All right, after all my preview posts for the U.S. Women's Open going through who's had the best LPGA career and results since 2005, the best results in majors since 2000 and the USWO since 2000, who among the sectional qualifiers might make some noise this week, who has the short game to handle Pinehurst, and who has had the best career on the LPGA without a major victory, it's time to join Tony Jesselli, Centurion, and the rest of the PakPickers with some actual USWO predictions:
1. Park Inbee
2. Lewis
3. Ko
4. Wie
5. Thompson
6. Webb
7. Munoz
8. Pettersen
9. Salas
10. Nordqvist
11. Matthew
12. Feng Shanshan
Alts: Choi Chella; Kerr; Creamer
It's hurting me not to pick So Yeon Ryu, Morgan Pressel, Hee Young Park, or Jessica Korda, but this is the top 15 I'm going with.
If you're looking for real dark horses, try Jenny Shin, Julieta Granada, Karine Icher, Ha Na Jang, Sei Young Kim, or Misuzu Narita. I think Minjee Lee will be low amateur, but if she makes the top 20 it'll be a huge accomplishment.
Feel free to let me know what you think of my picks!
9 comments:
Looks good Bruce I would just change Matthew for Kerr. If you are right come Monday Inbee will be back to RR #1 which will be a little tough on Stacy. It was good to read next year the top 50 RR are exempt. We should be watching the likes of Charley Hull and Ariya out there this week. Sure they had their chance through a qualifier but as we saw field strengths varied dramatically and it is a little bit hit and miss over 2 rounds. I think anyone in the top 50 has done the hard yards and should have been there. Just like to say I totally agree with Stacy's view on Li and young players. My main concern is the possible long term physical cost to someone so young and small trying to have a game long enough to compete at this level. Still Li has hijacked the media attention so far which I'm sure suits most of them as they concentrate on what they are there for .. to win a USWO and earn a living not just to have fun.
I'm more of a "let 'em play" type myself, although if the USGA were to institute a minimum age requirement I wouldn't be opposed, either.
The pros have to be licking their chops at so many amateurs in the field who won't make the cut in any USWO, but particularly this one. So having one kid suck the pre-tournament oxygen out of the room has to be a bit of a relief, especially with so much prepping to do!
I think Stacy Lewis is just trying to tell Lucy Li "We don't want your kind around here." It's called Southern hospitality.
I don't know what Lewis's tone of voice or body language was, so I really don't know. In this age of jumping to conclusions, I prefer to reserve judgment and try not to assume the worst about people.
I think Stacey just has the long term interest of these young players in mind. She gave an honest answer to a question put to her not something she added to the interview. I'm sure at her age and experience she is far more in a position to know what is best than most if not all the people who have come out and criticised her.
Stacy may know more about this than most--but the people who really know are those that have been there: people like Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie, and Lexi Thompson. I don't know what Morgan thinks, but Michelle and Morgan have encouraged Lucy to enjoy the ride. I do not think it was Stacy's job to essentially attack Lucy's parents for allowing her to compete.
On the other hand, I think the media has been somewhat irresponsible. I heard an interview that seemed to be pushing the idea that maybe Lucy could win. Nobody should be pushing an 11 year old to consider anything less than a win in the USWO to be a bad result.
Of course, Stacy seems to view anything less than a win for herself as a bad result. If Lucy had the same view, then yes, I would say keep her out of the USWO. But Lucy seems to have healthier attitude about this than Stacy does.
USWO Live Streaming @ 3:00 PM-7:00 PM ET
http://nfl-streaming.tv/skysports4.html
http://funkeysports.com/watch/espn-2-live-stream.html
Post a Comment