As the World Turns III

Yes, we all now know Osama bin Laden was killed by a special Navy SEAL unit yesterday in a heavily-fortified compound in an ethnically Hazara region of Pakistan not far from Islamabad (and far closer to a major Pakistani military academy), but unless a caddie at the Abbottabad Golf Club gave the key tip, that's the last you'll hear from me on it here.

Rolex Madness: The OWGR is taking a lot of largely undeserved heat because Lee Westwood returned to the #1 spot while winning back-to-back weeks in Asia, but nobody raised a similar stink when Ai Miyazato won on the LPGA and Ji-Yai Shin on the JLPGA and it was Shin who leapfrogged Lorena Ochoa for the #1 spot in the Rolex Rankings. I'm wondering whether anybody has thought of doing for the men what I try to do for the women: combine the results of the best (and very different) women's ranking systems into a system that rewards golfers for being highly ranked across many of them.

In the new Rolex Rankings, Ya Ni Tseng retains a significant lead on Ji-Yai Shin; Suzann Pettersen, Na Yeon Choi, and Cristie Kerr remain closely bunched; In-Kyung Kim finally passed Ai Miyazato with Karrie Webb and Michelle Wie right on their heels; and Inbee Park, Song-Hee Kim, and Paula Creamer are in a dead heat one rung lower on the ladder, just ahead of the JLPGA's relatively struggling Sun-Ju Ahn. But the most interesting volatility is in the bottom half of the top 25, where yesterday's winners Maria Hjorth and Yuri Fudoh made big jumps into the top 20 and Mika Miyazato and Brittany Lincicome almost fell out of the top 25. Look for further movements after this week's JLPGA major, the Salonpas Cup, which features all the JLPGA's Finest plus defending champ Morgan Pressel and world #4 Na Yeon Choi!

Jason Sobel Moves to Golf Channel: Very smart decision by Golf Channel to snap Sobel up. The only other mainstream golf writers in his league when it comes to knowledge of and focus on the LPGA are Randall Mell (already at GC) and Steve DiMeglio. I'm not pleased that his clever comments on diversity in the golfing world in his first column didn't include any examples from the women's game, but I'll give the guy some time to get into gear over there.

And They Call the Wind...Maria: OK, go ahead and shoot me for that one, but I couldn't think of a better way to introduce Maria Hjorth's generous donation of $20K to the American Red Cross for tornado relief efforts. Just be glad that I stopped myself from linking the unpredictability of Hjorth's game to the weather.

Not Ready for Prime Time?: Although the LPGA's stats team updated the 2011 money list fairly quickly, many of their others are still pretty buggy. What's so difficult about updating key performance stats? I doubt Lee-Anne Pace is really averaging less than 1 putt per green in regulation, for instance. And the driving accuracy stats are unverifiable, given that everyone's "possible fairways" total is 0. Ambiguity on those stats makes you wonder about the accuracy of their Rookie of the Year points list (which Hee Kyung Seo now leads) and every other item on the drop-down menu, when you come to think of it. Mike Whan's LPGA is improving in many areas, but not when it comes to their keeping and sharing of stats.