The final Rolex World Rankings have now been posted. As we get ready to celebrate the new year, let us look and see who made the biggest gains and who took the biggest losses.
Rolex ranks the ladies based on average points per event on a rolling 2-year calendar. For example, Yani Tseng (the #1 player in the world) has accumulated 866.11 points playing in 49 tournaments over that period, for an average of 17.68 points per tournament. I have gone back to the first published RR of the year and compared them to the final rankings of the year. The only requirement for my list is that a player must have been in the top 100 at the start of the year or in the top 100 now.
This Year's Biggest Winners:
1- Yani Tseng - 9.25 to 17.68 = Gain of 8.43 (moved from #5 to #1)
2- Shanshan Feng - 1.85 to 5.66 = Gain of 3.81 (move 79-13)
3- Stacy Lewis - 3.23 to 6.68 = Gain of 3.45 (move 37-10)
4- Caroline Hedwall - 0.19 to 3.44 = Gain of 3.25 (move 351-37)
5- Shiho Oyama - 1.07 to 3.63 = Gain of 2.56 (move 131-34)
6- Ha Neul Kim - 1.20 to 3.59 = Gain of 2.39 (move 115-36)
7- Brittany Lincicome - 4.42 to 6.66 = Gain of 2.24 (move 21-11)
8- Sandra Gal - 1.11 to 3.29 = Gain of 2.18 (move 111-41)
9- Kumiko Kaneda - 0.40 to 2.66 = Gain of 2.17 (move 234-52)
10-Ji-Hee Lee - 3.33 to 5.42 = Gain of 2.09 (move 30-15)
11-Amy Yang - 3.98 to 6.01 = Gain of 2.03 (move 25-12)
12-Lexi Thompson - 1.64 to 3.42 = Gain of 1.78 (move 89-38)
13-Tiffany Joh - 0.20 to 1.74 = Gain of 1.54 (move 346-85)
14-Diana Luna - 0.43 to 1.96 = Gain of 1.53 (move 256-76)
15-Hyun-Hwa Sim - 0.74 to 2.25 = Gain of 1.51 (move 181-65)
16-Catriona Matthew - 3.29 - 4.47 = Gain of 1.50 (move 32-21)
17-So-Yeon Ryu - 2.83 to 4.20 = Gain of 1.37 (move 42-27)
18-Ritsuko Ryu - 1.25-2.52 = Gain of 1.27 (move 112-57)
19-Paula Creamer - 6.80 to 8.06 = Gain of 1.26 (move 11-5)
20-Katie Futcher - 0.95 to 2.18 = Gain of 1.23 (move 146-67)
Some side notes that I found interesting about the above top 20 would include the fact that Paula Creamer made one of the most important moves (going from #11 to #5), without winning this year. Also of note, Lexi Thompson has played in only 23 tournaments, but her points are divided by 35 not 23 (the RR minimum is 35). Her average total per tournament of 5.20 points would have placed her #17 in the world rankings without the minimum.
This Year's Biggest Losers:
1- Jiyai Shin - 10.60 to 7.58 = Loss of 3.02 (move from #1 to #7)
2- Song-Hee Kim - 6.98 to 4.08 = Loss of 2.90 (move 9-30)
3- Ai Miyazato - 9.47 to 6.72 = Loss of 2.75 (move 6-9)
4- Inbee Park - 6.51 to 4.65 = Loss of 4.65 (move 12-23)
5- Katherine Hull - 4.58 to 2.72 = Loss of 1.86 (move 19-50)
6- Shinobu Moromizato - 3.27 to 1.55 = Loss of 1.72 (move 35-101)
7- Kristy McPherson - 3.27 to 1.57 = Loss of 1.70 (move 34-97)
8- Michelle Wie - 6.83 to 5.16 = Loss of 1.67 (move 10-17)
9- Jee Young Lee - 3.20 to 1.58 = Loss of 1.62 (move 38-96)
10-M.J. Hur - 2.80 to 1.26 = Loss of 1.54 (move 44-131)
11-Lindsey Wright - 2.33 to 0.94 = Loss of 1.39 (move 64-164)
12-Laura Davies - 2.67 to 1.35 = Loss of 1.32 (move 49-121)
13-Anna Nordqvist - 5.12 to 3.92 = Loss of 1.20 (move 14-31)
14-I.K. Kim - 7.86 to 6.86 = Loss of 1.00 (move 7-8)
15-Jeong Jang - 1.59 to 0.60 = Loss of 0.99 (move 92-230)
16- Mi-Jeong Jeon - 5.09 to 4.19 = Loss of .90 (move 15-28)
17-Seon-Hwa Lee - 2.03 to 1.15 = Loss of 0.88 (move 72-140)
18-Christina Kim - 2.60 to 1.77 = Loss of 0.83 (move 51-82)
19-Miho Koga - 2.22 to 1.41 = Loss of 0.81 (move 67-115)
20-Vicky Hurst - 2.44 to 1.68 = Loss of 0.76 (move 57-90)
A side note to the above would be that Ai Miyazato made this list in spite of winning the Evian Masters. Players from Korea, with 14 players, were surely the most active on the above lists. Unfortunately 9 of them were on the down side. The USA was next with 10 players listed, 6 for positive movement. Japan split their 6 players evenly.
The above study probably took me longer to do than anything I have previously posted on here, as I have had to sort through hundreds of players. I think it is worth the time, as I consider this very indicative of a players' season.
On a completely different note I would like to say that I can't believe that it has been just about a year since I became an author for Mostly Harmless. I want to thank the Contructivist for the opportunity to express my views on the LPGA. I have tried to bring to this page statistics that you won't easily find elsewhere, and have even tried my hand at humor, but most importantly I have tried to promote the LPGA in a positive way. Getting the message across to more and more people about what a wonderful show these ladies put on is always my highest priority.
Since this is my last post of the year, I also want to thank some of the other writers who do such a great job of keeping the LPGA in the news. Your posts are so important in promoting the LPGA Tour. I would like to single out Hound Dog, Seoul Sisters, and Ruthless Golf, just to name a few of my favorites.
Everyone have a safe and healthy New Year.
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7 comments:
Thanks for the work, Tony. I know how much time it takes. I also know how much you love the tour and the ladies. Rest assured I would trade places in a heartbeat for the amount of LPGA play you have witnessed. Well done, my friend.
Nice job, Tony. I was surprised Carolyn Hedwall moved up that much and by the size of Laura Davies' drop.
Wow, great work, Tony. One quibble about using a 1-year gap in a 2-year system is that this year's changes may be amplified or dampened by the previous year's worth of play.
If you want to do another post in this vein, I'd suggest comparing the initial 2010 rankings to the initial 2012 rankings to get the best sense of who's made the biggest moves in the last "Rolex cycle"!
It would be nice if you could look at past rankings in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index to do a similar analysis of who has the best and worst 2011s (theirs only tracks a 52-week cycle, so it would be the perfect measure).
Bruce, I am a subscriber to golf week and like the magazine, but as far as those ratings go, I ignore them. They make no sense to me.
They rank on a 52 week cycle, yet, how can you explain Paula Creamer #2? Ai at #27? Kathleen Ekay rated 8 spots better than Ryann O'toole?
I am looking forward to when you post your "Best of the LPGA", where you combine all our ratings.
Sagarin's ratings are as good as it gets for betting purposes, far superior to Rolex. I have Excel spreadsheets using both of them to handicap the weekly head-to-head matchups, primarily PGA but also LPGA, which are not offered as frequently. Each week I might have a choice of 75 PGA matchups but perhaps 6-10 LPGA. They only use the big names.
Paula Creamer had a killer year in matchup purposes. The sportsbooks invariably put her up against players she equaled in name recognition and reputation but was destroying in terms of results.
Sagarin's golf method is fantastically straight forward -- how dependably do you defeat players of various levels of ability? It reminds me of college football (and basketball), when his numbers similarly hold up best when pitted against Las Vegas odds, even if BCS fanatics thrill to denounce Sagarin.
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