At the end of last year, Paula Creamer was ranked 6th in the Rolex Rankings, behind Lorena Ochoa, Ji-Yai Shin, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, and Ya Ni Tseng. Over the course of the 2010 season, she dipped as low as 13th in the rankings, including last week after she missed the cut at the Farr. Well, her win at the U.S. Women's Open catapulted her to 7th in this week's rankings, behind Cristie Kerr, Ai Miyazato, Suzann Pettersen, Ji-Yai Shin, Ya Ni Tseng, and Na Yeon Choi.
Here's hoping Creamer's rehabbing runs smoothly over the next year, especially in the next few weeks for the LPGA's European swing. With a week off before the Evian Masters and 2 weeks off after the Women's British Open, plus only 1 tournament in September, the LPGA's diminished schedule may well fit Creamer's recovery schedule to a T. If she can win at Oakmont, I wouldn't put anything past her for the rest of the season: money-list title, Player of the Year, Vare Trophy. Just imagine what a healthier Creamer could do during the season-ending 7-event run in October and November!
Can't wait to see how all the rest of the LPGA's lead pack react to Creamer's resurgence. She took an already exciting season and raised the temperature for the 2nd half of the year!
[Update 1 (7/13/10, 8:45 am): Here's Mike Southern's Rolex Rankings and Rookie of the Year update.]
4 comments:
Paula's in good position to reach the Top 5 in the next few weeks. I was working on a post for Tuesday and discovered that (due to the surgery layoff) she now has fewer tournaments during the Rolex ranking period than any other Top-10'er except Nordqvist. If she can continue to play well until the thumb pain goes away, she could move up quite easily since the 3 players ahead of her (Shin, Tseng, and Choi) all have a huge number of tournaments "diluting" their average.
Yeah, that's a help--and even more so because the more recent events count for much more than those from further back and she has very few starts this season compared to everyone else--but I think at this point she needs to get more wins and top 5s. Ai Miyazato has 5 wins since last year's Evian, Na Yeon Choi has 3 since last year's Samsung, Cristie Kerr has 2 in the last 4 weeks, Tseng has an LET win to go with her major, and while even though Ji-Yai Shin, Suzann Pettersen, and Song-Hee Kim haven't won, they've been in contention a lot. This is a tough bunch to consistently beat, but she at least has to be hanging with them, week in and week out, and get her share of wins along the way.
With all the recent Tiger nonsense, Paula Creamer is exactly what golf needs right now. She’s proven she has the game, but she has the personality and beauty to be on the cover of cereal boxes and magazines. Heck, some of those magazines could be mens mags like Maxim, FHM, etc. Have you seen some of the pictures of her out there? WOW!
http://www.digitallizardproductions.com/vagina-hero-07.12.10--paula-creamer.html
No argument here.
But personally, I'm finding some of the nationalism in women's golf coverage pretty funny. Maybe we should just go all the way with it and make women's golf more like the WWF used to be--tag-team cage matches between the good guys and bad guys, exaggerated stereotypes, cliche storylines, predetermined outcomes.
Just picture Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer vs. Suzann Pettersen and Anna Nordqvist. Christina Kim and Michelle Wie vs. Ya Ni Tseng and Jee Young Lee. Angela Stanford and Brittany Lang vs. Song-Hee Kim and Inbee Park. Ai Miyazato and Momoko Ueda vs. Ji-Yai Shin and Na Yeon Choi. All they need is silly nicknames for each team (where do you think the idea for my tag came from?), lots and lots of trash-talking, and plenty of foreign objects....
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