Guccifer 2.0 Google Search Result Weirdnesses

How is it possible that a few posts scattered here at Mostly Harmless and on some of my other blogs last night led to their being more easily findable on google than anything Studio Dongo has posted on Guccifer 2.0 over the last several weeks?  Anyone who understands google search algorithms better than me, please feel free to respond!

This Is about Guccifer 2.0, not Golf

Quick questions to my remaining readers:

• are you aware of the Guccifer 2.0 story?
• have you been trying to follow it?
• have you been able to find any good sources on it through google searches?

Just to be clear, I had not been aware of or following the story until one of my best friends started blogging about it in mid-June.  As he's been writing about his experiences going down that particular rabbit hole, I've started looking for other sources.  Not very hard, to be sure.  And I know that I've been on leave from blogging for awhile, but what ever happened to google's blog search?  Back in the bad old days, I was at least able to find a wide range of voices on almost any topic, no matter how obscure.  But when I search "Guccifer 2.0" on google, I get nothing interesting or new.  If I didn't know about posts like this, I would never be able to find them.

There's got to be more out there, right?  Are you there, google?  It's me, The Constructivist.

This will have been a test of the google search system.  This will have been only a test.

Mizuno Classic Sunday: Playoff Time! Feng vs. Ueda

Shanshan Feng fired a bogey-free 65 in the final round of the Mizuno Classic to catch 2nd-round leader Momoko Ueda at -16 and force a playoff.  I'll have more when I know more!

[Update 1 (2:07 am - 1 "fall back" hour):  While I wait for the results to be posted online, it's worth noting that a bogey on the 15th hole kept Na Yeon Choi from tying Sakura Yokomine's tournament record at Kintetsu Kashikojima Country Club--and, more important, kept her 1 shot out of the playoff.  Failing to birdie either par 5 on the back also played a role, but she put on a great charge with birdies on her final 2 holes.  A few minutes later, Kyeong Bae matched Choi's 64 from the last group off the back, moving from the cellar to the middle of the pack, and 1-upping Christel Boeljon, who dropped a 65 on the field from the 1st group off the front.  Stacy Lewis also made an early move with yet another bogey-free 65, but it seems those early charges just woke Ueda up.  After starting out with a birdie and 1 bogey in her 1st 7 holes, she got it to -15 with birdies on 9 and 10.  But even though she stalled there on the back, when Feng got it to -16 on the par-3 17th in the group ahead of her, Ueda responded with a clutch birdie on the par-5 16th.  Those birdies helped make moot Catriona Matthew's great start--she birdied 6 of her 1st 10 holes to get to -14--but like Sakura Yokomine (who bogeyed her last 2 holes in a row after getting to -14 on the 13th) and Mina Harigae (whose bogeys on the last holes on each side undermined her 4 birdie run over a 5-hole stretch midway through the back that almost brought her into contention), Matthew bogeyed the last hole to cap off a birdieless stretch run over her last 8 holes.]

[Update 2 (1:09 am):  Ueda won the playoff!  Congrats to Momo-chan for her 1st win as an LPGA member and 2nd at this event!]

[Update 3 (10:15 am):  Asian Golf Daily has the details on the playoff.  Straight from LPGA.com.]

[Update 4 (1:04 pm):  Here are the final results from the final round (in Japanese).  Ueda's out-of-nowhere win brings her from #44 to #23 on the JLPGA money list, while Ji-Yai Shin's Sunday 66 and top-10 finish gets her barely into the top 50 and Sun-Ju Ahn's closing 68 helps her maintain and even extend her lead on some of her nearest chasers:

1. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥116.05M
2. Chie Arimura ￥83.27M
3. Sakura Yokomine ￥76.87M
4. Ji-Hee Lee ￥74.01M
5. Yukari Baba ￥66.14M
6. Miki Saiki ￥62.14M
7. Shanshan Feng ￥58.75M
8. Ritsuko Ryu ￥56.22M
9. Yuri Fudoh ￥55.84M
10. Shiho Oyama ￥50.50M
11. Mayu Hattori ￥44.82M
12. Ayako Uehara ￥44.53M
13. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥41.57M
14. Saiki Fujita ￥39.06M
15. Kumiko Kaneda ￥38.07M
16. Hiromi Mogi ￥35.97M
17. Rikako Morita ￥35.59M
18. Rui Kitada ￥35.27M
19. Na-Ri Kim ￥33.30M
20. Asako Fujimoto ￥31.94M
21. Bo-Bae Song ￥31.72M
22. Junko Omote ￥31.11M
23. Momoko Ueda ￥29.93M
24. Yuko Mitsuka ￥29.37M
25. Ji-Woo Lee ￥28.09M
26. Li-Ying Ye ￥26.87M
27. Akane Iijima ￥25.87M
28. Na-Ri Lee ￥25.48M
29. Inbee Park ￥25.11M
30. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥24.87M
31. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥24.41M
32. Teresa Lu ￥23.83M
33. Esther Lee ￥22.95M
34. Akiko Fukushima ￥22.63M
35. Soo-Yun Kang ￥21.90M
36. Eun-A Lim ￥21.79M
37. Kaori Aoyama ￥21.70M
38. Eun-Bi Jang ￥21.05M
39. Young Kim ￥20.82M
40. Shinobu Moromizato ￥17.88M
41. Bo-Mee Lee ￥17.62M
42. Yumiko Yoshida ￥17.11M
43. Nikki Campbell ￥16.58M
44. Tamie Durdin ￥15.98M
45. Megumi Kido ￥15.45M
46. Nachiyo Ohtani ￥15.04M
47. Miho Koga ￥14.87M
48. Ji-Yai Shin ￥14.48M
49. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥14.22M
50. So-Hee Kim ￥13.81M

Looks like Ueda, Feng, Shiho Oyama, and Inbee Park are playing in the Ito-En Ladies next week, along with former LPGAers Na-Ri Kim, Teresa Lu, Shinobu Moromizato, Young Kim, Soo-Yun Kang, and Tamie Durdin.  Ai Miyazato is #68 on the money list, so it'll be interesting to see if the JLPGA forces her to play in Q-School (which somewhere Meena Lee and Hee Young Park will have to go if they want to maintain their dual memberships in 2012).  This coming week, Ai-sama goes to Mexico for the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, still over $55K shy of the $1M mark on the LPGA money list.  Here's hoping she bounces back from a tough week quickly!]

[Update 5 (6:44 pm):  bangkokbobby found some great photos and video--very dramatic and emotional win!]

What Was the "Mistake" at LPGA Q-School?

In yesterday's post on the surprising expansion of Category #20 on the 2011 LPGA Priority Status List, I never referred to the unofficial admission by the LPGA's Jane Geddes that the LPGA made a mistake at Q-School, because it was such a vague statement. But I think I've figured out what the mistake was: there shouldn't have been a playoff to determine who would be the 39th and 40th-place players at Q-School. According to the 2010 Priority Status List, in Category #20, "ties [are to be] broken on the basis of the lowest most recent round in the final Qualifying Tournament." By that standard, Meredith Duncan's 73 and Jennifer Gleason's 74 should have put them in Category #20. But Gleason and Harukyo Nomura won the playoff and rather than kick Nomura out to make room for Duncan, the LPGA clearly decided to allow both in.

So why was Ayaka Kaneko let in, as well, much less everyone at T44? The only thing I can think of now is that with Aree Song, Pernilla Lindberg, and Jimin Jeong moving from Category #15 (for those who finished between #101 and #125 on the money list) to Category #11 via Q-School, Rachel Hetherington (#107) and Iben Tinning (#115) retiring, Gloria Park (#111) and Ilmi Chung (#114) going to the KLPGA full-time next season, Tamie Durdin (#112) most likely returning to the JLPGA full-time, and Mikaela Parmlid (#122) likely spending virtually all of next season on the LET (where she got full membership via their Q-School), it was easier to bend the rules on Category #20 rather than let players who finished outside the top 125 move ahead of those who outplayed them in Q-School.

All it would take is ignoring a key parenthetical clause in its language: "the next ten (10) players after the ten (10) players eligible under the Nos. 21-30 Category (regardless of whether they have a priority higher than that category)...." After all, with Alison Walshe (#106), Paola Moreno (#117), Libby Smith (#119), and Beth Bader (#125) already in Category #15, not counting them in Category #16 (or, in Walshe's and Bader's case, Category #20) would mean that the players at T44 would be among the 10 golfers following the last of those actually on the priority list in Category #16.

If I'm right, Stephanie Kim and Allison Fouch should appear in Category #16 on the 2011 priority status list. By this logic, Becky Brewerton (75 in the final round of Q-School, 2 shots better than the nearest competitor at +9 with her) should have been the only other player from the T44 spot moved up to Category #20 with Kaneko. But, given the small Category #15 for 2011, why be so exclusive?

Yeah, I know, this reconstruction of the LPGA's thinking sounds kinda seat-of-the-pants and against both the letter and spirit of the 2010 priority status list. But, hey, for all I know, well before Q-School began the LPGA revised its 2011 priority status list criteria in order to open up more opportunities for players via Q-School when those who finished ahead of them actually got status via a higher-level priority category. If so, I'd love to see that language! I think it makes more sense to do things that way: once a player appears on the priority status list, her name is erased from any lower-level category or categories it might otherwise have appeared in, thus opening up a spot in that category (or those categories); however, those who finished outside the top 125 on the money list can gain membership only via Q-School (in Category #16 or #20 if they couldn't play their way into Category #11), not by leapfrogging half those who get LPGA cards from Q-School by getting sucked into Category #15.

Heck, I like that way of thinking so much, I wouldn't mind if they changed the 2011 priority status list criteria and language retroactively. Just so long as they are proactive when it comes to rethinking membership and other matters for the 2012 season!

Not Golf

But it could be, because there's an over the water driving range just to the right of where we're looking.

Another Near Miss for Harigae on the Futures Tour

Hurricane Bill made life difficult for the players continuing their long, hard slog through the 2009 Futures Tour season in Harrisburg this week. In a Monday finish, Samantha Richdale clinched an LPGA tour card by beating Amanda Mathis in a playoff after both golfers ended the morning at -10, the former by making birdies on 3 of her last 4 holes and the latter by doing the same on 3 of her last 7.

The top 5 golfers on the FT money list get full status on the LPGA, while the next 5 get very low status but a bye into the finals of Q-School to try to improve upon it. #5 Whitney Wade's +2/T34 finish only got her $790, which means that she can be passed for the final assured spot by anyone from #6 to #14 on the money list if she were to miss the cut in Albany the 1st week of September and one or more of them were to win or finish high enough to displace her. But #8 Alison Walshe, #9 Dewi Claire Schreefel, and #10 Pernilla Lindberg will be looking over their shoulders, as well. At under $30K for the season, they're vulnerable to being passed by multiple people, dropping out of the top 10, and having to go through sectional qualifying for Q-School in mid-September or late-September through early-October. If Lindberg were to miss the cut in Albany, a win could vault everyone from #11 through #41 on the money list into the 10th spot or better. But there are so many permutations, it's impossible to predict who will end up in the top 10.

For me, though, the biggest story coming out of Harrisburg today is Mina Harigae losing another lead down the stretch. After birdies on 5 of her 1st 6 holes yesterday vaulted her to -12, she looked like a lock for her 4th win of the season, but a bogey on the 8th before play was stopped due to darkness brought her momentum to a screeching halt. She just didn't have it today, bogeying 14 and 15 to settle for a 38 on the back and a 70 on the round that left her 1 shot out of the playoff. That's gotta hurt. The big question for Harigae fans like me is whether she'll be more like Vicky Hurst or M.J. Hur next year on the LPGA. Hur infamously had trouble on Sundays in contention, while Hurst had one of the most dominant seasons in FT history. This year on the LPGA, Hurst is having a respectable but not breakout campaign thus far; at #53 on the money list and 6th in the Rookie of the Year race, she's doing all right, but her missed cut in Korea this week shows how far she has to go to join the game's elite. Hur is fighting to get into the top 80 (she's about $4500 behind Allison Fouch at #80 right now) and is a non-factor in the ROY race at #10. Since winning her historic battlefield promotion, Harigae's had chances to match Hurst's FT win total. Even though she hasn't done it, she still has improved her scoring average (to 71.03), birdie rate (to 3.38 birdies per round), and percentage of rounds under par (to 56.8%). Bottom line, I'm still not sure what to make of her potential and ability to compete on the global stage that is the LPGA.

[Update 1 (8/26/09, 2:04 am): Check out the very funny on-course observations from Seoul Sisters.com's Carl Spackler. I wouldn't put too much stock in the putting woes he witnessed; getting the speed (and hence line) right on wet greens on a course you don't know very well is one of the toughest challenges in golf.]

If You Were Ashleigh Simon, What Would You Get Eunjung Yi?

From LPGA.com's news and notes for this week:

The 2009 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger once again served as the U.S.-based qualifier for the LPGA Tour's final major of the season, the RICOH Women's British Open. Sixty-five players registered to try to qualify and at the end of 36 holes of competition it looked like Sarah Kemp, Eunjung Yi, Kris Tschetter, Jin Joo Hong and Allison Hanna-Williams were on their way to England. However, since Yi won the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, she became eligible for the RICOH Women's British Open under Category 7G (winners of any LPGA Tour event in 2009), which opened one more spot from the qualifier. Since Ashleigh Simon and Sung Ah Yim were tied for sixth in the qualifying spots at the conclusion of the first 36 holes of play, their third round scores would serve as the tie breaker. Simon (71) was one stroke better than Yim (72) for the third round and earned a spot in the 2009 RICOH Women's British Open.

Just what would be an appropriate gift from Simon to Yi in this case?

A Solution to the LPGA's Playoff Problem

Now that the priority status memo that disappeared from the LPGA.com site a few weeks after Hound Dog and I had blogged about it has resurfaced, we've been trying to figure out, with some of our regular commenters, the logic of the decision to have that 4-way playoff between the players who tied for 21st at the end of Q-School.

After all, the memo clearly stated that Category 11 consists of:

In alternating order, top 20 from the previous year’s LPGA final Qualifying Tournament and Nos. 81-100 on the LPGA Official Money List at the end of the last official LPGA tournament of the previous year, with (in the case of the Qualifying Tournament players) any ties broken on the basis of the lowest most recent round in the final and sectional Qualifying Tournament, except that in the event of a tie for 20th place at the Qualifying Tournament, the 20th place shall be determined through a play-off held at the Qualifying Tournament.

I pointed out the significance of the alternating order clause last Thursday; what I never expected was that a tie for 21st place could be considered equivalent to a tie for 20th place. But that's apparently what the LPGA officials on-site determined, once it became clear that 2 players' names appeared twice in Category 11. Charlotte Mayorkas and Mollie Fankhauser were already in Category 11 by virtue of their #97 and #98 finishes on the official money list; by finishing T10th and 9th at Q-School, they added their names to the category a second time, this time around the middle of the priority list for Category 11 rather than near the bottom.

Category 11 is the only category out of all 21 of them where it's possible for the same player to show up twice on it. Sure, a player can show up in multiple categories. Take Julieta Granada, who's in Category 11 for finishing 100th on the money list, Category 6 for her 2006 win at the ADT Championship, and Category 1a for finishing in the top 40 of the 2007 money list. But the solution in that case is simple. A player's name can only appear once on the actual priority status list, so Granada's would appear somewhere in the mid-80s--right behind Brittany Lincicome (#13 2007, #92 2008), Sarah Lee (#20, #124), Laura Davies (#21, #95), Sherri Steinhauer (#24, #121), and Meaghan Francella (#29, #88)--and nowhere else. So when you get further down the list and you see these players' names, you erase them. Erasing their names doesn't let anyone else into the spaces they've vacated, however. Taking Francella out of Category 11 doesn't magically turn the player who finished 101st on the money list into someone who finished between #81 and #100, as much as Karin Sjodin may wish it did.

So why does erasing Mayorkas and Fankhauser from the bottom of Category 11 turn someone who finished outside the top 20 at Q-School into someone who did? It's not like their Q-School scores were thrown out--it's their #97 and #98 finishes on the money list that were erased from the priority status list. Plus, if they're going to throw out money list results from Category 11 when someone moves up the list within the category, why not also open up spots from Q-School for 4 additional players, who would take the spots vacated by erasing Francella, Lincicome, Davies, and Granada from Category 11 by virtue of their Category 1a status? The conclusion is inescapable: either there should have been no playoff, or the playoff should have been between those who finished T25.

Clearly by next year the LPGA needs to clarify how the 2010 priority list will be generated. It's a good thing that Category 1a disappears and Category 12 replaces it starting in 2010, but there are still several ways for players to end up in both Category 11 and a higher priority status category. And it will still be possible for the same player to show up twice in Category 11, based on her finish on the 2009 money list and in 2009 Q-School. So it's essential that they clarify whether money list results will be erased for everyone who ends up in Categories 2 through 6 and whether that opens up more spots for Q-School qualifiers under Category 11 than the hard 20 that the current memo seems to lock them into.

But that doesn't remove the fact that the LPGA has a big problem on its hands right now: either Chella Choi and Leah Wigger get knocked down to Category 16 and Sarah Oh gets knocked out of Category 20, or Na Ri Kim, Allison Hanna-Williams, Anna Nordqvist, Angela Buzminski, Samantha Richdale, and Sarah Kemp get added to Category 11 (as it's too late for that T25 playoff, after all), and 6 more players--from Garret Phillips to Eunjung Yi--get added to Category 20.

Why does a decision for Category 11 affect Categories 16 and 20? Note that Category 16 depends on a determination of that 20th-place Q-School finisher:

From the previous year’s LPGA Qualifying Tournament, the 10 players finishing after the player who finished in 20th place, with priority based on the order of their finish at the Qualifying Tournament (and any ties broken on the basis of the lowest most recent round in the final Qualifying Tournament).

Note that we already have another weirdness here: Choi and Wigger show up in both Category 11 and Category 15. Which means that Sarah Oh would be out of Category 20 no matter what. In any case, Category 20 is made up of the "next 10 players after the 10 players eligible" under Category 16:

(regardless of whether they have a priority higher than that category), with priority based on the order of their finish at the Qualifying Tournament (and any ties broken on the basis of the lowest most recent round in the final Qualifying Tournament).

All of a sudden, the LPGA decides to single Category 20 out as an exclusive one? Wouldn't that 1st parenthetical statement have simplified everything for everyone if it had been put in Category 16 and Category 11? Clearly, it was used for Category 16; otherwise, Garrett Phillips would have been announced as a member of the Class of 2009, because Sarah Kemp was already in Category 15 by virtue of her #122 finish on the money list.

So what should the LPGA do? I would argue for inclusiveness this year and exclusiveness next. Admit you misinterpreted your own rules this time and be generous with Categories 11, 16, and 20 as a result of your mistake. Then, rewrite the 2008 memo so things are clearer for 2010 membership. Move that "regardless of whether they have a priority higher than that category" language to become part of an introductory statement that clarifies how the priority list is generated and specifically addressing Category 11; otherwise, keep the language of the memo exactly the same. There should be no problem with a player showing up in multiple categories or twice in Category 11; disregarding a player's lower appearances on the priority list should not affect which categories any other player shows up in.

If you don't keep your categories exclusive and the boundaries between them hard, we'll be right back in this mess this time next season.

[Update 1 (1/7/09, 2:18 pm): Here's the 2008 priority category list. Hat tip to Hound Dog for the find.]

Venice Friday: This Is it!

We already have our 1st bubble girls at the Venice sectional Q-School qualifier. Jenna Pearson shot a 71 to get to T26 so far at +2. One stroke behind her but T33 right now are Tiffany Tavee (70), Jessica Carafiello (72), and Christi Cano (72). Get your Maalox ready, everyone. It's going to be a long day.

[Update 1 (1:50 pm): New bubble girl: Angela Oh (75, +5, 30th place).]

[Update 2 (4:14 pm): Hound Dog comments on the final results, helpfully highlighting who helped themselves out in a big way today. The cut ended up being about as high as I originally expected--+6 this time, compared to +5 at Mission Hills. Even though Beatriz Recari stayed under par every round, she got beat by 1 shot by Chella Choi, whose 69 brought her to -9 for the tournament, and caught by Nontaya Srisawang, who also shot a 69 today. Joining Recari, Choi, and Srisawang as the only golfers in the field not to go over par in a single round was amateur Jaclyn Sweeney (72, -7, 4th), although unlike them she only broke 70 once. So watch for these 4 to have a decent chance to hang with the top half of the Mission Hills field that they couldn't hang with then. The other 28 players have a lot of work to do to even get within the top 40, given the quality of competition about to face them in early December. Anything over 75 is going to be fatal then, at least without several sub-70 rounds to make up for it.]

[Update 3 (10/5/08, 1:37 am): Here's Brent Kelley's reaction to Friday's results.]

No, Tell Us What You Really Think

I'll be the first to admit I was dodging some key issues yesterday by attempting a humorous response to the LPGA's new non-golf-based membership criterion for non-native English speakers, namely, that they must prove themselves able to hold a casual conversation with a native speaker in a pro-am or meet-and-greet and do interviews and victory speeches in English without the aid of a translator--or face suspension until they can.

Let's dispense with the obvious ironies quickly. The policy was introduced in universalist terms, at least in the way Beth Ann Baldry summarized it at the start of her Golfweek article, but its targets are only those international players deemed at risk of being incomprehensible to their pro-am playing partners. (Double the pleasure, double the fun: it's selective and arbitrary, high-stakes and nebulous....) If multilingualism is such a great thing, why not make it a requirement for all players? Next, Commissioner Bivens floated the trial balloon in a mandatory meeting with South Korean players last week at the Safeway Classic, but apparently her communication skills are so bad she left many players with the mistaken impression that they would be kicked out of the tour if they couldn't pass an oral exam. No, no: there's an extra level of tutoring during the suspension period--apparently, there will be list of Tour-approved golf cliches to be memorized. Finally, the effort to make monolingual American sponsors happy may produce a backlash among international sponsors. Apparently the LPGA values tournament hosts, sponsors, and fans from non-English-dominant countries for everything but their language(s).

There are subtler ironies to be enjoyed as well. Like confirmed Bivens-haters getting so outraged against this policy that they've helped to give the LPGA the best publicity it could possibly have hoped for at the start of its 2-week summer break (on the principle that any publicity is good publicity, at least). How often do Deadspin and ESPN (or even Golfweek) make anything LPGA-related one of their featured stories? Tenured radicals like me must be finding the spectacle of Main Street Republicans ("what's good for American business...") and Wall Street Republicans ("full speed ahead! globalize away!") duking it out, so to speak, as intensely as America Firsters ("English ONLY! English ONLY!") are duelling with Color-Blind Conservatives ("the ball knows no language! be like the ball!") intensely funny and eerily familiar. Just another practical seminar in the meaning of multiculturalism and globalization--popular culture and new media are once again the venue for individual and collective values-clarification.

But that's not all. Consider the potential impact on the Class of 2009. Women's British Open champion Ji-Yai Shin already has membership on the KLPGA, JLPGA, and LET, so she could put together whatever schedule she pleases next season. Before she won the WBO, her plans were to compete full-time on the JLPGA for a year or 2 before trying for the LPGA. How will this new requirement affect her scheduling plans for the next few seasons? If she isn't confident she could pass or pass out of the LPGA's oral exam by the end of the 2011 season, what's stopping her from playing fewer events than the number the LPGA will eventually have to specify to count as "being on tour" in 2009? Playing fewer events means fewer showdowns on American soil (and in front of American tv cameras) with Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Suzann Pettersen, Ya Ni Tseng, Seon Hwa Lee, Cristie Kerr, and the rest of the top LPGA players in the post-Sorenstam Era. It means no real Rookie of the Year race with Stacy Lewis, Vicky Hurst, Mindy Kim, and a host of other talented young guns--maybe including Michelle Wie. It means less drama, less competition, and less attention for everyone on tour.

Let's say the LPGA remains the only tour in the world with this rule instead of prompting a series of similarly protectionist measures the golf world over. Doesn't this then put the LPGA at a competitive disadvantage for attracting the world's best women golfers? With the U.S. dollar depreciating against the Japanese yen, for instance, the time may not be too far away when the JLPGA not only has more tournaments than the LPGA (that's already happening this year), but also more single-season millionaires (easier to write and understand than "100 mill-yen-aires"). You can bet that as even more Korean golfers try out the JLPGA and succeed on it, more Korean sponsorship money will flow that much shorter trip eastward than all the way to Florida.

The LPGA has had a horrible time attracting more top Japanese golfers to the U.S. more regularly. When Sakura Yokomine, Miho Koga, Erina Hara, Miki Saiki, Ayako Uehara, Yuko Mitsuka, Chie Arimura, Akane Iijima, and Yukari Baba get wind of this requirement, do you think it will make them more or less likely to try the LPGA's Q-School this year? And what about Momoko Ueda (who's having about as much success in her 1st year on tour as Ai Miyazato had in her rookie season)? Do you think she's really eager to take an oral exam at the end of the 2009 season--when she may have won less money in that time than she won in 2006 alone on the JLPGA?

China, you ask? While the opening ceremonies to the Beijing Olympics suggest that a little conversational English will be no obstacle, the new LPGA policy again tips the scales in favor of emerging Chinese stars following Na Zhang and trying the KLPGA and/or JLPGA 1st. Which means more big money the LPGA could potentially lose from new sponsors there.

Heck, if the various Asian tours ever decided to get together and model themselves after the LET rather than trying to produce smaller LPGA-style national tours, the best tour in the wide world of women's golf could end up being such a "Ladies Asian Pacific Tour." Yup, the LPGA could get LAPT.

On the bright side, though, for the time being at least, Australia and New Zealand will become the temporary homes of even more young Korean golfers, immigration to the U.S. may pick up a bit from Asia and Latin America, expensive American golf academies will have to hire more ESL teachers, U.S. colleges and universities with good golf programs will see an increase in applications, enrollments, and donations, and the international golfers who don't play well enough to keep their LPGA cards will come away from their time on tour with a foundation in English that they could develop and parlay into a post-golf career as an agent, consultant, youth golf program coordinator, translator, or caddy.

So it's all good. Right?

[Update 1 (1:20 am): Geoff Shackelford and the other golf writers he's checked out suggest not. Which makes me rethink the one analogy I could come up with that would have lead me to offer qualified support for the new policy. When I taught American Studies and American literature on a Fulbright for a year in Fukuoka, Japan, I was kind of like an honored guest, so the fact that I never quite achieved a pre-schooler's grasp of Japanese after a full semester of an intensive language course at Kyushu University (in which my reawakened student survival instincts allowed me to pass with something close to an A-) was greeted with a polite "at least he's trying." But if I were, say, to try to join the faculty of a Japanese university full-time and live in Japan for more than a couple of years, wouldn't it be fair to expect my Japanese to improve to the point where, even if I were predominantly teaching American Studies in English, I'd be able to attempt explanations and clarifications to my students in Japanese and fumble my way toward participation in department and faculty meetings? Well, sure, but those are core skills for a professor. Do LPGA sponsors and tournament organizers in places with few or poor Latin American and Asian immigrant and citizen communities really believe the LPGA can convince golf media and fans that schmoozing is a core skill for a professional golfer? Oh, sorry, was that Yiddish? But you knew what I meant, right? (Really, was it? My grandparents arrived here in the midst of the 100% American movement, so made quite sure not to pass on any language but their own acquired English to their children. People will adjust, but at what cost? I learned more Yiddish from Seinfeld than my own family.)]

[Update 2 (2:15 am): Here's Ryan Ballengee's second take--precisely the qualified support for the policy I am still struggling over internally.]

[Update 3 (4:40 pm): In comments, Jennifer from Mixed Race America offers a brilliant and wide-ranging analysis of the policy and Ryan's and my responses to it. It's virtually a post of its own--a must-read.]

[Update 4 (7:26 pm): Ryan's been thinking this through further and has withdrawn even his qualified support.]

[Update 5 (8/28/08, 9:30 am): Geoff Shackelford covers the media response so I don't have to. Actually, it's pretty thoughtful. And at times very funny.]

[Update 6 (9:48 am): OK, I will link to Ron Sirak's overview of the issues.]

[Update 7 (2:46 pm): Here's Brent Kelley's take.]

[Update 8 (8/29/08, 12:20 pm): Here's a helpful study guide from Kiel Christianson.]

SemGroup Championship Preview/Predictions/Pairings

The SemGroup Championship is fast approaching, so be sure to check out Hound Dog's tournament preview, the history of finishes for those in this year's field, the Cedar Ridge course map, and, for the truly LPGA-obsessed, my final-round not-quite-live-blogging post from last May.

The biggest question, as Hound Dog reminds us, is whether Lorena Ochoa can tie Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam by winning her 5th straight start. Cedar Ridge reminds me of the Showdown in Singapore's course--long with lots of water--which definitely favors someone like Ochoa who drives the ball so well, but in fact she has not yet been able to get a victory on it. Still, having 4 shots at it rather than the usual 3 means that whoever challenges her is going to have to be on top of their physical and mental game. At the same time, everyone will have more time to recover from the occasional bad hole--particularly people who can make a lot of birdies but who have been prone to big numbers like Jee Young Lee, Maria Hjorth, Christina Kim, and Minea Blomqvist. So whom to pick in this week's exercise in futility?

1. Ochoa
2. Lee Jee Young
3. Creamer
4. Hjorth
5. Kerr
6. Stupples
7. Kim Mi Hyun
8. Kung
9. Lu
10. Lee Seon Hwa
11. Ueda
12. Park Hee Young

Alts: Kim Young, Kim Christina, Blomqvist

I know, I know: 3 Junior Mints, 2 rookies, and no Super Sophs, with lots of vets I'm not sure I can count on. But that's what parity outside the top 4 in the LPGA means week in and week out.

Rather than worry about the cracks in my 100-Yen Nishijin Mostly Harmless Crystal Ball, I'd prefer to celebrate some great first-round pairings for my two favorites:

Start Time: 8:32 AM (#1)
Ai Miyazato
Teresa Lu
Maria Hjorth

Start Time: 8:32 AM (#10)
Lorie Kane
Angela Stanford
Moira Dunn

And of course prime time off the back in the early afternoon rocks:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Morgan Pressel
Stacy Prammanasudh
Nicole Castrale

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Lorena Ochoa
Mi Hyun Kim
Paula Creamer

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Juli Inkster
Natalie Gulbis
Carin Koch

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Karen Stupples
Cristie Kerr
Louise Friberg

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Momoko Ueda
Sherri Steinhauer
Jee Young Lee

Not to mention Grace Park/Young Kim (9:16 am), Jane Park/Sun Young Yoo (12:10 pm), Minea Blomqvist/Hee Young Park (12:43 pm), and Eun-Hee Ji/Laura Diaz (12:54 pm) off #1 and Vicky Hurst/Kelli Kuehne (8:21 am), Seon Hwa Lee/Julieta Granada (8:54 am), Jeong Jang/Ji Young Oh (9:05 am), Laura Davies/Christina Kim (9:16 am), and Sandra Gal/Ashleigh Simon (1:49 pm) off #10.

I can't close this post without thanking bangkokbobby at Seoul Sisters for posting this clip of Mi Hyun Kim explaining her donation of almost half last year's winner's check to tornado victims in Kansas:



[Update: How about that? This was MH's 600th post!]

Momo-chan's 2008 Schedule: The Ambiguity of the Peach Girl

Momoko Ueda seems to be leaving open-ended the question of how many LPGA and how many JLPGA events she'll be playing in 2008. If you click on the links in the last sentence, you'll see she basically just lists both tours' schedules on her site, without giving any hints that I can find as to where she'll actually be playing any given week. Perhaps she's dropped some on her blog, but we'll need someone who can read Japanese to find out. While the Full Metal Archivist is virulently uninterested in the JLPGA, I do have a former colleague from Fukuoka visiting town to give two talks on campus this week; since he's not leaving till Sunday, I may have the opportunity to enlist him in a project or three before then.

Oh, and one guess why Momo-chan is one of onechan's favorite golfers!

2008 LPGA Preview: Top 30 Predictions

Hound Dog has listed his predictions for 2008's top 30 on the LPGA over at his blog in hopes of starting a meme. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, he's invited everyone to join in and rank each of their top 30 picks by her odds of ending up as the Player of the Year. If anyone wants to participate but doesn't have a blog to post their predictions on, just email your list to me at the[underscore]constructivist18[at]yahoo[dot]com and I'll post it here for you.

Here's my list, showing how I think the vets, the mid-career cohort, and the young guns I ranked last month, previewed last week, and overviewed last weekend will match up against each other:

1. Lorena Ochoa
2. Paula Creamer
3. Seon Hwa Lee
4. Jee Young Lee
5. Annika Sorenstam
6. Morgan Pressel
7. Jeong Jang
8. Hee-Won Han
9. Se Ri Pak
10. Mi Hyun Kim
11. Angela Park
12. Stacy Prammanasudh
13. Cristie Kerr
14. Natalie Gulbis
15. Suzann Pettersen
16. Ai Miyazato
17. In-Kyung Kim
18. Momoko Ueda
19. Eun-Hee Ji
20. Jane Park
21. Karrie Webb
22. Brittany Lincicome
23. Christina Kim
24. Shi Hyun Ahn
25. Angela Stanford
26. Juli Inkster
27. Meena Lee
28. Laura Davies
29. Sophie Gustafson
30. Inbee Park

[Update 2/11/08: Mulligan Stu joins in!]

[Update 2/15/08: The Florida Masochist joins in!]

2008 LPGA Preview: Career Crossroads, Part III--The Young Guns

Before I lay out the 25 players from the classes of 2006-2008 whom I believe have the potential to get or stay in the top 30 this year and eventually be considered among the game's best, I want to highlight a few other LPGA season previews I've come across while preparing this Mostly Harmless series. Jason Sobel names 5 women out of 18 golfers he thinks are ready to make "the leap," Hound Dog's ride on the LPGA Elevator is smooth, Golfgal's run-down of big names is not half bad, and Jason Wulterkens's prediction that women's golf is poised to go prime time like women's tennis did in its heyday is interesting (if at times sloppy in its details). And while I'm citing my sources, I'd like to acknowledge Mulligan Stu's assessments of the 2007 Q-School and Futures Tour grads, the Seoul Sisters 2007 Q-School discussion forum, and my own most recent ranking of the class of 2006.

Oh, and the stats I list are career winnings (rank); # of LPGA events entered/majors/wins/top 3s/top 10s/top 20s/cuts made (made cut rate); non-member and international wins. When there's a discrepancy between the LPGA bio sheet and performance chart, I go by the latter.

Sure Things

1. Seon Hwa Lee (2006) $2.02M (#79); 57/0/2/7/15/31/55 (.965); 3: Her 12-1-0 record in match play events over the past two seasons should say it all--she is one of the grittiest competitors in the world, bar none. If she putts in 2008 like she did in her rookie season, this former Rookie of the Year could go from being the best Asian golfer to the best in the world.

2. Morgan Pressel (2006) $1.44M (#112); 48/1/1/4/17/29/44 (.917); 0: At least the third-best American already, she was the most-improved player of the class of 2006 last season. And she still has a long way to go to reach her potential.

3. Jee Young Lee (2006) $1.54M (#102); 49/0/0/4/16/28/47 (.959); 2: The top Young Gun in my latest Best of the LPGA ranking, despite suffering a heart-breaking playoff loss to Suzann Pettersen in May and a shoulder injury two-thirds of the way through the season, I agree with Hound Dog that she may well have the most upside of anyone in her cohort. If she can put together a putting performance like in her rookie year (T6 in PPGIR) and an approach shot performance like in her sophomore year (4th in GIR), watch out for an Ochoa/Pettersen-style breakout sometime in the next few years. Going by her strong play at the end of 2007, including dominating performances at the Kyoraku and Lexus Cups, we might not have long to wait for her first win as an LPGA member.

4. Angela Park (2007) $.98M (#159); 28/0/0/4/8/12/27 (.964); 0: The only thing the 2007 Rookie of the Year needs to do is get used to being in contention. Once she learns to play better on the weekend, we can expect multiple multiple-win seasons from her. She has the best chance of anyone in her class to avoid the dreaded sophomore jinx--or at least minimize its effects.

Great Bets

5. Ai Miyazato (2006) $1.32M (#119); 46/0/0/4/14/19/38 (.826); 14: Speaking of sophomore jinxes, one sure hit her hard after a minor injury sustained during her runner-up finish to Seon Hwa Lee at the HSBC decimated her swing and confidence for the rest of the 2007 season. If the 2005 Q-School medalist would have had to compete in the 2007 edition, she would have been back on the JLPGA in 2008. Still, everyone goes through slumps and I have faith in my favorite player to bounce back strong this year. Go Ai-chan!

6. In-Kyung Kim (2007) $.45M (#253); 26/0/0/1/4/7/21 (.808); 0: Not only was she #2 in the Rookie of the Year race and almost beat Lorena Ochoa head-to-head for her first win last season, she rocked the Lexus Cup, as well, outplaying Angela Park and just about everyone else in the competition except the Fighting Super Soph Lees. She should have loads of confidence heading into her sophomore season--and deserves to.

7. Momoko Ueda (2008): Like Jee Young Lee, the #1 player on the JLPGA last year already has a non-member win on the LPGA, which brings her victory total to 5. Moreover, she has 3 top 10s in 5 LPGA starts as a non-member and has never missed a cut. How she adjusts to life in the U.S. is an open question, but with Ai-chan already having blazed the trail, I expect great things from her.

8. Eun-Hee Ji (2007) $.25M (#349); 4/0/0/1/2/3/4 (1.000); 4: Among the top 3 players on the KLPGA in 2007, she played well in three of the four countries in which she competed on the LPGA that same season. Like Momo-chan, will have to decide how many LPGA events to compete in this season and will have to adjust to life in a new country if she decides to jump in with both feet. But both are young enough to be flexible and experienced enough to be a threat to contend in any tournament they enter.

9. Jane Park (2007) $.06M (#478); 11/0/0/0/0/2/9 (.818); 0: Struggled mightily in her rookie season as a non-exempt player, but improved on her .700 made-cut rate from her years as a non-member, and, more important, matched Miyazato's record-low score in her wire-to-wire win at Q-School last month. I'm with Mulligan Stu--she's the real deal and should have a breakout season in 2008.

Good Bets

10. Julieta Granada (2006) $2.05M (#78); 57/0/1/5/10/19/43 (.754); 0: Should be well over her sophomore jinx--which struck almost immediately after her runner-up finish in the first event of 2007 and pretty much stuck around all year, except for a couple of bright spots at the Corona and the U.S. Open--this year. I hope. She's still the leading money winner in her cohort...nobody can take that 2006 ADT win away from her!

11. Inbee Park (2007) $.38M (#266); 26/0/0/1/2/5/18 (.692): Great play at the U.S. Women's Open and Safeway Classic salvaged what would otherwise have been a bitterly disappointing rookie year for one of the dominant players on the Futures Tour in the previous season, although she did stabilize her game as the year went on and almost made the top 30 on the money list. If she has even a decent year in 2008, she'll be a top 20 player. And if she can pull a Pressel....

12. Hee Young Park (2008): The 2005 KLPGA Rookie of the Year has 4 victories to her name, made 3 of 5 LPGA cuts as a non-member, and had three runner-up finishes on the KLPGA in 2007. She's been aiming to play on the LPGA for some time and earned it with a great Q-School performance, which made her the only exempt rookie Seoul Sister in her class.

13. Ya Ni Tseng (2008): Joining Candie Kung and Amy Hung as top Taiwanese golfers on the LPGA, she's coming off a strong season on the Asian Tour, a fantastic performance at the Canadian Open last year, and a solid stroll through the pressure-packed Q-School.

14. Na-Yeon Choi (2008): Another top player from the KLPGA, with 4 career victories there, she will have to play her way into exempt status for the 2009 season, but since she only finished 2 shots out of gaining an exemption in Q-School last month, she shouldn't have any trouble doing this.

Pretty Darn Good Bets

15. Brittany Lang (2006) $.89M (#179); 54/0/0/2/9/21/36 (.667); 0: Until Ai-chan's horrific post-HSBC run, was enduring the worst season of any of the class of 2006, but she hung in there and was still a top 40 player, due in part to her ability to eke out top 20s even when she wasn't playing all that well by her standards. Look for her to bounce back in 2008.

16. Meaghan Francella (2006) $.51M (#238); 29/0/1/1/4/8/19 (.655); 0: After beating Annika Sorenstam in a playoff and continuing to shine in the first half of the season, she suffered a dog bite and a rib injury and her game suffered in the second half of 2007. Rested and healthy, she has a decent shot at qualifying for the ADT Championship for the second year in a row.

17. Kyeong Bae (2006) $.60M (#226); 52/0/0/2/6/10/37 (.712); 3: This top 45ish player over her first two seasons is poised to make a quantum leap in 2008.

18. Hye Jung Choi (2006) $.30M (#298); 27/0/0/0/3/7/18 (.667); 1: This co-medalist at the 2006 Q-School with In-Kyung Kim was essentially a rookie in 2007, so there's a chance her performance could fall off in 2008, but having gotten her first win on the KLPGA last year, that's pretty unlikely.

19. Na On Min (2007) $.31M (#296); 20/0/0/1/2/4/13 (.650); 0: Starting 2007 as a non-exempt player, she placed third in the Rookie of the Year race and by finishing in the top 40 on the money list earned an exemption for the next two seasons. With her fine record at the two majors she's competed in, she could be poised for bigger and better things.

20. Linda Wessberg (2006) $.17M (#376); 14/0/0/0/3/4/9 (.643); 6: After splitting her time between the LET and LPGA in 2007, this Solheim Cupper should play a fuller LPGA schedule in 2008 and should do quite well.

21. Sandra Gal (2008): She ended her impressive amateur career with a great performance at Q-School last month, finishing 69-69 to squeak in as an exempt player for 2008, so she'll be able to learn on the job.

Not Bad Bets at All

22. Ashleigh Simon (2008): In the same boat as Na-Yeon Choi is this year and Na On Min was last year, but with only 1 victory to her name from her abbreviated season on the LET last year, her adjustment to the level of competition on the LPGA, like Gal's, will likely be a bit rockier.

23. Sun Young Yoo (2006) $.36M (#273); 50/0/0/0/2/8/35 (.700); 0: Can she bounce back from a disappointing sophomore season in 2008?

24. Karin Sjodin (2006) $.32M (#287); 44/0/0/0/3/9/28 (.636); 1: Having made steady improvement from season to season, she will have a lot more young LETers to keep her company on the LPGA in 2008, so look for her to have a good junior year.

25. Shanshan Feng (2008): The first fully-exempt player from China on the LPGA will have her work cut out for her in her rookie season, but she's used to being in the winner's circle from her outstanding amateur career, so stands at least as good a chance as the better-known young American grads from Q-School and the Futures Tour.

2008 LPGA Preview: Career Crossroads, Part II--The Mid-Career Cohort

As the volatility of careers among the LPGA veterans I profiled last post shows, it takes a very special golfer to extend their time on tour beyond ten years. Who among the players whose careers began between 2000 and 2005 have what it takes to become leading veterans themselves? Of course, only one person stands out right now. Lorena Ochoa is putting in a strong bid to have the post-Sorenstam era in the LPGA named after her, but Suzann Pettersen, Paula Creamer, Hee-Won Han, Jeong Jang, Stacy Prammanasudh, and Natalie Gulbis are jockeying to pass Grace Park as the top challenger in her cohort. And there are a dozen other players who could break out the way Ochoa and Pettersen have in recent years.

Top 10

1. Lorena Ochoa (2003) $10.43M (#4); 17 wins/1 major: Hound Dog was the first to point out that she could qualify for the Hall of Fame in 2008. Now the only question is how quickly will she do it? Can HOFers Inkster, Sorenstam, Webb, and Pak elevate their games and deny her some victories? How many of her contemporaries can draft her and position themselves to pass her? Will any of the newbies throw their hats in the ring? Right now she's the only player in the world for whom a disappointing result is failing to be in contention on the back on Sunday. Will she be alone there by the end of 2008? I think she'll still be the world #1 at the end of the season, but she's going to face the toughest competition of her career this year.

2. Grace Park (2000) $5.23M (#23); 6/1: Once one of the best players in the world, now a cautionary tale for Ochoa and the others in their cohort--see her Seoul Sisters bio for the gory details. Despite dealing with the aftereffects of serious back injuries from her previous two seasons and playing a limited schedule in 2007, she did earn her card for 2008, so she's on equal footing with the two closest competitors in her cohort, Jeong Jang and Hee-Won Han. But unless she improves fast, they'll leave her in the dust by the end of the season. Barring Sorenstam, all the recent Hall of Famers faced real trials and tribulations over the course of their careers yet always found ways to come back from the depths. Don't count Grace out yet!

3. Jeong Jang (2000) $5.03M (#25); 2/1: Took advantage of Han's maternity leave for most of 2007 to pass her on the career money list, but she still had a disappointing season by her high standards set by her previous two seasons. At the start of her 9th season, has to be aiming to be one of the best golfers in the world. Can she do it?

4. Hee-Won Han (2001) $4.82M (#27); 6/0: Could easily have a double-digit win total if she had been able to close the deal earlier in her career a bit more often, she's looking to return to the game's elite in 2008. This new mom's season should be more impressive than Catriona Matthew's return from maternity leave in 2007.

5. Paula Creamer (2005) $3.99M (#32); 4/0: Should be recognized as the best American in women's golf by the end of 2008. Has improved her scoring average every year on tour and is the only player besides Ochoa in her cohort to have averaged more than one win per season. She never has earned less than a million dollars in her career and 2008 should be no different. Poised for multiple multi-win seasons over the next five years.

6. Natalie Gulbis (2002) $3.38M (#42); 1/0: Mid-season injuries held her back in 2007, but she finished very strong and should get off to as fast a start in 2008 as she did last season. A definite top 20 player, but will have to really work to get back into the top 10.

7. Gloria Park (2000) $3.11M (#49); 2/0: A streaky player, this newlywed is looking to bounce back from her worst season since her rookie year and regain her top 30 form. Can she maintain or improve her position in a very strong class of 2000, whose members have been characterized by great ups and downs already in their careers? Hopefully the win at the Women's World Cup by Dorothy Delasin and Jennifer Rosales will inspire and motivate her.

8. Candie Kung (2002) $3.07M (#50); 3/0: Due to her playing a limited schedule in 2007, she was passed by Gulbis on the career money list, and it's an open question whether she can return to being one of the best golfers in the world, as she was from 2003-2005. A good performance at the Lexus Cup may give her some momentum heading into 2008.

9. Suzann Pettersen (2003) $2.76M (#55); 5/1: Came out of nowhere--due mainly to her having to deal with serious injuries during her first three seasons--in 2007 to become the #2 player in the world. Can she continue to challenge Ochoa for the #1 spot or will she have to settle for trying to retain the #2 spot in her class by staying ahead of Christina Kim?

10. Angela Stanford (2001) $2.69M (#59); 1/0: Coming off the best season of her career, she ought to be a top 25 player again in 2008, as she has been in 3 of the last 5 seasons.

Best of the Rest

11. Dorothy Delasin (2000) $2.53M (#62); 4/0: This former Rookie of the Year has struggled her past 4 seasons, but she is ready to improve on the best in that bunch. In 2005, she and Rosales came in second at the Women's World Cup, so perhaps their win in 2008 will help her vault back into the top 40.

12. Christina Kim (2003) $2.46M (#66); 2/0: Like Gloria Park, another talented but streaky player. Unlike Park, 2007 was one of her best seasons, but she had to deal with the disappointment of not playing in any of the three international team competitions she was eligible for. Hopefully she'll use that as motivation for 2008 and 2009 and become the top 20 player she ought to be.

13. Stacy Prammanasudh (2003) $2.27M (#73); 2/0: Has improved every season and is now probably the 4th-best American, behind Kerr, Creamer, and Pressel. Don't be surprised if 2008 is a breakout year for her.

14. Jennifer Rosales (2000) $2.20M (#74); 2/0: Once one of the best players in her cohort, she has disappeared in the last two seasons. Hopefully her win with Delasin in the 2008 Women's World Cup will get her off the John Daly track of WDs, DQs, and MCs. If it doesn't, she'll lose her card for 2009.

15. Shi Hyun Ahn (2004) $1.94M (#84); 1/0: Another player who has had to deal with injuries early in her career, this Rookie of the Year has stayed well ahead of her two closest competitors in her class, Aree Song and Reilley Rankin, despite playing a fairly limited schedule the past 3 seasons. In 2008, looking to build on her best season since her rookie year.

16. Brittany Lincicome (2005) $1.85M (#89); 2/0: Although she faded a bit in the second half of 2007, she passed Meena Lee on the career money list to become Creamer's top challenger in their class. The big question for her is whether she can become a top 10 player in 2008.

17. Meena Lee (2005) $1.81M (#91); 2/0: Looking to bounce back from the worst season of her short career; should be able to get back into the top 30 again.

18. Young Kim (2003) $1.79M (#92); 1/0: After hovering around the top 40 mark her first two seasons and the top 30 mark the last three, this talented player is looking to catch up to her peers in the very strong class of 2003 in 2008.

19. Sarah Lee (2002) $1.76M (#94); 0/0: Looking to build on the best season of her career last year. Despite suffering through some mid-season injuries, she showed she has the talent to be a top 20 player. But most likely will struggle to stay in the top 30 in 2008.

20. Becky Morgan (2001) $1.65M (#97); 0/0: Looking to regain her 2003-2004 form in 2008, but unlikely to make up serious ground on Han and Stanford, the only classmates ahead of her on the career money list.

2008 LPGA Preview: Career Crossroads, Part I--The Veterans

Have I mentioned yet how excited I am at the beginning of the 2008 LPGA season? Team Philippines' shocking victory over Team Korea in the Women's World Cup of Golf, as covered by Hound Dog, kicks off this season just as the last one ended: with another huge upset that suggests we're in the midst of tectonic shifts in women's golf. What does it mean that struggling mid-career former stars Jennifer Rosales and Dorothy Delasin outplayed up-and-coming superstars Ji-Yai Shin and Eun-Hee Ji down the stretch this weekend? In this post, I want to focus on what it means for the LPGA veterans--the 10 active players whose LPGA careers began before 2000 and who are at or near the top of the career wins and money lists, along with 11 others whose careers I want to note.

Top 10

1. Annika Sorenstam (1994) $20.84M (#1); 69/10 wins/majors in the era named after her: After her injury-induced worst season on the LPGA since her rookie year, can she do to Lorena Ochoa, who has been the top women's golfer in the world for the past two years, what she did in 2001 after Karrie Webb had been the best in the LPGA over the previous two years? How many wins and majors can she rack up before she decides to end her LPGA career?

2. Karrie Webb (1996) $13.46M (#2); 35/7: Can she bounce back in 2008 like she did in 2006? That is, can she regain her Hall of Fame form and contend again for Player of the Year?

3. Juli Inkster (1983) $11.99M (#3); 16/4 (31/7 overall): Can she remain a top 20 player on a tour packed with young talent? Can she get one more win and qualify for one more Solheim Cup before she decides to retire?

4. Se Ri Pak (1998) $9.79M (#5); 24/5: Can she beat Ochoa to the $11M mark in career winnings just as Ochoa beat her to the $10M mark? Can she maintain her lead on her in career victories and majors? Can she regain her Hall of Fame form and contend again for Player of the Year?

5. Laura Davies (1988) $8.41M (#9); 15/3 (20/4 overall): Can she get those last two points she needs to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame? (She's 0-11 when she's had her best chances to do it in the last 6 years.) Can she remain a top 30 player on a tour packed with young talent?

6. Mi Hyun Kim (1999) $7.86M (#10); 8/0: Can she maintain her lead on Cristie Kerr on the career money list and catch her in the career victories/majors race? Can she break through and actually contend for a Player of the Year award? Or, given her string of injuries in 2007, are her years as a top 10 player numbered?

7. Cristie Kerr (1997) $7.83M (#11); 10/1: Can she continue her 4-year run as best American on tour, or is she going to be stampeded in 2008 by the youth movement of Creamer, Pressel, Prammanasudh, Castrale, and Lincicome? Can she break through and actually contend for a Player of the Year award?

8. Lorie Kane (1996) $6.64M (#14); 4/0: Does Team Canada's surprisingly strong performance at the Women's World Cup herald a return to competitiveness for her? Can she follow Juli Inkster's career path, or is she going to be remembered as a top 15 player who had three fantastic years but lacked staying power?

9. Pat Hurst (1995) $5.91M (#15); 5/1: Can she bounce back from her worst season since 2002 and become a top 30 player again?

10. Sherri Steinhauer (1986) $5.85M (#16); 6/1 (8/2 overall): Can she remain a top 20 player on a tour packed with young talent? Can she keep pace with Hurst on the money list before her career runs out?

Best of the Rest

11. Rachel Hetherington (1997) $5.40M (#21); 8/0: Can she become a top 30 player again, or are her best years on tour behind her?

12. Catriona Matthew (1995) $5.06M (#24); 2/0: Can the #2 player from the class of 1995 catch Hurst and stay ahead of Carin Koch before their careers run out? Can she remain a top 20 player on a tour packed with young talent?

13. Laura Diaz (1999) $4.10M (#29); 2/0: Can she remain a top 30 player on a tour packed with young talent?

14. Carin Koch (1995) $4.05M (#31); 2/0: Can she bounce back from her worst season since 1997? Can she keep pace with Diaz on the money/victories lists before her career runs out?

15. Wendy Ward (1996) $3.93M (#33); 4/0: Can she bounce back from her worst season since 1999, or are her years as an exempt player numbered?

16. Sophie Gustafson (1998) $3.90M (#34); 4/0: Can she remain a top 30 player on a tour packed with young talent? (Team Sweden's disappointing performance at the Women's World Cup does not bode well for either her or Maria Hjorth.)

17. Maria Hjorth (1998) $3.74M (#36); 3/0: Can she pass Gustafson on the career winnings/victories lists? Is she going to be remembered as a player who had three great years in an otherwise undistinguished career?

Of Note

18. Emilee Klein (1995) #3.15M (#47); 3/0: Appears to be the first top player in the class of 1995 to have retired.

19. Wendy Doolan (1996) $2.74M (#58); 3/0: Can she resurrect her career after the past 3 weak seasons, or is she heading in the direction of Ward and Klein?

20. Kelli Kuehne (1998) $2.12M (#76); 1/0: Got new life with her fantastic 2007 Q-School performance--can she carry it over to the regular season, something she's been unable to do the past 4 years?

21. Moira Dunn (1995) $1.97M (#81); 1/0: Can my old friend play well enough in 2008 to keep her card? Can she pass Kuehne on the money/wins career lists? Can she at least stay off Hound Dog's list of fluke victories since 1990? (He has her on probation right now.)

Red Green and Vines

starship empire dancer

and the little people:

Pond Scum Tuesday

With a reminder to get the old homestead ready for the winter:

They diddled and fiddled while the world burned

another message from the revolutionary vanguard, who notes that the diaphanous tall building in the middle is being constructed by donald "you're fired" trump. lots of diddlin' & fiddlin' going on.