, but I watch a lot of youtube with my girls, and I have to say that the LPGA's youtube channel is about as bad as it gets. The Corning weekly wrap, for instance, featured a slow mo slideshow of still photos with a voiceover that sounded like it belonged in a Hollywood movie trailer, but what he was saying was about as interesting as those high school informational films The Simpsons is always parodying. Does anyone at the LPGA actually understand the concept of a viral video? They should hire Stephanie Wei right awei away, who's done more with video blogging in a couple of months than the LPGA has in a couple of years. With the number of great personalities on tour and full access, Wei would have a field day.

She certainly could do better than this guy, who's light years ahead of the LPGA:



Sorry, we're leaving Okinawa in a few hours, so had to slip in that little tribute to Ai and Mika Miyazato (who are sisters only in the sense that the Seoul Sisters are). Seriously, as much as I appreciate this better-designed video page at LPGA.com, it's way too soon for them to give up on youtube.

Now, since hiring new personnel is probably around about #168 on the LPGA's priority list, may I humbly suggest that we in the golfosphere donate a few suggestions to help the tour improve its social networking efforts? How can we help the LPGA get Web 2.0?



I know, so 2007, right? So what's the deal for 2010 and beyond? Beyond, like, updating their Players on the Web page, encouraging the rookies to write more interesting blogs, keeping all stats at every single tournament, and getting more live streaming video from tournaments on the site (put all that footage Golf Channel won't be using to work for the tour)....

LPGA Championship Thursday: And They're Off!

Congratulations to Hye Jung Choi and Paige Mackenzie, who made the first birdies on Bulle Rock's front and back, respectively, at the LPGA Championship. I'll try to do a little virtual live blogging tonight from Okinawa....

[Update 1 (8:25 am): Looks like Anna Nordqvist is the 1st to get to -2. She's birdied the par-5 2nd and the par-4 5th. With fairly low status on tour and full membership on the LET, she needs to play well every time she tees it up on the LPGA, especially if she wants to be playing in the Solheim Cup this season for Europe.]

[Update 2 (8:51 am): Nordqvist still leads at -2 after following up her 1st bogey with her 3rd birdie, but she's been joined by Joo Mi Kim, who's birdied her 1st 2 holes--the 1st to birdie 2 in a row in the tournament.]

[Update 3 (8:53 am): Well, maybe Mackenzie was the 1st to get 2 in a row; her birdie on the par-5 15th was posted just after I hit "publish post" on the last update. She's now at -2, too.]

[Update 4 (8:55 am): The 1st of the prime-time players with a good chance to win this week, Ji-Yai Shin and Eun-Hee Ji, started with pars on #10.]

[Update 5 (8:58 am): Amy Yang is off to a good start at -1 through 2; will this be the week she figures out how to translate her LET success to the LPGA?]

[Update 6 (9:04 am): With her birdie on the par-5 8th, Nordqvist becomes the 3rd player to post back-to-back birdies and 1st to -3.]

[Update 7 (9:07 am): Top contenders Seon Hwa Lee and Hee-Won Han started with pars on #1.]

[Update 8 (9:16 am): We're approaching the heart of the morning prime-time pairings, and the pars are coming fast and furious, at #1 from Laura Davies and Wendy Ward and at #10 from Na Yeon Choi (my pick to win this thing), Ji Young Oh, and Sun Young Yoo. But Brittany Lincicome opened with a bogey.]

[Update 9 (9:17 am): Nordqvist made it 3 in a row with a birdie on the par-4 9th. She's out in 32.]

[Update 10 (9:18 am): Yang made it 2 in a row with a birdie on the 3rd. She's T2 with Mackenzie and Kim.]

[Update 11 (9:21 am): Karrie Webb, Helen Alfredsson, and Laura Diaz all started with pars on #1. In-Kyung Kim parred 10, but her playing partners Meaghan Francella and Soo-Yun Kang both birdied it.]

[Update 12 (9:25 am): Kyeong Bae joined the back-to-back-birdies club with hers on the par-5 15th and par-4 16th. The former birdie machine among the Senior Standouts has been struggling the last couple of seasons after a promising start on tour. Let's see if she can return to form this week.]

[Update 13 (9:27 am): Ugliest start goes to Anna Rawson--a pair of bogeys and consecutive double bogeys already on the front are definitely rally-killers after her final-round 65 at the State Farm Classic.]

[Update 14 (9:30 am): But other LET stars are doing just fine, thank you, including Ashleigh Simon, who just joined the logjam at -2 and seems to be rounding back into form after injuries derailed the start of her season.]

[Update 15 (9:32 am): Don't count the Americans out just yet, though. Playing with Paula Creamer, who parred #1, both Kristy McPherson and Nicole Castrale birdied it. Hope Beth Daniel is watching.]

[Update 16 (9:35 am): Even with Bulle Rock playing long and soft, golf is still a precision game. On the front, Nordqvist hit 6 fairways but only averaged 226 yards off the tee; she hit 5 greens and had 10 putts in all. Not bad!]

[Update 17 (9:44 am): The last groups in the morning pairings are off. Among them, the ones I'm paying particular attention to are Michelle Wie, Christina Kim, and Shanshan Feng. They all parred #1, but it was Amy Hung who got the only birdie among the 9:27ers, at #10. Now I'll switch over to focusing only on notable players and scores.]

[Update 18 (9:46 am): Yang couldn't match Nordqvist's 3-hole birdie train, but with her birdie on the 5th, she became the 2nd player to get to -3 in the tournament.]

[Update 19 (11:18 am): Mackenzie birdied her 1st 3 holes on the front to get to -4 and joined Nordqvist at -5 when she birdied her 16th hole soon after Nordqvist birdied the 14th. Yang matched Nordqvist's 32 on the front. Castrale has made two pairs of birdies in her 1st 6 holes and just added a birdie on the 8th to jump into a tie for the lead. With her birdie on the par-4 10th, Na Ri Kim broke from the logjam at -2 to move into 5th place so far.]

[Update 20 (11:22 am): Shanshan Feng is shining while Michelle Wie and Christina Kim are struggling at +1 through 7. Her birdies on 5 and 7 have lifted her to T6 at -2 right now.]

[Update 21 (11:26 am): Good signs for my pick Na Yeon Choi. She shot a bogey-free 34 on the back despite hitting only 3 greens. Her putting's been holding her back her entire LPGA career so far, so it's very cool that she had only 9 putts on the side. And hitting 6 of 7 fairways suggests she can go very low on the front if she improves her approach shots.]

[Update 22 (11:29 am): Also good signs for Rawson; after an ugly 43 on the front, she's parred every hole on the back and shouldn't finish dead last on the day, now that the club pros are starting to struggle.]

[Update 23 (11:31 am): Feng's now birdied 2 in a row and 3 of her last 4 to move into a tie for 5th with Na Ri Kim.]

[Update 24 (11:35 am): Helen Alfredsson's 34 consisted of 2 birdies and 2 bogeys, along with an eagle on the par-5 8th. Wonder if the roller coaster will keep going on the back.]

[Update 25 (11:37 am): Don't look now, but Castrale opened the tournament with a 30 on the front. That's 3 sets of back-to-back birdies, for those keeping score at home. She's the 1st to -6. When you hit 8 greens and only have 11 putts, you know good things are happening.]

[Update 26 (11:45 am): Nordqvist birdied 17 to join Castrale at -6. And Carri Wood birdied her last 3 on the back despite only hitting 4 greens on the side to join the T5/-3 club.]

[Update 27 (11:54 am): In-Kyung Kim's only hit 2 of her 1st 10 greens and Seon Hwa Lee has only hit 3 of her 1st 11, so it's amazing that they're both only +1. Meanwhile, Michelle Wie's bombing it 283 yards off the tee and has hit 6 greens on the front, but could only manage an opening 37. Go figure.]

[Update 28 (11:56 am): Bae's made her 2nd pair of consecutive birdies and, with 1 to play, has joined the new logjam at -3.]

[Update 29 (11:59 am): But she won't be the leader in the clubhouse. That honor 1st goes to Paige Mackenzie, who unfortunately bogeyed the last hole on the front as she did on the back to fall back to a 68. Still, with 7 birdies and 22 putts on the day, she has to be feeling pretty good.]

[Update 30 (12:01 pm): Mackenzie's lead lasted only a couple of minutes at most, as Nordqvist's sweet 66 is now official. She, too, made 7 birdies and only had 22 putts all day.]

[Update 31 (12:05 pm): Speaking of good putting, Na Yeon Choi just birdied the par-5 2nd to move to -3, despite only hitting 4 of her 1st 11 greens. How? 11 putts so far!]

[Update 32 (12:12 pm): Next to post good scores are Bae, who bogeyed her final hole, the 9th, for a 70, and Simon, who made it 3 closing birdies in a row to join Mackenzie at 68 (she had 24 putts on the day, so it's looking like we have a formula for breaking 70 at Bulle Rock thus far). Meanwhile, Yang made her 5th birdie of the day to pull within 1 of Nordqvist and Castrale with 4 to play.]

[Update 33 (12:22 pm): I'm expecting LPGA.com to develop some glitches as the afternoon pairings begin to enter the system in the next several minutes. Hopefully it's not a glitch that Na Yeon Choi has 13 putts in her 1st 13 holes and is at -4 now.]

[Update 34 (12:28 pm): At the opposite end of the spectrum, Rawson followed up her pair of birdies with a pair of bogeys to go 43-36, but it won't be the worst score of the day, even among the touring pros, as Leah Wigger went +5 over her final 5 holes on the front to join her at +7.]

[Update 35 (12:30 pm): Yang's 1st mistake of the day was a biggie--a bogey on the par-5 15th. With Feng making her 4th birdie of the day at the 11th, there's now a new logjam at -4.]

[Update 36 (12:38 pm): Nice 70 by Marisa Baena. She has the distinction of being the 1st among the leaders to have just a very good day on the greens, with 30 putts in all. Believe it or not, but that's her 3rd-best round of the year; her 2 best came last week at the State Farm Classic, where she shot a pair of 69s.]

[Update 37 (12:42 pm): Michelle Wie still hasn't birdied a par 5 today, but with 2 birdies in her 1st 3 holes on the back, she's battled back to -1. With Ji-Yai Shin struggling--a birdie on each side offset by double bogeys--Wie has a chance to make up some serious ground in the Rookie of the Year race were she to finish well and Shin to miss the cut....]

[Update 38 (12:46 pm): Speaking of comebacks, Inbee Park has birdied 2 of her 1st 3 holes on the front to move to -3, putting her alone at 8th right now. Could her game finally be coming back?]

[Update 39 (12:53 pm): Some LPGA.com glitches getting ironed out in real time, unless, that is, Na Yeon Choi hit the 5th green in 0 and 5-putted. Her 1st bogey of the day brings her to -3, 7 greens in regulation, and 18 putts with 4 holes left to play.]

[Update 40 (12:59 pm): Feng's bogey-free run ended at 12 holes; she, too, falls back to -3. Choi, Park, and Feng have been joined there by none other than NYer Meaghan Francella, who's extended her own bogey-free streak to 14 holes.]

[Update 41 (1:01 pm): Castrale's own 14-hole bogey-free streak is a little more impressive, though, as she's now birdied half the holes she's played and is the 1st player in the field to reach the -7 mark.]

[Update 42 (1:06 pm): Darn it, Choi's bad iron play is coming back to haunt her, after all, as she's now bogeyed 2 in a row on the front to drop back to -2 through 15. She's hit 11 of 12 fairways and only has 21 putts so far, so it's particularly frustrating she isn't giving herself more birdie chances.]

[Update 43 (1:07 pm): On the bright side, Yang hung in there for a solid 68. She was leaking a little oil there at the end, so I'm happy with her results on day 1. If she can play the par 5s better the next 3 days, she could win this thing.]

[Update 44 (1:17 pm): Maybe I picked the wrong Pak in the PakPicker this week. Jin Young Pak just posted a 69, which is tied with her 2nd-best round of the year (her best was a 65 at the Michelob Ultra).]

[Update 45 (1:21 pm): Bulle Rock's 5th must be a doozy--it got Inbee Park, too, dropping her to -2. Meanwhile, Castrale birdied the par-5 15th to get to -8 on her day. That's her 4th set of back-to-back birdies on the day. How low can she go?]

[Update 46 (1:32 pm): Shin ended up with a 73, which wasn't as bad as it could have been. Meanwhile, Wie birdied her 1st par 5 of the day to get to -2.]

[Update 47 (1:35 pm): From this year's top 2 rookies to last year's: Choi got back on track with a birdie on the par-5 8th to return to -3, while Ya Ni Tseng is E through 2. Oh, and fellow Super Soph Feng? She also birdied the par-5 15th to return to -4.]

[Update 48 (1:45 pm): What a weird day for Seon Hwa Lee: 4 birdies, a double, and 4 bogeys, including on her last hole. But she shouldn't feel too bad about her 74--she only hit 7 greens and scrambled her way around to 23 putts. But if she can't improve her ballstriking tomorrow, she'll miss her 3rd cut of the young season after missing only 5 the previous 3.]

[Update 49 (1:53 pm): Wow, Na Yeon Choi birdied the 9th, too, to finish at 68. She ended up with 25 putts, as she finally started hitting greens in regulation to close out her round. Bodes well for the rest of the tournament for my pick!]

[Update 50 (1:56 pm): Meanwhile, Feng just birdied the 16th to get to -5 and is now alone in 3rd. Contrast that with Alfredsson, who followed up her eagle on the 8th with a 40 on the back to end up with a 74, and Webb, who doubled the 10th and parred out to end up with a 72.]

[Update 51 (2:05 pm): How's this for weird results? If I told you that Meaghan Francella and In-Kyung Kim both drove the ball under 220 yards and hit only 9 greens, what do you think they would have shot? Well, Francella had a bogey-free 69 and Kim had a 72, each with 26 putts. Short game matters.]

[Update 52 (2:06 pm): Contrast that with Paula Creamer, who stumbled her way to a 74 with 27 putts. Sometimes a good short game just can't save you.]

[Update 53 (2:10 pm): Wouldn't it be amazing if Francella ended up with the only bogey-free round of the day? Well, Castrale bogeyed the 18th to become the leader in the clubhouse with a 65. 23 putts is pretty darn impressive, but I'll bet she's wishing it was 22!]

[Update 54 (2:15 pm): Oops, turns out Kristy McPherson's 70 was also bogey-free.]

[Update 55 (2:30 pm): Feng's 67 with 25 putts puts her alone in 3rd for now. Wie, Han, and Inbee Park joined the new logjam at 70, good enough for T13 right now with only Katherine Hull, Maria Hjorth, and Suzann Pettersen among the afternoon players doing better (Hull has birdied 3 of her 1st 8 holes of bogey-free golf on the front, while Hjorth has sandwiched a bogey between 2 pairs of consecutive birdies in her 1st 6 holes on the back and Pettersen has birdied every even-numbered hole on the back thus far). Only Cristie Kerr (+4 through 5 on the back) and Jee Young Lee (+2 through 5 on the front) are doing much worse than expected in these pairings, but nobody's really tearing up the course quite yet. Me, I'm pulling the plug on the virtual live blog. Hopefully will have time for 1 last update in the morning before we have to get ready to leave Okinawa for Chiba!]

[Update 56 (3:15 pm): Can't resist one little update. Why is Randall Mell so much better at live-blogging than Beth Ann Baldry? And what is happening to Cristie Kerr and Angela Park? On the bright side, Hull shot a 33 on the front and is bogey-free through 10, but nobody else is threatening the leaders.]

[Update 57 (8:39 pm): Wow, Moira Dunn's 68 could have been even better, but it was still tied for the best round of the afternoon with Stacy Lewis and Aree Song. Whoops, gotta run!]

[Update 58 (6/12/09, 8:02 am): Hound Dog gives the concise version of the 1st-round results.]

[Update 59 (9:08 pm): Nice background on Castrale from Leonard Shapiro and Randall Mell. Mell, by the way, is rocking the Shag Bag blog.]

Some Nice Pre-LPGA Championship Profiles Out There

Randall Mell wins the prize for best profile of an LPGA player with his look at Helen Alfredsson, but check out Beth Ann Baldry on Ya Ni Tseng and her new home, Ron Sirak on Suzann Pettersen, Glenn Graham on Cristie Kerr (and another on Christina Kim, who's being miked by Golf Channel for today's round), David Ginsburg on Lorena Ochoa, and Joe Juliano and Mike Kern on Michelle Wie.

[Update 1 (6:15 am): Give Mell extra credit for trying to start a new Wie meme: "the breakthrough is coming, the breakthrough is coming!" He may well be right, and if he is, I'll be even more than impressed. I've been waiting on Ai Miyazato for 3 and a half years now, Angela Park for 2 and a half, and Moira Dunn since 2004! (Not to mention the rest of the best without a win as an LPGA member.)]

[Update 2 (6:27 am): Here's Armchair Golfer on Tseng (and don't forget to enter his drawing for Rocco's new book), Stephanie Wei's reaction to Kim being miked, and be sure to check out The Tour Blog for Golfweek's up-to-the-minute updates and Shag Bag for Golf Channel's usually-better on-site blogging.]

[Update 3 (6:36 am): Rodney Page profiles Brittany Lincicome.]

[Update 4 (7:14 am): Brian Heard is almost singlehandedly profiling the best of the Korean players on the LPGA (as well as Tseng and Shiho Oyama). Way to go, Brian!]

[Update 5 (8:19 am): Most of the golf writers are going off the pre-tournament interviews, so you may as well go read them yourself if you've gotten this far in this post! Best line of them all: the sentence Ya Ni Tseng didn't finish to kick off her interview!]

[Update 6 (2:35 pm): Somebody should tell Stephanie Wei about the PakPicker at Seoul Sisters.com!]

LPGA Championship Preview/Predictions/Pairings

The LPGA returns to Bulle Rock this week for the 55th playing of the LPGA Championship. Ron Sirak, Candus Thomson, and Ryan Ballengee explain why the 5-year run at Bulle Rocke is ending and what it means for the tour's business model, but I'll be focusing on the competition itself in this post.

Sirak was right to raise the questions he did last week (something I did last year, by the way), but his last one, at least, is easy to answer: with all due respect to Jay Busbee and Michael Arkush, we are seeing the bar being raised for greatness on the LPGA right before our eyes; mediocrity can't even get through Q-School these days. Just check the field list if you don't believe me: only Ai Miyazato, Yuri Fudoh, Sakura Yokomine, and Ji-Hee Lee won't be there among those eligible to play (they'll all be facing off in Kobe at the Suntory Ladies Open). All in all, 42 of the top 50 in the Rolex Rankings will be vying for the crown.

Maybe it's the fact that there are fewer than 15 Americans on that list that's prompted the latest anti-Asian meme going around the golfosphere, which Jeff Skinner counters with a defense of the LPGA's internationalism and Hound Dog fights back against with a blast of the Korean-haters. I agree with both of them, of course, and am overjoyed to see that State Farm will be there for the LPGA for the next 2 years, at least. I wish more U.S. corporations would decide to practice State Farm's "good neighbor" policy and sponsor more U.S.-based events, of course, especially because it's not as if many Asian economies are doing all that well right now, either. But I have to disagree with Golf Channel's Tom Abbott, who called for the LPGA Championship to open up more spots for Europeans on the LET, because the top Europeans are already playing on the LPGA. You should have to earn your way into the LPGA Championship the hard way if you're not already an LPGA member--top 3 in the Rolex Rankings not already qualified sounds just right to me. If more LET regulars want to get in, they'd better play better than the 8 JLPGA players in the Rolex Top 50.

There's no disagreeing with Brent Kelley, Daniel Wexler, and Jay Busbee's run-downs of the top contenders for the LPGA's 2nd major of 2009, but I'm going to mix things up a bit for this week's PakPicker:

1. Choi Na Yeon
2. Lee Jee Young
3. Ochoa
4. Tseng
5. Pettersen
6. Stanford
7. Lee Seon Hwa
8. Webb
9. Creamer
10. Kerr
11. Pak Se Ri
12. Hurst, Vicky

Alts: Shin, Yang, Lang

I've finished 1-2 the last two weeks, so my hopes are high. I've tried not to overvalue how long Bulle Rock is playing after all the spring rain it's gotten.

The pairings, of course, are amazing. The prime-time quadrants are 6 deep, rather than the usual 5. Let's start with those going off #10 in the early afternoon:

Start Time: 12:25 PM
Carin Koch
Stacy Prammanasudh
Pat Hurst

Start Time: 12:36 PM
Brandie Burton
Rachel Hetherington
Sandra Gal

Start Time: 12:47 PM
Mi Hyun Kim
Maria Hjorth
Ya Ni Tseng

Start Time: 12:58 PM
Lindsey Wright
Juli Inkster
Natalie Gulbis

Start Time: 1:09 PM
Angela Stanford
Suzann Pettersen
Cristie Kerr

Start Time: 1:20 PM
Morgan Pressel
Sophie Gustafson
Lorena Ochoa

How 'bout that next-to-last one, eh? Pairing last year's playoff participants was a nice touch, too. Going off #1 opposite them in the late morning are most of the rest of the top Americans on tour:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Silvia Cavalleri
Teresa Lu
Lorie Kane

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Liselotte Neumann
Il Mi Chung
Young Kim

Start Time: 8:54 AM
Laura Davies
Wendy Ward
Brittany Lincicome

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Laura Diaz
Karrie Webb
Helen Alfredsson

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Nicole Castrale
Paula Creamer
Kristy McPherson

Start Time: 9:27 AM
Shanshan Feng
Michelle Wie
Christina Kim

Great opportunity there for Feng to play with 2 of the tour's top media magnets. It's nice to see the tournament organizers making it easy for the Japanese media; Momoko Ueda, Shiho Oyama, and Mika Miyazato are all going off #1 in the early afternoon:

Start Time: 12:25 PM
Katherine Hull
Janice Moodie
Meena Lee

Start Time: 12:36 PM
Sarah Lee
Hee Young Park
Vicky Hurst

Start Time: 12:47 PM
Mika Miyazato
Jane Park
Michele Redman

Start Time: 12:58 PM
Brittany Lang
Momoko Ueda
Jee Young Lee

Start Time: 1:09 PM
Angela Park
Louise Friberg
Candie Kung

Start Time: 1:20 PM
Shiho Oyama
Song-Hee Kim
Se Ri Pak

Here's hoping all 3 Japanese players bounce back from their missed cuts last week. That leaves a lot of talented players who haven't had the most consistent of seasons to go off #10 in the late morning:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Eun-Hee Ji
Alena Sharp
Ji-Yai Shin

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Seon Hwa Lee
Hee-Won Han
Giulia Sergas

Start Time: 8:54 AM
Sun Young Yoo
Ji Young Oh
Na Yeon Choi

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Meaghan Francella
In-Kyung Kim
Soo-Yun Kang

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Louise Stahle
Karen Stupples
Jimin Kang

Start Time: 9:27 AM
Meg Mallon
Amy Hung
Inbee Park

Even #2 on the money list In-Kyung Kim has had her ups and downs this season; sure, she hasn't missed any cuts, but when she hasn't contended, she hasn't even finished in the top 20. That's how tough the competition is on the LPGA in 2009.

This one should be awesome. Be sure to check Golf Observer's list of the best average finishes among those the field, watch the high def coverage on Golf Channel, and follow IceCat's on-site observations.

[Update 1 (6:18 pm): Here's Hound Dog's preview and hot 20 list.]

Excuse Me, But What Is Ai Miyazato Thinking?

Looking over the final field list for the LPGA Championship, I was disappointed to see my earlier suspicions confirmed: Ai Miyazato is indeed playing the JLPGA's Suntory Ladies Open instead of the LPGA's 2nd major. I know she's missed the last 2 cuts at the LPGA Championship, but she did finish in a tie for 3rd at Bulle Rock her rookie season, just 1 shot out of that playoff between Se Ri Pak and Karrie Webb. So why is she doing this?

Yes, the Suntory has one of the largest purses on the JLPGA, Ai-chan won its inaugural playing in 2004 (one of her 1st professional victories), she has been in contention to win her last 3 events in Japan, and she no doubt wants to get back in the winner's circle there for the 1st time since 2006. BUT, she's on a roll on the LPGA, with 5 straight top 20s, 5 top 10s in 10 starts (7th-best on tour), the 11th-best scoring average, the 12th-best birdie rate, the 10th-best rounds-under-par rate. So it's no surprise she sits 17th on the money list; in fact, all her key LPGA stats suggest that she should be higher on it. More important, she's this close to her 1st LPGA win--and probably playing the best of anyone on tour without one. When even the defending Suntory champion, Momoko Ueda, who gave herself a great birthday present when she chased down Shiho Oyama in the final round, has chosen to join Oyama and Mika Miyazato at Bulle Rock, you have to wonder why the hottest member of the Japanese contingent on the LPGA isn't playing on it in 1 of its biggest events.

I don't see Ai-chan on the field list for the Nichirei PGM Ladies next week, even though the LPGA doesn't restart until the Wegmans the week after (where she'll be rejoining the U.S. tour), so it doesn't seem like this is an attempt to make a serious run up the JLPGA money list. Thus, I have to conclude that her sponsorship deal with Suntory is the biggest factor in this decision. Either that, or she really misses Kobe beef.

I'm a huge Ai-chan fan, but I really have problems with her choice. All I can say is, she'd better come back with a win! And I'd better be able to watch it on Japanese TV!

[Update 1 (2:24 pm): Just noticed Ai-chan passed the $2M mark in official LPGA winnings.]

[Update 2 (8:27 pm): Miyazato explains her decision: as the Full Metal Archivist translated for me, Ai-chan has always felt bad for missing the event run by one of her sponsors since she's joined the LPGA, so she wanted to return this year to serve as a hostess for it. I respect her decision, of course, but still disagree with it.]

[Update 3 (6/10/09, 6:12 pm): The LPGA's list of players on the web is useful, to be sure, but it's certainly not complete. They don't even have Momoko Ueda's or Ji-Yai Shin's sites on it. And why list Ai-chan's site but not her blog?]

Mina Harigae Wins Big on the Futures Tour

Huge win for Mina Harigae this past week on the Futures Tour! She went 64-67-69 to post a -16 total and win by 10 shots over Whitney Myers. She's now tops on their money list and 2 wins away from a battlefield promotion to the LPGA. Even more impressively, she finished light-years ahead of the new pros making their debuts at the Ladies Titan Tire Challenge. In case you're counting, Harigae was 14-up on Cindy LaCrosse, 17-up on Jennie Lee and Stephanie Connelly, 19-up on Pernilla Lindberg and Blair Lamb, and 22-up on Jane Chin. Maria Hernandez, the top women golfer on the NCAA this past season, missed the cut, as well as Lucy Nunn and Mallory Hetzel. But the newbies shouldn't feel too bad: Song Yi Choi, one of the best on the tour, missed the cut, as did Kristie Smith, who shot a 62 in Australia this season.

I wasn't kidding when I referred to the need to make a quantum leap to translate amateur into professional success. But they should be heartened by how quickly Harigae herself made the transition. Back in mid-March, I wondered how long it would take the player I predicted would be #2 on tour to bounce back from a disappointing college career. About 2 months, it turns out. Let's see how Amanda Blumenherst handles her 1st pro event next week!

Who's the Best on the LPGA Without a Win?

Andrew Seligman kept the Wie Watch fires burning in his State Farm Classic preview for the AP. Now that it's pretty clear she's put her lost years behind her, he exemplifies the latest media tendency to concern-troll the fact that she hasn't won yet on the LPGA Tour. To which I say: come on, people--she's not even the best player without a win on tour! Building on my latest Best of the Young Guns ranking, here's the official Mostly Harmless Guide to the 20 best players without a win as an LPGA member.

Most Likely to Win This Season

1. Na Yeon Choi: She hasn't missed a cut in her 38 LPGA starts and has 5 top 3s in less than 2 full seasons. Her 16th-hole eagle last Friday to keep her streak alive shows what she's made of. [Update (9/20/09): She gave away a 7-shot lead, but still found a way to beat Ai-sama at the Samsung!]

2. Jee Young Lee: She's a big hitter and a good putter, so why hasn't she followed up her non-member win in Korea yet? She has the most top 10s in her generation with 27 in less than 4 full seasons, and she notched her 7th top 3 this past week..

3. Angela Park: She has 8 top 3s but only 17 more finishes in the top 20 in less than 3 full seasons.

4. Michelle Wie: If you count her non-member starts, she has 10 top 3s and 16 top 10s in 55 starts; if you count only this year, she has 2 top 3s and 3 top 10s in 8 starts. Either way, these are impressive stats. But as her weak finish this past weekend shows, she needs to become more consistent. [Update (11/17/09): Add Wie to the 1st-time winners list!]

5. Ai Miyazato: She's averaging just over 1 top 10 every 4 starts on the LPGA in less than 4 full seasons, but has only 4 top 3s to her name as an LPGA member (she finished 2nd at the Mizuno Classic in 2004 as a non-member). She was playing well enough to win the State Farm, but finished 1 shot out of a tie for 3rd. [Update (7/26/09): Cross Ai-chan off the list. She won the Evian Masters today!]

6. Brittany Lang: In 13 more starts than Miyazato, she has 2 fewer top 10s and the same number of top 3s.

7. Song-Hee Kim: This Futures Tour sensation got off to a slow start on the LPGA, but now has 11 top 10s and 4 top 3s in less than 3 full LPGA seasons.

8. Jane Park: This NCAA star has finally settled into life on tour well, but she's been plagued by back problems this season. Still, even with limited status her rookie season, she already has 3 top 3s and 6 top 10s in just under 40 starts as a member.

The Best of the Rest

Here's where the players' LPGA records get a little thinner and past performance on other tours counts for more than recent performances on the LPGA.

9. Amy Yang: Those 3 LET wins didn't come out of nowhere--there's a reason I predicted she'd be the 10th-best player on the LPGA at the end of this season.

10. Momoko Ueda: She's moving in the right direction this season on the LPGA--never mind that 76 yesterday, just a blip--and definitely has the game to follow up on her non-member win at the Mizuno Classic and 6 other JLPGA wins.

11. Hee Young Park: With 4 KLPGA wins to her name and the ability to go very low, she just has to have a week where she avoids that one big number to get her 1st LPGA win.

12. Shiho Oyama: 11 JLPGA wins in 9 seasons don't lie, but tendonitis in the elbows is hard to recover from.

13. Vicky Hurst: We'll see if dominating the Futures Tour will translate into immediate success on the LPGA for this star-in-the-making.

14. Sun Young Yoo: This late-blooming Senior Standout has the game to contend often, but hasn't done it yet (25 top 20s, but only 10 top 10s and 1 top 3).

15. Kristy McPherson: This late-blooming Junior Mint got her first top 3 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship this season, giving her 2 fewer than Jane Park but 1 more top 10 in a comparable number of starts, so don't be surprised if she beats Park to that 1st LPGA win. She had a chance to do it this past week, but had a tough Sunday.

16. Lindsey Wright: I had thought she was going to be the next Australian to break through, but injuries in the 2nd half of last season opened the door for Katherine Hull to beat her to it; she's healthy now, so watch out for her.

17. Stacy Lewis: She's definitely for real, but as with most rookies, it's going to take a little bit of time for her to learn to compete at this level, as suggested by her walkoff double bogey to drop to a 70 last Thursday and continuation of her bad momentum Friday that led to her missing the cut at the State Farm.

18. Teresa Lu: This late-blooming Senior Standout had a great year last season, seemingly buoyed by fellow Taiwanese native Ya Ni Tseng's breakout rookie season; can she build on that momentum the rest of this year?

19. Shanshan Feng: If she can play as well as she did in the 2nd half of last season the rest of this season, she can win any given week.

20. Sandra Gal: Her stats are down from last year, but I believe this Super Soph has a lot of potential.

State Farm Classic Sunday: Dare I Call It a Barnburner?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the LPGA's newest stars didn't come through this week: Stacy Lewis missed the cut, Vicky Hurst finished T60 at -3, and Michelle Wie finished T54 at -4. But just about everything else has come through for the LPGA, ESPN, and NBC this week at the State Farm Classic. Any week you have to be -2 to make the cut and double digits under par to make the top 20, you know there's going to be lots of Sunday fireworks, and today there were almost too many to keep track of. Plus, they started early.

In the 8:59 am group, Anna Grzebien and Song-Hee Kim put on a show. Grzebien's 30 on the back gave her a 65 on the day and made her the leader in the clubhouse at -11 when Kim double bogeyed the 18th to fall back to -10, squandering her 9 birdies in her 1st 13 holes. in the 9:41 am group, Ya Ni Tseng matched it in her 1st 12 holes, but parred out over her final 6 to miss a chance to surpass it.

But Grzebien's lead didn't hold for much longer. In the very next group, Anna Rawson's 65 would have given the lead to her, but she was playing with an incandescent Eun-Hee Ji, whose closing 31 brought her to -14.

Then it was Paula Creamer's to make a charge. She got to -15 with her birdie on the 16th, but unlike the Corning when she made a monster birdie putt on the 18th to give herself a chance for her 9th win, this time she bogeyed the tough 18th to fall back into a tie with Ji.

For awhile, the 3rd-round leaders were giving Ji and Creamer some hope their lead would be good enough for a playoff. Kristy McPherson bogeyed 3 in a row early to drop to -9 and had to fight to get back to double digits under par. Ji-Yai Shin bogeyed 2 of her 1st 4 holes and even an eagle on the par-5 6th didn't jump-start anything for the KLPGA's "Final Round Queen." And even though Cristie Kerr go it it to -14 through 11, she failed to birdie the par-5 13th and bogeyed the tough par 4 15th.

But by then, many others had made their mark on the tournament. Hee-Won Han was one of them. A 31 on the front and birdies on the 11th and 13th brought her to -15, but when she bogeyed the 15th and birdied the par-5 16th, that's where she would end her day. Jee Young Lee joined her with a birdie on the tough 18th hole, but by then it was too late, for Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak had gotten to and stayed at -16, on the strength of a final-round 66.

But playing in the very next group, In-Kyung Kim, who had described herself as just a "punk kid" the week she got her 1st career LPGA victory late last season, passed Pak with consecutive birdies on the 16th and par-3 17th. When she parred the 18th, it sure looked like the tournament was hers. Amy Hung, who had gotten to -15 with her 5th birdie of the day on the 13th, had failed to birdie the 16th and bogeyed the 17th to drop back to -14, tied with Ai Miyazato, who had failed to capitalize on her 13th-hole eagle when she bogeyed the 15th and couldn't follow up on her 16th-hole birdie. They were 3 back on the 18th tee, tied with Suzann Pettersen, whose own bogey-birdie combo on 15 and 16 and pars on 17 and 18 had kept her at -14.

So it was up to Angela Stanford, 2 back on the 18th tee, to make some magic happen. Stanford had gotten it to -16 through 13 when she made her 8th birdie of the day, but she immediately gave it back with her 3rd and 4th bogeys of the round on her next 2 holes. Still, a birdie on the 16th kept her hopes alive, but she failed to birdie the 17th. And when she could only par the final hole (as did Miyazato and Hung), the only drama left was whether Kerr and Shin could join the logjam at 6th with final-hole birdies to get to -14.

But what a win for In-Kyung Kim! If it couldn't have been Ai-chan, Seon Hwa Lee (who stalled at -9, T24), or Moira Dunn (who battled back from her moving day back-9 disasters with a bogey-free 69 that brought her to -7, T32), I'm really glad one of my favorite players could beat such a quality field and hold off some fantastic players. Congrats, Inky!

[Update 1 (6:39 pm): Hound Dog has the lead changes down.]

[Update 2 (6/8/09, 6:03 pm): LPGA.com has the key notes and interviews, while Hound Dog puts Kim's win in perspective. Lots of 2-time winners before they turn 21 lately!]

Resort Trust Ladies Sunday: Mi-Jeong Jeon Wins Going Away

Now that's the way to nail down your 1st win in almost a year when you've let a quartet slip away! Mi-Jeong Jeon shot her 2nd straight 65 at the Resort Trust Ladies to beat Akiko Fukushima by 7 shots. Her 4-shot lead had actually slipped to 2 when she bogeyed the 2nd hole and Fukushima birdied it, but when Fukushima bogeyed the next, letting a Jeon bogey off the hook, that was the closest it got. Jeon birdied 8 of her last 12 holes to leave Fukushima in the dust. In fact, it took a Fukushima run of her own--5 birdies in her last 6 holes--to cut a 9-shot lead down to 7 and secure her runner-up finish. That's what happens when Jeon drops a 30 on the field to close out her 10th career JLPGA win. It was great to see her smile after sinking her final birdie putt on the 18th hole--many thanks to Okinawan TV for being a bit more golf-crazy than Chiba TV! And congrats to Mi-Jeong Jeon!

Here's how everything ended up for the top 10 and notables:

1st/-14 Mi-Jeong Jeon (72-65-65)
2nd/-7 Akiko Fukushima (71-70-68)
3rd/-3 Yuko Mitsuka (69-73-71)
T4/-2 Erina Hara (73-73-68), Rikako Morita (74-71-69)
T6/-1 Tomomi Hirose (76-71-68), Miki Saiki (76-68-71), Shinobu Moromizato (71-72-72), Maiko Wakabayashi (71-72-72), Li-Ying Ye (71-70-74)

Saiki missed her best chance for a top 3 finish since the beginning of last season when she finished +3 over her last 5 holes. Nice to see Morita getting a top 10. And guess whose final-hole bogey kept her just out of the top 10? Yup, Yokomine's T11 is tied for her worst finish of the season. Just think how she might have finished if she hadn't gone into double digits on that par 5 on the back on Saturday!

T11/E Sakura Yokomine (71-77-68), Bo-Bae Song (72-74-70), Nikki Campbell (77-68-71), Yukari Baba (71-72-73)
T16/+1 Miho Koga (76-72-69), Tamie Durdin (73-75-69), Na Zhang (74-73-70)
24th/+3 Rui Kitada (74-70-75)
T25/+4 Midori Yoneyama (74-75-71), Chie Arimura (70-76-74), Mayu Hattori (76-69-75), Yuri Fudoh (73-72-75)
T31/+5 Da-Ye Na (76-74-71), Mai Arai (76-73-72), Sakurako Mori (74-73-74)
T42/+9 Julie Lu (76-73-76), Mie Nakata (73-74-78)
T44/+10 Hiromi Mogi (75-74-77), Yun-Jye Wei (72-76-78)

And here's how the money list now looks:

1. Sakura Yokomine ￥53.38M
2. Yuko Mitsuka ￥46.36M
3. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥39.83M
4. Shinobu Moromizato ￥37.48M
5. Chie Arimura ￥29.58M
6. Yuko Saitoh ￥28.89M
7. Ji-Hee Lee ￥26.98M
8. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥26.30M
9. Ayako Uehara ￥25.75M
10. Eun-A Lim ￥23.86M
11. Erina Hara ￥23.80M
12. Akiko Fukushima ￥20.77M
13. Tamie Durdin ￥20.43M
14. Miho Koga ￥18.16M
15. Ji-Woo Lee ￥17.44M
16. Yukari Baba ￥16.43M
17. Yuri Fudoh ￥16.26M
18. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥13.08M
19. Bo-Bae Song ￥12.24M
20. Rui Kitada ￥11.04M
21. Julie Lu ￥11.02M
22. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥10.69M
23. Mie Nakata ￥10.58M
24. Akane Iijima ￥10.37M
25. Midori Yoneyama ￥10.05M
26. Miki Saiki ￥10.02M
27. Kaori Aoyama ￥9.17M
28. Nikki Campbell ￥8.63M
29. Ji-Yai Shin ￥8.48M
30. Hiromi Mogi ￥8.00M

[Update 1 (8:06 am): Happy Fan reports that So Yeon Ryu cruised to her 2nd win in her last 3 events on the KLPGA!]

State Farm Classic Saturday: Kerr and Miyazato Make Big Moves

For a 24-hole stretch, Ai Miyazato was the best golfer in the field at the State Farm Classic. Yesterday I noted that she went -4 over her last 12 holes to make the cut. Today, she made 8 birdies in her 1st 12 holes and kept her bogey-free streak going for 29 holes until she bogeyed the 18th. Her 65 gets her to -10 for the tournament, but will she be within striking distance of the win I predicted for her this week? That depends on how low Cristie Kerr can go over her last few holes. Like Ai-chan, she went -8 over her 1st 15 holes until a late bogey--a bad one, on the par-5 16th that gave up so many eagles yesterday--brought her back to -13. Of course, even if Kerr stalls there, there are still 12 other players with a great chance to finish ahead of both big movers. But some people who have been playing great over the 1st 36 holes are moving in the wrong direction, among them Suzann Pettersen (+2 through 11), Se Ri Pak (+1 through 11), and Moira Dunn (+1 through 12). Pettersen's bogey-free run ended after 40 holes, while Pak made it to 39 and Dunn to 30.

I can't guarantee I'll be able to update this in a timely manner today. We're taking the bus to the airport to Okinawa and I have my doubts my girls will let me see if I can connect via wi fi while we wait for our flight to board. Maybe I'll be able to get on the web again before we have to hit the road....

[Update 1 (5:32 am): Now it's Kristy McPherson with the lead at -13 after Kerr bogeyed her 2nd in a row, this time on the par-3 17th. Kerr's in danger now of "only" shooting what Karine Icher (-8) did, and if she ends with a hat trick of bogeys, she'll fall back to the 67s that Hee Young Park (-9), Sarah Lee (-8), Na Yeon Choi (-7), and Sarah Kemp (-7) shot today. Whoops, in the time it took me to write that, McPherson got to -14. But Ai-chan moved up to T4 when In-Kyung Kim bogeyed the 15th to fall back to -10. Don't look now--Se Ri Pak birdied 2 of her last 3 holes to get back to -10, too! Too bad I really gotta go now!]

[Update 2 (6:36 pm): OK, only thing left for me to do is shower and get dressed. We're all packed and all the morning chores are done. So I have a few seconds to note that Paula Creamer's 31 on the front got her to -9 before a 38 on the back dropped her back into a tie with the likes of Seon Hwa Lee (who shot a 38 of her own on the back), Natalie Gulbis, Amy Yang, and Joo Mi Kim, along with Choi and Kemp. A pair of doubles on the back will make Moira Dunn feel fortunate to join them--she needs to par 17 and 18 to do so. On the bright side, Jee Young Lee, Se Ri Pak, and Suzann Pettersen have battled back to E on the day, Lee by making birdies on 4 of 5 holes on the back, Pak by making those 2 birdies I mentioned before, and Pettersen by making birdies on the 12th and 13th. But they'll all need to finish strong to stay tied at -10 with Miyazato, In-Kyung Kim, and Angela Stanford, as will Alfredsson, who's also -10 with 2 to play. Meanwhile, Shin hangs tough at -11, although she failed to birdie the par-5 16th, and McPherson is 2 ahead of Kerr with 2 to play.]

[Update 3 (6:45 pm): Amy Hung birdied the last hole to get to -10, as well. But she came 1 shot shy of breaking 70 for the 3rd straight day. Of the 17 players with a chance to accomplish this feat, it's looking like only McPherson, Kerr, IK Kim, and Shin will do it. By the way, is Shin the only player to hit more fairways than greens this week? Oh, and McPherson just bogeyed 17 to fall back to -13! So did Moira, darn it. She's now tied with fellow NYer Meaghan Francella at -6. Shutting down now....]

[Update 4 (6/7/09, 4:48 pm): Saw on Japanese news that McPherson had fallen back to -12 with Kerr, so didn't check LPGA.com again. Good thing I missed the 3rd double Moira made on the back.... But wouldn't it be cool for Ai-chan to win while we're in Okinawa?]

Resort Trust Ladies Saturday: Jeon Makes a Big Move to Defend Her Title

On a day when only 11 players broke par at the Resort Trust Ladies, Mi-Jeong Jeon seized control of the tournament with a sizzling 65 to take a 4-shot lead on Akiko Fukushima (who again finished weakly, going bogey-double bogey-par over her last 3 holes) and Li-Ying Ye into the final round. Sakura Yokomine uncharacteristically blew up with a 77 (thanks to a 10 on a par 5 on the back!) that dropped her back into a tie for 28th place, 11 shots off Jeon's pace. Yuko Mitsuka is the only other player within 5 shots of Jeon, but her 73 today was not what she needed--although without those 3 closing birdies it would have been much worse, on the order of the 76 Chie Arimura shot, for instance. Looks like the Mostly Harmless jinx is waiting to strike Mitsuka tomorrow! On the other hand, Jeon has been snakebit since her last win the middle of last season, with 4 heartbreaking runner-ups, so don't be counting any chickens for her just yet.

Here are the top 10 and notables:

1st/-7 Mi-Jeong Jeon (72-65)
T2/-3 Akiko Fukushima (71-70), Li-Ying Ye (71-70)
4th/-2 Yuko Mitsuka (69-73)
T5/-1 Shinobu Moromizato (71-72), Maiko Wakabayashi (71-72), Yukari Baba (71-72)
T8/E Miki Saiki (76-68), Rui Kitada (74-70)
T10/+1 Nikki Campbell (77-68), Mayu Hattori (76-69), Kuniko Maeda (76-69), Rikako Morita (74-71), Yuri Fudoh (73-72), So-Hee Kim (73-72)

T16/+2 Erina Hara (73-73), Bo-Bae Song (72-74), Chie Arimura (70-76)
T21/+3 Na Zhang (74-73), Sakurako Mori (74-73), Mie Nakata (73-74)
T28/+4 Miho Koga (76-72), Tamie Durdin (73-75), Yun-Jye Wei (72-76), Sakura Yokomine (71-77)
T38/+5 Julie Lu (76-73), Mai Arai (76-73), Hiromi Mogi (75-74), Midori Yoneyama (74-75)
T45/+6 Da-Ye Na (76-74)

The cut line ended up at +7, with 4 players just on the right side of it and 6 on the wrong side. The notables who missed the cut, though, didn't even come close:

T62/+10 Hyun-Ju Shin (76-78), Yuki Sakurai (76-78)
T74/+13 Ah-Reum Hwang (82-75)
T86/+17 Yuki Ichinose (80-81)
T93/+21 Riko Higashio (86-78)
WD Hiroko Yamaguchi (76-WD), Woo-Soon Ko (79-WD)

[Update 1 (5:21 pm): Happy Fan has all the details on what's shaping up to be a great Sunday showdown on the KLPGA.]

State Farm Classic Friday: Hello...and Goodbye

With 13 players who went under par over their 1st 36 holes at the State Farm Classic not making the cut--including a charging Lisa Strom, who shot a 67 today, but won't be playing on the weekend because of a bogey on the 7th hole, her 16th, and Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, who squandered a mid-round eagle and found out that her walkoff birdie on the tough 9th hole, her last, was still not good enough to make the top 70 and ties--you know you had to be sharp in Springfield. Na Yeon Choi hadn't missed a cut in her LPGA career...and thanks to an eagle on the par-5 16th, she extended her made-cut streak to 38 events.

But many players moved in the wrong direction today, most notably Angela Park (69-80)--whom I had welcomed back yesterday--but also Sandra Gal (69-78), Stacy Lewis (70-77), Laura Davies (69-77), and Lindsey Wright (70-75). Fortunately, everyone else I welcomed back will be playing on the weekend, even Julieta Granada (-2, T60), whose walkoff bogey dropped her right back onto the cut line itself. Unfortunately, the only survivor among the Japanese contingent was Ai Miyazato, and she needed to go -4 over her final 12 holes to do it, including consecutive birdies to end her round on the tough 8th and 9th. Anna Nordqvist joined her at -3 (T47), but topped her finish: she birdied 4 of her last 5 holes on the front. They caught Ya Ni Tseng and Brittany Lang, who dropped 40 spots thanks to indifferent 72s that left them 7 shots behind co-leaders Se Ri Pak (66-68) and Suzann Pettersen (68-66), who haven't yet made a bogey in this tournament.

So who moved up? Say hello to Helen Alfredsson, who dropped a bogey-free 63 on the field to pull within 1 of the lead, leaping into a tie with Kristy McPherson (who shot a bogey-free 66 herself), Moira Dunn (whose bogey-free 66 came courtesy of 4 birdies and an eagle), Kris Tamulis (whose 31 on the front briefly brought her to double digits under par), and 1st-round co-leader Jee Young Lee (who needed an eagle on 16 and a birdie on 17 to avoid losing any more ground). Say hello to Ji-Yai Shin, whose identical finish to Lee's put her alone at -8 (69-67). Say hello to Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, whose bogey-free 65 pulled her into the top 10, 3 shots behind Pak and Pettersen. Say hello to Amy Hung, whose 7-birdie 66 also brought her to -7 for the tournament. And say hello to Angela Stanford (70-67), whose eagle on the 16th did the same.

The fact that Seon Hwa Lee, In-Kyung Kim, Karen Stupples, and Meaghan Francella all went 69-68 kind of gets overshadowed among those fireworks, eh? So what about the rest of the players who shot 68 today? I'll betcha only Michelle Wie's gets play, but Haeji Kang did it to make the cut on the dot, and Jackie Gallagher-Smith and Joo Mi Kim were the only other non-big names among the rest: Katherine Hull, Vicky Hurst, Christina Kim, Ashleigh Simon. Oh, and the 69-69 club includes Cristie Kerr, Hee-Won Han, Morgan Pressel (who's only missed 2 greens all tournament), Amy Yang, Janice Moodie, and Taylor Leon, which means that 17 players who have broken 70 both rounds. With 32 players within 5 shots of the lead--including Eunjung Yi, who fired a 67 today--the weekend should be amazing! Too bad defending champion Ji Young Oh won't be among the 72 players gunning for the win.

[Update 1 (10:30 pm): Here are LPGA.com's notes and interviews.]

[Update 2 (6/6/09, 5:18 pm): Here's Hound Dog!]

Resort Trust Ladies Friday: Mitsuka, Arimura, Yokomine--Get Used to Those Names

Scoring was high during the first round of the Resort Trust Ladies, but Yuko Mitsuka, Chie Arimura, and Sakura Yokomine lead the pack of 8 who were able to go under par. Mitsuka posted the only sub-70 round of the day, a 4-birdie 69, while Arimura matched her birdie total but made an extra bogey. Yokomine's 71 was nothing to write home about, unlike Yukari Baba's, which included 5 consecutive birdies on the front (31) and 2 straight double bogeys on back (40). Maiko Wakabayashi also seesawed her way to a 32-39-71. The two bogeys in her last 3 holes by Akiko Fukushima and walkoff double bogey by Shinobu Moromizato to drop them, too, to -1 on the day paled in comparison. But this is still anyone's tournament, and defending champion Mi-Jeong Jeon is only 3 back, despite her own pair of double bogeys.

Here are the top 10 and notables:

1st/-3 Yuko Mitsuka (69)
2nd/-2 Chie Arimura (70)
T3/-1 Sakura Yokomine, Akiko Fukushima, Shinobu Moromizato, Maiko Wakabayashi, Yukari Baba, Li-Ying Ye (71)
T9/E Mi-Jeong Jeon, Bo-Bae Song, Yun-Jye Wei, Nobuko Kizawa, Mayumi Nakajima, Yoshie Suzuki (72)

T15/+1 Yuri Fudoh, Erina Hara, Tamie Durdin, Mie Nakata (73)
T25/+2 Midori Yoneyama, Rui Kitada, Na Zhang, Sakurako Mori, Rikako Morita (74)
T35/+3 Hiromi Mogi (75)
T39/+4 Miho Koga, Hyun-Ju Shin, Miki Saiki, Hiroko Yamguchi, Julie Lu, Mayu Hattori, Yuki Sakurai, Mai Arai, Da-Ye Na (76)
T58/+5 Nikki Campbell (77)
T67/+7 Woo-Soon Ko (79)
T75/+8 Yuki Ichinose (80)
T91/+10 Ah-Reum Hwang (82)
102nd/+14 Riko Higashio (86)
WD Akane Iijima

With the cut line coming anywhere between +3 and +7 tomorrow, it's going to be a real dogfight just to play all 3 rounds. But by the same token, one low round on moving day can bring almost anyone back into this thing, provided the usual suspects don't also go low. Hoping to be able to watch some of this thing tomorrow and Chiba and the next day in Okinawa!

[Update 1 (10:24 pm): Well, we won't be able to see it in Chiba--Ryo Ishikawa and the men are gobbling up the network coverage--so maybe in Okinawa.... In the meantime, another name to get used to, Hee Kyung Seo, is in the hunt this week on the KLPGA!]

State Farm Classic Thursday: Welcome Back...

To Se Ri Pak, who shot a bogey-free 66 this afternoon at Panther Creek in the State Farm Classic to tie the morning groups' low scorer, Jee Young Lee, for the 1st-round lead. Lee was hitting it long (290 yards off the tee) and straight (14 of 14 fairways, 17 of 18 greens), while Pak's putter was smokin' hot (24 putts in all). It's been awhile since the Hall of Famer has had a share of the lead on the LPGA--by my count, we have to go back to August 2007, when Pak shot a 63 on her way to her latest win at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, to find the most recent time this has happened. And there shall be much rejoicing at Seoul Sisters.com....

To Kris Tamulis, whose 67 was her low round of the year, matching her performance in last year's opening round here. Tamulis has made 6 of 7 cuts this season, but hasn't broken into the top 25 yet. She's given herself a great chance to do it this week.

To Anja Monke, who was one of the hottest players in the world of women's golf at the end of last season, but who started slow this one. Her 7-birdie 68 (including 4 in a row on the back, her front) puts her 2 shots out of the lead, tied with Natalie Gulbis, whose own 8-birdie 68 suggests she's put her back problems behind her, hopefully for a long time. Any time you match a bogey-free round by Suzann Pettersen, you know you're doing something right.

To Julieta Granada and Inbee Park, whose 69s give them a great shot at their best finishes of the season and tie them for 7th with other players who haven't been playing up to expectations lately like Seon Hwa Lee, Angela Park, Amy Yang, Hee-Won Han, Morgan Pressel, and Shanshan Feng (not to mention the usual suspects playing well like Ya Ni Tseng, Ji-Yai Shin, Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, and In-Kyung Kim). Some did it with great putting (Granada and the Parks each had 26 putts or fewer), others with great ballstriking (Pressel hit all 18 greens), but any way you slice it, it's nice to see them breaking 70 again.

Of course, when 89 players shoot par or better, 70 go under par, and 35 break 70, you can't get too excited about scores in the high 60s. But you have to feel better than the Japanese contingent on tour, which was led by Mika Miyazato's 70, followed by Ai Miyazato's 73, Shiho Oyama's 74, and Momoko Ueda's 76. Ouch! But at least Moira Dunn shot a 69--I'd love to see her get her 1st top 10 at Panther Creek!

Unfortunately, my in-laws here in Chiba don't have cable, which means I won't get to watch any of the tournament at any hour, so I have little else to add, except to say that it appears the worries about tougher scoring conditions at Panther Creek this time of year may have been a little overblown. But with 3 rounds to go, it's probably too soon to tell. All I can say for sure is that a lot of players who shot between 70 and 73 are feeling like they left a lot of shots out there on the course right now.

[Update 1 (6/5/09, 4:14 am): Here's LPGA.com's notes and interviews. Don't bother reading Andrew Seligman's AP game story: he gets several scores wrong and refers to Jee Young Lee as "Relatively unknown." To him, I guess.]

[Update 2 (4:18 am): Oh, Golfweek must have posted his rough draft. His piece at ESPN.com is much better, but still gives Jelly short shrift.]

[Update 3 (10:18 pm): Here's Hound Dog's 1st-round recap.]

Around the World of Women's Golf in 18 Links

Daniel Wexler has one omission from his rundown of tournaments going on around the world of golf this week: the KLPGA's Woori Financial Ladies Championship. What this means is that every major tour in women's golf is holding a competition this week for the 1st time all season. In addition, local qualifying for the U.S. Women's Open is in full swing. But more on that in a later post.

First, a warm Mostly Harmless welcome to the new professionals kicking off a new phase of their careers on the Futures Tour this week and next: Amanda Blumenherst, Maria Hernandez, Pernilla Lindberg, Jennie Lee, Jane Chin, Lucy Nunn, Mallory Hetzel, Cindy LaCrosse, Stephanie Connelly, and Blair Lamb. They join Mina Harigae and Hannah Yun, currently #5 and #43 on the FT money list, who turned pro earlier this year, as the next wave of talent to try to make the quantum leap it takes to succeed against the best in the world of women's golf. We'll see if they exceed my expectations. Congrats, as well, to FT rookie Paola Moreno (currently #27 on the money list), who graduated this May from USC. Oh, and Virada Nirapathpongporn fans, take note--she returns to action this week in Iowa for the 1st time since her off-season shoulder surgery!

Next, I'm trying to find out why Melissa Reid withdrew from this week's LET tournament in the Netherlands, where Gwladys Nocera is trying for her 3rd straight win at this event. Reid's currently #2 on their money list.

On the JLPGA, the Resort Trust Ladies has Mi-Jeong Jeon trying to defend her title and Sakura Yokomine trying to make it 2 wins in a row. They're paired with Miki Saiki just before 10 am Friday. The field is packed with the JLPGA's finest, which reminds me, I'm overdue for posting my update to my end-of-2008 ranking. Coming soon!

Finally, watch out for Momoko Ueda this week on the LPGA: she just got her hair and nails done! Not quite as nice as onechan's hair cut, or onechan's, imoto's, and the Full Metal Archivist's nails (done by the FMA herself!), but still not bad. Seriously, Ueda has some interesting observations on why it's so hard to win on the LPGA. I know she emphasizes putting, but she doesn't have too many worries on that score: she ranks #21 on tour in Hound Dog's total putting stat. Given that she drives the ball well, too--she's currently #23 in his total driving stat--I have to conclude it's her iron play that's the culprit so far this season. She's averaging exactly 12 greens in regulation per round, which puts her at T44 on tour and sits T54 in birdies. Her birdie rate of 3.00 is bound to improve if she can give herself more and better chances on the greens. It's funny that she's improved on all her key stats from last season, except birdie rate. But she's headed in the right direction. Gambare, Momo-chan!

All Hail 3Tops-san

Ashes to ashes

Paint to paint

Where 3Tops was

Now 3Tops ain't

State Farm Classic Preview/Predictions/Pairings

The State Farm Classic is back at Panther Creek for the 3rd straight year--and let's hope that the tournament is back for its 35th anniversary next season! Last year was a memorable event, not only because Ji Young Oh upset Ya Ni Tseng in a playoff, but also because Michelle Wie was in contention until it came to light that she failed to sign her card in the scorer's tent after her 2nd round and she was DQed after the 3rd. The tournament's moved up from July to be the lead-in to the LPGA Championship, so of course the field is being touted as the strongest in the tournament's history. As I noted in last year's preview, water comes into play on a good number of holes, so the big hitters will need to be pretty accurate to win. Based on recent results at Panther Creek and this year on the LPGA, here are my picks in this week's PakPicker.

1. Miyazato Ai
2. Creamer
3. Tseng Ya Ni
4. Pettersen
5. Kerr
6. Kim In-Kyung
7. Lang
8. Kim Song-Hee
9. Choi Na Yeon
10. Stanford
11. Shin
12. Wie

Alts: Lee Seon Hwa, Lee Jee Young, Kim Christina

Here's hoping my picks come through this week. I need them to to have a hope of catching Hound Dog, who came through with strong picks again this week. We'll see if I can extend my winning streak to 2!

Speaking of winning streaks, wouldn't it be cool if Tseng can make up for her playoff loss last year at Panther Creek this week? She's paired with 2 of her chief rivals for the coveted #2 spot on the LPGA Tour in the back-side early-afternoon prime-time quadrant, which itself is loaded:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Michelle Wie
Natalie Gulbis
Ji Young Oh

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Cristie Kerr
Paula Creamer
Ya Ni Tseng

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Suzann Pettersen
Ji-Yai Shin
Angela Stanford

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Katherine Hull
Seon Hwa Lee
Morgan Pressel

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Laura Diaz
Juli Inkster
Brittany Lincicome

Love the Lee-Pressel former-Top Young Gun #1-#2 pairing! But the best of the Young Guns' pairings has to come in the late-morning back-side prime-time quadrant:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Lorie Kane
Louise Friberg
Young Kim

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Song-Hee Kim
Momoko Ueda
Angela Park

Start Time : 8:54 AM
Soo-Yun Kang
Shiho Oyama
Hee-Won Han

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Candie Kung
Maria Hjorth
Na Yeon Choi

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Sun Young Yoo
Pat Hurst
Jee Young Lee

Kim, Ueda, and Park should be going head-to-head for years to come, and they all have good reason to be gunning for the top spot in their generation. But don't be surprised if the Young Guns in the front-side early-afternoon prime-time quadrant happen to outshine them this week:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Brittany Lang
Eun-Hee Ji
Jane Park

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Meena Lee
Kristy McPherson
Se Ri Pak

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Christina Kim
Ai Miyazato
Sandra Gal

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Laura Davies
Mi Hyun Kim
Vicky Hurst

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Helen Alfredsson
Karrie Webb
In-Kyung Kim

Let's hope the time off did Jane Park's back some good. Thankfully, it looks like Meaghan Francella is healthy again; it's good to see her back in the late-morning front-side prime-time quadrant:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Hee Young Park
Inbee Park
Rachel Hetherington

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Michele Redman
Wendy Ward
Mika Miyazato

Start Time: 8:54 AM
Louise Stahle
Jimin Kang
Sophie Gustafson

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Nicole Castrale
Lindsey Wright
Meaghan Francella

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Teresa Lu
Brandie Burton
Stacy Prammanasudh

Now to see if I'll be able to get up early enough to watch any of this tournament on Japanese TV. The jet lag has pretty much worn off, so it's going to be a challenge this week!

The Best of the Young Guns: May 2009 Edition

The LPGA's Young Guns consist of the rookie classes of 2006 (Senior Standouts), 2007 (Junior Mints), and 2008 (Super Sophs). With Ji Young Oh and Ya Ni Tseng both getting their 2nd career wins already this season, Song-Hee Kim, Ai Miyazato, and Brittany Lang playing great, and many highly-ranked players in their generation struggling, my decision to limit this ranking to those who have one million dollars or more in career winnings means that the generation's first ranking of 2009 should have plenty of movement.

1. Ya Ni Tseng: Just not at the top. Tseng's win at the final Corning Classic cements her status as best in her generation and puts her squarely among the LPGA's elite.

2. Seon Hwa Lee: Even though she's off to a slow start in '09 results-wise, her key stats are the same or better than last season, so look for the former top gun in her generation to start finishing higher sooner than later.

3. Na Yeon Choi: I'm calling her the best player in her generation without a win on the LPGA. If she ever gets her putter going, watch out for her! Hound Dog ranks her 75th in total putting this season.

4. Jee Young Lee: She's the best player in her generation without an official LPGA win (she won as a non-member in Korea). Like Seon Hwa Lee, her stats are about the same as ever, but like Choi, her putting has been off in '09, so all signs are pointing to another great run from her soon.

5. Morgan Pressel: Sure, only Seon Hwa Lee has more wins than she does, but she's going to drop down this ranking like Inbee Park did this time around if she can't improve just about every aspect of her game. With a generation this good, even a major can't help you out for long if you can't keep producing.

6. Angela Park: Another very good player in danger of being passed by a lot of fellow Young Guns. She hits an amazing number of greens given how bad she's driving the ball (Hound Dog ranks her below Pressel in this stat--#139 vs. #114) and I'm actually surprised she's making more than 3 birdies per round given how low Hound Dog ranks her in total putting (#70).

7. In-Kyung Kim: Hound Dog puts her at the top of those going up the LPGA Elevator, so it's no surprise she moved up 7 spots in his latest LPGA Top 70 to #11. She makes more birdies per round than Tseng and doesn't have an obvious weakness in her game, so look for her to keep making up ground on Park.

8. Eun-Hee Ji: Although she's been in a mini-slump by her standards the last few events, watch out for her as we approach the anniversary of her win at the Wegmans.

9. Ai Miyazato: She's now ranked in the top 30 by Rolex, the top 25 by Hound Dog, and the top 20 by the GSPI, so it's no wonder she's also taking a fast ride up HD's LPGA elevator. Now that she's got her driver going again (HD ranks her 7th on tour), she's attacking courses like the Ai-chan of old, as her 3.60 birdie rate shows. And she's not even putting well yet by her standards!

10. Brittany Lang: #2 on Hound Dog's LPGA elevator post, she's another great ball-striker (she's tops in HD's total driving stat) who just needs to get her putter going to start winning in bunches.

11. Song-Hee Kim: It's too bad for her Miyazato and Lang have been playing so well. Although she's been making up ground on them steadily for some time now, she still has a ways to go to catch them.

12. Ji Young Oh: Yeah, yeah, she's won twice on the LPGA. But I can't justify placing her any higher on this list.

13. Inbee Park: She remains in a serious slump since winning last year's U.S. Women's Open, despite showing signs of life here and there. We're not talking Julieta Granada territory just yet, but it's past time for her to get it going again!

14. Sun Young Yoo: One of the best drivers on tour this season (according to Hound Dog), this late bloomer just snuck into the million-dollar club. But she's going to have to learn to put herself into contention to move up this list.

15. Julieta Granada: It's looking more and more like she's not going to regain her rookie form any time soon, which means that we may be seeing plenty of her on the LET in the 2nd half of the season in an effort to secure some kind of professional status for 2010 (she's a member there this year by virtue of her strong play in their Q-School). Still, even without that $1M paycheck for winning the 2006 ADT Championship, she'd still be a member of the million-dollar club, so she'll be at the bottom of this pile for a long time to come.

For your reference--and mine--here are the stats on which I'm basing this ranking.

2009 LPGA Money List (rank), stroke average (rank), birdies per round average (rank [in total birdies]), greens in regulation rate (rank): I focus on four key indicators of how well someone is playing this season--how much money they've made, how they've scored, how many birdies they've averaged per round, and how many greens they've hit in regulation on average per round, plus how they rank in each category (except for birdies, which LPGA.com ranks by total and not by average). I figure I can figure out how well they're hitting their irons and putting by comparing the last three figures, so I don't include putts per green in regulation here. Some of the figures Hound Dog thinks are the most important I'm looking at in the career stats (below), where I think they belong. These stats are all about the present and future. I don't include the stats of those in the Young Guns generation who haven't broken into the million-dollar club yet, but I do indicate the gaps in the rankings that result from these omissions.

1. Ya Ni Tseng, $631.9K (#3), 70.08 (#2), 4.11 (#1), 72.7% (#8)
2. In-Kyung Kim, $458.5K (#8), 71.00 (#10), 4.20 (#3), 75.4% (#2)
3. Ji Young Oh, $393.4K (#9), 71.76 (#27), 3.12 (#27), 67.2% (#40)
4. Song-Hee Kim, $377.4K (#11), 70.77 (#7), 3.77 (#5), 68.6% (#32)
5. Na Yeon Choi, $311.3K (#14), 71.03 (#11), 3.40 (#9), 71.7% (#12)
...
8. Ai Miyazato, $258.7K (#20), 71.14 (#14), 3.60 (#10), 70.3% (#19)
9. Angela Park, $246.3K (#21), 71.96 (#32), 3.07 (#45), 69.6% (#23)
10. Brittany Lang, $245.6K (#22), 71.08 (#13), 3.18 (#11), 73.7% (#5)
11. Sun Young Yoo, $179.0K (#24), 71.27 (#16), 3.50 (#24), 68.7% (#30)
12. Eun-Hee Ji, $172.8K (#25), 71.81 (#28), 2.97 (#33), 66.7% (#44)
13. Seon Hwa Lee, $167.2K (#26), 71.42 (#18), 3.19 (#31), 67.7% (#37)
14. Jee Young Lee, $159.2K (#28), 71.56 (#22), 3.64 (#6), 69.8% (#21)
...
20. Morgan Pressel, $99.3K (#43), 71.94 (#30), 2.97 (#35), 62.3% (#103)
...
32. Inbee Park, $40.0K (#83), 74.00 (#107), 2.61 (#59), 57.1% (#140)
...
? Julieta Granada, $3.8K (#143), 77.28 (#150), 1.78 (#136), 45.4% (#152)

Career LPGA Money List (rank), # of LPGA events entered/majors/wins/top 3s/top 10s/top 20s/cuts made (made cut rate): About the only thing these stats are useful for is comparing people who entered the LPGA in the same year (although if you count generations by 3 years, it can be interesting). Between inflation, changing purses, and length/timing of careers, it's very hard to compare and contrast winnings across generations of LPGA greats. Fortunately the Young Guns haven't been at this all too long, so the career money list is a decent stat for comparing them, even if it's a bit unfair to people who have not been exempt both years. What would really be great is if we had a world money list in inflation-adjusted dollars, with inflation- and exchange-adjusted other cash denominations added in (or just totalled up separately to avoid comparing dollars and yen), which included all each golfer earned as a professional on any tour. But even the guys don't have that, so that'll have to remain a dream for now--although Thomas Atkins has posted an inflation-adjusted LPGA Career Top 50 as of the end of the 2008 season and a Top 50 ranking over at Hound Dog's place. In any case, I include these other ways of seeing how the Young Guns finished relative to their competition in the tournaments they entered because they reveal a lot about how well someone is able to compete at every level, from just making cuts to grinding out top 20s and top 10s to contending for wins. Many thanks to the LPGA for updating their 2009 Performance Chart after every event!

1. Seon Hwa Lee, $3.19M (#52), 95/0/4/10/25/50/88 (.926)
2. Jee Young Lee, $2.50M (#69), 88/0/0/6/26/50/82 (.932)
3. Ya Ni Tseng, $2.38M (#74), 37/1/2/10/16/27/36 (.973)
4. Morgan Pressel, $2.25M (#83), 82/1/2/6/24/39/71 (.866)
5. Julieta Granada, $2.15M (#87), 90/0/1/5/10/21/57 (.633)
6. Angela Park, $2.10M (#88), 64/0/0/8/18/25/58 (.906)
7. Ai Miyazato, $1.99M (#91), 78/0/0/4/21/32/64 (.821)
8. Brittany Lang, $1.76M (#103), 91/0/0/4/20/37/69 (.758)
9. In-Kyung Kim, $1.69M (#107), 61/0/1/5/15/23/52 (.852)
10. Inbee Park, $1.56M (#112), 61/1/1/3/9/16/45 (.738)
11. Song-Hee Kim, $1.44M (#123), 53/0/0/4/11/18/40 (.755)
12. Na Yeon Choi, $1.41M (#124), 37/0/0/5/12/24/37 (1.000)
13. Eun-Hee Ji, $1.34M (#131), 41/0/1/4/13/18/37 (.902)
14. Sun Young Yoo, $1.23M (#143), 88/0/0/1/10/25/68 (.773)
15. Ji Young Oh, $1.22M (#146), 60/0/2/2/7/14/44 (.733)

Other Career Measures: Rolex Ranking (as of 6/1/09) and rank, Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index (as of 5/31/09) and rank, International and Non-Member LPGA Wins (as of the end of the 2008 season): This is a way of seeing how those Young Guns who sometimes or regularly or often compete on other tours stack up over the course of their careers to date (the RR includes results over the past 104 weeks on the LPGA, LET, JLPGA, KLPGA, and Futures Tour; the GSPI includes results over the past 52 weeks on all these tours except the KLPGA). Again, I omit those Young Guns outside the million-dollar club for the purposes of this ranking.

1. Ya Ni Tseng, 9.64 (#2), 69.64 (#7); 0
2. In-Kyung Kim, 4.36 (#10), 70.06 (#12); 0
3. Seon Hwa Lee, 3.86 (#12), 70.69 (#23); 3
4. Song-Hee Kim, 3.84 (#13), 70.36 (#16); 0
5. Na Yeon Choi, 3.67 (#14), 70.05 (#10); 4
6. Angela Park, 3.40 (#17), 70.82 (#24); 0
7. Eun-Hee Ji, 3.35 (#19), 70.05 (#11); 4
8. Ji Young Oh, 3.26 (#20), 71.25 (#35); 0
9. Jee Young Lee, 3.21 (#22), 70.64 (#22); 2
...
11. Ai Miyazato, 2.84 (#28), 70.56 (#19); 14
12. Brittany Lang, 2.81 (#29), 70.93 (#26); 0
13. Inbee Park, 2.80 (#30), 71.09 (#34); 0
...
15. Morgan Pressel, 2.62 (#33), 71.32 (#39); 0
...
17. Sun Young Yoo, 2.35 (#39), 71.31 (#38); 0
...
? Julieta Granada, .40 (#179), 74.67 (#258); 0

FYI, here's the rest of my 2009 schedule:

June: Class of 2006 (post-Wegmans)
July: Class of 2007 (pre-WBO)
August: Class of 2008 (post-Safeway)
September: Young Guns (post-Longs Drugs)
October: Class of 2006 (post-Korea)
November: Class of 2007 (post-Stanford)
December: Class of 2008 (post-Q School)
January '10: Young Guns (final 2009 ranking)

Girrlz!

Here's about big long grow-ups post about the antecedents of Sparkychan, Gojochan, Jumpsan, Kongsan, Haatochan, and the Powerpuff Girls, Grrrrr!

And this is the girl who started it all. Her name is Flossie Mackenzie, she's 10 years old, and she lives in Africa, the imagined Africa of Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain. We're in chapter 4 where Quatermain has asked her whether or not she feels lonely living "among all these savage people and without any companions of her own age":

'Lonely?' she said. 'Oh, indeed no! I am as happy as the day is long, and besides I have my own companions. Why, I should hate to be buried in a crowd of white girls all just like myself so that nobody could tell the difference! Here,' she said, giving her head a little toss, 'I am I; and every native for miles around knows the "Water-lily", -- for that is what they call me -- and is ready to do what I want, but in the books that I have read about little girls in England it is not like that. Everybody thinks them a trouble, and they have to do what their schoolmistress likes. Oh! it would break my heart to be put in a cage like that and not to be free -- free as the air.'

'Would you not like to learn?' I asked.

'So I do learn. Father teaches me Latin and French and arithmetic.'

'And are you never afraid among all these wild men?'

'Afraid? Oh no! they never interfere with me. I think they believe that I am "Ngai" (of the Divinity) because I am so white and have fair hair. And look here,' and diving her little hand into the bodice of her dress she produced a double-barrelled nickel-plated Derringer, 'I always carry that loaded, and if anybody tried to touch me I should shoot him. Once I shot a leopard that jumped upon my donkey as I was riding along. It frightened me very much, but I shot it in the ear and it fell dead, and I have its skin upon my bed. Look there!' she went on in an altered voice, touching me on the arm and pointing to some far-away object, 'I said just now that I had companions; there is one of them.'

She was pointing to Mt. Kenya.