As surprised and impressed and pleased as I was by Cheyenne Woods's breakthrough victory yesterday, I can't justify putting her in my top 15 (or, to be honest, my top 25) for the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open. Here are my picks for this week's PakPicker over at Seoul Sisters.com:
1. Ko
2. Korda
3. Creamer
4. Lewis, Stacy
5. Pettersen
6. Hedwall
7. Lee Minjee
8. Recari
9. Phatlum
10. Thompson
11. Tseng
12. Lincicome
Alts: Park Hee Young; Munoz; Webb
Hard to believe I couldn't find a way to fit Sandra Gal, Minsun Kim, Su-Hyun Oh, either of the Jutanugarns, Chella Choi, Anna Nordqvist, or Carlota Ciganda into my top 15, but I have a hunch that Lincicome is getting more serious about playing up to her vast potential, Tseng has turned a corner, and Minjee Lee is for real. I'm also thinking Recari and Webb have a lot to prove after their rocky starts to 2014. By the way, I'd have put Pettersen higher if I didn't suspect she was spending more time cheering Norway on in the Winter Olympics than preparing for this week! With her and Ariya Jutanugarn, as well, I'm not quite sure how healthy they are, either.
Here's hoping Harukyo Nomura surprises me and that Ji-Yai Shin and In-Kyung Kim will be starting their seasons soon.
[Update 1 (2/11/14, 7:00 pm): Here are Tony Jesselli's picks. How about yours?]
3 comments:
I think Wie deserves mention as a player skipping this week. She is set to play Honda and HSBC. Jiyai is set to skip Honda and play HSBC. IK is apparently skipping both.
While Cheyenne's win last week was nice, I think you are spot on in your prediction. It's a bit of a problem for the tour when Golf Channel's own Randell Mell, their go to guy for the LPGA, is stuck on 24 year old Wie and and 23 year old Woods while 16 year old Lydia Ko has more wins than both of them put together. Sooner or later you have to go where the talent takes you.
sports medic
I think the mainstream golf media has invested so much in Wie and Woods that they get overexcited when any positive signs happen--and there's no doubt there have been some truly positive signs recently. At the same time, some are overly cynical about them as a result of past disappointments. I'm trying to strike a more balanced approach.
I totally agree you have to go where the talent takes you. I have my own favorites (Ai-sama, Mikan, Inky, and NYC, in particular), and they're not playing this week, but the reason I singled out Shin is that she's the defending champion and Inky is that there's still no word on when she's starting 2014 and no word on why she's skipping the 1st 4 events, last I checked, at least.
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