Monday, February 25, 2013

HSBC Women's Championship Preview & Pairings

Before I get to this week's topic, let me say that if you missed this past weekend's tournament, you missed one of the strangest finishes I have ever seen. I don't think that I have ever seen a player on the final hole needing a six to win, taking an eight. The fact that it happened to a 17 year old, certainly made it harder to watch. Last year when I.K. Kim missed that 12-18 inch putt to blow the Kraft Nabisco, that terrible feeling we had watching her bury her face in her caddy's chest won't be forgotten for a long time. I didn't think we would have to see something that heart wrenching again so soon. Seeing Moriya wiping the tears from her younger sister's eyes by the 18th green, is another picture that will not be forgotten for some time. I hope she can shake this off, and it will not cause any long term career problems.

The LPGA Tour moves to Singapore this week, for the playing of the HSBC Women's Championship. The tour will then come home to the United States, after a one week break.

This will be tournament #3 of 28 this year.

Just like last week's tournament, in spite of the limited field (just 63 players), it will be one of the strongest fields of the year. Fifty-six of the top 60 on the LPGA Priority List, and 18 of the top 20 ladies on this week's Rolex Rankings, will be teeing it up. The only star player missing will be So Yeon Ryu. My strength of field rating is 78.5%.
Here are the key details:

Course:  Sentosa Golf Club, The Serapong
Location:  Singapore
Defending Champion:  Angela Stanford
Winning Score: 66-70-71-71 = 278 (-10)

Final Field:  63 Players
Par:  36/36 = 72
Yardage:  6,600 Yards
Purse:  $1,400,000

This week's sponsor exemptions are Michelle Wie & Ariya Jutanugarn.


Here are the pairings for the first round.
Here are the television times:
Feb 28 - GC 12:30 PM-2:30 PM EST
Mar 1 - GC 12:30 PM-2:30 PM EST
Mar 2 - GC 6:30 PM-9:30 PM EST
Mar 3 - GC 7:00 PM-9:30 PM EST

For the last time I will remind everyone planning on watching the telecast, that because of the time difference each round will be long over before it is televised. Be careful not to visit websites that will post results or other spoilers. No spoilers will be posted here. As stated before the tour will be in the United States starting next week eliminating this problem in the future.

Titleholders Update:
Inbee Park, So Yeon Ryu, and Beatriz Recari are the latest additions.

Rolex Movers of the week:
Some nice moves this week: Beatriz Recari moves from #53 to #40, Ariya Jutanugarn from #171 to #57, Lizette Salas from #82 to #63, and Gerina Piller from #91 to #79.

Other Tidbits:
On the Semetra Tour, Jaclyn Sweeney won the VisitMesa.com Gateway Classic by 2 strokes over current LPGA member Alena Sharp. Future LPGA star Jaye Marie Greene made her professional debut with a very impressive 5th place finish. Emily Talley made her successful debut a 12th place finish.

Almost going unnoticed, Beatriz Recari has finished T4th and T3rd in her 2 tournaments this year.

My picks for this week's tournament:
1- Na Yeon Choi
2- Yani Tseng
3- Inbee Park
4- Stacy Lewis
5- Ariya Jutanugarn
6- I.K. Kim
7- Danielle Kang
8- Lexi Thompson
9- Jessica Korda
10-Paula Creamer
11-Jiyai Shin
12-Shanshan Feng




8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some weeks the Rolex rankings leave me scratching my head. Against a tough field, Inbee Park got a bump of 0.12 ( 7.51 to 7.63) for a first place finish while Stacy Lewis got a bump of 0.14 (7.88 to 8.02) for her tie for third place. So Yeon Ryu only got a bump of .09 (6.28 to 6.37) for the same third place finish despite having one less event in her ranking. I know how the rankings work but I thought they always put a huge premium on winning. It is not a conspiracy, just strange how the formula and math works out sometimes.

sports medic

Anonymous said...

Last week Ji Yai Shin got a much bigger bump of 0.60 (6.08 to 6.68) for winning an event with a much weaker field while her event count remained at 52. I know Inbee Park has 13 more events than Stacy Lewis (64 to 51) but I expected a bigger bump from the win. Her best finishes from her strong second half of the year should still be at full strength.

sports medic

Anonymous said...

So Yeon Ryu definitely has some momentum this week. The third place finisher in Thailand had her graduation ceremony today from Yongsei University in Seoul, Korea. She is currently 8th in the Rolex Rankings. Last year she had a win and 12 top five finishes to go with her U.S. Open title in 2011.

Thanks to Golf Babes for noting the event.

sports medic

Tony Jesselli (Tonyj5) said...

The Rolex Rankings are based on a 2year rolling calander. When this week is added that same week 2 years ago is dropped. It is quite possible that a person finishing second in a tournament can lose points because two years ago that week she finished first, and that was dropped.

Yes I agree it does look strange sometimes.

Tony Jesselli (Tonyj5) said...

Unfortunatly, Ryu, and her momentum, will not be playing this week.

Anonymous said...

The Rolex Ranking website has updated the numbers for this week from when they were initially posted this morning. Inbee Park average moved from 7.51 last week (Feb 18) to 7.63 (Feb 25) posted earlier this morning when this weeks rankings first appeared on the website to 8.37 (Feb 25) which is posted now. Her bump for the week has climbed from the 0.12 I stated in my earlier post to 0.86. As a result, she has leapfrogged Stacy Lewis to move into third place. I checked my numbers several times before posting this morning because I don't like to be wrong and you guys know your stuff.

Like I posted earlier, I know how the rankings work although any result dropping off from two years ago would be worth only 1/91th of their initial value. The points earned in an event hold their full value for 13 weeks before they start to depreciate 1/91 each week till the two year drop off. Shin, Lewis, and Park all have multiple victories and high finishes from last year that are depreciating. It would seem, without running the numbers, that Inbee Park would a stronger bump from winning a much stronger event, despite having more events.

As for So Yeon Ryu, I apologize for that misstep. I was relying on the last line in Randall Mell piece on the HSBC that appeared on the GC website.

"The HSBC Champions will feature the top 10 players in the Rolex world rankings."

Anonymous said...

Just saw the Reuters report that Ai Miyazato pulled out because of neck and shoulder pain caused by a car crash that involved two other golfers.

sports medic

Tony Jesselli (Tonyj5) said...

Yes, Paula Creamer, Ai Miyazato and Colin (Pauala's caddie), were involved in a 5 car accident while driving from Thailand to Singapore.
They were hospitalized and released with minor injuries. Ai, had to witrhdraw.