Beyond the Usual Suspects: People to Watch at the U.S. Open

As I've been complaining about for far too long, even the U.S. golf media's coverage of the LPGA tends to be, to put it mildly, wanting--particularly when it comes to Koreans on the tour not named Se Ri Pak, Mi Hyun Kim, or Grace Park. So imagine how they cover the JLPGA and KLPGA, each of which is sending its three top players to compete in the U.S. Women's Open. Rather than just complain about it, I'll demonstrate exactly how lazy they are. Here are profiles and links on the players I think have a great chance for top-20 finishes at Pine Needles. This took an hour to compile, FYI.

1. Ji Yai Shin: This 19-year-old was the 2006 KLPGA rookie of the year, winning five events, garnering 12 top 5s, and breaking the tour's record for earnings in a single season. She beat Cristie Kerr and everyone else in the field at the Korean Women's Open and finished 4th in the LPGA/KLPGA event at the end of the 2006 season. In 2007, she has a big lead in the player of the year race and tops the money list on the KLPGA, having won four events (including two her last three in a row before she was stopped last week)--plus she had a top-15 finish at the LPGA Nabisco Championship--all of which has raised her to #13 on the Rolex Rankings. Although her stroke average is higher than last year's, when she was the first on the KLPGA ever to finish with a sub-70 average, it is still fairly close at 70.00. What makes her story even more amazing is that she has had to overcome family tragedy--her mother died and her younger siblings were seriously injured in a car accident when she was 14. Here's her assessment of Pine Needles. [Update 7/4/07: corrections courtesy of Eric at Seoul Sisters and Mulligan Stu at Waggle Room--thanks, y'all! Update 7/9/07: Here's a recent Seoul Sisters article on Shin.]

2. Mi-Jeong Jeon: This 24-year-old JLPGA star broke a tour record by winning three consecutive events this year (one of them over Karrie Webb) before having her streak stopped by Sakura Yokomine (see below). Having won three events last year on the JLPGA, Jeon was second on the money list to Shiho Oyama, but stands atop it this year. She is currently ranked 29th on the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, which focuses on the past year's results, and 19th on the Rolex Rankings, which take the past two years into account.

3. Shiho Oyama: This 30-year-old JLPGA veteran won 5 events last year to top the tour's money list, but only had a 2nd and a 5th and an 8th to her name through 8 events in 2007 until she won the Nichirei PGM Ladies on June 17th, which jumped her to 5th on the 2007 JLPGA money list, 26th on the GSPI and 14th on the RR. If you go to her blog, you can see photos of her current trip to Pine Needles and read her brief comments (if you can translate them from Japanese).

4. Sakura Yokomine: This 21-year-old was the JLPGA's rookie of the year in 2005 and added two wins in 2006, despite failing to defend (with Ai Miyazato) Japan's Women's World Cup title that year. Her only win thus far this season was a big one, snapping Mi-Jeong Jeon's 3-tournament victory streak and getting her to 4th on the JLPGA money list. She is currently ranked 35th on the GSPI and 26th on the RR.

For more Mostly Harmless posts on the U.S. Women's Open, check out our first Take Your Blog to the Course carnival this week!