After her strong weekend in Malaysia, Cristie Kerr took the yellow jersey from Ai Miyazato in the race to determine who will be the 1st player not named Sorenstam or Ochoa to end a season atop the Rolex Rankings. Miyazato also got leapfrogged by Ji-Yai Shin, who extended her money-list lead on Na Yeon Choi. Here's how all the season-long races look heading into the Hana Bank Championship as the LPGA's Asian swing moves into Korea this week.
1. Ji-Yai Shin $1.52M (1 win in 16 starts, 133 Player of the Year points, 70.17 scoring average, 3.88 birdies per round, 10.76 Rolex points [#2])
2. Na Yeon Choi $1.47M (1/19, 134, 69.94, 4.18, 9.38 [#6])
3. Ya Ni Tseng $1.44M (3/16, 2 majors, 176, 70.57, 3.77, 10.26 [#5])
4. Cristie Kerr $1.43M (2/18, 1 major, 166, 69.89, 4.22, 10.88 [#1])
5. Ai Miyazato $1.40M (5/18, 174, 70.47, 4.03, 10.63 [#3])
6. Suzann Pettersen $1.34M (0/16, 115, 70.05, 3.75, 10.31 [#4])
7. Song-Hee Kim $1.03M (0/18, 95, 70.14, 3.98, 7.29 [#8])
8. In-Kyung Kim $.86M (0/18, 83, 70.65, 3.76, 7.14 [#9])
9. Michelle Wie $.86M (1/17, 62, 71.25, 3.61, 8.06 [#7])
10. Inbee Park $.75M (0/17, 55, 70.97, 3.46, 6.24 [#12])
11. Paula Creamer $.74M (1/11, 1 major, 64, 71.08, 3.47, 7.09 [#10])
12. Katherine Hull $.71M (1/20, 66, 71.44, 3.30, 4.91 [#20])
Ryan Ballengee rightly points out that the differences between the top 5 in the Rolex Rankings are so small as to render them fairly useless for determining who actually is the number 1 female golfer in the world. That's why I've developed my own BCS-like ranking system, which, while sadly in need of an update, at least has the benefit of giving players who rank highly across a variety of other ranking systems a leg up on rivals who stand out in only 1 or 2. And it's why I've been focusing on season-long races in this series of posts that focuses on some of the data I believe ought to be used to develop a ranking system. (For the sake of simplicity, I don't include the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index or Hound Dog's Top 70 here.) Given that the LPGA no longer has a single dominant player, using a range of data and selecting an arbitrary endpoint (such as the end of the season) is really the only way to (temporarily) settle the question of who's the best in the world of women's golf for a time. And don't even get me started on how to factor in those who have been winning a lot on other tours, like Sun-Ju Ahn, Lee-Anne Pace, and Bo Mee Lee!
[Update 1 (3:41 am): Here's LPGA.com's breakdown of the various races!]
[Update 2 (1:31 pm): Here's Jay Busbee's sensible take on the significance of the Rolex Rankings.]
[Update 3 (1:33 pm): Here's Golf Girl!]
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