The Young Guns: Ranking the LPGA Class of 2006, February Edition

The Super Sophs are no more (being juniors now and all); long live the New Super Sophs! That's my motto in 2008, as I track the career achievements of the LPGA classes of 2006 and 2007. Why not the class of 2008? There's always a lot of attention to the Rookie of the Year race, so besides including some in my pre-season survey, I'm making them wait till the end of the season to join this ranking.

Here's my season schedule:

March: '07ers
April: both
May: '06ers
June: '07ers
July: '06ers (pre-British Open)
August: '07ers (post-Safeway)
September: both (post-Navistar)
October: '06ers (pre-Korea Championship)
November: '07ers (post-ADT)
December: all 3 Young Gun classes(post-Q School)

So let's get this started right with the former Super Sophs:

Simply the Best

1. Seon Hwa Lee: Given her international team-play dominance at the end of the 2007 season, she's off to a very disappointing start to 2008, results-wise, but her stats suggest there's no cause for alarm. Should pass Julieta Granada in career earnings this week in Singapore.
2. Morgan Pressel: Bad SBS, good Fields keep her solidly second in her class. Her stats are looking just fine and with her low final round at the Fields, I see her on the upswing for Singapore and beyond.
3. Jee Young Lee: Let's see, missing lots of fairways and greens and putting badly to top it off--yup, she's off to a shockingly bad start to 2008 after dominating performances in international team play at the end of 2007.

The Contenders

4. Ai Miyazato: Yikes! After a T14 at an LET event in Australia, she misses two straight cuts badly in Hawaii on the LPGA, posting the worst stats in her class in the process. Here's hoping she can turn it around in Singapore!
5. Julieta Granada: If she can improve her iron play, she has a chance to catch Ai-chan in the first half of the season. Missing the cut at the Fields does not bode well, though.
6. Brittany Lang: Leads the tour in eagles this year and already has notched a top 20; if she can get her putter going, she has a chance to leapfrog both Granada and Miyazato in 2008.
7. Meaghan Francella: Like Ai-chan, holds the distinction of missing the first two cuts of the 2008 season; unlike her, she's striking the ball decently and just seems to be having trouble making birdies and par saves.
8. Kyeong Bae: Trouble off the tee and less-than-stellar scrambling are holding back this former birdie machine. Like those ranked above her, will have a chance to turn things around in Singapore next week. But given that everyone except Sun Young Yoo in the next category will also be playing there, she can't afford an early-season slump.

Quantum Leap Candidates

9. Linda Wessberg: Marked improvement in GIR rate and birdies per round hasn't yet translated to the results her earlier performance on tour would suggest, but if she can get her short game going remains a threat to excel on both the LPGA and LET in 2008.
10. Hye Jung H.J. Choi: With one barely made and one barely missed cut in Hawaii, the problem is her iron play and short game.
11. Karin Sjodin: Nothing seems to be really on yet in her game, but only has one bad round all season, so look for improvement from one of the longest hitters on tour.
12. Sun Young Yoo: Weak iron play and so-so short game are holding her back thus far this season.
13. Teresa Lu: From barely making the cut to getting a top 10 in Hawaii, she doesn't stand out statistically in any area, but somehow has gone under par on 4 of her 6 rounds thus far this year. A sleeper for Singapore? We'll have to see.
14. Minea Blomqvist: Thanks to a blistering final round in the Fields, off to the best start of all the former Super Sophs this season! With her top 5 finish, this barely non-exempt player should get into even more tournaments than she otherwise would have this year. If she continues to make the most of her birdie opportunities over the course of the season, she could contend for top Eur'06er by its end.

On the Bottom Looking Up

15. Katie Futcher: Needs to work on her iron play and short game if she wants to move up the rankings.
16. Kim Hall: Needs to work on her ballstriking if she wants to move up the rankings.
17. Danielle Downey: Final-round push at Q-School got her an exemption for 2008. Even with terrible ballstriking, she has already made one cut this season--which is more than Francella and Miyazato can say!

On the Outside Looking In

18. Virada Nirapathpongporn: She kicks off her LPGA season with a sponsor's exemption to the Showdown in Singapore.
19. Ashley Hoagland Johnston: Not yet played on the LPGA in 2008. Will move up once she takes advantage of her medical exemption and begins playing regularly again on tour.
20. Nina Reis: Not yet played on the LPGA in 2008. We'll have to see whether she plans to focus even more on the LET this season than in past ones.
21. Veronica Zorzi: Not yet played on the LPGA in 2008. We'll have to see whether she plans to focus even more on the LET this season than in past ones.
22. Louise Stahle: Not yet played on the LPGA in 2008. As the LET's Rookie of the Year last season, may well decide to stay there almost entirely this one.
23. Na Ri Kim: Not yet played on the LPGA in 2008. We'll have to see whether she plans to focus more on the KLPGA or Futures Tour this season than the LPGA.

For your reference--and mine--here are the stats on which I'm basing the February ranking.

2008 LPGA Money List (rank), stroke average (rank), birdies per round average (rank [in total birdies]), greens in regulation rate (rank): I'm going to focus on four key indicators of how well someone played this season--how much money they made, how they scored, how many birdies they averaged per round, how many greens they hit in regulation on average per round, and how they rank in each category. (I figure I can figure out how well they're hitting their irons and putting by comparing the last three figures, so I won't include putts per green in regulation here.) Some of the figures Hound Dog thinks are most important I'm looking at in the career stats (below), where I think they belong. These stats are all about the present and future.

1. Minea Blomqvist, $49.1K (#12), 70.80 (#20), 4.00 (#30), 66.7% (#71)
2. Teresa Lu, $25.8K (#23), 71.83 (#45), 2.50 (#64), 69.4% (#52)
3. Seon Hwa Lee, $22.3K (#27), 71.00 (#23), 3.50 (#25), 72.2% (#25)
4. Morgan Pressel, $19.4K (#28), 71.17 (#24), 3.50 (#25), 74.1% (#17)
5. Brittany Lang, $17.5K (#31), 71.17 (#24), 2.50 (#64), 71.3% (#34)
6. Linda Wessberg, $9.7K (#53), 71.83 (#45), 3.67 (#18), 71.3% (#34)
7. Karin Sjodin, $7.1K (#55), 72.20 (#55), 4.00 (#30), 67.8% (#63)
8. Julieta Granada, $5.8K (#65), 72.20 (#55), 2.50 (#64), 66.7% (#71)
9. Jee Young Lee, $5.0K (#69), 73.00 (#78), 2.50 (#64), 63.9% (#87)
10. Kyeong Bae, $4.5K (#72), 73.00 (#78), 3.40 (#44), 67.8% (#63)
10. Katie Futcher, $4.5K (#72), 72.60 (#68), 2.50 (#64), 65.6% (#84)
10. Kim Hall, $4.5K (#72), 72.80 (#73), 2.40 (#86), 61.1% (#98)
13. Danielle Downey, $2.7K (#89), 73.60 (#96), 2.60 (#78), 61.1% (#98)
14. Sun Young Yoo, $2.2K (#94), 73.00 (#78), 3.20 (#50), 61.1% (#98)
15. H.J. Choi, $2.0K (#98), 73.60 (#96), 2.00 (#97), 70.0% (#49)
16. Meaghan Francella, $0K (n.r.), 74.50 (#110), 1.75 (#117), 70.8% (#44)
16. Ai Miyazato, $0K (n.r.), 76.00 (#127), 1.25 (#129), 55.6% (#122)

Career LPGA Money List (rank), # of LPGA events entered/majors/wins/top 3s/top 10s/top 20s/cuts made (made cut rate): About the only thing these stats are useful for is comparing people who entered the LPGA in the same year (although if you count generations by 3 years, it can be interesting). Between inflation, changing purses, and length/timing of careers, it's very hard to compare and contrast winnings across generations of LPGA greats. Fortunately the '06ers have been at this for barely two-plus years, so the career money list is a decent stat for comparing them, even if it's a bit unfair to people who have not been exempt every year. What would really be great is if we had a world money list in inflation-adjusted dollars, with inflation- and exchange-adjusted other cash denominations added in (or just totalled up separately to avoid comparing dollars and yen), which included all each golfer earned as a professional on any tour. But even the guys don't have that, so that'll have to remain a dream for now. I include these other ways of seeing how the '06ers finished relative to their competition in the tournaments they entered because they reveal a lot about how well someone is able to compete at every level, from just making cuts to grinding out top 20s and top 10s to contending for wins. So here's how they stand:

1. Julieta Granada, $2.05M (#78), 59/0/1/5/10/19/44 (.746)
2. Seon Hwa Lee, $2.04M (#79), 59/0/2/7/15/32/57 (.966)
3. Jee Young Lee, $1.55M (#101), 51/0/0/4/16/28/49 (.961)
4. Morgan Pressel, $1.46M (#109), 50/1/1/4/17/30/46 (.920)
5. Ai Miyazato, $1.32M (#119), 48/0/0/4/14/19/38 (.792)
6. Brittany Lang, $.90M (#178), 56/0/0/2/9/22/38 (.679)
7. Kyeong Bae, $.60M (#223), 54/0/0/2/6/10/38 (.704)
8. Meaghan Francella $.51M (#238), 31/0/1/1/4/8/19 (.613)
9. Sun Young Yoo, $.36M (#271), 52/0/0/0/2/8/36 (.692)
10. Karin Sjodin, $.33M (#288), 46/0/0/0/3/9/29 (.630)
11. H.J. Choi, $.31M (#298), 29/0/0/0/3/7/19 (.655)
12. Teresa Lu, $.28M (#312), 44/0/0/0/3/6/28 (.636)
13. Minea Blomqvist, $.21M (#348), 37/0/0/0/1/3/19 (.514)
14. Katie Futcher, $.21M (#352), 44/0/0/0/2/2/26 (.591)
15. Nina Reis, $.19M (#358), 45/0/0/0/2/3/26 (.578)
16. Virada Nirapathpongporn, $.19M (#362), 40/0/0/0/1/4/20 (.500)
17. Linda Wessberg, $.17M (#372), 16/0/0/0/3/4/11 (.688)
18. Kim Hall, $.16M (#377), 35/0/0/0/1/2/14 (.400)
19. Veronica Zorzi, $.09M (#452), 16/0/0/0/0/1/13 (.813)
20. Na Ri Kim, $.05M (#504), 27/0/0/0/0/1/9 (.333)
21. Ashley Johnston, $.05M (#512), 13/0/0/0/0/0/6 (.462)
22. Louise Stahle, $.03M (#548), 19/0/0/0/0/0/8 (.421)
23. Danielle Downey, $.02M (#585), 14/0/0/0/0/0/3 (.214)

Other Career Measures: Rolex Ranking (as of 2/25/08) and rank, Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index (as of 2/24/08) and rank, International and Non-Member LPGA Wins (as of the end of the 2007 season): This is a way of seeing how those Super Sophs who sometimes or regularly or always compete on other tours stack up over the course of their careers to date (the RR includes results over the past 104 weeks on the LPGA, LET, JLPGA, KLPGA, and Futures Tour; the GSPI includes results over the past 52 weeks on all these tours except the KLPGA).

1. Morgan Pressel, 4.53 (#11), 70.93 (#20), 0
2. Jee Young Lee, 4.21 (#14), 70.74 (#13), 2
3. Ai Miyazato, 3.72 (#17), 72.68 (#67), 14
4. Seon Hwa Lee, 3.66 (#20), 70.71 (#11), 3
5. Julieta Granada, 2.29 (#46), 73.22 (#95), 0
6. Brittany Lang, 1.81 (#52), 72.91 (#76), 0
7. Meaghan Francella, 1.80 (#53), 72.82 (#72), 0
8. Linda Wessberg, 1.48 (#68), 72.43 (#56), 6
9. Kyeong Bae, 1.14 (#90), 72.67 (#66), 3
10. H.J. Choi, 1.09 (#95), 73.15 (#91), 1
11. Teresa Lu, .97 (#108), 73.34 (#104), 0
12. Karin Sjodin, .91 (#119), 73.13 (#87), 1
13. Minea Blomqvist, .85 (#127), 73.99 (#157), 5
14. Louise Stahle, .74 (#149), 73.19 (#92), 0
15. Veronica Zorzi, .73 (#152), 73.60 (#129), 2
16. Sun Young Yoo, .71 (#156), 72.76 (#71), 0
17. Kim Hall, .65 (#168), 74.36 (#185), 0
18. Nina Reis, .42 (#232), 74.37 (#186), 5
19. Virada Nirapathpongporn, .41 (#235), 74.46 (#192), 0
20. Katie Futcher, .38 (#243), 74.16 (#166), 0
21. Na Ri Kim, .16 (#371), 75.14 (#254), 0
22. Ashley Hoagland, .16 (#379), n.r., 0
23. Danielle Downey, .05 (#543), 75.33 (#271), 0

[Update 4/17/08: Apologies to Allison Fouch for not recognizing her as an exempt member of the Class of 2006--apparently, qualifying for the Futures Tour in 2006 and getting an exemption into the LPGA through her top 5 finish there in 2007 does not make her a 2008 rookie! I'll be sure to include her in the May ranking!]