After all the anticipation, Valentine's Day on the LPGA certainly had its share of thrills and spills! I'll let Hound Dog offer his usual more-than-professional synopsis and break down the first round of the 2008 season by career cohorts.
The Vets
Annika Sorenstam isn't the only one facing a career crossroads this season. Among her peers in the field this week, Cristie Kerr is fighting to reestablish herself as the best American in the world; Lorie Kane is struggling to regain the game that put her among the world's best for 3 years; Pat Hurst, Sherri Steinhauer, and Laura Diaz on the American side and Sophie Gustafson and Maria Hjorth on the European side are looking to qualify for at least one more Ryder Cup Team and burnish their formidable reputations; Rachel Hetherington, Carin Koch, Wendy Ward, Wendy Doolan, Kelli Kuehne, Moira Dunn, and Janice Moodie are fighting to rescue their careers; and a host of others are testing the LPGA waters to see how regularly they should plan to play in 2008, including big names like Meg Mallon, Michelle McGann, Brandie Burton, Liselotte Neumann, Helen Alfreddson, Michelle Redman, and Jill McGill.
Feel free to click on the names of your faves to track the ups and downs of their rounds; I'll give a quick rundown to save you some time. Kuehne (-5) has to be the happiest of the bunch--it's been a long time since she broke 70 in an opening round (counting the Canadian Open last August, she's only done it 7 times in the last 4 years, and then usually towards the end of the season), much less held a first-round lead, but she's picking up where she left off in Q-School. Ward (-3, T3) and Mallon (-2, T10) are probably the next-most-thrilled, although the former has the memory of a 68-75 start here last year and the latter has the memory of a 69-82 start at last year's Tournament of Champions to temper their excitement. Steinhauer (-3, T3) is probably the only other vet who can look back on Valentine's Day with unadulterated satisfaction; her bogey-free round contrasts sharply with the double bogeys that will probably stand out more for Kerr (-3, T3) and Sorenstam (-2, T10) than anything else they did that day. Of the rest, only Hurst and Doolan (E, T35) can find real bright spots in their day; the less said of many of their rounds, the better.
The Mid-Career Professionals
With many of the top vets skipping the SBS, along with Lorena Ochoa, who will be starting her season in Singapore at the HSBC Champions inaugural event at the end of the month, the stage was set for the rest of the mid-career cohort to bask in the spotlight. Who stepped up and who stepped back among their top 20 on the career money list?
#17 Meena Lee (-3, T3) lead the charge with a bogey-free round, finishing one stroke ahead of #5 Paula Creamer (who matched Sorenstam's birdie-double-birdie finish) and #7 Gloria Park (who posted a bogey-free round herself), 2 ahead of #10 Angela Stanford (who responded to a double on the treacherous 17th with a 33 on the front) and #20 Becky Morgan, and 3 ahead of #3 Jeong Jang, #4 Hee-Won Han, and #11 Dorothy Delasin.
Among the disappointed are #14 Jennifer Rosales (78, T126); #2 Grace Park (76, T103); #9 Suzann Pettersen, #13 Stacy Prammanasudh, and #16 Brittany Lincicome (74, T65); and #6 Natalie Gulbis, #8 Candie Kung, #12 Christina Kim, and #18 Young Kim (+1, T44).
It can't feel good for the majority of these stars to have been outplayed by the previously free-falling Jacqueline Yang (-4, 2nd place), Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, and Michelle Ellis (-2, T10), the steadily-improving Lindsey Wright, the golf babes Erica Blasberg and Mikaela Parmlid, or the out-of-nowhere Russy Gulyanamitta, but at least the law of averages is in their favor....
The Young Guns
Some of the biggest surprises and disappointments can be found among my top 25 from the classes of 2006-2008. Who would have predicted that Ji-Young Oh (-3, T3) would be the top Young Gun in the field thus far? Or that all of my "Sure Things"--Seon Hwa Lee (74), Morgan Pressel (73), Jee Young Lee (75), or Angela Park (75)--would be over par? My "Great Bets" fared better, for the most part: In-Kyung Kim (70), Jane Park (70), and Momoko Ueda (71) went under par, but Ai Miyazato (76) and Eun-Hee Ji (75) will have to make a charge to make the cut. Only Ya Ni Tseng (70), Sandra Gal (70), and Shanshan Feng (72) stood out among my "Good Bets," "Pretty Darn Good Bets," and "Not Bad Bets At All," respectively. Who would have predicted that no one among Julieta Granada, Inbee Park, Hee Young Park, Brittany Lang, Meaghan Francella, Na On Min, and Sun Young Yoo (+1, T44), Na Yeon Choi (+2, T65), H.J. Choi and Linda Wessberg (75, T88), Kyeong Bae (76, T106), and Karin Sjodin (77, T118) would have broken par?
Looking forward to seeing if newbies Paige McKenzie (70), Katie Futcher, Liz Janangelo (71), and Carolina Llano (72) can continue to stay roughly even with KLPGA superstar Ji-Yai Shin and the rest of their peers who got off to a good start, but I suspect they'll struggle to stay ahead of the majority of their cohort. Youth and consistency don't usually go together.
Overall, I'm off to a worse start than usual in the PakPicker competition, mostly because my picks among the Young Guns and Mid-Career Professionals are letting me down. And I certainly feel bad for Moira (74) and Ai-chan, who never got it going on Thursday. But one round does not a tournament--or a season--make. I'm certainly not in Macbeth's To-morrow, to-morrow, and to-morrow soliloquy mode yet. But, I'll tell you, it's harder being a golf fan than a Bills fan--way more chances for disappointment over the course of a season!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Pitchers and Catchers Report
In America, February has two Groundhog Days: the one celebrated on February 2, when the presumably immortal Punxsutawney Phil either does or doesn't make his annual appearance in Pennsylvania, and the other Groundhog Day, later in the month, when pitchers and catchers first poke their heads up out of dugouts each year in Arizona and Florida, signaling, not the arrival of baseball season itself, but the nearness, the imminent arrival of the thing. Today's that day for the San Francisco Giants.
This is a good first sign. Here comes the battery now, the artillery term naming the pair responsible for handling the projectile ball, whose movement, if the pitcher will ever stop just standing there and throw the thing, defines the action of the game, such as it is. All motion in the game is attendant on the potent motions of the famous baseball, and that ball's motion, for better or worse, is initiated by the very fellows who've shown up first to training camp, who make up the game's battery, to stretch and jog and horse around prior to the arrival of the rest of the team, to ease in to spring training itself, spring training a grueling round of practices, games, really vigorous stretching and really vigorous jogging and horsing around that with any luck will turn the club's players into a team and ready for baseball season itself, still weeks away, just as spring itself is or isn't due to arrive in that span, depending on what Phil may have had to say about it this year, which I regret to say I missed.
This is a good first sign. Here comes the battery now, the artillery term naming the pair responsible for handling the projectile ball, whose movement, if the pitcher will ever stop just standing there and throw the thing, defines the action of the game, such as it is. All motion in the game is attendant on the potent motions of the famous baseball, and that ball's motion, for better or worse, is initiated by the very fellows who've shown up first to training camp, who make up the game's battery, to stretch and jog and horse around prior to the arrival of the rest of the team, to ease in to spring training itself, spring training a grueling round of practices, games, really vigorous stretching and really vigorous jogging and horsing around that with any luck will turn the club's players into a team and ready for baseball season itself, still weeks away, just as spring itself is or isn't due to arrive in that span, depending on what Phil may have had to say about it this year, which I regret to say I missed.
2008 LPGA Preview: SBS Pairings
A few quick observations about the pairings for the SBS Open that kicks off the LPGA season tomorrow.
My friend Moira Dunn goes off the front in the 7:20 am group. If she doesn't want to be a dewsweeper all year, she had better get off to a better start to the season than most native New Yorkers tend to do. Meaghan Francella's playoff victory over Annika Sorenstam early last year was the exception to the rule that pros who grew up in a climate where the golf season doesn't really kick into gear until April have a hard time before the first major of the season. Speaking of Meaghan, she's going off with Grace Park and Jimin Kang at 8:50 am--not bad! And speaking of other New Yorkers, Laura Diaz has a not-quite-prime-time pairing with Ai Miyazato and Carin Koch (both of whom are coming off big-time and long-term slumps) at 12:20 pm, and Danielle Downey (another member of the fantastic class of 2006) will be joining Sandra Gal and Ji-Young Oh in the dreaded last-group-off-the-back Thursday and first-group-off-the-front-Friday slot. But given that Hee Young Park, Jane Park, and Dorothy Delasin are in the same boat, they can't complain all that much. You know the field is packed when people like Ji-Yai Shin (1:20 pm off #10), Na Yeon Choi (12:50 pm off #10), and Momoko Ueda (12:40 pm off #1) are shunted into the late afternoon starting times!
There are others who will have to play their way out of less than favorable starting times. Jennifer Rosales and Song-Hee Kim, a mid-career vet and a young gun who have not played anywhere close to what they're capable of, are going off the back together at 7:40 am--should be interesting to see how they do. Also going off the back early are vets Janice Moodie, Sherri Steinhauer, and Meg Mallon (8:20 am)--here's hoping they make a statement! Surprisingly, Seon Hwa Lee is going off the back in the 8:30 am pairing. What's it going to take for her to get some r-e-s-p-e-c-t from tournament organizers? Nothing against Hye Jung (now H.J.) Choi and Inbee Park, but they're lucky to be starting any time near her (8:20 am off #1). Although now that I think of it, Hee-Won Han, Helen Alfreddson, and Sophie Gustafson are in the front's 8:30 am slot, so it's not that big of a diss. Still, why Seon Hwa couldn't have been paired with Jee Young Lee and Jeong Jang at 8:50 am is beyond me. If the late-morning back pairings are supposed to be roughly equivalent to the early-afternoon front pairings, the tournament organizers could have done some better planning.
I mean, take a look at the first groups off the front for the afternoon:
It's great for X-tina that she's included in this bunch--here's hoping she finally has that breakout season all of her fans have been waiting for. Still--nothing against the people in the last two morning pairings off the back--I'd much rather see people who have a roughly equal chance of winning the tournament in the Friday prime-time slots.
Sorry to be so cranky--just been waiting so long for the 2008 LPGA season to start!
[Update 2/15/08: Ah, thanks to Hound Dog, I see now what the tournament organizers were thinking. For the second round, the Thursday afternoon and morning people are flipped, and people who started on #1 yesterday start on #10 today. Within those constraints, the groups are shuffled by score, with the best scores on the front going last in the morning and first in the afternon and the worst scores on the back going last in the morning and first in the afternoon. Although this gives a slight advantage to the morning people starting on the back, given the usual timing of Hawaiian winds, it's otherwise a great system for a 54-hole tournament.]
My friend Moira Dunn goes off the front in the 7:20 am group. If she doesn't want to be a dewsweeper all year, she had better get off to a better start to the season than most native New Yorkers tend to do. Meaghan Francella's playoff victory over Annika Sorenstam early last year was the exception to the rule that pros who grew up in a climate where the golf season doesn't really kick into gear until April have a hard time before the first major of the season. Speaking of Meaghan, she's going off with Grace Park and Jimin Kang at 8:50 am--not bad! And speaking of other New Yorkers, Laura Diaz has a not-quite-prime-time pairing with Ai Miyazato and Carin Koch (both of whom are coming off big-time and long-term slumps) at 12:20 pm, and Danielle Downey (another member of the fantastic class of 2006) will be joining Sandra Gal and Ji-Young Oh in the dreaded last-group-off-the-back Thursday and first-group-off-the-front-Friday slot. But given that Hee Young Park, Jane Park, and Dorothy Delasin are in the same boat, they can't complain all that much. You know the field is packed when people like Ji-Yai Shin (1:20 pm off #10), Na Yeon Choi (12:50 pm off #10), and Momoko Ueda (12:40 pm off #1) are shunted into the late afternoon starting times!
There are others who will have to play their way out of less than favorable starting times. Jennifer Rosales and Song-Hee Kim, a mid-career vet and a young gun who have not played anywhere close to what they're capable of, are going off the back together at 7:40 am--should be interesting to see how they do. Also going off the back early are vets Janice Moodie, Sherri Steinhauer, and Meg Mallon (8:20 am)--here's hoping they make a statement! Surprisingly, Seon Hwa Lee is going off the back in the 8:30 am pairing. What's it going to take for her to get some r-e-s-p-e-c-t from tournament organizers? Nothing against Hye Jung (now H.J.) Choi and Inbee Park, but they're lucky to be starting any time near her (8:20 am off #1). Although now that I think of it, Hee-Won Han, Helen Alfreddson, and Sophie Gustafson are in the front's 8:30 am slot, so it's not that big of a diss. Still, why Seon Hwa couldn't have been paired with Jee Young Lee and Jeong Jang at 8:50 am is beyond me. If the late-morning back pairings are supposed to be roughly equivalent to the early-afternoon front pairings, the tournament organizers could have done some better planning.
I mean, take a look at the first groups off the front for the afternoon:
Start Time: 11:50 AM
Paula Creamer
Annika Sorenstam
Natalie Gulbis
Start Time: 12:00 PM
Morgan Pressel
Stacy Prammanasudh
Suzann Pettersen
Start Time: 12:10 PM
Angela Park
Christina Kim
Cristie Kerr
It's great for X-tina that she's included in this bunch--here's hoping she finally has that breakout season all of her fans have been waiting for. Still--nothing against the people in the last two morning pairings off the back--I'd much rather see people who have a roughly equal chance of winning the tournament in the Friday prime-time slots.
Sorry to be so cranky--just been waiting so long for the 2008 LPGA season to start!
[Update 2/15/08: Ah, thanks to Hound Dog, I see now what the tournament organizers were thinking. For the second round, the Thursday afternoon and morning people are flipped, and people who started on #1 yesterday start on #10 today. Within those constraints, the groups are shuffled by score, with the best scores on the front going last in the morning and first in the afternon and the worst scores on the back going last in the morning and first in the afternoon. Although this gives a slight advantage to the morning people starting on the back, given the usual timing of Hawaiian winds, it's otherwise a great system for a 54-hole tournament.]
Monday, February 11, 2008
2008 LPGA Preview: Finally, the First Event of the Season!
Following up on my challenge to Ron Sirak to join the PakPickers at the Seoul Sisters discussion board and put his rep where his mouth is, I'm going to post my picks for the LPGA's inaugural SBS Open at Turtle Bay here at Mostly Harmless, along with my reasoning.
The way the PakPickers competition works is that you try to predict the top 12 (in rank order) for each event in the season you care to. You get three alternates in case any of your picks unexpectedly fail to start an event, you get points in each event based on how close you come to being right, and, for every event in which you finish in the top 10 among the Pakpickers, you accumulate season points.
OK, so for each event I look over who's in it, recent tournament history, the previous weeks' results, and my latest Best of the LPGA and Young Guns (formerly Super Soph) rankings--and then I consult the patented 100-Yen Nishijin Mostly Harmless Crystal Ball.
The beginning of the season is easy. I take my predicted top 12 for 2008, remove those on it not in the SBS field, look at who's played the course well and who's playing well coming into the event, and make my guesses. Like so.
1. Annika Sorenstam
2. Paula Creamer
3. Seon Hwa Lee
4. Ji-Yai Shin
45. Stacy Prammanasudh
56. Jee Young Lee
67. Hee-Won Han
78. Angela Park
89. Eun-Hee Ji
910. Morgan Pressel
101. Natalie Gulbis
112. Jeong Jang
12. Pat Hurst
Alts: Pat Hurst, In-Kyung Kim, Ya Ni Tseng,Cristie Kerr
And there you have it. I'm trying to dethrone Hound Dog this year. Think you can do it? If so, don't forget to register before trying to post your own picks....
[Update: Here's Hound Dog's preview!]
[Update 2/12/08: Hound Dog points out Ji-Yai Shin got a sponsor's exemption! Wow!]
The way the PakPickers competition works is that you try to predict the top 12 (in rank order) for each event in the season you care to. You get three alternates in case any of your picks unexpectedly fail to start an event, you get points in each event based on how close you come to being right, and, for every event in which you finish in the top 10 among the Pakpickers, you accumulate season points.
OK, so for each event I look over who's in it, recent tournament history, the previous weeks' results, and my latest Best of the LPGA and Young Guns (formerly Super Soph) rankings--and then I consult the patented 100-Yen Nishijin Mostly Harmless Crystal Ball.
The beginning of the season is easy. I take my predicted top 12 for 2008, remove those on it not in the SBS field, look at who's played the course well and who's playing well coming into the event, and make my guesses. Like so.
1. Annika Sorenstam
2. Paula Creamer
3. Seon Hwa Lee
4. Ji-Yai Shin
1
1
Alts: Pat Hurst, In-Kyung Kim, Ya Ni Tseng,
And there you have it. I'm trying to dethrone Hound Dog this year. Think you can do it? If so, don't forget to register before trying to post your own picks....
[Update: Here's Hound Dog's preview!]
[Update 2/12/08: Hound Dog points out Ji-Yai Shin got a sponsor's exemption! Wow!]
Sunday, February 10, 2008
All Right Then!
T-14 for Ai Miyazato at the ANZ Ladies Masters--not half bad. Basically the leaders pulled away from her (except for the young 'uns who blew up--Ya Ni Tseng with a 79? say it ain't so!), with Lisa Hall avoiding a playoff thanks to a Hyun Ju Shin bogey on the 18th hole (continuing the snake-bit Seoul Sisters trend that's been going on for far too long).
Can't tell from the stats if the course was drying out and giving them more roll so her 3-wood was going further or if Ai-chan was pulling out the driver more often today, but she averaged 249 yards off the tee while hitting more fairways than in previous rounds, so either way it's a positive sign. She still couldn't hit enough greens (10/18) to give herself a lot of good birdie chances, though, and her PPGIR (1.80) suffered for it. So she held steady at -1 Sunday to finish at -6, while getting passed by Sakura Yokomine for low Japanese honors and falling further behind Louise Stahle (-11) and Karin Sjodin (-9) for low Class of '06 honors. That said, she was within 4 of Karrie Webb, 3 of Ji-Yai Shin, and 2 of Laura Davies, while finishing ahead of Rachel Hetherington (-4) and the rest of her rookie class. Her final stats from the tournament were almost an exact match of her 2007 stats, except that she putted much better this week, so she averaged under par on the par 3s, par 4s, and par 5s, something very few in the field can boast of. Too bad she couldn't keep up the putting magic of the first two rounds today, but like I said yesterday, I'm happy with this result (and telling myself that I'm an idiot to be disappointed that it wasn't better). Rome wasn't built in a day, &c.
Ai-chan is on the comeback trail. Here's hoping Valentine's Day is kind to her!
Can't tell from the stats if the course was drying out and giving them more roll so her 3-wood was going further or if Ai-chan was pulling out the driver more often today, but she averaged 249 yards off the tee while hitting more fairways than in previous rounds, so either way it's a positive sign. She still couldn't hit enough greens (10/18) to give herself a lot of good birdie chances, though, and her PPGIR (1.80) suffered for it. So she held steady at -1 Sunday to finish at -6, while getting passed by Sakura Yokomine for low Japanese honors and falling further behind Louise Stahle (-11) and Karin Sjodin (-9) for low Class of '06 honors. That said, she was within 4 of Karrie Webb, 3 of Ji-Yai Shin, and 2 of Laura Davies, while finishing ahead of Rachel Hetherington (-4) and the rest of her rookie class. Her final stats from the tournament were almost an exact match of her 2007 stats, except that she putted much better this week, so she averaged under par on the par 3s, par 4s, and par 5s, something very few in the field can boast of. Too bad she couldn't keep up the putting magic of the first two rounds today, but like I said yesterday, I'm happy with this result (and telling myself that I'm an idiot to be disappointed that it wasn't better). Rome wasn't built in a day, &c.
Ai-chan is on the comeback trail. Here's hoping Valentine's Day is kind to her!
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