The Best in LPGA Majors Since 2000, September 2014 Edition

With Inbee Park winning her 2nd Wegmans LPGA Championship in a row in a playoff and bringing her victory total to 5, it's time I unveiled my updated ranking of the top performers in LPGA majors since the start of the 2000 season (excepting the du Maurier, which last counted as an LPGA major that season).  What's different than the April 2014, June 2014, July 2014, and August 2014 editions?  The Queen Bee is now behind only Annika Sorenstam in my ranking system!

You can find more details on it in my spreadsheet, which is basically a modification of my career ranking system of the LPGA's rookie classes from 2005 to 2014, but in a nutshell its core idea is to reward both consistency and peak performances, with a special bonus for being able to win more than one major and an even bigger bonus for winning the same major more than once (it's kind of like Yahtzee that way!).  The formula I use to put it all together results in the following ranking, with the number of points gained or lost since the last ranking [in brackets] following each player's point total (in parentheses):

Simply the Best
1. Annika Sorenstam (3034)
2. Inbee Park (2074) [+243]
3. Ya Ni Tseng (1983) [-47]
4. Karrie Webb (1927) [-19]

The Contenders
5. Stacy Lewis (1613) [+/-0]
6. Lorena Ochoa (1569)

The Next Best
7. Ji-Yai Shin (1423) [+/-0]
8. Suzann Pettersen (1411) [+5]
9. So Yeon Ryu (1359) [-33]
10. Se Ri Pak (1342) [+/-0]
11. Cristie Kerr (1287) [-8]
12. Na Yeon Choi (1113) [-29]
13. Paula Creamer (1095) [-22]

Quantum Leap Candidates
14. Michelle Wie (976) [+/-0]
15. In-Kyung Kim (972) [+/-0]
16. Morgan Pressel (957) [-18]
17. Lexi Thompson (866) [+1]
18. Lydia Ko (828) [+248]
19. Catriona Matthew (805) [-9]
20. Shanshan Feng (796) [+27]
21. Grace Park (795)
22. Brittany Lincicome (778) [+100]
T23. Eun-Hee Ji (763) [-16]
T23. Anna Nordqvist (763) [+27]
25. Juli Inkster (755) [-7]
26. Amy Yang (742) [-23]
27. Ai Miyazato (668) [-14]
28. Angela Park (664)
29. Mo Martin (639) [+8]
30. Song-Hee Kim (621)
31. Angela Stanford (620) [-6]
32. Hee Kyung Seo (522) [+/-0]
33. Jeong Jang (519) [-8]
34. Brittany Lang (506) [-8]

The Best of the Rest
35. Natalie Gulbis (486) [+/-0]
36. Sun Young Yoo (476) [-11]
37. Candie Kung (473) [-5]
38. Hee Young Park (442) [-11]
39. Mika Miyazato (441) [-12]
40. Azahara Munoz (422) [+53]
41. Kristy McPherson (409) [-9]
42. Jee Young Lee (403) [-10]
43. Laura Davies (401) [n/a]
44. Lindsey Wright (380) [+/-0]
45. Chella Choi (375) [-10]
46. Christina Kim (366) [-6]
47. Julieta Granada (359) [+52]
48. Hee-Won Han (347) [-6]
49. Caroline Masson (330) [+18]
50. Meaghan Francella (296)

Adding Dame Laura Davies to this list (who's obviously performed better before than since 2000 in LPGA majors) knocked Lizette Salas out of the top 50.  With Jeong Jang and Hee-Won Han announcing their retirements, their totals are now final.

It's interesting to see who performs better in majors than regular events and vice versa--although as you can see from the big movers since the last major, there's a bit more volatility on this list than in my career ranking system.  In-Kyung Kim, Lydia Ko, Amy Yang, and Ai Miyazato are the highest-rated players on this list who have not yet won a major.  It'll be interesting to see what happens in Evian next week, where Miyazato has already won twice!