Monday, August 5, 2013

LPGA Milestones: Stacy Lewis Breaks $1M Barrier in 2013; Morgan Pressel Passes $5M in Career

Great performances at the Ricoh Women's British Open helped 2 great American golfers pass major milestones in their careers.  Stacy Lewis's win boosted her past the $1M mark in season winnings and Morgan Pressel's T4 finish allowed her to break the $5M barrier in career winnings.  Lewis is the 2nd player this season, after Inbee Park, to require 7 digits to count her winnings.  She's gotta keep winning if she wants to make the money title race and the Player of the Year race at all interesting.

Suzann Pettersen and In-Kyung Kim are racing to be the next to join the 7-digit club in 2013, although So Yeon Ryu has an outside chance of leapfrogging them.

You can track the career money list races for (most of the) top players from the LPGA rookie classes of 2005 through 2013 on my spreadsheet.  In a nutshell, Na Yeon Choi is closing on Ya Ni Tseng in the race to break the $10M barrier, although Tseng's lead on her '08 classmate is still huge; Ai Miyazato and Inbee Park are racing for the $8M mark; In-Kyung Kim and Ji-Yai Shin have a long way to go to get to $7M; Lewis has the advantage on Pressel and Brittany Lincicome when it comes to reaching the $6M milestone; and nobody else is close to $5M, although many are closing on Seon Hwa Lee, who's been stalled around $4M for years, and Meena Lee is the 1st to pass her.