Monday, June 13, 2011

Tony Jesselli's LPGA "Stats and Facts," Vol. 1

As most of you know by now, I don't get myself involved often in after-tournament recaps. I try to leave that to the people like The Constructivist, Hound Dog and Ruthless Mike who have been doing this for a much longer time than I have. What I enjoy most is providing statistical analysis.

With that in mind I would like to start a monthly feature called LPGA "Stats and Facts" that will have some stats that you may have seen already, but most that I have put together myself and you will be seeing them for the very first time. I hope you will enjoy.

First off I would like to congratulate Yani Tseng on another impressive LPGA victory. The State Farm Classic turned out to be a real shoot-out, and Yani certainly had the most accurate weapons. She has proven week in and week out why she is the #1-ranked player in the world. She now has 2 wins and 7 top-10 finishes in her 9 starts this year.

The Titleholders Championship:

Qualifying for the Titleholders Championship this past week were Se Ri Pak, Mindy Kim and Wendy Ward. The highest-ranked player not yet to qualify is Inbee Park.

Players with most top 5 finishes this year:

1- Yani Tseng - 6
2- Cristie Kerr - 5
3- Paula Creamer - 4

Louise Friberg Watch:

Ms. Friberg missed another cut this week, bringing her consecutive total to eight.

Tidbits:

Mindy Kim has now finished 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th in LPGA tournaments this year.

Suzanne Pettersen and I.K. Kim are the only players to finish in the top 20 in every tournament they have played this year. They have both made seven starts.

If you are a fan of any of the following players, it might be time to include them in your prayers because if they don't improve quickly, they may be in danger of losing their LPGA cards, or at the very least falling down the priority list.

Giulia Sergas - 6 tournaments, 6 missed cuts.
Na On Min - 6 consecutive missed cuts.
Ji Young Oh - 6 tournaments, 5 missed cuts and a T50.
Eunjung Yi - 6 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and a 75th and 77th place finish.
Sherri Steinhauer - 5 tournaments, 5 missed cuts.
Paola Morena - 5 tournaments, 5 missed cuts.
Allison Hanna - 5 tournaments, 5 missed cuts.
Sara Brown - 5 tournaments, 5 missed cuts.
Birdie Kim - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and 1 DQ.
Cristine Song - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and 77th place finish.
Mollie Fankhauser - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and a T43.
Jeehae Lee - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and a T59.
Song Yi Choi - 4 tournaments, 4 missed cuts.
Mhari Mckay - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and a T47.
Young-A Yang - Missed all 3 cuts.
Lisa Meldrum - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and a T53.
Jennie Lee - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and a T59.
Angela Oh - 5 tournaments, 4 missed cuts and a T47.

Hard to Believe Stat of the Week:

Song Hee Kim, who led all LPGA players last year with 15 top 10s in 22 starts, has now missed 2 consecutive cuts and has only 1 top 10 in 8 starts this year.

Rolex Moves of the Week:

Cristie Kerr from #4 to #2
Shanshan Feng from #65 to #54
Mindy Kim from #94 to #74

Honorable Mention goes to Belen Mozo (only because she's my new favorite)who goes from #302 to #286.

The only players to enter the top 50 this week are:

Brittany Lang, who moves from #52 to #49
Young Kim, who moves from #51 to #50

The 2 players that dropped out of the top 50 are:

Shinobu Moromizato, who fell from #46 to #51
Kristy McPherson, who fell from #49 to #52

3 comments:

Glen said...

Good stuff, Tony. Nuts and bolts about the survival of some of the ladies never gets mentioned, but you know how day-to-day it is especially as the tour gets further into the year. Effects everything, sponsorships, scheduling, you name it. I likey.

Mike said...

I didn't realize Sara Brown had done so badly... probably because I never saw her name among the leaders. ;-) Rather than prayers, it may be a good time for her to focus on the LET, for which she also got her card. She's 59th on their money list after only 4 events. (Belen, btw, is 58th.)

As for Kristy McPherson, I'm starting to wonder if her arm's still bothering her.

This erratic LPGA schedule is hurting everybody, don't you think, Tony?

Tony Jesselli (Tonyj5) said...

No doubt about it Mike. It hurts the top players, but at least they get to play all the tournaments. The players on the bottom half of the priority list are playing even less and finding it even harder to stay sharp.

I'm hoping that within 2 years Michael Whan will have the schedule up to 30 events.