Asian Swing Update: Pettersen Out, Creamer and Lewis Getting Early Start

During the LPGA's dead weeks this month, I've been keeping track of the exploits of the LPGA's Asian players on the JLPGA and KLPGA. Well, it's time to widen the focus to include some European and American players.

Randall Mell recently reported that Suzann Pettersen is sitting out the LPGA's Asian Swing. Let's hope the stress fracture in her left foot heals quickly enough to allow her to be close to her best in the tour's final 2 events. Even though she was the only player of the 5 who have the best shot at getting Player of the Year (and perhaps even the Vare Trophy and money list title at the same time) without home-country advantage in 1 of the last 4 events of '09, I was hoping she'd be well enough to give Ji-Yai Shin, Ai Miyazato, Lorena Ochoa, and Cristie Kerr a real run for their money over the entire run.

Meanwhile, Paula Creamer and Stacy Lewis have entered the JLPGA's Masters GC Ladies, joining Shin, who's fresh from a T7 at last week's KLPGA major and Momoko Ueda, who took last week off. But Miyazato, who's finished 3rd, 1st, and 2nd in her last 3 JLPGA events, may well be headed over to Korea early for next week's Hana Bank/KOLON Classic. Now that's dedication: the purse for this week's JLPGA event is exceeded only by 2 of their majors and the Mizuno Classic. Still, if she hadn't taken this week off, she'd have run the risk of burning out in November, where she's already committed to playing 5 weeks in a row on the LPGA and JLPGA, starting in Korea--in fact, she would have ended the season playing 11 weeks in a row in 4 different countries. Take that, Tiger!

[Update 1 (4:41 pm): Ryan Ballengee has a nice Morgan Pressel profile up at Waggle Room. I have to wonder if she's really skipping the Mizuno Classic, though. Why go to play in Korea if you also don't plan to play in Japan, too?]

[Update 2 (4:50 pm): A nice piece by Patricia Hannigan on Christina Kim's European adventure!]

[Update 3 (10/25/09, 6:15 am): Creamer and Ueda struggled, and an early triple double [whoops, that was Miki Saiki] kept Lewis out of contention today, but an LPGA regular still won in Japan this week. Ji-Yai Shin, who may well be the 1st female golfer to break the $2M barrier in worldwide winnings this season, beat Akiko Fukushima and Yuko Mitsuka on the 1st playoff hole with a par.]