HSBC Women's Champions Preview: The Showdown in Singapore

Before I get into the meat of this combined predictions/pairings post, let me begin by recommending that you check out the promotional material for this inaugural tournament aiming to bring together the best women golfers in the world. Most press releases are dry and fairly boring, but these are sometimes hilarious (like the one they quote-mined Christina Kim for) and sometimes moving (like the profile of Ji-Yai Shin)! And their course guide and player profiles are fantastic (holes 3, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 18 are all dramatic and the rest are pretty lengthy, so it's a real test). Apparently I'm not the first to come up with the Showdown in Singapore moniker--but wouldn't it be cool if they actually did steal borrow it from little ol' me? Oh, and be sure to check out Hound Dog's tournament preview--particularly if you want to play the PakPicker this week.

OK, onto the dry and boring stuff! Like how bad I was at predicting the Fields top 12 and what trepidation I have about trying at the HSBC Women's Champions this week! But heck, I have my current rankings and pre-season predictions to guide me, so how can I go wrong? Hah! Shall we count the ways?

1. Seon Hwa Lee
2. Paula Creamer
3. Lorena Ochoa
4. Annika Sorenstam
5. Ji-Yai Shin
6. Jeong Jang
7. Cristie Kerr
8. Suzann Pettersen
9. Angela Park
10. Momoko Ueda
11. Morgan Pressel
12. Angela Stanford

Alts: Karrie Webb, Laura Diaz, Stacy Prammanasudh

No time to explain my picks--I'm just hoping Se Ri, Mi Hyun, and Ai-chan prove me wrong--so let's jump into the Thursday pairings. What a prime time they've arranged!

Start Time: 10:20 AM
Lorena Ochoa
Annika Sorenstam
Karrie Webb

Start Time: 10:30 AM
Paula Creamer
Jeong Jang
Juli Inkster

Start Time: 10:40 AM
Natalie Gulbis
Cristie Kerr
Suzann Pettersen

Start Time: 10:50 AM
Ji-Yai Shin
Brittany Lincicome
Se Ri Pak

Start Time: 11:00 AM
Morgan Pressel
Seon Hwa Lee
Stacy Prammanasudh

Sure, Lincicome and Gulbis don't exactly belong there--I'd have chosen Mi Hyun Kim (11 am off #10) for the latter (just to pair her with Kerr as they race to the $8M mark in career winnings) and Momoko Ueda (10 am off #10) for the former (just to have a pan-Asian, pan-generational pairing)--but, then, neither do Inkster and Pak and I certainly wouldn't call for snubbing any Hall of Famer. I'm just thankful they didn't put Ai-chan (10:10 am off #1) in any of these groups. In fact, the tournament organizers showed such good judgment I really have little to criticize pairings-wise--the Diaz, Matthew, Hetherington one off #10 at 10:20, for instance, is a gem--so I'll just have to second Hound Dog's critique of their failure to invite Hee-Won Han to play and add another player who I think should have gotten an exemption: Candie Kung.