My friend Moira Dunn goes off the front in the 7:20 am group. If she doesn't want to be a dewsweeper all year, she had better get off to a better start to the season than most native New Yorkers tend to do. Meaghan Francella's playoff victory over Annika Sorenstam early last year was the exception to the rule that pros who grew up in a climate where the golf season doesn't really kick into gear until April have a hard time before the first major of the season. Speaking of Meaghan, she's going off with Grace Park and Jimin Kang at 8:50 am--not bad! And speaking of other New Yorkers, Laura Diaz has a not-quite-prime-time pairing with Ai Miyazato and Carin Koch (both of whom are coming off big-time and long-term slumps) at 12:20 pm, and Danielle Downey (another member of the fantastic class of 2006) will be joining Sandra Gal and Ji-Young Oh in the dreaded last-group-off-the-back Thursday and first-group-off-the-front-Friday slot. But given that Hee Young Park, Jane Park, and Dorothy Delasin are in the same boat, they can't complain all that much. You know the field is packed when people like Ji-Yai Shin (1:20 pm off #10), Na Yeon Choi (12:50 pm off #10), and Momoko Ueda (12:40 pm off #1) are shunted into the late afternoon starting times!
There are others who will have to play their way out of less than favorable starting times. Jennifer Rosales and Song-Hee Kim, a mid-career vet and a young gun who have not played anywhere close to what they're capable of, are going off the back together at 7:40 am--should be interesting to see how they do. Also going off the back early are vets Janice Moodie, Sherri Steinhauer, and Meg Mallon (8:20 am)--here's hoping they make a statement! Surprisingly, Seon Hwa Lee is going off the back in the 8:30 am pairing. What's it going to take for her to get some r-e-s-p-e-c-t from tournament organizers? Nothing against Hye Jung (now H.J.) Choi and Inbee Park, but they're lucky to be starting any time near her (8:20 am off #1). Although now that I think of it, Hee-Won Han, Helen Alfreddson, and Sophie Gustafson are in the front's 8:30 am slot, so it's not that big of a diss. Still, why Seon Hwa couldn't have been paired with Jee Young Lee and Jeong Jang at 8:50 am is beyond me. If the late-morning back pairings are supposed to be roughly equivalent to the early-afternoon front pairings, the tournament organizers could have done some better planning.
I mean, take a look at the first groups off the front for the afternoon:
Start Time: 11:50 AM
Paula Creamer
Annika Sorenstam
Natalie Gulbis
Start Time: 12:00 PM
Morgan Pressel
Stacy Prammanasudh
Suzann Pettersen
Start Time: 12:10 PM
Angela Park
Christina Kim
Cristie Kerr
It's great for X-tina that she's included in this bunch--here's hoping she finally has that breakout season all of her fans have been waiting for. Still--nothing against the people in the last two morning pairings off the back--I'd much rather see people who have a roughly equal chance of winning the tournament in the Friday prime-time slots.
Sorry to be so cranky--just been waiting so long for the 2008 LPGA season to start!
[Update 2/15/08: Ah, thanks to Hound Dog, I see now what the tournament organizers were thinking. For the second round, the Thursday afternoon and morning people are flipped, and people who started on #1 yesterday start on #10 today. Within those constraints, the groups are shuffled by score, with the best scores on the front going last in the morning and first in the afternon and the worst scores on the back going last in the morning and first in the afternoon. Although this gives a slight advantage to the morning people starting on the back, given the usual timing of Hawaiian winds, it's otherwise a great system for a 54-hole tournament.]
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