Tuesday, October 25, 2011

LPGA Stats & Facts, "Vol 5"

There will be a week off between the just completed Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship and The Mizuno Classic. I think it is a good time to look at some key statistics.

Players who have not missed a cut all year:
Paula Creamer (19 tournaments)
Brittany Lincicome (19)
Karrie Webb (18)
Maria Hjorth (18)
Jiyai Shin (17)

Players with most consecutive missed cuts:
Allison Hanna 11
Ji Young Oh 9
Jean Reynolds 8

Most tournaments played in 2011, without a top 20
finish:

Lindsey Wright, Meaghan Francella, Jee Young Lee 15
Mariajo Uribe 14
Na On Min, Karin Sjodin 13
Pernilla Lindberg, Anna Grzebien, Jennifer Rosales, Lorie Kane, Laura Davies 12

Rookie of the Year Race:
1 Hee Kyung Seo- 560.00 points (18 tournaments)
2 Tiffany Joh - 267.00 points (12 tournaments)
3 Christel Boeljon 244.00 points (12 tournaments)
4 Ryann O'Toole 224.00 points (13 tournaments)
5 Jenny Shin 214.00 points (13 tournaments)

The Titleholders Championship:
Qualifying this week are Pat Hurst, Alison Walshe and Grace Park.
With only 2 events left to qualify, Katherine Hull, Jee Young Lee, Christina Kim, Juli Inkster, M.J. Hur, Seon Hwa Lee, Momoko Ueda, Kyeong Bae, and Natalie Gulbis are the biggest names who have yet to qualify.

Battle for Sybase Championship spots:
The top 48 players on this year's money list automatically qualify for the Sybase Match Play Championship in 2012. Here is a look at how that is shaping up:

45 Ryann O'Toole $179,149.00
46 Eun-Hee Ji - $178,445.00 18
47 Paige Mackenzie - $177,925.00
48 Natalie Gulbis - $171,730.00
49 Pat Hurst - $170,348.00
50 Mi Hyun Kim - $157,652.00
51 Kristy McPherson - $153,727.00
52 Momoko Ueda - $153,494.00
53 Amanda Blumenherst - $151,643.00

Rolex Moves of the Week:
Paula Creamer (runner up in Japan) moves from #9 to #7
Amy Yang (T2 in Taiwan) moves from #18 to #12
Shiho Oyama (winner in Japan) moves from #49 to #32

Miscellaneous Tidbits:

Song-Hee Kim finished tied for 47th in this week's Sunrise Taiwan Championship. Her fall from an elite player to very ordinary has been dramatic. Last year she led the tour with 15 top 10 finishes. This year she has teed it up 19 times, with only 2 top tens.

You think Yani Tseng likes playing in Asia? In the 5 LPGA tournaments played this year in Asia, here are her results:

Honda Classic in Thialand - 1st place
HSBC - Singapore - 3rd place
Hana Bank - South Korea - 1st place
Sime Darby - Malaysia - 2nd place
Sunrise - Taiwan - 1st place

With her Player of the Year and Vare Trophy victories wrapped up, plus her 7 LPGA wins (two of which were major championships), Yani Tseng has added 11 Hall of Fame points already this year. That will bring her total to 20. Twenty-seven points are needed to get inducted.

Last week's Sunrise Taiwan Championship had a very unusual format. They played four rounds of golf without a cut. As a result, the last place finisher was an incredible 46 shots behind the winner.

Juli Inkster had 3 top 10 finishes earlier in the year and has not qualified for the Titleholders Championship. Grace Park finished tied for 24th last week and qualified.






3 comments:

Awsi Dooger said...

Lorena Ochoa may influence the Top 48 toward Sybase. Natalie Gulbis was awarded a late sponsors exemption today to the Ochoa Invitational. That's significant because none of the other players currently on the fence toward Top 48 are in the Ochoa event, and the small field dictates a relatively high payout regardless of finish. Last place is roughly $8000 and mid pack is more than double that amount. That's quite a bit more than guaranteed money at events like next week's Mizuno. Lorena may unwittingly (?) give Gulbis the advantage over players like Paige MacKenzie, Ryann O'Toole and Pat Hurst.

Tony Jesselli (Tonyj5) said...

Awsi Dodger - The money you earn as a sponsers exemption does not count on the money list. Any earnings Natile gets will not help her get into Sybase.

Awsi Dooger said...

Thank you for the clarification. I had read a different version on another forum, regarding the Ochoa event.