When you break 70 in three consecutive rounds, tie the single-round course record, and break the tournament record, you would expect to win, right? On Saturday Jeong Jang missed a lot of opportunities to run away from the field early on, but when she birdied the par-5 14th and the par-4 15th, she gave herself a two-stroke lead on her nearest competitors and could almost taste her third career victory (although she claims she wasn't feeling that way at all in her post-round interview). But that's just when Paula Creamer, who had been stuck in neutral after birdieing two of her first three holes and reduced to watching Lindsey Wright and Annika Sorenstam bring themselves into contention, caught fire. As Hound Dog reports, Creamer birdied her last three holes (and 4 of her final 5) to take the Fields Open title away from Jang.
Creamer has now pulled almost even with Suzann Pettersen, Pat Hurst, and Betsy King in career wins during the Sorenstam Era (they each have 1 major); if her first major comes this season, she'll have put herself in Grace Park/Sherri Steinhauer territory or better, surpassing Hee-Won Han and Beth Daniel in the process. With 5 wins in just over 3 seasons, including two in her last 4 events and 2 out of 4 in Hawaii over the past two seasons, there's a reason I made her my pre-season #2 and suggested she could end the season with more wins than Sorenstam. We'll just have to wait and see, but I'm excited her first came so early, even if it was at JJ's expense.
Since Hound Dog has so graciously provided thoughtful reflections and exciting highlight reels for the Fields, I'll round out this post with a few comments on the Hawaii swing--and an eye out for the Showdown in Singapore.
Watch Out for Suzann Pettersen and Morgan Pressel
With Sorenstam and Creamer gutting out victories over tough competitors in Hawaii, it's easy to overlook two great players from 2007 who struggled to get out of the starting blocks this season. Suzann Pettersen and Morgan Pressel shot matching 66s on Saturday and passed a lot of people on the way to T15 finishes at the Fields, the former with an eagle and 5 birdies and the latter with 7 birdies. Pressel had really struggled during the second half of 2007 and was having her worst problems just when Pettersen caught fire after a mid-season slump and rattled off multiple victories. But then Pettersen suffered an injury during the Lexus Cup and raised doubts with her struggles in the first rounds at both Hawaii tournaments. If she can avoid this kind of sloppiness next week, she'll be a major factor in Singapore. Pressel, paired with rival '06er Seon Hwa Lee and Eur'06er Linda Wessberg Saturday, completely outplayed them, accomplishing what Lee was able to last week and getting a top 20 finish without ever really being at the top of her game. It may be too soon for Morgan to contend in Singapore, but she's going to be a force in the first half of the season.
Hee-Won Han Is Back and Angela Park Is for Real
Expect to see Hee-Won Han's name near the top of the leaderboard all year. She was one of the best in the world before her maternity leave and, with T12 and T7 finishes in Hawaii, is laying claim to that status already this year. Angela Park, like Pettersen (and, for that matter, Cristie Kerr and Kelli Kuehne), hasn't yet put together 3 good rounds in a row in 2008, but her closing 67 yesterday, like the previous Friday's 65, shows she still knows how to go on a birdie barrage. Although I made her a "great bet" in my Young Guns preview, I was a little worried about the dreaded sophomore jinx. Even without her trademark great first rounds from last season, however, and even with unusually high blip rounds and a controversial slow play penalty, she played and placed well in Hawaii. I expect her to contend in Singapore.
The New Super Sophs May Be as Good as Last Year's
Despite her meltdown over the first 12 holes on Saturday playing in the final group of an LPGA tournament for the first time, Song-Hee Kim showed some guts in finishing -2 over her final 6 holes, which may bode as well for her future on tour as Friday's course-record-tying 64. Similarly, Su A Kim, who came out of nowhere in Q-School to gain exempt status this season along with another previously-struggling rookie, Jane Park, had a disappointing finish to her tournament, but still tied ROY Angela Park. Speaking of the other Park, Jane missed the cut at the Fields after playing great at the SBS--just like fellow Super Soph In-Kyung Kim, who was the star of the international team in the Lexus Cup--but she has certainly served notice that she's going to take advantage of her exempt status this season. And this year's Super Sophs go much deeper than just these 5 players: Inbee Park and Eun-Hee Ji are getting their sophomore jinxes out of the way early, but Na On Min already has a top 20 to her name and Charlotte Mayorkas, Ji-Young Oh, and Sophie Giquel have already shown flashes of brilliance. I'm definitely looking forward to be doing my first New Super Soph ranking in about a month!
Speaking of the Class of '06...
Brittany Lang and Teresa Lu had good finishes at the SBS and Fields, respectively, Ai Miyazato and Julieta Granada continue to struggle mightily, Jee Young Lee and Meaghan Francella are off to bad starts, while Seon Hwa Lee and Morgan Pressel remain #1 and #2 in my rankings...which, by the way, I'll try to get to early this week.
The Rookie of the Year Race Is Wide Open
Momoko Ueda was on track for her second-straight top 10 finish, but her anti-Creamer performance on the last 3 holes--bogey-par-triple--dropped her all the way to T25, right alongside her so-far-leading-rival, Ya Ni Tseng. Louise Friberg's fantastic 65 (she was -7 through her first 11 holes and parred her way in from there) leapfrogged her ahead of Sandra Gal, who like Ueda had trouble closing out her round Saturday, in the ROY race. Right now, it's Ueda with 90 points, Tseng with 81, Friberg with 59, Gal with 30, and the non-exempt Na-Yeon Choi with 18. Don't feel too bad for Choi--she's playing in Singapore next week along with Ueda and Ashleigh Simon. The rest of the rookies have to wait till March to rejoin the race.
Career Money List Races
Speaking of races, check out how the career money list has changed since I last looked at it when you get a chance! Seon Hwa Lee is within $14K of Julieta Granada. Candie Kung has pulled within $30K of Gloria Park. Christina Kim and Stacy Prammanasudh remain neck-and-neck in their efforts to keep pace with Suzann Pettersen and not fall even further behind Paula Creamer--who has moved into the top 30 with her win this week--and Lorena Ochoa. Jeong Jang has extended her lead on Hee-Won Han and looks to be the first in their generation to pass Grace Park, perhaps even as soon as next week. Cristie Kerr and Mi Hyun Kim, now separated by less than $15K, are in a race to break the $8M mark and gaining on Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak. And Lorena Ochoa is looking to leave Juli Inkster and Karrie Webb in the dust as she's left everyone else in the Sorenstam Era and end 2008 #2 on the career money list.
Whither Lorena?
Speaking of Lorena, I'm with Mulligan Stu, hoping for an Ochoa win next week. But she certainly has her work cut out for her, with Ji-Yai Shin, Angela Stanford, Laura Diaz, and Lindsey Wright playing well heading into HSBC Women's Champions, not to mention the more prominent rivals I've profiled here. I wonder if she's regretting her decision to pass up the Hawaii swing? She certainly missed out on a lot of fun!
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