Paula Creamer was one of only two players in the field to break 70 all 3 days on the tough Soffer Course, but she could neither get into double digits under par nor close the door on living legend Annika Sorenstam down the stretch at the Stanford International Pro-Am and paid the price in the playoff. Check out Hound Dog's patented final round play-by-play, which is much more informative and interesting than either LPGA.com's final round notes or Tim Reynolds's AP story for how close Young Kim and Karrie Webb came to the win. (And I say that in full appreciation of Reynolds's mentioning Moira Dunn's Christina Kim-like big numbers on Sunday!)
That other person who scored in the 60s all three times she played the Soffer Course? Seon Hwa Lee, who coulda been a contendah (just like I had predicted) if only she hadn't given away so many shots on the softer Miller Course Thursday. But if we're going to talk "if only"s, I'll be here all night. Better to celebrate the incandescent rounds of the day: Webb's tournament-record 64, Lindsey Wright's 66, Jane Park, Mollie Fankhauser, and Erica Blasberg's 67s, Hee Young Park, Eun-Hee Ji, Sun Young Yoo, Suzann Pettersen, and Jin Joo Hong's 68s, and Creamer, Kim, Lee, Angela Park, Meena Lee, Laura Diaz, Alena Sharp, and Karen Stupples's 69s (with apologies to those who shot 70s--would have been good enough to be named any other day). My only question for those who watched the coverage: was it that the pin placements were less tucked, the greens more watered, the wind less gusty, or people finally figuring out the greens that accounts for the spate of good scoring in the final round?
Mulligan Stu takes the first shot at putting this week in perspective. Me, I'm off to crunch some numbers: got some new rankings to crank out before the month is done. Congratulations to Annika on her 71st career victory, which establishes her as the clear #2 to Lorena Ochoa in 2008. Now that she's finally feeling it with her distance control, the rest of the season should be quite interesting. She's going to take a week off (skipping the SemGroup Championship) to hone her game and come back ready to put up a real fight against Ochoa and the all-star field at the Michelob Ultra Open. Following her schedule will be Karrie Webb, Suzann Pettersen, Hee-Won Han, Lindsey Wright, Ya Ni Tseng, In-Kyung Kim, and Shi Hyun Ahn--it'll be interesting to see whether those who rest or those who keep playing 3 (or more) weeks in a row will do better in this next "winner event" ($2M+ purse and automatic bid to the season-ending ADT Championship). While I'm away, feel free to speculate on why Se Ri Pak's name doesn't show up in the field lists of either of the next two events, why non-exempt rookie sensation Na-Yeon Choi didn't get an early-season promotion into the Michelob Ultra, and what kind of game Michelle Wie will bring to it.
[Update (1:12 pm): Daniel Wexler and Ryan Ballengee follow in Mulligan Stu's footsteps. And Hound Dog has highlights--and answers some of my questions.]
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