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.

Who Will Be the Next to Enter the LPGA Hall of Fame?

The amazing runs of Ya Ni Tseng, Stacy Lewis, Inbee Park, and Suzann Pettersen have got me thinking about an old Hound Dog LPGA question:  who will be the next player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame?

Here are the criteria from LPGA.com:

1. Must be/have been an "active" LPGA Tour member for 10 years:
2. Must have won/been awarded at least one of the following - an LPGA major championship, the Vare Trophy or Rolex Player of the Year honors; and
3. Must have accumulated a total of 27 points, which are awarded as follows - one point for each LPGA official tournament win, two points for each LPGA major tournament win and one point for each Vare Trophy or Rolex Player of the Year honor earned.

Check out how quickly Lorena Ochoa qualified in points in Hound Dog's follow-up post--although he couldn't have predicted then that she'd retire so soon, before actually meeting criterion #1!  So assuming Laura Davies and Ochoa will either play their way in or be voted in, who are the top candidates for entry right now?  Check me on this, but here's how I believe the current points breakdown stands:

1. Ya Ni Tseng (23)
2. Cristie Kerr (18)
3. Suzann Pettersen (15)
4. Inbee Park (14)
5. Ji-Yai Shin (13)
6. Stacy Lewis (11)
7. Paula Creamer (10)
8. Na Yeon Choi (9)
8. Ai Miyazato (9) [the only one on this list who doesn't meet criterion #2]

As Tony Jesselli points out and as I expand on, the Player of the Year race is closer than most people imagine.  Whereas only 3 golfers are in the running for that HOF point, the Vare Trophy HOF point race is pretty much a complete toss-up.  Assuming everyone within a stroke of Suzann Pettersen's 69.700 scoring average now reaches the minimum threshold of 70 rounds (only Ai Miyazato is in real danger of not reaching it, barring disasters for everyone else), a lot can happen in 7 tournaments.  True, Pettersen thrives in Asia and her 3 closest pursuers (Lewis, Park, Choi) have pretty darn good records there, as well, but who knows who will get hot and who will go cold?

As for my original question of who will be next, it's hard to imagine that Ya Ni Tseng won't get 4 more points before anyone else on this list, but there are certainly opportunities for Pettersen, Park, and Lewis to make up some serious ground on her while she's still struggling to emerge from her slump.  Nor do I see why the colder players on this list (Shin, Creamer, Choi, Miyazato) can't heat up this fall.  But if I had to predict who would get in in what order, I'd argue for:

1. Tseng
2. Pettersen
3. Park
4. Shin

And reserve judgment on the rest, although for now I believe Kerr still has a better chance than Lewis to make it....

Basically, though, you never know when injury or burnout or early retirement or pregnancy might interrupt someone's march toward the Hall, or throw her off the tracks entirely.  Nothing's a sure thing in golf, that's for sure!

Can You Imagine Any Scenario in Which Inbee Park Should Not Win Player of the Year?

There's an interesting debate going on over in PGA Tour-land over who should be their Player of the Year.  There are a couple of main reasons why the LPGA Tour does not tend to engender similar debates.  First of all, the LPGA uses a points system, so even when the race has been close close (as when Lorena Ochoa beat Ji-Yai Shin out by a single point in 2009 or when Ya Ni Tseng had only 6 points of separation on Cristie Kerr, 8 on Na Yeon Choi, 9 on Ai Miyazato, and 18 on Ji-Yai Shin the following year), the winner was clear.  Second, in most years a dominant player emerges and often repeats (as evidenced by the number of times Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, and Ya Ni Tseng have been POY in the 2000s--every year but 2000 [Karrie Webb] and 2012 [Stacy Lewis]), thus making debate pointless.

It seemed like this year was going to be another walk in the park for the eventual winner.  Stacy Lewis picked up where she left off last season.  But then Inbee Park started winning...and winning...and winning...and winning one major after another.  With 6 wins, 3 of them majors, it seems pretty obvious that Inbee would succeed Stacy as the 2013 POY.  But then Stacy won the Women's British Open and Suzann Pettersen brought her victory and major totals even with Stacy with 2 wins in the last 2 LPGA events, including the newly-majorized Evian Championship.  So now Inbee has 281 POY points, Suzann has 204, and Stacy has 183.  In a system where a win earns you 30 points, a runner-up gets you 12, 3rd 9, 4th 7, 5th 6, 6th 5, and so on down to 10th (1 point), Inbee has not clinched POY.

But should she have?  Can you imagine any scenario where someone who wins 3 majors and 3 other tournaments in a single season should not be POY?  I can't.

[Update 1 (11:47 pm):  Ward Clayton over at LPGA.com agrees with me that the POY race is not over, although he sounds a little more sanguine about the possibility of Suzanne or Stacy stealing it on a technicality from Inbee than I'm feeling.]

Evian Championship Questions

The LPGA's 5th and final major of 2013 is here:  the Evian Championship.  Tony Jesselli provides his usual high-quality preview, but a few questions have occurred to me and I'd love to hear what you think!

• It appears that the field of 120 is made up entirely of LPGA and LET members (plus Lydia Ko).  Do you think the tournament organizers should have reserved spots for the top KLPGA and JLPGA golfers to round out the field?  Or is exempting the top 40 from the Rolex Rankings as of 3 September 2013 enough?
• This year's tournament has been scheduled opposite majors on both the KLPGA and JLPGA.  Do you think that the tournament organizers should seek to avoid such conflicts in the future, particularly if they want top golfers from those tours to make the trip to Evian-les-Bains?
• Check out the course description at LPGA.com and the course overview and course map at the Evian site.  The course has been renovated and some holes have been redesigned or created from scratch--for details, see the press kit.  The most dramatic change to me is that the 18th hole has gone from being a short par 5 to the longest par 4 on the course.  What do you think of that?  I'm willing to be convinced it's a good idea.  I love the way anything can happen on short closing par 5s, so I'm fairly skeptical.
• Does this feel like a major to you yet?  Is 1.5 hours on network TV enough for a major?

[Update 1 (9/11/13, 5:55 am):  Check out Ruthless Mike's thoughtful answers to my questions!]

[Update 2 (4:35 pm):  Fantastic yes to my 4th question from Brent Kelley!]