As the World Turns II

Here's the second installment of my irregular Mostly Harmless feature, As the World Turns.

Woods Wins! Woods Wins! Woods Wins! Woods Wins! Cheyenne, not Tiger. And it was a big one: the ACC Championship. She's now the highest-ranked player on the Wake Forest women's golf team, at #25 one spot ahead of teammate Natalie Sheary. She's also moved up 3 dozen spots to #41 in the R&A's Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking and tied for 47th in Golfweek/amateurgolf.com's latest ranking of women amateurs. For some context, check out my previous posts on Woods's development as an amateur golfer. If she can keep developing her game as Stacy Lewis did over her collegiate career at Arkansas, Woods may yet have a bright LPGA future ahead of her.

The Year of the Americans? Speaking of Lewis, Shane Bacon deserves a lot of credit for predicting an American win at the 1st major of the year, the LPGA's Kraft Nabisco Championship, but I think he went too far to call this American domination. Let's face, it, Tseng had trouble with her distance control in the winds and couldn't get her putter going, either; most of Lewis's top competition had shot themselves out of the tournament in the 1st 3 rounds; Morgan Pressel had more disasters than Rory McIlroy at Amen Corner; Angela Stanford charged like Tiger on the front 9 on Sunday at Augusta but fizzled like him, too; Michelle Wie putted like Tiger on the back 9; and Katie Futcher leapfrogged Chie Arimura and Mika Miyazato, who had great chances for great finishes but ended up logging final-round 74s that dropped them to T7. So, yes, let's celebrate 5 Americans in the top 6 at Mission Hills, and yes, Lewis earned her win by facing down the #1 player in the world of women's golf, but let's not make too much of this!

Knocking on the Door. Have you noticed who has multiple wins on the women's world developmental tours? Sure, big names have won co-sponsored events with major tours, so it's no surprise Ya Ni Tseng leads with 3. Or that LPGA/ALPG member Katherine Hull won twice at home this winter. But did you know that Chella Choi is tearing it up in Florida, Joy Trotter in Phoenix, and, most impressive of all, Ryann O'Toole has won on both the ALPG and Futures Tour? Well, now you do.

Recommended Reading. If you haven't been reading Fairways and Forehands every day, you've been missing out on bangkokbobby's awesome photoblogging on golf and tennis. The guy's a dynamo! Speaking of dynamos, Hound Dog and tatkins at Hound Dog LPGA have been electrifying the intertubes with their powerful statistical analyses. I'm still swamped at work, so don't expect too much from me in the next few days. But check these guys out!