It has been quite a week here in New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy has really done quite a bit of damage. I was not able to give you pairings or updates on last week's tournament as we were without power for quite a few days. Getting gasoline to fill our automobiles has also been one big challenge.
Congratulations goes out to Stacy Lewis for winning the Mizuno Classic. Stacy made a remarkable comeback as she was seven shots down at the start of the final round. This was her fourth win of the year. Stacy has now just about wrapped up the 2012 Rolex Player of the Year Award. Inbee Park would have to win the two remaining tournaments while Stacy finishes out of the top ten in both, for Inbee to steal the trophy away. That is a scenario that is very highly unlikely. The winner also receives a Hall of Fame point. The last American to win the award was Beth Daniel in 1994.
The other big race is for the Vare Trophy, which also carries a Hall of Fame point. With Jiyai Shin not eligible because she does not meet the minimum rounds criteria, it has come down to a race between Stacy Lewis and Inbee Park. Currently Inbee leads with a 70.30 per round average. Stacy Lewis is second at 70.32. How close is that? Stacy just has to make up 2 strokes in the final 8 rounds of the season to win this also.
The tour moves to Mexico this week for the playing of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Lorena will actually be teeing it up herself this week.
This is tournament #26 of 27 this year. Here are the key details:
Course: Guadalajara Country Club
Location: Guadalajara, Mexico
Defending Champion: Catriona Matthew
Winning Score: 69-68-68-71=276 (-12)
Final Field: 36 players
Par: 36/36=72
Yardage: 6,644 yards
Purse: $1,000,000
Here are the round 1 pairings.
In spite of the very small field, most of the top players will be teeing it up. Among the missing this week are: Jiyai Shin, Na Yeon Choi, Amy Yang, Mika Miyazato, and Hee Young Park.
There will be no television broadcast in the United States for this event.
Other Tidbits:
It seems like just yesterday that we thought nobody was going to catch Yani Tseng for the number one ranking in the world for a very long time. Well things are changing much more quickly than anyone could have anticipated. In April, Yani had a 9.47 lead over Na Yeon Choi who was in second place. Currently her lead is only 3.14 over Stacy Lewis.
Titleholders Update:
Pornanong Phatlum, Jennifer Song, and Alison Walsh are the latest to qualify. Sophie Gustafson remains the highest ranked player who has not yet qualified. She is not playing this week so she will not get in.
Rolex Mover of the Week:
There are no big numerical moves this week, but as mentioned above, Stacy Lewis is closing in on that number one position.
Who's Hot:
Although Yani Tseng has not won since March, she has three consecutive top 5 finishes.
Who's Not:
Shanshan Feng, who had been scorching hot all summer, has not finished in the top 15 in her last 6 tournaments.
Momoko Ueda has teed it up 20 times this year without having a single top ten finish.
Jimin Kang's best finish in her last 8 tournaments is a T50.
Hard to Believe Fact of the Week:
Besides the previously mentioned 4 wins, Stacy Lewis has 11 top five finishes, and 15 top tens.
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4 comments:
You'd think they'd want to televise a tournament with Lorena in it, wouldn't you?
I think this tournament perhaps wanted to focus more on getting the tournament broadcast in Latin America. It will be broadcast on ESPN Deportes all 4 days. This wasn`t happening before.
Stacy Lewis is a good player- but, seems like, she is a mood player too, Ive been watching her for a while
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