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.

CME Group Titleholders Saturday and Sunday: Hee Young Park Breaks Through

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  By now, you've probably read all the fantastic posts on Hee Young Park's breakthrough win at the CME Group Titleholders, from bangkokbobby's great weekend reports to Happy Fan's amazing overview of The Rocket's career to Tony Jesselli's look at the implications of the 2011 season-ender for a variety of players on a variety of bubbles for 2012. 

Me, I'm finally healthy enough to get back to a minimal blogging schedule, but The Full Metal Archivist and onechan have now been sick for days, so things won't be getting back to normal for me at Mostly Harmless for awhile, if this monster cold holds true to form.  On the bright side, with Paula Creamer in contention last weekend, onechan and imoto were excited to watch the Golf Channel coverage with me; we got to see all of the final round and most of the 3rd round over the last few days.  I was so impressed with the way that Park charged on Saturday and kept it going on the front nine on Sunday as 1st- and 2nd-round leader Na Yeon Choi was falling apart and then coming back, but I was even more impressed with The Rocket's 10 straight closing pars to seal the deal against charges from Creamer, Sandra Gal, and Suzann Pettersen--a very un-Rocket-like performance, in that she avoided the crash-and-burn that's so often undermined her chances for victory in the past, and on a course built to produce exactly those kinds of runs.  I've gotta acknowledge that I let Park's reputation keep her out of my projected top 15 this time last week.  And I was totally wrong.  Way to go, Hee Young--hopefully the 1st of many wins on the LPGA!

Although my favorite players didn't do so well, I wasn't too disappointed because of how emotional the Rocket's victory turned out to be.  Besides Choi and Creamer, nobody else I'm really crazy about was in the hunt; Ai and Mika Miyazato, In-Kyung Kim, Amy Yang, and Mina Harigae were at least respectable, but Tiffany Joh had another terrible tournament playing in LPGA bonus time for the 1st time in her career.  Oh well, at least they'll all be back on tour full-time next year.  Plus, Ai-sama broke the $1M barrier on the LPGA money list for the 3rd year in a row, Creamer came very close to doing it for the 6th time in her career, and Ya Ni Tseng ended up just short of crossing the $3M rubicon.

I'll have much more looking back on the 2011 LPGA season in a month or so, but for now I'm focusing on the JLPGA's final tournament of the season, the Ricoh Cup, along with JLPGA and LPGA Q-School--when health, work, and family permit, that is.  Take it easy, and enjoy Tony Jesselli's blogging here!

Recommended Reading: Dave Kindred on Stephanie Wei

Pretty cool that Stephanie Wei is the subject of a thoughtful essay in the National Sports Journalism Center by Dave Kindred on what "journalist" means in the age of emerging media. Reminds me I've gotta apply for media credentials at the Wegmans LPGA Championship soon! Hope they want me back....

As the World Turns II

Here's the second installment of my irregular Mostly Harmless feature, As the World Turns.

Woods Wins! Woods Wins! Woods Wins! Woods Wins! Cheyenne, not Tiger. And it was a big one: the ACC Championship. She's now the highest-ranked player on the Wake Forest women's golf team, at #25 one spot ahead of teammate Natalie Sheary. She's also moved up 3 dozen spots to #41 in the R&A's Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking and tied for 47th in Golfweek/amateurgolf.com's latest ranking of women amateurs. For some context, check out my previous posts on Woods's development as an amateur golfer. If she can keep developing her game as Stacy Lewis did over her collegiate career at Arkansas, Woods may yet have a bright LPGA future ahead of her.

The Year of the Americans? Speaking of Lewis, Shane Bacon deserves a lot of credit for predicting an American win at the 1st major of the year, the LPGA's Kraft Nabisco Championship, but I think he went too far to call this American domination. Let's face, it, Tseng had trouble with her distance control in the winds and couldn't get her putter going, either; most of Lewis's top competition had shot themselves out of the tournament in the 1st 3 rounds; Morgan Pressel had more disasters than Rory McIlroy at Amen Corner; Angela Stanford charged like Tiger on the front 9 on Sunday at Augusta but fizzled like him, too; Michelle Wie putted like Tiger on the back 9; and Katie Futcher leapfrogged Chie Arimura and Mika Miyazato, who had great chances for great finishes but ended up logging final-round 74s that dropped them to T7. So, yes, let's celebrate 5 Americans in the top 6 at Mission Hills, and yes, Lewis earned her win by facing down the #1 player in the world of women's golf, but let's not make too much of this!

Knocking on the Door. Have you noticed who has multiple wins on the women's world developmental tours? Sure, big names have won co-sponsored events with major tours, so it's no surprise Ya Ni Tseng leads with 3. Or that LPGA/ALPG member Katherine Hull won twice at home this winter. But did you know that Chella Choi is tearing it up in Florida, Joy Trotter in Phoenix, and, most impressive of all, Ryann O'Toole has won on both the ALPG and Futures Tour? Well, now you do.

Recommended Reading. If you haven't been reading Fairways and Forehands every day, you've been missing out on bangkokbobby's awesome photoblogging on golf and tennis. The guy's a dynamo! Speaking of dynamos, Hound Dog and tatkins at Hound Dog LPGA have been electrifying the intertubes with their powerful statistical analyses. I'm still swamped at work, so don't expect too much from me in the next few days. But check these guys out!

Monday Morning Fog or Let's Roll the Tape--Why the Honda Classic Was on Tape Delay

Yesterday's PGA Tour stop in Palm Beach Gardens was over a little over 90 minutes before the NBC telecast ended. A blogger or two had made note of it.

Here's why it's like that. It is called Eastern Standard Time. Sunset came last night at 6:25 p.m. If the golf had come to an end at 6 p.m and there was a tie, it would most likely have meant a Monday finish. The 2007 Honda Classic ended that way.

This obvious reason for the tape delay is eluding people for some reason. NBC also has its obligation to the NHL which they also broadcast on Sundays. Another thing, the Honda Classic has regularly been shown on tape delay. This year wasn't the first time, it's been an almost yearly feature of the tournament for a decade.

Jonathan Wall at Devil Ball Golf got it right as to why the tournament finished when it did. I don't understand why others are unable to put two and two together. Call it always having to have something to complain about that afflicts golf bloggers and writers and seems to pop up with almost every other PGA tournament.

Author's note: I live in Florida. The Honda Classic is played 25 miles from my home. I am very familiar with the tournament's history. 5 brownie points to the person who can tell me what golfer birdied the last five holes to win this tournament one year and 5 more points if you can tell me who the runner-up was.

Introducing New Mostly Harmless Co-Author Tony Jesselli

Hey, folks, I'm happy to welcome a new co-author to the team here at Mostly Harmless. Yes, this originally started as a group blog, founded by refugees from Michael Berube's first major sabbatical from academic blogging, but it quickly evolved into a pop culture blog when we ended up forming our own standalone site (which had a short but rich life!). Although I brought in some friends and colleagues and some stalwarts from the original team kept posting (particularly Bill Benzon), this quickly evolved into a blog that almost exclusively developed my own focus on the wide world of women's professional golf (along with contributions from co-author Bill Jempty). I'm really psyched that Tony Jesseli is interested in bringing his own perspectives on the LPGA to our readers here at Mostly Harmless. Before I turn the keyboard over to him, I'll extend an invitation to others who are interested in joining the Mostly Harmless golf writing team (or pop culture team, for that matter) to contact me via the coordinates in my profile. OK, take it away, Tony! --The Constructivist

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Tony Jesselli and I am honored to announce that I am a new author on Mostly Harmless.

I am a longtime fan of the LPGA and that is what I will be writing about here. I am a frequent visitor to LPGA events. Last year I was fortunate enough to attend the Sybase Championship (10 minutes from my hometown), the Wegmans LPGA Championship in Rochester, the U.S. Women's Open held at Oakmont, and the Canadian Women's Open in Quebec.

This year I will be at Sybase, and will be attending the Open in Colorado Springs, the Women's British Open held at Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland, and the Canadian Women's Open in Mirabel.

I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with everyone.

Golf is a passion of mine. Although I have never been that great at playing it, I keep trying and still get excited at any improvement. I have been following the LPGA for many years. I think it is the world's best kept secret. Not enough people are aware of what a good time they will have attending a tournament. If they go just once they will be hooked. They will go again. The girls are so friendly and cooperative when it comes to signing hats, balls and pictures. They will also be more than glad to take photos with you.

Where else can you get this? If I attended a Mets game and told you, "I'll be right back--I am going into the dugout to get Jose Reyes's and David Wright's signatures," you'd think I was crazy and of course I would be. But you can get Paula Creamer or Yani Tseng to sign for you anytime. I hope I can use this website to promote the LPGA and get more people to turn on their televisions and get the ratings up and get out of the house and attend a tournament in their area.

I am also a statistics freak. I have an accounting background and love to play with numbers. You will be seeing much of this in my future postings. I have already posted my predictions for my top 30 for 2011.

I have also created my own system for coming up with the 2011 player of the year.

I give 40 points to a winner of a tournament, 20 points for finishing 2nd, 19 for third, all the way down to 2 points for finishing 20th. Anyone finishing out of the top 20 will not receive any points. The points are doubled for the 4 major championships. How many of those maximum points they keep is based on the strength of field in a given week. I use the current week's Rolex Rankings top 50. For example, if a player wins a non major and 40 of the 50 top players were in the field, the winner gets to keep 80% (40/50ths) of her 40 points or 32 points. The 2nd place finisher keeps 80% of 20 points or 16 points and so on. At the end of the year the total points are divided by the number of tournaments a player played in for a final average score. (This gives someone like "Lexi" who might play in just 10 events a chance to average out with the big girls.)

Interlude: Honda LPGA Thailand Set-Up

It felt like a real long time for me but the first official tournament is this week.
Can anyone stop Yani Tseng? She has won 2 consecutive tournaments down under and is the new #1 player in the world. This is a very strong field as 48 of the top 50 ladies from the LPGA priority list are in the field. Only Jee Young Lee and Jeong Jang are missing. The field also includes 34 of the Rolex Rankings top 50, giving my player of the year system a 68% strength-of-field rating for this week.

In closing, I want to thank The Constructivist for getting me up and running here. I have been a big fan of his and other bloggers like Hound Dog for a long time. I'm excited to join them and hope you enjoy my posts.

Crouching Ya Ni, Spitting Tiger: Or WTF Is Wrong with the Golfoblogosphere?!

People, people, people! We have a new #1 in the world of women's golf! It's Valentine's Day--let's show Ya Ni Tseng a little bloggy love!

[Update 1 (1:18 pm): bangkokbobby got V-Day started off right and Stephanie Wei and Adam Fonseca recently chimed in.]

[Update 2 (1:28 pm): Jason Sobel got Ya Ni in on hole #3 of his Weekly 18.]

[Update 3 (2/15/11, 7:24 am): Here's Mike Southern with an analysis of Tseng's swing and what we can learn from it.]

I'm Back! Miss Me?

Hey all, the move from Dunkirk to Hamburg not only took up much more of my time than I hoped, but also involved a switch in our internet service provider. It turns out the phone line to our new home was damaged while the computer we left in the old home crashed, so we've been cut off from e-civilization far longer than I planned (which was, uh, not at all). Anyway, I'm hoping when I get back home with the last carload of our stuff the problem has been fixed and I can get back to blogging for my hundred or so regular readers! Plus, in just under 2 weeks, we'll be back in TV-land, so I might even get to watch some golf on tv on a fairly regular basis this season. Provided, of course, DirectTV doesn't drop Golf Channel. Anyone know the status of that little corporate dust-up?

Paging Geoff Shackelford

Yo, Geoff! You love it when players mouth off about ridiculous (re)designs, right? Well, get a load of what Laura Davies said after her opening 70 at the LPGA Tour Championship left her 3 shots behind leaders Seon Hwa Lee and Amy Yang:

Q. Tell us about the course. It's pretty challenging. What do you think of it?

LAURA DAVIES: This one? It's my favorite course in Florida. We played here years ago in the late 90s and 2000. It's always been my favorite course in Florida. I like the grass here. It's better. It's not so--the weird grass that Florida has. I don't know the difference between them but it's much spongier and I like it. The layout is fantastic, but the grass is good, too. I don't know what they did with the greens. Someone went mental on the greens. I don't know what happened there. Someone said Jack Nicklaus did it, but I don't believe that. Someone said Jack changed it; well, he must have been having a very bad day. (Laughter).

Q. Someone said that he had to oversee it for it to remain a Nicklaus design.

LAURA DAVIES: Well, he might have been in a helicopter above (laughter) or flown over and said "that will do" or something. There's no way Jack Nicklaus designed these greens. They are mental.

So of course the golf gods punished her with a 2nd-round 84 that ended her disappointing LPGA campaign in 2010 on a sour note. But she can still get her 6th LET win of the season next week in Dubai and take their money title. Any of this interesting to you in the slightest?

[Update 1 (11:18 pm): Nice rapid response by the Shack!]

[Update 2 (11:45 pm): Hey, visitors from Shack-land, check out this Randall Mell piece for more on Davies's year!]

[Update 3 (11:50 pm): More Randall Mell, this time with quotes from Brittany Lincicome and Paula Creamer on the greens at Grand Cypress.]

[Update 4 (12/4/10, 12:36 am): Geoff's regulars might be amused to see that I was nice to him here compared to Steve Elling. It's all about the love here at Mostly Harmless.]

Recommended Reading: My Fantasy Fiction Students at sf@SF

Back in the day, Mostly Harmless had an expansive definition of "fun" (as its perpetual tag line, "for fun," and long links list over there on the left remind me every time I visit the site), which included science fiction, fantasy, anime, music, tv, films, theory, and politics, as well as golf. Fortunately, I've got a couple of academic/pop culture blogs, sf@SF and American Identities, that allow me to sound off on most of those topics when inspiration hits me and I don't feel like cross-posting it here. More important, though, they allow me to showcase some of the work my students have been doing in my courses.

Well, the time has come for my Fantasy Fiction students to start sharing their response essays with the world (or that portion of it that makes it to sf@SF!). And that's where my Mostly Harmless regulars come in: I'm asking you all to point your own intertubey (and other) networks at the most interesting essays from my students this semester. I think you'll see from the 1st post that their topics, views, and writing will be worth your time!

What Is It with North American Golf Writers, Anyway?

Lorne Rubenstein has a talent for taking each positive the LPGA Tour has going for it and framing it as a negative. The LPGA is the best tour in women's golf, attracting the top golfers from around the world (except for a few who decide to play only in Japan). It features the closest and toughest competition of any professional tour, with nearly half the field having a legitimate shot at victory every week they play. And five players--Ai Miyazato, Ji-Yai Shin, Ya Ni Tseng, Suzann Pettersen, and Cristie Kerr--have broken away from the lead chase pack and will probably be trading the #1 spot in the world rankings all year and duking it out for Player of the Year. All of them have great personalities, interesting back stories, and devoted fan bases. It's like a season-long pennant race, but where it's hard to root against any team. What's not to love about where the LPGA is now?

According to Rubenstein, lots. What a niche sport like the LPGA needs, in his view, is a dominant superstar whom "the masses" can identify with like Annika or Lorena. And apparently Rubenstein is going to stamp his feet, whine, and pout until Michelle Wie or Paula Creamer fulfills that role.

The bottom line is that somebody has to emerge, and it would be best for the LPGA Tour if that were an American player.

This from a guy who can't even be bothered to spell Miyazato's name correctly. Why does anyone listen to this nonsense? How can "the masses" be expected to identify with the LPGA's new global superstars if golf writers can't be bothered to make the effort to do so themselves? Isn't their job to report on what's actually happening, not what they wish were happening? Shouldn't their writing draw, even compel, interest and attention, no matter who is demonstrating excellence in the sport they're covering?

I've been asking myself these questions for a long time, because obviously Rubenstein isn't alone in thinking and acting this way, so when I recognized USA Today's Steve DiMeglio during the rain delay on Tuesday morning at Locust Hill and realized he was just as trapped in the media tent as I was until the storm ended, I took the opportunity to get his take on these issues. DiMeglio's an absolute pro. His profile of Ai Miyazato is the best single story I have ever seen on her and his take on the best on tour without a major was excellent.

Not only is he deeply knowledgeable and passionate about the LPGA, but he also holds forth on one of the biggest stages in golf writing, so I first wanted to find out how he deals with the pressure to boil down all he knows about the state of the LPGA to the biggest stories, the ones that will get the most people's attention. He replied,

It's been tougher because of the cutback in space, so there's not as much opportunity any more to write as much--PGA Tour or LPGA Tour. I don't think it's rocket science. Obviously the biggest story coming into this week is Ai Miyazato. We'll concentrate on her--I'm writing a big piece on her for Thursday. It's a major championship, that's big. How the course will play--the course part. And if you look at the weather forecast, that's going to play a part. I imagine I'll probably write for Friday's paper about how they deal with the weather delays: the course is going to be wet, the rough is going to be wetter, so....

He was obviously bothered by the space issue, because he interrupted his own train of thought to return to it:

Unfortunately, there isn't more space to write on the LPGA, because they deserve it. If you're a golfer and your handicap is anything higher than a 10, you can learn more from watching women--the best women players in the world--than you can from watching the men--the best men players in the world. The swings out here aren't going 120 and that's what most people who can't break 100 should be doing, slowing their swings down. Plus they're the most successful athletes I've ever been around, they're the most forthcoming, they'll sign more autographs and pictures in one day than most players outside of Phil Mickelson will in a week.

So I asked him what needs to change for the LPGA to get more space and command more attention. His reply was very interesting:

That's a tough one. The only person that moves the needle, unfortunately--not unfortunately because it's her, but because nobody else is doing it--the tour right now could use Michelle Wie to win 5 straight, or 4 out of 5, or at least be in contention in the last group every week. Right or wrong, and I think it's wrong--again, not because of who she is, but because there are other players out here that should be getting the attention, a lot more attention--but right now the LPGA tour could use an extended uptick in the economy and Michelle Wie to win 4 or 5.

I followed up on his own qualifications, admitting that I've been one of many criticizing the overfocus on Wie. He was all over that one:

We get criticized. You know, "Why do you always write Michelle Wie? Why do you always cover her?" Well, whenever we put a story on Michelle Wie on the website, it gets 50 to 100 times more hits than any other story we put on an LPGA player.

I acknowledged that here at Mostly Harmless, the only player who's ever moved the needle more than Wie was Cheyenne Woods, specifically when I was the 1st to make easily searchable the news that she had gotten a sponsor exemption into the Wegmans. DiMeglio pointed out that that was "Because of Woods. Because of Tiger." Our conversation then turned to alternate audiences and media. When I suggested the LPGA should focus its efforts on growing fans among girls, he replied, "TV ratings are driven by adults. And most male adults will only watch Michelle Wie." When I suggested that TV may not be the answer for the LPGA, that streaming video online might make more sense, he pointed to the digital divide and the fact that "nobody reads the internet on Saturdays--our traffic just..." and he made the plane-going-down-in-flames gesture. A la carte cable? "Ain't coming."

In short, DiMeglio is so tied to a system where success is measured by hits and ratings that he can't imagine any other system emerging. Maybe it's just because I taught Amanda Lotz's The Television Will Be Revolutionized so recently that I'm thinking differently. Or maybe it's because my livelihood isn't dependent on my golf writing that I can afford to wait for the records of the LPGA's Young Guns and New Blood generations to speak for themselves.

Because in one sense, Rubenstein and DiMeglio's prescription for the LPGA is dead on. If a dominant American superstar were to emerge on tour this season, the attention she would garner in the United States would have more than a trickle-down effect: once there were a spotlight on the LPGA, then it could be moved around, widened, and so on. Right now the golfy media must feel like they're stumbling around in the dark, hoping to find even a candle. Pros like DiMeglio and Randall Mell will soldier on and do their part to strike up some sparks, while in their weaker moments folks like Rubenstein and Sal Maiorana will vent about how unpleasant it feels to be in the dark.

When I get to Locust Hill later this morning, I want to talk to some of the Japanese media to find out their take on all this, and follow up with DiMeglio and Maiorana. More later!

OK, Stephanie Wei's Media Tent Was Cooler Than Mine

LPGA Championship Media Tent 062110
Originally uploaded by the_constructivist18

You be the judge. But can Steph honestly say she was the 1st person in the U.S. Open media center on Monday morning that week? 'Cause I was this week. Mostly Harmless for the win!

I'm In!

My request for media credentials for the 2010 LPGA Championship was just approved! Many thanks to the LPGA and tournament organizers. Any advice for me?

I Finally Took the Plunge

Just applied for media credentials for the LPGA Championship in Rochester at the end of June!

Recommended Reading: Erica Blasberg, Vince Spence

Please join me in sending your condolences to the Blasberg and Spence families. I've been deeply saddened by Erica's and Vince's untimely deaths. Words can be small consolation at times like these, but every one matters.

Shane Bacon
Beth Ann Baldry
Ryan Ballengee (Waggle Room)
Golf Girl
Hack
Ken Hartis (Hound Dog LPGA)
Mike Southern
Stephanie Wei

Here are Erica and Vince in their own words.

Ryo 58, Rory 62, Ai 63, Ji-Yai 66: I'd Say the Future of Golf Is in Good Hands

Check out Golf Girl on Ryo Ishikawa's 58 on the JGTO and the young guns of the PGA Tour, along with Stephanie Wei. Then read my posts on this weekend's wins by Ji-Yai Shin on the JLPGA and Ai Miyazato on the LPGA. Then check out the tone and level of detail of Monday commentary on the week.

If I were a betting man, I'd predict a lot of drooling over the guys and a lot of concern trolling over the gals. I hope I'm wrong...but if even women's golf fanatic Dave Andrews is spouting nonsense, what hope is there for most American sportswriters? Not much for the SI guys, I'll tell you that! Some of 'em can't even get excited about Ryo-kun's 58. Yeesh.

[Update 1 (1:33 am): Compare the golfy media to Brent Kelley and Ryan Ballengee and you'll see why the bloggers are winning.]

[Update 2 (2:33 am): Here's Stephanie Wei's response to Ai's and Ji-Yai's wins.]

Previewing the LPGA's 2010: The Bloggers and the Golf Writers

I've been collecting links to bloggers' previews of the 2010 LPGA season ever since the 2009 season ended.

Here's an '09-Q-School-centric look from Dave Andrews. He's quite a bit higher on Amanda Blumenherst's prospects in her rookie season than I am. She'll have to do a lot better than Stacy Lewis did in hers to have a chance at what he projects.

Here's Andrews again, this time with a focus on the tour's prospects in 2010.

Here are those joining me (thus far) in the 2010 LPGA Prognostication Derby: Hound Dog, rjay, Verdant Garden.... There's still a little time left to join in!

Here are Jamie RS's wishes for the LPGA in 2010, Hound Dog's predictions, and Matt Cooper's questions.

Here's Stephanie Wei's latest entry in her "Know Your Asians" series, this one focusing on Hee Young Park--and it includes a video interview!

Here's Jeff Skinner's brief overview of the LPGA's youth movement and interview with Vicky Hurst.

Here's Brent Kelley's preview, focusing on the wide-open Player of the Year race. He thinks it's going to come down to Ji-Yai Shin and Michelle Wie and he has a poll where you can pick your POY.

Oh, and tune in to Waggle Room every week for a new LPGA video interview.

So how do the professional golf writers stack up against the bloggers when it comes to previewing the LPGA's 2010 season?

Here's Beth Ann Baldry with a short profile of '09 Futures Tour money-list leader Mina Harigae.

Here's Jim McCabe on how Alison Walshe plans to handle her dual LPGA-LET status.

Here's Larry Dorman with a few words on the LPGA's prospects for 2010, which Bill Jempty finds a tad optimistic (if by "tad" you mean "Dorman is making Pollyanna sound like Chicken Little"!).

Here's Jason Sobel's Weekly 18--go to the last hole for his responses to questions from Dave Andrews and me on the LPGA's 2010.

Here's Baldry again on Amanda Blumenherst's sponsor exemptions, Natalie Gulbis's commitments to every 2010 LPGA event, and Suzann Pettersen's off-season preparations.

Here are Randall Mell and Ron Sirak with good profiles of new Commissioner Mike Whan and his approach to rebuilding the LPGA. And here's Sobel again, this time with a great interview with Whan. Much more interesting than Larry Bohannan's overview.

Matty G interviews Paula Creamer and gets more out of her than Mike Walker.

Brad Ziemer's following Samantha Richdale's 3-week tour of Taiwan in preparation for her rookie season on the LPGA. Since she's shut out of the early Asian swing, her 1st event won't be until late March when the tour returns to the States.

Steve DiMeglio uses the top players' outlooks on the LPGA's 2010 as the foundation for his own good points about the effects of the schedule.

Finally, an anonymous AP writer reports on Momoko Ueda's pledge to win on the LPGA in 2010.

So what conclusions would you draw from this unscientific and noncomprehensive juxtapositioning of posts and articles that happened to catch my eye?

The one thing that leaps out at me is that no major golf magazines have put out anything on the web that resembles a LPGA preview issue. I understand that Mike Whan is a breath of fresh air and I appreciate the looks at individual players, but where are the usual attempts to identify the key players and rivalries as we head into a new season?

[Update 1 (1:44 pm): Regular reader courtgolf will be happy to know (if he doesn't already!) that Stephanie Wei just interviewed rookie Jean Reynolds!]

[Update 2 (2/17/10, 6:08 am): Here's another one from the bloggers, this time a solid preview from TeeOff Post.]

[Update 3 (6:18 am): Here's Ryan Ballengee's video interview with Wendy Ward:



Cool beans!]

[Update 4 (11:14 am): Here's Larry Dorman's interview with Mike Whan.]

[Update 5 (8:34 pm): Here's Bill Jempty's season preview and projected top 30.]

[Update 6 (10:25 pm): Here's the Armchair Golfer's look at the start of the LPGA season.]

[Update 7 (10:39 pm): Golfweek just got around to posting on the web this January 1st feature on Michelle Wie by Beth Ann Baldry.]

[Update 8 (10:41 pm): Here's Baldry again with notes from Thailand on the 2010 season.]

[Update 9 (10:47 pm): Here's Randall Mell on the race to chase down Lorena Ochoa that's begun today.]

[Update 10 (10:51 pm): Gary Van Sickle focuses on Ochoa vs. Shin.]

[Update 11 (10:55 pm): Just as a side note, Van Sickle has been recycling various LPGA-related stories at the Press Tent blog; I'll give the advantage to Baldry's reports from Thailand at the Tour Blog. So far, Golf Channel's Shag Bag hasn't really tried to enter the competition, nor has Local Knowledge. Let's see how the pros' blogging stacks up against us amateurs this season.]

[Update 12 (11:01 pm): Steve Elling focuses on Lorena Ochoa.]

[Update 13 (2/18/10, 7:12 am): Here's Jamie's preseason top 30 picks at Snap Hook Herald--I'm going to judge that he just got them in under the wire! Now to wait and see when Ron Sirak's top 30 goes onto the web....]

[Update 14 (11:25 am): Ah, Bill Jempty posted Sirak's top 30 over at Hound Dog's place. There are now 7 of us in the derby this season, unless Mulligan Stu wants to come out of retirement with a late entry!]

[Update 15 (5:02 pm): Jay Busbee offers his own overview of the LPGA's outlook in 2010 and kindly links to this post.]

[Update 16 (2/21/10, 12:20 pm): Here's Sirak's top 30, in his own words.]

Recommended Reading: Best in the World of Women's Golf in 2009

Hound Dog and Happy Fan have started a conversation about who had the best 2009 in the world of women's golf. A post with my list of nominees--focusing on players with multiple wins on the major women's tours this season--is coming out after the completion of the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour this week and weekend. But be sure to check out HD's and HF's brief profiles of Hee Kyung Seo, Ji-Yai Shin, Lorena Ochoa, Ai Miyazato, Cristie Kerr, Na Yeon Choi, Suzann Pettersen, Anna Nordqvist, Ya Ni Tseng, Angela Stanford, and--yes--Michelle Wie.

[Update 1 (12/11/09, 9:24 am): Hound Dog profiles players who finished between 11th and 15th in his top 70.]

[Update 2 (12/12/09, 1:10 am): Here's Hound Dog's latest installment. Check the U.S. Women's Open jinx!]

[Update 3 (8:19 am): Here's Hound Dog's look at #21 through #25.]

Paging Shane Bacon

I usually reserve this kind of title for established golf journalists who write a boneheaded column, but Shane Bacon really brought teh stupid yesterday over at Golf Fanhouse, so he can join Ron Sirak, Steve Elling, Gary Van Sickle, and Jason Sobel in the Mostly Harmless hall of shame.

Psssst, Shane, the LPGA Season Isn't Over! When your 1st 3 words--"It's golf's offseason"--are wrong, wrong, and wrong, maybe it's time to rethink the premise of your piece. Let's put aside the face that the PGA Tour's season is not yet over and that the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament this week is the Biggest. Tournament. In. Asia. Ever. If missing Tiger vs. Phil isn't bad enough, Bacon doesn't even bother to take a look at the schedule of the tour he's purportedly analyzing. The LPGA season is in full pennant race mode, with defending champion Ji-Yai Shin facing off against Ai Miyazato, who's hoping that a 2-week rest and home-country advantage in this week's Mizuno Classic will help her overtake Shin in the races for money list and scoring titles, not to mention a little something called Player of the Year. After that, the other 2 top contenders for these titles, Lorena Ochoa and Cristie Kerr, get home-country advantage in turn in the last 2 events of the season. This is the kind of photo finish the guys wish they could manage. Imagine if Tiger, Phil, Sergio, and Padraig were this close with 3 events to go....

Hey, Buddy, the LPGA Has Plenty of Marketable Stars! Bacon is hung up on the idea of a female Tiger:

Plain and simple ... the superstars on the golf course aren't the same superstars that companies are turning to. It's confusing the fan base. It's making it strange to see no-name golfers hold the trophy. The LPGA is in need of a marketable superstar.

That Wie girl he talks about as if her season were over? She's playing in Lorena's tournament next week and is eligible to play in Houston the week after. That 1st win everyone's been waiting for could still happen this season.

How about the player who beat her in the Rookie of the Year race? Ji-Yai Shin may end up being the biggest thing to hit the LPGA since Nancy Lopez. She almost single-handedly turned the KLPGA from a dozen-event mini-tour to the 3rd-best women's tour on the planet as she racked up a couple of dozen wins in a few short seasons there. Only in America could she be dismissed as one of a slew of nameless, faceless "tournament-winning golfers with no appeal." Yeah, I know Shane ranks Shin with Angela Stanford as players known to "serious golf fans" only, but that's certainly not true of her fan base in Korea. Nor is it true of In-Kyung Kim, Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, or Song-Hee Kim.

Same goes for Ai Miyazato, Sakura Yokomine, and Shinobu Moromizato, the 3 Japanese players from the Rolex Top 20, of which Shane claims, "Fans are familiar with about 20 percent of that list, and have no clue about the other players." Maybe that's true of American fans, but let's try the google test he uses on Michelle Wie and Suzann Pettersen on the Japanese trio. If you search "Ai Miyazato" in English and Japanese, she ends up with just shy of a million hits. Yokomine? Over 650K. Moromizato? Around 400K. And that doesn't come close to capturing the attention that Japanese TV lavishes on Ai-sama, Momoko Ueda, Shiho Oyama, and Mika Miyazato on the LPGA or Yokomine, Moromizato, Miho Koga, Chie Arimura, and the rest of the Japanese and Korean superstars on the JLPGA.

So, yeah, the LPGA is definitely a niche sport in the U.S. But it has mass appeal in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan (where Ya Ni Tseng is from). Top Americans like Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Angela Stanford, and Michelle Wie aren't going away any time soon. If Natalie Gulbis and Jane Park can get their backs healed up, they could join those ranks as soon as next season. Sure, Americans love winners, and although Kerr and Creamer have won a lot, they're no Tiger and Phil. But Americans also like underdogs. Christina Kim, Brittany Lang, and Kristy McPherson have already stepped it up on a global stage in the Solheim Cup. If Michael Whan is as smart as I've heard he is, he'll find a way to globalize it. International team match play is a great way to showcase the best women golfers in the world and help American fans connect Asian names and faces.

But, there's no need to wait for that to happen. Every week on the LPGA global superstars, national heroes, and up-and-coming youngsters are battling it out. Maybe 1 "marquee player" will emerge from this cauldron of competition and connect with the "generic viewer." Maybe not. But shooting for the lowest common denominator in the U.S. is a no-win proposition for the LPGA. The tour's issue is not just marketing: it's about finding new ways to reach out to people who aren't yet fans, to share the great stories on tour, to let the players' personalities shine through on the course and via social media--and, above all, to find ways to keep enticing the best female players on the planet to make the LPGA their tour of choice.

[Update 1 (5:41 pm): Brent Kelley reports that not only will Michelle Wie play the last 2 LPGA events, she'll also play in the LET's season-ending Dubai event. Ryan Ballengee explains why American guys will catch up with American gals when it comes to playing abroad. And he focuses on the LPGA's POY race.]

[Update 2 (11/5/09, 5:38 am): Nice interview with Natalie Gulbis from the Armchair Golfer. She explains why she skipped Korea last week and is sitting out the Asian swing and gives guarded answers on the state of her back.]

[Update 3 (11/14/09, 11:10 am): To give Shane credit, he's done some good writing on his experiences looping for Erica Blasberg earlier this season. And he'll get another chance to caddie for her and write about it in Houston next week!]