What Happens in Thailand Stays in Thailand?

If the most dominant golfer in the world, bar none, barely pulls out a victory in Thailand over 2 former world #1s, but nobody makes a big deal of it, has it really happened?  Well, of course.  But what does it say about the U.S. golfy media that Ya Ni Tseng's dramatic win over Ai Miyazato and Ji-Yai Shin barely flickered across its collective consciousness?


Seriously, with the exception of 5 things from Julie Williams at Golfweek, 30 seconds from the SI guys (plus Stephanie Wei), and a straight-from-LPGA.com background 3-paragrapher from Randall Mell at Golf Channel, every other major golf web site simply relied on the AP.  The only site (besides this one) to put Tseng's win in some kind of context is Golf Observer, but because they're now subscription-based, once their story goes off their main page it's not easily accessible.  So let me quote the key part here:

With the win is all of the talk that Tseng could be the all-time best player in LPGA history. We saw this happen to Tiger Woods a decade ago when he won the Masters and then went wild winning eight events in 1999 and nine times in 2000. For Tseng she has won 13 times and is 75 wins away from Kathy Whitworth, 69 wins away from Mickey Wright and 59 wins away from Annika Sorenstam. But at 23 years, 27 days old she is light years ahead of these three. For Whitworth she was 23 years, 17 days old when she won the 1962 Phoenix Thunderbird Open, her second career victory. For Mickey Wright she was 23 years, 128 days old when she won the 1958 LPGA Championship, her sixth LPGA Tour victory. For Annika Sorenstam, she was 24 years, 281 days old when she won for the first time at the 1995 U.S. Women's Open. So you can she that Yani is light years ahead of the top-three but still has a lot to prove. To show you how really insane her game has been, she now has 33 wins around the world.

Tseng also is just six points away from qualifying for the World Golf Hall of Fame, she now is at 21 of the 28 points needed to get into the Hall. So there is a good chance that she could qualify this year, only problem because of the antedated rules of the LPGA she couldn't enter the hall until 2017. With the win she increases her LPGA career earnings to $7,776,083 - passing Betsy King to move into 14th on the LPGA Career Money List and is just $14 and a half million to catching Sorenstam's $22 and a half million dollar total. Now to show that Tseng is winning at a record pace, this was her 4th win in last 9 starts dating back to Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in September 2011. For Tseng's career she has 103 starts so that means she has a 12.6% of her starts or one every 12 and a half starts. This isn't even close to Tiger Woods who we all thought was the best, in 275 starts Tiger has won 71 times for a 26.1% or winning once in every 26 starts.

Yeah, the prose isn't deathless (seeing all the run-ons and wrong or left-out words, I assume it's by Sal Johnson), but the points made through it are valid. 

What's even more impressive is that Tseng beat a pair of golfers who are just about as accomplished as she is, and by some measures, more so.  Ai Miyazato has 7 LPGA wins to go with 15 wins on other major tours, mostly on the JLPGA (because 2 of them came at the LPGA-LET co-sponsored Evian Masters, I believe she has 20 big-time worldwide wins).  Ji-Yai Shin has 8 LPGA wins, including a major, to go with 28 wins on other major tours, mostly on the KLPGA (when you don't double-count co-sponsored wins, I believe she has 24 big-time worldwide wins).  By my count, Tseng has 13 LPGA wins, including 5 majors, but only 8 wins on other major tours, mostly on the LET, and hence only 18 big-time worldwide wins when you don't double-count her 3 co-sponsored victories.  (I'm assuming that oft-cited 33 total adds in wins from such developmental tours as the ALPG, LAGT, CN Canadian Women's Tour, and so on--and probably major amateur events, for that matter.)

I'm sure the showdown at Riviera between Phil and young guns Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley, and Bill Haas, coupled with Sergio's amazing run at the top of the leaderboard, made for some gripping golf.  But remind me again how many career wins Haas, Bradley, and Johnson have...?  Or the highest they've ever been ranked...?  Or how they've proved themselves by dominating on another major tour...?

Look, I'm not saying Tseng is better than them, I recognize that live golf is a lot more compelling than tape-delayed coverage from half a world away, I understand that Phil is a much-more-established American star, and I'll even acknowledge that the men's game can be more fun to watch on tv than the LPGA.  Heck, I even found myself watching the Knicks on Sunday afternoon for awhile to see what all the fuss about Jeremy Lin was about (this from someone who never enjoyed watching the NBA and lost touch with the NCAA not long after graduating from college a couple of decades ago).  The only point I'm trying to make is that golf journalists have a job to inform and educate their audience, and part of that job involves assessing the historical significance of a tournament.  With all due respect to the guys involved last week, nothing they've done merits such an overwhelming lack of attention on the Tseng-Miyazato-Shin throwdown.  Maybe something like a Tiger-Donald-[Phil/Rory/Westwood/take your pick] shootout would be comparable....

Well, what's done is done.  I just hope the Showdown in Singapore gets a little more attention from the U.S. golfy media....

[Update 1 (2/24/12, 2:54 pm):  Should have realized that Brent Kelley would put Tseng's win in perspective, too!]

HSBC Women's Champions Preview

It didn't take Yani Tseng long to remind us that she is still going to be the player to beat in 2012. Yani's remarkable approach shot on the 72nd hole sealed her 13th LPGA victory. Ai Miyazato and Jiyai Shin, who finished second and third respectively, played their best golf since the 2010 season. I think both Ai and Jiyai have put the message out there that Yani is going to have to be at her best to duplicate last year. The Constructivist, as usual, has posted an excellent recap.

With the exciting finish this week coming on the heels of last week's 6-way playoff, the LPGA season could not have gotten off to a better start. What do they have in store for us this coming weekend?

HSBC Women's Champions Preview:
The tour moves to Singapore this week, here are some details:

Course: Tanah Merah Country Club, Garden Course
Location: Singapore
Defending Champion: Karrie Webb
2011 Winning Score: 70-66-70-69=275 (-13)

Final Field: 63 players
Par: 72
Yardage: 6547 Yards
Purse: $1.4 Million

In spite of the limited field of 63 players, this is a very strong field. The only name players missing are Lexi Thompson and Caroline Hedwall. Lexi chose not to play, and as I write this, Caroline is the 3rd alternate. Strengthening the field is the return this week of So Yeon Ryu, and Melissa Reid has been given a sponsor's exemption. Korean Superstar Ji-Hee Lee, ranked number 15 in the world, will be making a very rare LPGA appearance. My strength of field is a season high 64%, up from 62% last week.

Here is the television schedule:
Feb 23 9:30-1:30 PM ET GC
Feb 24 9:30-1:30 PM ET GC
Feb 25 2:00-6:00 PM ET GC
Feb 26 1:30-6:00 PM ET GC

Once again I remind you, because of the 13-hour time difference, the telecast will not be live. If you are going to be watching, I suggest you not look at the LPGA website, as the results will already have been posted. I will hold off posting any spoilers until after the telecast. At the completion of this tournament the tour moves to the United States, so this will no longer be an issue.

Titleholder Update:
Yani Tseng, Ai Miyazato, and Jiyai Shin have now qualified.

Hard-to-believe stat of the week:
I post lots of statistics on here, but this one is truly remarkable. Yani Tseng is #1 in the Rolex Rankings with a rating of 16.63. Na Yeon Choi is #2 with a rating of 8.88. Way down the list Alison Walshe is ranked #129 with a rating of 1.15. Na Yeon Choi at #2 is closer to #129 than she is to #1.

Rolex Ranking Movers of the week:
There are no big moves among the top named players this week (although it is worth mentioning Ai Miyazato's return to the top 10 at #9), so let us look a bit further down the list:
Jenny Shin moves from #124 to #98. Lindsey Wright, winner of last week's L.E.T. tournament, moves from #141 to #104. Pornanong Phatlum moves from #101 to #90, and Amanda Blumenherst moves from #131 to #113.

Extra Stuff:
Stacy Lewis is the only player to finish in the top five in each of the first two LPGA tournaments. Yani Tseng and Jenny Shin (not Jiyai) both finished in the top 10 twice.

The struggles of Song-Hee Kim have reached a new level. After missing the cut in Australia, you would think it couldn't get any worse. It did. Kim shot 74-76-77-79=306 to finish dead last. The tournament did not have a cut.

TJ's 2012 Player of the Year Update:
1- Yani Tseng - 31.28
2- Jessica Korda - 19.20
3- Stacy Lewis - 18.25
4- Jenny Shin - 14.95
5- Jiyai Shin - 13.70
6- Ai Miyazato - 12.40
7- Amy Yang - 11.16
T8- Jimin Kang - 9.61
T8- Shanshan Feng - 9.61
T8- Amanda Blumenherst - 9.61
11- Caroline Hedwall - 9.49
T12-Brittany Lincicome - 8.64
T12-Julieta Granada - 8.64
T12-So Yeon Ryu - 8.64
T12-Hee Kyeong Seo - 8.64

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Honda LPGA Thailand Saturday and Sunday: Ya Ni Tseng Prevails in Clash of World #1s

Ya Ni Tseng successfully defended her title at the Honda LPGA Thailand this past weekend in one of the most dramatic battles between current and former world #1s that I can remember seeing. 

Tseng roared back into contention on moving day with her 2nd-straight 65 to enter the final round 1 shot behind 2010 champion Ai Miyazato, 1 shot ahead of Ji-Yai Shin and Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, 2 shots ahead of blossoming star Amy Yang, and 3 shots ahead of 2007 champion Suzann Pettersen.  And she made a statement on the very 1st hole with a chip-in eagle that pulled her into a tie with Miyazato at -15.  By the time they hit the 8th tee, however, much had changed, as Tseng went -5 over her 1st 7 holes to get to -18 for the week, Miyazato was looking to make her 2nd birdie in a row to offset her 2 consecutive bogeys just earlier and try to get back to -15, Shin had passed her with her 3rd birdie in her 1st 8 holes to actually get to -15, Webb was flabbergasted by a quadruple-bogey 9 on the par-5 7th and was out of contention, Yang had also birdied the 8th to get to -13, and Pettersen was done, having opened with 2 straight bogeys and followed it up a few holes later with a double.  When the leaders hit the turn, Tseng had a commanding lead on everyone except Shin.

1st/-18 Tseng (having gone -14 over a 28-hole stretch of bogey-free golf going back to Saturday morning when she finished her 2nd round with a walkoff eagle after the rain delay that had stopped play on Friday)
2nd/-16 Shin (having just gotten her 3rd birdie in the previous 4 holes on the par-5 10th)
3rd/-14 Miyazato (having offset her birdie on the 8th with a bogey on the 9th)
4th/-13 Yang (in the middle of a run of 4 pars in a row as she made the turn)

At that point, I was wondering by how many strokes Tseng would break the Pettersen/Miyazato tournament record of -21.  But then she ran into some unexpected trouble, missing the fairway off the tee, leaving her lay-up in a divot, leaving her wedge barely on the front of the green, running her 15-foot birdie attempt 20 feet by the hole, making a bogey, and enduring a 2-shot swing when Miyazato canned her 8-foot birdie attempt.  The world #1 dodged another 2-shot swing on the very next hole, the par-4 11th, when she hit her approach shot long and left but made a brilliant chip to tap-in range to save par and watched Miyazato just miss her 10-footer for birdie.  Even though she bounced back on the par-3 12th by getting her approach shot within tap-in range right on top of Miyazato's great approach to 10 feet (which she again missed), Tseng's struggles weren't over, as she made an ugly bogey on the par-4 13th and just barely missed on great birdie chances on the next 3 holes after that.  Because from the 13th hole on Miyazato refused to miss another putt, making amazing par saves and great birdies, Yang came alive with back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14, and Shin kept giving herself easy pars and good birdie chances.  So when the leaders left the 15th green, the leaderboard looked like this:

1st/-17 Tseng
T2/-16 Shin, Miyazato
4th/-15 Yang

And that's when the world #1s showed what they're made of.  Yang, looking for her 1st win on the LPGA, bogeyed the par-4 17th and failed to birdie the par-5 18th to end the day at -14, alone in 4th.  In the group behind her, Shin hit an amazing hybrid from the 17th fairway that landed on the middle left of the green and followed a ridge straight toward the front-right pin, then followed that up with a clutch 12-footer to catch Tseng at -17.  Miyazato then proceeded to better Shin's approach with a hybrid of her own that she thought she had pulled but which instead rolled to within 9 feet of the flag.  And Tseng outdid them all with a short iron that hit the ridge and spub straight toward the hole, stopping about 4 feet away.  Although Miyazato sank her putt to put the pressure squarely on Tseng's shoulders, she responded with a dead-solid-perfect putt to get to -18 and take a 1-shot lead on the former #1s into the final hole, where theoretically she could take advantage of her length to reach the par-5 in 2 while Shin and Miyazato would need to play it as a three-shot hole.

However, while Shin was leaving her approach shot outside easy birdie range--maybe 15 feet above and to the right of the back-left pin, both Miyazato and Tseng were pulling their drives way left.  Miyazato ended up semi-blocked by what looked like the same tree from which Tseng's ball had caromed back toward the fairway, but both players were able to lay up to around 100 yards out and get a front-row seat on Shin's just-missed birdie attempt.  Miyazato continued to put pressure on Tseng by sticking her wedge about 7 feet left of the pin, in a spot I hadn't seen any of the leaders attempt to hit (most were bailing out long right and hoping that their wedges wouldn't spin off the narrow back ledge the pin was tucked away on).  Given the disasters the undulating 18th green had caused over the previous few days--a 10 by 2011 Rookie of the Year Hee Kyung Seo midway through her 3rd round, an 8 by Stacy Lewis back on Thursday, a 7 by Na Yeon Choi on Saturday that sent her into a tailspin from which she would never recover, and, just a few minutes earlier, a 7 by amateur superstar Ariya Jutanugarn--and given the amount of spin Tseng usually puts on her wedges, I was holding my breath, wanting Ai-sama to get into a playoff with Tseng but not wanting Tseng to have to endure a final-hole disaster.  Well, all the world #1 did was hit the shot of the year, softly landing her wedge 6 feet above the hole and gently spinning it back and almost in to end up about 3 inches left of the cup.  Amazingly, Miyazato was able to make what I believe was her 6th 1-putt in a row to take solo 2nd, and Tseng was able to finally breathe a huge sigh of relief after making her tap-in to finish 1 shot ahead of her at -19.  Wow!

Tseng's 13th career LPGA victory somehow managed to out-drama the 6-way playoff that Jessica Korda played her way into and prevailed in last week in Australia.  I can't wait to see what happens this week at the Showdown in Singapore.  Not only does defending champion Webb have something to prove next week (not to mention Pettersen and Choi), but so do 2009 champion Shin and 2010 champion Miyazato.  On top of that, Tseng shot a final-round 67 there to just miss her 5th win in her 5th start of 2011!  Plus, there have been some encouraging signs early this year from the likes of Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall, Lexi Thompson made 7 birdies in her last 13 holes yesterday to match Tseng's 66 for low round of the day, Cristie Kerr broke 70 for the 2nd time this young season to snag her 1st top 20 of the year, and Mika Miyazato broke 70 (with 7 birdies that offset a double and 2 bogeys) for the 1st time this season, so it's looking like the games of some of the best golfers in the world are starting to come alive.  And let's not forget the fantastic 67 by Jimin Kang, sweet 68 by Shanshan Feng, and solid 69 by Amanda Blumenherst yesterday that garnered them their 1st top 5s of the year, much less Jenny Shin's 2nd-straight top 10 to kick off 2012.  Can't wait to see who can keep it going at the Garden Course at Tanah Merah Country Club.  Only wish more of the top JLPGA players than Ji-Hee Lee had to decided to tee it up there the week before their season opener in Okinawa.

[Update 1 (11:27 am):  Here's bangkokbobby on Tseng's dramatic win.  Where's everyone else?]

Honda LPGA Thailand Thursday and Friday: Karrie Webb Takes Lead as Storms Interrupt Play

Picking up from bangkokbobby's overview of the 1st round of the Honda LPGA Thailand event, in which Ai Miyazato shot a bogey-free 67 and took a 1-shot lead on Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak, Na Yeon Choi, Anna Nordqvist, and Amy Yang, I'm disappointed to report that Ai-sama was one of the few players not to take advantage of the Old Course before storms rolled in and stopped play today.  Not long after just missing an eagle after a fantastic approach shot into the 2nd hole, she ended her bogey-free run on her 24th hole.  And even though she bounced back with a new bogey-free run of 7 holes and counting and got it to -6 before she had to leave the course, she was left in the dust by a host of golfers who went super-low today.

Ya Ni Tseng and Caroline Hedwall lead the way with matching 65s and eagles on the par-5 18th and par-5 10th, respectively, while Ji-Yai Shin fired a bogey-free 66 and Suzann Pettersen, Amanda Blumenherst (who shot a 5-birdie 31 on the back and hasn't made a bogey over her 1st 36 holes), and Pornanong Phatlum matched Miyazato's 67 from the day before, but the round of the day has to belong to Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, who birdied her last 4 holes on the front in a row, missed a great chance to make it 5 in a row on the par-5 10th, and followed it up with a hole-in-1 on the par-3 12th.  A bogey on the very next hole cut off her 30-hole bogey-free streak, but she bounced right back with a birdie on the par-4 14th to get back to double digits under par.

Here's how the leaders stand right now:

1st/-10 Karrie Webb (68, -6 through 14)
T2/-8 Ji-Yai Shin (70-66), Amy Yang (68, -4 through 14)
T4/-7 Caroline Hedwall (72-65), Suzann Pettersen (70-67)
T6/-6 Ya Ni Tseng (73-65), Amanda Blumenherst (71-67), Pornanong Phatlum (71-67), Ai Miyazato (67, -1 through 13)
T11/-5 Stacy Lewis (70, -3 through 17), Christel Boeljon (69, -2 through 15)

Lower down the leaderboard, but moving quickly up it, Cristie Kerr, Mina Harigae, Belen Mozo, and Michelle Wie posted sweet 68s, while Chella Choi, Ariya Jutanugarn, Dewi Claire Schreefel, Azahara Munoz, Angela Stanford, and Karen Stupples rounded out the list of players who broke 70 before play was stopped.  Despite making a hole-in-1 herself on the par-3 12th yesterday, Paula Creamer was just the best among the big names stuck in neutral or reverse this week.  Here's the list of thus-far disappointments:

+1 Creamer, Stanford, Catriona Matthew, Sandra Gal, Inbee Park
+2 Stupples, Lexi Thompson, Shinobu Moromizato, Tiffany Joh
+3 Momoko Ueda
+4 Hee Kyung Seo, Ryann O'Toole
+5 Morgan Pressel, Sun Young Yoo
+6 Song-Hee Kim, Eun-Hee Ji
+7 Beatriz Recari
+8 Hee-Won Han
+9 Laura Davies
+13 Christina Kim

Gotta go; Webb's hole-in-1 is about to show up on the DVRed 2nd round coverage!  More this weekend!

[Update 1 (2/18/12, 11:21 am): bangkokbobby notes Webb took a 3-shot lead into the weekend and adds his usual selection of fantastic photos!]

The Best on the LPGA: 1-Time Winners, February 2012 Edition

So how does Jessica Korda's incredible win at the LPGA's 2012 season opener place her among the LPGA's 1-time winners?  Check out this update of my May 2011 list, ranked in part by career achievements and mostly by what I expect from the players on it over the rest of the 2012 season.

Most Likely to Win in 2012

1. Stacy Lewis: She still gets really excited when she's in contention and really hard on herself mentally, but that's a product of her being such a fighter. I love her chances for graduating from this list early this season, joining the rest of her top peers in the Class of 2009.

2. Hee Kyung Seo: She won as a non-member at the 2010 Kia Classic, easily won the 2011 Rookie of the Year race despite her failure to secure her 1st LPGA major at the U.S. Women's Open, and has been near or at the top of the leaderboard for a good portion of her 1st 2 starts of 2012.

3. So Yeon Ryu: She had great chances to kick off 2012 with back-to-back wins, but couldn't convert either time. Will the close calls give her even more confidence or play into doubts she's raised throughout her meteoric career over her ability to close the deal? I'm thinking it'll be the former for my pick for Rookie of the Year this season!

4. Lexi Thompson: She won once on the LPGA and once on the LET at the end of the 2011 season, but hasn't found the magic yet in 2012. Still, only Ryu and Cydney Clanton lead her in the Rookie of the Year race and she hasn't even hit her stride yet. Plus, don't you think that Korda's win just before her 19th birthday will fire up this now-17-year-old?

The Contenders


5. Sandra Gal: I'm very curious to see how she deals with raised expectations this season.

6. Inbee Park: It'll be interesting to see if she decides to continue splitting her time between the LPGA and JLPGA roughly evenly like Momoko Ueda or will privilege the LPGA, as Ji-Yai Shin, Ai Miyazato, and Mika Miyazato tend to do. Last year, she seemed to hit a wall on both tours.  I'd like to see her focus more on the LPGA and really put up a fight for best golfer in the Class of 2007.

7. Sun Young Yoo: I still believe the sky's the limit for this late-blooming '06er. She's got a classic straight shooter game (think Cristie Kerr, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lang, and so on), and even though she's plateaued a bit over the last 2 seasons, that's a measure of how high she has already climbed.

Quantum Leap Candidates


8. Beatriz Recari: Her 1st top 10 in a long while this past week makes me think that this LET transplant is on the comeback trail. As a member of the rising Spanish Armada on the LPGA, I have a bit more confidence in her than the rest of the players below her on this list right now.

9. Jessica Korda: If she can keep up the "1 win every 16 starts" pace that she's just set for herself , this '11er will have a really good LPGA career, but given that her 1st win was also her 1st top 10, let's wait and see before we anoint her the tour's new "It" girl.

10. Julieta Granada: Wow, she picked up 2012 right where she left off in 2011. She's gone from worrying about keeping her LPGA card to fighting for her 2nd LPGA win. Not bad!

11. Natalie Gulbis: Recurring back problems since her 2007 Evian Masters playoff victory over Jeong Jang have dropped her back where she was in her 1st 3 seasons on the LPGA--a player who makes her share of cuts but has trouble cracking the top 10. In fact, 24 of her top 10s and all 7 of her top 3s came between 2005 and 2007, when she was a regular on the top 20 of the money list. It seems like every season since then starts with a lot of optimism about the state of her back, but fails to live up to expectations. As her closest calls the last 2 seasons to getting back into the top 10 have come in Southeast Asia, a lot is riding on her performance this week in Thailand.

12. M.J. Hur: Her struggles since getting her 1st LPGA win as a rookie in 2009 are one big reason I'm not jumping on the Korda bandwagon just yet. This may be a make-or-break year for Hur, who went from so-so to worse last season, but still managed to hang onto full membership for this one.

13. Jee Young Lee: It looks to me like the '06er got hurt in fall 2010 but whatever the reason she's been in free fall ever since. She's too good not to pull out of it, in my view, and soon, even from #130 on the 2012 Priority Status List.


14. Shi Hyun Ahn: Like Jee Young Lee, her only LPGA win comes with an asterisk, as she got it as a KLPGA member in 2003, but since then she's played roughly 20 events on the LPGA each year, garnering 27 top 10s in the process, with only 3 of them coming since the end of the 2007 season. Until last year, that is, when she fell off a cliff. It may have been injuries, but maybe it was love. The golfer known as "Cinderella" got married to Argentine-Korean star Mario last November. What that means for her golf career remains to be seen. She's #122 on Priority Status List, so she should be able to play just about whenever she wants to this season....

On the Bottom, Looking Up


15. Meaghan Francella: She shocked the golf world with a win over Annika Sorenstam on the 4th playoff hole at the 2007 MasterCard Classic, but Annika's announcement a little later that season that she had been suffering significant back and neck injuries for some time put a little asterisk by that victory. To make matters worse, Francella had to deal with injury issues of her own over the next season and a half, but the '06er bounced back in 2009 by getting her 5th and 6th top 10s on tour, breaking the 73 barrier in scoring average for the 1st time in her career, and returning to the top 50 of both the money list and my Best of the LPGA ranking. She continued her comeback in 2010 with a top 10 at the LPGA Championship and stayed in the top 60 of both the money list and my ranking, despite her approach shots and expecially her putting holding her back. But she fell out of the top 70 last season and will be fighting to keep her card this one from her #99 spot on the Priority Status List.


16. Leta Lindley: Let's see if she can add to her total of 33 career top 10s this season.


17. Heather Bowie Young: She won at the Farr in 2005 and has collected 26 top 10s since joining the LPGA in 2000. 2011 was her 3rd season in a row without one, however, leading her to seek (and gain) dual LPGA-LET membership at LET Q-School last month.


18. Eunjung Yi: Her playoff victory over Morgan Pressel at the Farr in 2009 remains her only LPGA top 10 since her LPGA career began in 2008. She won Hound Dog's fluke victory of the year award that year, a dubious distinction. The only way things could be worse for her prospects in 2011 would be if her defeat of Pressel had come in a U.S. Women's Open (see Kim, Birdie, below). Seriously, it remains to be seen how she fares in 2012 as she plays off a medical exemption into the top 85 on the Priority Status List.


19. Nicole Castrale:  Her comeback from her 2010 shoulder surgery was derailed last season and she's back this one on another medical exemption.

20. Moira Dunn: Her 2004 win at the Giant Eagle Classic was the high point of an LPGA career that dates back to 1995, but her best season was probably in 2001. My junior golf buddy's been struggling to keep her card each year since the 2006 season, and once again in 2011 she failed to add to her 23 career LPGA top 10s.  But whereas she was a regular in the top 80 for most of her career, she dropped all the way down to #105 on the money list last season, so enters this one at #136 on the Priority Status List.


21. Silvia Cavalleri: She's only had 10 top 10s in an career that started back in 1999 and in that span has only cracked the top 50 on the money list once--in 2007, when she won the Corona Championship. She had finished outside the top 100 on the money list the previous 3 seasons, and only improved to #96 in 2011.  From #120 on the Priority Status List, she has as much chance as anyone in this category to escape from Hound Dog's fluke victories list, which may not be saying much.

On the Outside, Looking In

22. Young Kim: She joined the JLPGA in 2010 and ended up ranked 14th on tour; last season, she fell to 34th on their money list. Whether she'll return to the LPGA remains to be seen, but provided she does, if anyone on this list is going to follow in Jimin Kang's footsteps in breaking the Corning Classic jinx, I would expect her to be the next to do it!

23. Soo-Yun Kang: Her win at the Safeway Classic in 2005 was part of the best season of her career, where she got 6 top 10s and ended up #14 on the money list. But it was also the last season her stroke average dipped under 72. Of her 17 career top 10s since she started on the LPGA in 2001, only 2 have come after 2005.  Now she's playing full-time on the JLPGA, where she finished #38 on the money list last season.

24. Jin Joo Hong: After playing 3 seasons on the KLPGA, she won the jointly-sponsored event with the LPGA and switched tours for the next 3 seasons, ending 2009 ranked #10 among the '06ers. Since then, she's decided to focus on the KLPGA.

25. Joo Mi Kim: She came to the LPGA in 2005 with 3 KLPGA victories under her belt and made a lot of cuts in her rookie season, then followed it up with a playoff win at the SBS Open (over Lorena Ochoa and Soo Young Moon) and 4 top 10s in all the next season, where she ended up 27th on the money list. She stayed in the top 50 for the 3rd-straight season the following year, but saw her starts go down and her scoring average go up over the next 3 seasons.  Since the fall of 2010, she's been focusing her efforts on the KLPGA.


Over and Out


26. Kris Tschetter: Her rookie season was 1988; she won the Northgate Computer Classic in 1992. Even though 2002 was her last solid season, her 50 career top 10s show that she's got the talent to bounce back, now that her kids are older. She wrote a moving account of her friendship with Ben Hogan in 2010, but missed the cut in all 3 of her starts in 2011. At #219 on the Priority Status List, though, she might get into another few events this season.

27. Birdie Kim: I had wanted to put her higher on this list, feeling that she had been coming back from the U.S. Women's Open jinx after her stunning 2005 win from the sand over then-amateurs Morgan Pressel and Brittany Lang. But no, she's only made 6 cuts in her last 27 starts dating back to 2009, hasn't added to her career total of 4 top 10s in that span, and has never broken the 73 barrier in scoring average since she started on the LPGA in 2004.  Now she finds herself at #237 on the Priority Status List for the 2012 season.


28. Kelli Kuehne: She got a medical exemption in 2010, but didn't come close to returning to her 1999-2004 form, when she won at the Corning Classic at the start of that run and notched 24 of her 26 career top 10s over the course of it. From 2005-2009, though, she hasn't broken the 73 barrier in scoring average in any season and has made only 33 of 86 cuts. And she went 0 for 10 in 2010 and didn't play in 2011. She's #222 on the Priority Status List, but I have to wonder if she's going to play at all in 2012.


29. Kate Golden: Her win at the State Farm Classic in 2001 was part of a run from 2000-2004 when she averaged in the mid 72s in scoring and mid-$200Ks in winnings, but since then she hasn't made more than half her cuts in any season and has only added 1 top 10 to her career total of 14. In 2010, she got into 2 events and missed the cut in both of them in what may well turn out to have been the last year of an LPGA career that started in 1992. She's still listed at #230 on the Priority Status List, for what that's worth, but she had similar status last year and didn't play at all.


30. Marisa Baena: Her LPGA career started in 1999, but after a terrible 2004, it looked like it was in jeopardy. She bounced back in 2005 with a win in the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship from the 60th seed. Although she failed to get her 14th career top 10 and 2nd since 2005 the last season she teed it up on tour, she finds herself at #220 on the Priority Status List, even though she hasn't played in the last 2 years.


31. Sung Ah Yim: Like Joo Mi Kim, she joined the LPGA in 2005 and got her 1st win in 2006, at the Florida's Natural Charity Classic. But from 2007 to 2009, she neither added to her career total of 8 top 10s nor broke the 74 barrier in scoring average. And in 2010, she didn't get a single LPGA start from #227 on the priority status list. With no LPGA status in 2012 for the 2nd year in a row, she won't be getting any chances to play her way out of the #6 spot on Hound Dog's fluke victories list.

32. Louise Friberg: Her dramatic come-from-behind rookie win at the MasterCard Classic in 2008 was the high point of what turned out to be a short career in competitive golf.  With 3 top 10s and a slew of missed cuts, she's

33. Hilary Lunke: She may never be knocked from the top spot in Hound Dog's fluke victory list.  She's now listed at #245 on the Priority Status List, but hasn't teed it up since late August 2008.