Monday, December 18, 2023

Sound Check!

 Might be inspired to fire up some pop culture and sports blogging in 2024.  Might not be.

But can I just say that giving up hope for the Bills this season has made the wins over KC and Dallas somehow even more satisfying?

Sunday, February 12, 2017

For All Your LPGA News



You can get all all your LPGA information, including:


1- All tournament previews
2- Up to date statistics
3- Breaking News
4- Much much more

At the following link:


http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/




Sunday, August 21, 2016

Ralph Nader endorses "We Need a Department of Peace"

“…very important little paperback…a pragmatic argument for a department of peace…”

Nader and Peace Book 1x1
Photo courtesy of The Lakeville Journal.

Nader's radio interview with Charlie Keil.

Meanwhile, in the Twitterersphere:







Purchase at Amazon.com (paperbackKindle), or Barnes and Noble (paperbackNOOK Book).

A Young Girl Rocks Out on Keyboard – Do You Think She Hit a Golf Ball?

Dan Everett posted shared this on his Facebook page and I thought I’d say a few words about her playing. I managed to find it on YouTube:


The commenters there identify the piece as Sonatina in D Major, Op 36, No 6 by Muzio Clementi. I wouldn’t have guessed that, but then, I simply don’t know Clementi. But that’s irrelevant.

I want to talk about her playing. Actually, I want to talk about how she uses her body. She plays with her body, as any halfway decent musician does. Look at how her upper body moves once she’s underway. That’s not merely a matter of moving her arms back and forth in front of the keyboard, it is some of that. It’s mostly keeping the groove and it’s setting the muscle tone in which her arms and fingers make the more differentiated movements that activate the keys.

Look, hear how strong her left hand is at 0:22 as she walks it back and forth. She’s leaning into it. And again at 0:34. Meanwhile the right hand is playing scalar figures.

The hands punctuate together at roughly 0:40, marking a turning point in the music. Listen to the left hand chords at 0:54, which are repeated an octave lower at 0:58 – well, not really repeated. But similar chordal figures, and she digs in. The young lady has a firm grasp of the piece’s structure and it comes out especially in her left hand. Hands together at 1:01. Look at/listen to her left hand just before the page turn and then hands together 1:05-1:09.

Now we move to the next section of the piece (I’m sure there’s a technical name for it, but I don’t know it). The left hand just keeps thumping away on a static figure – little or no motion up or down – while the right hand diddles the scalar melodic figures. And now an excursion into minor territory at 1:28. The left hand heads to the basement at 1:34.

She really digs in (left hand) 1:38-1:42, and then backs off on the volume (watch her body here), a short break and back to the beginning at 1:44.

The power at 2:04, 2:13, 2:15. Then she backs off. Watch hands and body at the end, 2:40-2:44.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Guccifer 2.0 Google Search Result Weirdnesses

How is it possible that a few posts scattered here at Mostly Harmless and on some of my other blogs last night led to their being more easily findable on google than anything Studio Dongo has posted on Guccifer 2.0 over the last several weeks?  Anyone who understands google search algorithms better than me, please feel free to respond!

Thursday, July 7, 2016

This Is about Guccifer 2.0, not Golf

Quick questions to my remaining readers:

  • are you aware of the Guccifer 2.0 story?
  • have you been trying to follow it?
  • have you been able to find any good sources on it through google searches?

Just to be clear, I had not been aware of or following the story until one of my best friends started blogging about it in mid-June.  As he's been writing about his experiences going down that particular rabbit hole, I've started looking for other sources.  Not very hard, to be sure.  And I know that I've been on leave from blogging for awhile, but what ever happened to google's blog search?  Back in the bad old days, I was at least able to find a wide range of voices on almost any topic, no matter how obscure.  But when I search "Guccifer 2.0" on google, I get nothing interesting or new.  If I didn't know about posts like this, I would never be able to find them.

There's got to be more out there, right?  Are you there, google?  It's me, The Constructivist.

This will have been a test of the google search system.  This will have been only a test.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

For All Your LPGA News

This website has not been active for some time now. I don't know when or if the Constructivist will be posting here again.


You can get all all your LPGA information, including:
1- All tournament previews
2- Up to date statistics
3- Breaking News
4- Much much more

At the following link:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Fredonia's Got Talent!

Apologies to my regular readers for taking this mini-sabbatical from Mostly Harmless!  Probably the main reason I've been too busy to blog has been all the extra time I've been putting into meeting with my students this past month to consult with them on their critical essays and final research projects.  Although most of them chose not to do web authoring projects, a good number did; here are links to their work:
Please check 'em out while you're waiting for me to finish grading!

[cross-posted at sf@SF and Citizen of Somewhere Else]

Thursday, December 4, 2014

LPGA Q-School Results

As most of you already know, the LPGA is holding its final phase of Q-School this week.

With the Constructivist up to his neck in snow and work, I would like to reprint this from Tony's LPGA Report.

Update - Monday 12/8/14

Karlin Beck made a 75 foot chip shot on the 5th playoff hole of the day and the 11th in total, dating back to Sunday night, to earn the final Category 12 LPGA Card. Casey Grice was eliminated on the 10th playoff hole, and Stephanie Meadow was eliminated by Beck's chip shot on the 11th playoff hole.

Both Meadow and Grice have earned Category 17 LPGA Cards. Grice was the first round leader. Meadow, who finished third in the 2014 U.S. Open, figures to get a number of sponsor exemptions. She will have ample opportunities to improve her status during the LPGA reshuffles. 

Update - Sunday 12/7/14

Believe it or not, they have finished 5 rounds and 90 holes and it is still not over!
When 90 holes were completed there were 7 players tied for the 18th spot. Only 3 players of those 7 can get a fully exempt category 12 playing card, so they went to a 3 hole playoff. After that playoff only one player was eliminated, so on and on they went. After a few more playoff holes 2 more players got in, leaving 3 players fighting for one spot. Of course it got dark. They will continue tomorrow morning.

Here is the list of the 19 players that have earned full time playing privileges in 2015:
1- Allison Lee -10
1- Mingee Lee -10
3- Ariya Jutanugarn - 9
3- Maria Hernandez - 9
5- Ryann O'Toole -8
6- Simin Feng - 7
6- Ha Na Jang -7 (Incredibly, she shot an 80 today and still got in)
9- Kelly Shon - 6
9- Nanette Hill -6
11- Cheyenne Woods - -5
11- Therese Koelbaek -5
11- Perrine Delacour -5
11- So Be Kim -5
11- Sakura Yokomine -5
11- Sofia Poppv -5
11- Ju Young Park -5
18- Laetitea -4 (Got in via playoff)
18- Garrett Philips -4 (got in via playoff)

Here are the 3 players that will be fighting it out for the last spot tomorrow:
18- Karlin Beck -4
18- Stephanie Meadow -4
18- Casey Grice -4

Here are the players that have earned a category 17 LPGA card. They will have limited opportunities to get into playing fields next year. The players at the top of this list should get a few opportunities to get into the playing fields and will have to make the most of them to get reshuffled into a better position (like Kim Kaufman did in 2014). The players at the end of this list will have little or no opportunities to play this year on the LPGA Tour, and will probably be playing mostly Symetra Tour events.

21- Loser of the above playoff
22- Loser of the above playoff
23- Julie Yang (a) - Lost playoff
24- Jacqui Concolino - Lost playoff
25- Nontaya Srisawang -3
25- Daniella Iacobelli -3
25- Louise Stahle -3
28- ***Charlie Hull -2
28- Natalie Sheary -2
28- Jeong Eun Lee -2
28- Rebecca Lee Bentham -2
28- Jean Reynolds -2
28- Lindy Duncan -2
34- Jing Yan (a) -1
35- Paolo Morena -Even
35- Victoria Elizabeth -Even
35- Celine Herbin -Even
35- Emma de Groot -Even
35- Jennifer Gleason -Even
35- Sophie Giquel -Even
35- Elizabeth Nagel -Even
35- Caroline Westrup -Even
43- Katy Harris +1
43- Marta Sanz Barrio +1
43- Julia Molinaro +1

*** Charley Hull is the exception to my above explanation of category 17 playing opportunities.
Because of her "bigger than life" persona, and her status on the Ladies European Tour, Charley will get into quite a few tournaments this year. In addition to the normal amount of events she would get into because of her placement, expect her to get 6 more sponsor exemptions. In addition she has already qualified for several events based on her 2014 play.
 With all these opportunities, expect her to reshuffle into full time status very quickly.

Other notables that failed to earn there cards today, in addition to the players I listed yesterday.

52- Veronica Felibert +3
52- Kathleen Ekey +3
58- Emily Talley +4
64- Maude-Aimee Leblanc +5
64- Birdie Kim +5


Update - Saturday 12/6/14 (Completion of round 4 of 5)

Ha Na Jang shot a 68 today to take a 3 stroke lead after the fourth round. She finished at 15 under par. Maria Hernandez is in second place at -12.

Other Notable scores:
Mingee Lee -11 (3rd place)
Alison Lee, Ju Young Park -10 (4th place)
Sei Young Kim, Sakura Yokomine - (9th place)
Stephanie Meadow - 7 (14th place)
Ryann O'Toole -6 (17th)
Jean Reynolds -4 (25th)
Cheyenne Woods, Rebecca Lee Bentham -3 (32nd place)
Emily Talley -2 (38th place)
Kathleen Ekey -1 (44th place)
Victoria Elizabeth -Even (54th place)
Veronica Felibert +1 (58th place)
Charley Hull, Maude-Aimee Leblanc +2 (68th place)

The following players were among the bigger named players that missed the 72 hole cut and will not be receiving a 2015 LPGA playing card.

Lori Kane +8
Sylvia Cavalleri +9
Valentine Derrey, Vicky Hurst +10
Chie Arimura +13
Madison Pressel, CindyLaCrosse +15

Update - Friday 12/5/14 (Completion of round 3 of 5)

Ha Na Jang shot a 66 today to take a 3 stroke lead after the third round. She finished at 11 under par. Ju Young Park and Alison Lee finished at -8 and on tied for 2nd place.

Other Notable scores:
Sei Young Kim, Sakura Yokomine, Stephanie Meadow -6 (7th place)
Mingee LeeRyann O'Toole -5 (11th place)
Emily Talley -4 (19th place)
Ariya Jutanugarn -3 (24th place)
Cheyenne Woods -2 (31st place)
Rebecca Lee Bentham -1 (34th place)
Charley Hull, Kathleen Ekey Even Par (40th place)
Valantine Derrey, Jean Reynolds +1 (48th place)
Veronica Felibert +2 (60th place)
Birdie Kim, Victoria Elizabeth +3 (72nd place)
Maude-Aimee Leblanc +4 (78th place)
Sylvia Cavalieri, Jennifer Kirby +5 (92nd place)
Cindy LaCrosse +6 (102nd place)
Vicky Hurst +8 (119th place)
Lori Kane, Madison Pressel +11 (134th place)
Chie Arimura +12 (138th place)


Thursday 12/4/14 (Completion of round 2 of 5)

Ju Young Park, sister of LPGA veteran Hee Young Park is now tied for the lead at -9.
Also at that number is first round leader Casey Grice.
The trio of Samantha Richdale, Sophia Popov, and Elizabeth Nagel are 2 strokes back at -7.

Other Notable scores:
Ryann O"Toole, Stephanie Meadow -6 (6th place)
Ha Na Jang -5 (8th place)
Sei Young Kim -4 (9th place)
Alison Lee (a), Kathleen Ekey -3 (13th place)
Emily Talley, Ariya Jutanugarn -2 (23rd place)
Mingee Lee -1 (30th place)
Sakura Yokomine, Charley Hull, Rebecca Lee Bentham - Even (39th place)
Veronica Felibert, Jean Reynolds +1 (48th place)
Valentine Derrey, Victoria Elizabeth +2 (65th place)
Cheyenne Woods, Sylvia Cavalleri +3 (80th place)
Madison Pressel, Maude-Aimee Leblanc, Birdie Kim, Jennifer Kirby +5 (103rd place)
Vicky Hurst +6 (116th place)
Chie Arimura, Lori Kane +10 (144th place)

The field of 154, will be cut to the top 70 and ties after the 4th round.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

ElleAir Ladies Open Sunday: Sakura Yokomine Wins for 1st Time in 2014, Becoming 2nd Golfer in JLPGA History to Break the Billion-Yen Barrier in Career Winnings

Sakura Yokomine's 23rd career victory on the JLPGA may be one of her sweetest.  Not only was her win at the ElleAir Ladies Open her 1st of 2014, it may well be her last as a JLPGA member--at least for awhile--as she's one of the favorites at LPGA Q-School's final stage in early December.  Of course, she can go on to win the final event of the JLPGA season, the Ricoh Cup, next week.  But let's stay in the present for now!

Yokomine entered the final round 2 shots behind 20-year-old sensation Ai Suzuki, who bounced back from a bogey on the 197-yard par-3 3rd with birdies on the 4th and 6th holes, both short par 4s.  At that point, Suzuki was -17 and led her playing partner, 23-year-old Miki Sakai, by 2 shots; Yokomine, the last member of the final threesome, was one more shot behind.   But around the time that Sakai birdied the 148-yard par-3 7th to pull within one shot of Suzuki, some players from a few groups ahead of them entered the fray.  Rikako Morita, last year's money-list title-holder, was the 1st to catch Yokomine at -14, as she opened with a bogey-free 33.  Yokomine responded with back-to-back birdies to close out the front 9 and tie Sakai for 2nd at -16, but Morita had already moved to -15 with her 2nd birdie in a row, this one on the long par-4 10th.

But it was a burst by Teresa Lu, which began with an eagle on the short par-5 9th and continued with birdies on the short par-5 11th and the long par-3 13th, that made the final threesome pay attention to what was going on 3 groups ahead of them.  Combined with a pair of early birdies (and her lone bogey of the day on the long par-4 8th), Lu moved from -10 to -15 in the space of 13 holes.  And when Suzuki bogeyed the long par-4 12th to fall back to -16, in a tie for the lead with Sakai and Yokomine, Lu had gone from 6 down to 1 down.  Which was exactly where her playing partner Erina Hara got to when she made her 6th birdie of the day (against only 1 bogey) on the 338-yard par-4 14th, her 3rd in her previous 4 holes.

So with a few holes to play there were 6 golfers who could win this thing.  Lu was the 1st to strike, sprinting past Hara with back-to-back birdies to close out her round and become the leader in the clubhouse at -17.  (Both players dashed the hopes of Na-Ri Lee, who had birdied 7 of her 1st 13 holes to fly to -15 very early in the day, but fallen to earth with a double bogey on 12 and finished at -14.)  Right behind them, Morita followed suit with birdies on the 273-yard par-4 16th and 535-yard par-5 18th to join Lu atop the leaderboard.  And when Yokomine and Sakai both responded with birdies on the 385-yard par-4 15th--Yokomine by making a 30-footer--we had 4 players tied for the lead at -17, 1 shot ahead of Suzuki.

The tiny 16th hole proved to be the difference-maker, as Yokomine birdied it, Sakai doubled it, and Suzuki parred it.  When Yokomine parred out and Sakai finished bogey-birdie to tie Hara at -15, that meant that Suzuki needed to birdie out to force a playoff.  In the end, her walkoff birdie secured her a tie for 2nd place with Lu and Morita.  Yokomine's bogey-free 68 proved just good enough to beat Lu's 65, Morita's 66, and Suzuki's 71.

What's more, Yokomine's victory pushed her past the billion-yen mark in career winnings.  Yokomine joins Yuri Fudoh as the only 2 golfers in JLPGA history to accomplish that amazing feat.  Speaking of amazing feats, Sun-Ju Ahn's top-10 finish was enough to secure her 3rd money-list title on the JLPGA.  This one was the hardest for her, as she played through severe pain in her right wrist since the last week of October to hold off Bo-Mee Lee and Ji-Yai Shin.

So congratulations to Yokomine and Ahn.  Here's how the JLPGA money list looks heading into the Ricoh Cup:

1. Sun-Ju Ahn ¥152.56M
2. Bo-Mee Lee ¥118.58M
3. Ji-Yai Shin ¥100.44M
4. Teresa Lu ¥98.17M
5. Misuzu Narita ¥95.23M
6. Miki Sakai ¥91.90M
7. Shiho Oyama ¥79.29M
8. Na-Ri Lee ¥77.45M
9. Erina Hara ¥74.96M
10. Momoko Ueda ¥70.60M
11. Ayaka Watanabe ¥65.72M
12. Ai Suzuki ¥59.97M
13. Esther Lee ¥59.01M
14. Sakura Yokomine ¥57.89M
15. Rikako Morita ¥55.18M
16. Onnarin Sattayabanphot ¥54.80M
17. Lala Anai ¥51.29M
18. Ritsuko Ryu ¥47.75M
19. Yumiko Yoshida ¥46.68M
20. Ji-Hee Lee ¥43.08M
21. Kotono Kozuma ¥41.80M
22. Junko Omote ¥40.51M
23. Erika Kikuchi ¥40.27M
24. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥39.72M
25. Saiki Fujita ¥38.94M
26. Mami Fukuda ¥37.06M
27. Kaori Ohe ¥35.78M
28. Asako Fujimoto ¥32.45M
29. Yuki Ichinose ¥31.61M
30. Phoebe Yao ¥31.35M
31. Mayu Hattori ¥30.32M
32. Soo-Yun Kang ¥29.53M
33. Rui Kitada ¥29.39M
34. Yoko Maeda ¥29.21M
35. Yeon-Ju Jung ¥28.43M
36. Na-Ri Kim ¥28.21M
37. Megumi Kido ¥27.89M
38. Hikari Fujita ¥27.14M
39. Yukari Baba ¥26.44M
40. Rumi Yoshiba ¥25.74M
41. Akane Iijima ¥23.32M
42. Da-Ye Na ¥23.06M
43. Yukari Nishiyama ¥23.03M
44. Natsuka Hori ¥22.60M
45. Mamiko Higa ¥22.44M
46. Shanshan Feng ¥20.04M
47. Megumi Shimokawa ¥19.74M
48. Miki Saiki ¥18.67M
49. Eun-Bi Jang ¥18.14M
50. Ji-Woo Lee ¥17.61M

Next week's event, the Ricoh Cup, is the last major of the JLPGA season, in addition to being its season-ending tournament.  It features this year's winners, anyone in the the top 25 on the tour money list without a win, anyone in the top 25 of the Rolex Rankings who hasn't otherwise qualified and wants to participate, and any Japanese player with a win on the LPGA.  That means that teenager Minami Katsu and world #1 Inbee Park will be competing against the JLPGA's finest!

Saturday, November 22, 2014

My Favorite Shots from The Blizzard of 2014

I've been tweeting some blizzard photos over @mlyhlssgolf (featuring such immortal hashtags as #futilitymeetexercise, #moveoverSisyphus, and #blizzardhacks), but that doesn't allow me to arrange related shots.  So here's a little tour of The Constructivist Family's neighborhood from Tuesday to Friday.

Let's start with the view from right near the end of my driveway on Wednesday morning.


Compare it to the view from my neighbor's flat roof looking in the opposite direction from a few houses to the right of mine relative to the previous picture.  This one was taken Friday morning.


Next up are a couple of shots of our front entryway (which fortunately we never use anyway), first from Wednesday morning (in the aftermath of round 1) and next from Thursday night (in the midst of round 2):



The snow and ice formations on our back roof were strange and beautiful.  The first 2 are from Wednesday morning:



This one's from just about 25 hours later:


Let's go back to some street views, these ones featuring my trusty shovel (which for maybe the 2nd time since we moved to Hamburg actually needed an assist from a neighbor's snowblower)!  First from Thursday morning (this one I did by myself); you can see half of the neighbor's house across the street that kicked off this photoessay:


Next is the same time, opposite point-of-view:


Here's a close-up from Friday morning:


I was excited because I had just reached the edge of my driveway.  Yup, I probably spent about 5 hours just shovelling off the road this week.  The plows just couldn't keep the streets their normal width.

So here are my 3 favorite shots of the week.  The first is from about lunchtime on Wednesday, when I had cleared my flat roof off for the 2nd time of the week and all seemed well with the world:


Next up is an action shot from Tuesday (while onechan and imoto were still excited about playing outside!):


I'm nostalgic for how low those mounds at the end of my driveway were back then!  Didn't realize my shovel photobombed that shot until just now, either!

Here's the Full Metal Archivist wishing everyone a good night yesterday evening:


Here's hoping this turns out to be the worst one we have to deal with in our entire time in Hamburg!

[Update (2:58 pm):  Onechan has other ideas.  After the Full Metal Archivist and I cleared enough snow off our garage roof that the girls could climb up onto and slide down it safely, she exclaimed, "This is the best day ever!!  I can't wait for the next huge storm!"  Here are some photos from this morning:




And to top it off:


Yup, hot chocolate and the FMA's own twist on kimchi jigae!]

CME Group Tour Championship Weekdays: Julieta Granada and Carlota Ciganda Step Up

With the top golfers on the LPGA apparently feeling the pressure of playing for $1.5M and having trouble dealing with the changeable winds and slower greens at Tiburon this week at the CME Group Tour Championship, the door is slightly ajar for some unsung heroes to make like Christina Kim and make a statement at the end of 2014.  Julieta Granada has been dinking her way around the course, while Carlota Ciganda has been bombing her ways around it, but despite the 55-yard difference in average driving distance between them thus far this week, they find themselves tied for the lead at -7.

With 36 holes still to be played, Granada and Ciganda have to keep the pedal to the metal on the weekend.  The hottest golfer in the field, Morgan Pressel, is -9 over her last 26 holes after suffering a birdieless +3 start over her 1st 10 holes of the week, which puts her 1 behind the co-leaders,  Michelle Wie has also bounced back from a rocky start, going -6 over her last 19 holes (which featured an eagle on the par-4 7th) and shooting up the leaderboard to tie Sandra Gal and Sarah Jane Smith at -5.  Chella Choi eagled the par-5 17th to catch So Yeon Ryu, whose double bogey from the sand on the par-3 16th on Thursday and walkoff bogey on Friday dropped her to -4.

But what of the LPGA's Big 3?  World #1 Inbee Park languishes at +1 after going +3 and birdieless over her last 10 holes on Friday.  Stacy Lewis, the leader in every major LPGA year-long race, had to battle back to -1 for the week after going +3 and birdieless over her 1st 16 holes yesterday.  That's 1 shot worse than Lydia Ko, who's been missing a lot of greens and scrambling her way to 7 birdies and 5 bogeys over her 1st 36 holes.

With Shanshan Feng, Suzann Pettersen, Na Yeon Choi, Lexi Thompson, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome, In-Kyung Kim, and Caroline Hedwall lingering with Lewis at -1, there's still plenty of time for them to make a big move.  It's probably too late for Mi Jung Hur (+6), Karrie Webb (+4), Pornanong Phatlum (+4), and Paula Creamer (+3), though.

With the big storm over and the big thaw about to begin, I'm hoping I'll actually be able to relax and watch some golf today instead of spending 11 hours shovelling, clearing off my roof, and helping my neighbors, as I did yesterday.  Still have to clear the snow off my garage and go foraging with the family once the driving ban is lifted in the Village of Hamburg, however.  Maybe Sunday!

ElleAir Ladies Open Set-Up: Ai Suzuki's 64 Lifts Her to Top of Dozen Players Double Digits Under Par

Ai Suzuki followed up yesterday's 9-birdie 65 with a bogey-free 64 today to climb to the top of the heap at the ElleAir Ladies Open.  At -16, the 20-year-old major champion holds a 2-shot lead on LPGA Q-School-bound Sakura Yokomine (65), a 3-shot lead on Miki Sakai (66) and money-list leader Sun-Ju Ahn (68), a 4-shot lead on Shiho Oyama (68) and Rui Kitada (71), and a 5-shot lead on Rikako Morita (66), Yumiko Yoshida (68), and 1st-round leader Momoko Ueda (70).  Esther Lee (66), Teresa Lu (68), and Erina Hara (69) round out the list of 12 golfers already double digits under par, while Bo-Mee Lee (66, -9), Ayaka Watanabe (66, -8), and Yuko Fukuda (66, -7) also made big moves up the leaderboard.

The only players not in tomorrow's final round who you might have expected to be in the mix on Sunday are Misuzu Narita and Mamiko Higa, who missed the cut by a shot, Yuri Fudoh, who missed it by 3 shots, and Ji-Yai Shin, who didn't tee it up this week.  Otherwise, we have a big showdown brewing between the vast majority of players near the top of the JLPGA money list.  Should be a great final round!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

My Picks for the CME Group Tour Championship

Well, it all comes down to this and I'm picking Inbee Park to complete her comeback on Stacy Lewis and take all the big awards in 2014 from her at the CME Group Tour Championship!

1. Park Inbee
2. Feng
3. Ko
4. Ryu
5. Wie
6. Choi Na Yeon
7. Pettersen
8. Lewis
9. Phatlum
10. Webb
11. Nordqvist
12. Creamer

Alts: Munoz; Pressel; Baek

I can't win the 2014 PakPicker competition, but maybe I can build on last week's lucky 3rd place finish and catch Tony Jesselli!

[Update (9:25 am):  Centurion and I are on the same wavelength--let's see if it's the right one!]

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Around the World of Women's Golf in 10 Easy Links

Between being figuratively snowed in at work and literally snowed in at home in Hamburg (where I've spent something like 12 of the last 48 hours shoveling), I've taken an unexpected sabbatical from Mostly Harmless, but I'm back!  Let's catch up on what I've missed!

Christina Kim Prevails Over Shanshan Feng in Playoff at Lorena's Place.  I've gotta be honest, I erased the 1st 3 rounds on my DVR after watching the intros and still have the last 6 holes of so of the final round to watch, but I'll be sure to do so now that I finally gave in and saw that Kim won in a playoff over Feng!

Yoko Maeda Beats Satsuki Oshiro in Playoff for Early 30th Birthday Gift.  Maeda hasn't even been on the JLPGA often enough to be called a journeywoman, but she bounced back from a walkoff bogey at the Ito-En Ladies that opened the door for Oshiro, who was also looking for her 1st-ever victory on tour, by closing it on the 1st playoff hole with a par.  Momoko Ueda finished 1 shot out of the playoff, which moved her into the top 10 on the money list.  Sun-Ju Ahn continues to maintain a near insurmountable lead on Bo-Mee Lee (not to mention Ji-Yai Shin, Misuzu Narita, Teresa Lu, and Miki Sakai, who all have either cracked the 100 million yen barrier this season or have a hope of doing it).

In Gee Chun Wins for 3rd Time on KLPGA in 2014.  Chun's win came in dramatic fashion over the final 9 holes, but it was almost overshadowed by Kyu Jung Baek narrowly winning the Rookie of the Year race over Min Sun Kim and Jin Young Ko.  Also, Ha Neul Kim announced that she'll be playing in the final stage of JLPGA Q-School (she finished T1 at one of the previous stage's sites on 11/7).  Her last round in the last KLPGA event of 2014 may turn out to be her last start as a KLPGA member.

Xi Yu Lin Wins in Homeland on LET.  Congratulations to LPGA rookie Xi Yu Lin, who beat Charley Hull by 5 shots for her 1st-ever win on the LET!  Lin made her professional debut at the very same event in 2011, finishing 5th, so it's fitting her 1st victory off the CLPGA came here, as well.

Sakura Yokomine, Ha Na Jang, Sei Young Kim, Charley Hull, Stephanie Meadow, Minjee Lee, Ariya Jutanugarn, Su Hyun Oh Highlight LPGA Q-School's Final Stage.  But check the field list:  there are a lot of current, former, and maybe future LPGAers on it!  Names like Lorie Kane, Birdie Kim, Chie Arimura, Vicky Hurst, Cheyenne Woods, Ju Young Park (Hee Young's little sis), Alison Lee, Annie Park, Simin Feng, Ani Gulugian, Ginger Howard, and Madison Pressel are just a few that'll stick out to die-hard fans of women's golf.  It all starts the 1st week of December!

The LPGA's Last Event of 2014 and the JLPGA's Next-to-Last Are on Tap This Week.  Check out the pre-tournament notes and interviews for the CME Group Tour Championship (where season-ending race leader Stacy Lewis, world #1 Inbee Park, and 2014 Rookie of the Year Lydia Ko have the best shot at winning the $1M Race to the CME Globe) and live scoring for the ElleAire Ladies Open (where Momoko Ueda has jumped out to an early lead).

So buckle your seat belts, everyone!  (That's something I've practically forgotten how to do, as The Constructivist Family has been housebound the last 2 days and we have no idea when the state of emergency or travel ban will be lifted!)  2014 is going out with a bang!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

LPGA Announces 2015 Schedule

The LPGA announced its 2015 LPGA schedule at 3:00PM today, and continued its current trend of upward momentum. 

LPGA Chief Communications Officer Kraig Kann hosted the live stream which took place at the CME Tour Championship in Naples, Florida. Commissioner Michael Whan and Chief Commercial Officer John Podany jointly announced increased prize money, increased television coverage, and another increase in the  total number of tournaments.

Here are the highlights:

1- There will be 33 official tournaments in 2015, up from  32 in 2014. 

2- The 2015 LPGA season will kick off on Jan 28-31 with the Coates Golf Championship, in Ocala Florida. This is a brand new event. It will have a Saturday finish as the next day is the Super Bowl.

3- There will be 33 tournaments televised in 2015 (32 official tournaments and the Solheim Cup). The Mizuno Classic remains the only tournament with no TV coverage.

4- There will be 410+ hours of television coverage, up from 380 hours in 2014. Television ratings for the LPGA were up 15% this past season.

5- Prize money will be a record high $61.6 million. That is up over $4 million from 2014.

6- ANA Airlines will be the new sponsor for the first major championship of the year (Formerly the Kraft Nabisco Championship). All Nippon Airlines (ANA) has signed on through the year 2019.

LPGA Tour 2015 Season By the Numbers:
2014 Schedule  
2015 Schedule   
Total Official Money Events 
32
33
Total Purse
$57.55 Million 
$61.6 Million
Average Purse 
$1.79 Million
$1.81 Million 
Official North American Events
21
22
Official Asian Events
9
9
Official European Events
2
2
Televised Events
32
33
Televised Hours
380+
410+
Unofficial Team Event 
International Crown
Solheim Cup

Once again Commissioner Michael Whan must be commended for the continued growth in the sport that we all love. The Commissioner took over a "sinking ship" 5 years ago that had only 23 tournaments on its schedule.

Cross posted from  http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

My Picks for the Lorena Ochoa Invitational

There are only 2 tournaments left on the LPGA schedule and both have even more limited fields than the just-completed Asian Swing.  The Lorena Ochoa Invitational is the most exclusive of all and it has big implications for the $1M Race for the CME Globe, which ends with a bang in the year's final event next week.  So who will be the best of the best this week?  Here are my picks!

1. Park Inbee
2. Ryu
3. Wie
4. Feng
5. Lewis
6. Ko
7. Pettersen
8. Creamer
9. Kerr
10. Munoz
11. Nordqvist
12. Stanford

Alts:  Thompson, Phatlum, Pressel

Tony Jesselli has completely outclassed me down the home stretch and is now in 2nd place in the season-long PakPicker competition.  Good luck to Tony, GDSmyth, Elf, and Ghinhee in the last 2 events of the year!