Michelob Ultra Open Thursday: Ochoa Just Misses Course Record, But 29 Still Within 5 of Her

At the end of last month, in a post that got visited almost 1800 times (a Mostly Harmless record by far), I had this to say about Lorena Ochoa:

These are the 2 stats that matter. Even with her recent struggles, Ochoa has won 3 of her last 12 LPGA events. And yet, the same score that got her an 11-stroke win last season got her a 1-shot victory this one--and 10 golfers finished within 11 shots of her this time around. There's no doubt she's the best--and hottest--female professional golfer on the planet. But she'll need her A-game to stay there.

Nothing all that controversial; she herself had this to say about her win:

"In a golf tournament, where one [stroke] is enough to win, there is no difference. This is a complicated year, there are many players who want to win, you can see that every week," Ochoa added. "This year, it will be very hard to win by 10. That is why I keep practicing, trying to improve--to remain on top of them."

And she picked up on that theme in her pre-tournament interview this week:

I always play to win, every tournament; it doesn't matter where I am. Here, it's been close a couple of years. I'm just hoping this is my time. I don't have a reason to change anything, just play my same golf, and hopefully I think that there are so many good players, and the competition is very tough. So what is important is just to go one day at a time, to get off to a good start tomorrow and just to go from there.

So it should be no surprise that even after closing out her fantastic round with a pair of birdies on the tough finishing holes to pull within 1 shot of the course record, Ochoa was still focusing on the challenges ahead in her post-round interview:

Of course, I am working really hard for the win. I don't need to put pressure on myself. I'm going to do my best. This is only the start. We have three more days. I'm going to do them one at a time, and my goal is to give myself a chance on Sunday.

After all the failed attempts to revive the "Lorena more dominant than Tiger" meme from early 2008 that cropped up after her win at the Corona, it was especially great to see Hank Kurz of the AP focusing so much on the closest golfers to Ochoa among the 29 within 5 shots of the lead after her opening 64 at the Michelob Ultra. Kurz does a great job of pointing out how much closer some of those players could have been:

Other notables making a run at the leaderboard included 2005 winner Cristie Kerr, who got to 4 under but then stumbled to finish at 2 under; rookie Vicky Hurst, who got to 4 under but gave two shots back on her last four holes; and another rookie, Michelle Wie, who got to 3 under after her first 12 holes, but had two bogeys coming in to finish six shots back....

Makable missed putts, on the other hand, can drag a player down, and Seon Hwa Lee said she missed three from about 10 feet, but still came away smiling after her bogey-free 67.

She started her round by hitting her approach on the par-4 10th to inches away for a tap-in birdie, added three more birdies from no further away than 12 feet away and knew she could have gone much lower had she not made par at all three par 5s, typical scoring holes.

"I think tomorrow I’ll be better," she said.

And the list goes on: Ai Miyazato was -3 through her 1st 12 holes of bogey-free golf, but gave it all back over her last 6 holes on the front. Eun-Hee Ji bogeyed 16 and 17 to fall back to E, as well. Hound Dog even nails a great Twitter quote from Jane Park, who combined Miyazato and Ji's way of coming back to earth. These were costly mistakes, as all these players and more (like Ya Ni Tseng, Hee Young Park, and Ji Young Oh) find themselves T46. But others who hit a wall yesterday find themselves in even worse shape. Jee Young Lee made 4 birdies in her 1st 8 holes but went +3 over her last 10 without making a birdie and ended up with a 72 (+1, T67). Moira Dunn birdied her 1st 2 holes and was -2 through 5, but closed badly on each side to drop back to +3 (T101).

So let's take a closer look at the top of the Michelob Ultra leaderboard again. Sure, Lindsey Wright has been playing very well of late, so her bogey-free 65 shouldn't be that much of a surprise, nor should the 67 by Na Yeon Choi, the 68s by Suzann Pettersen and Angela Stanford, or the 69s by Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, and Song-Hee Kim. They're among the hottest players on the planet, after all.

No, what is a surprise is how many top players are making comebacks like Seon Hwa Lee did. Hee Won Han's closing 31 helped her to her lowest round since last August, a 66 matched by one of the formerly coldest players on tour, Minea Blomqvist, who did all her damage with a closing 30. Sarah Lee fired 7 birdies on her way to matching them and continuing her comeback from a near-disappearance all of last season (at 268 yards off the tee, she was one of the longest players in the field, as well). Amy Yang eagled the par-5 3rd hole on her way to a bogey-free 67, her lowest round on the LPGA (she's gone much lower on the LET and I'm waiting for her to do it in the States). And Hye Jung Choi would have joined Yang but for a walkoff bogey that still netted her her best round of 2009. On a more modest scale, seeing Shiho Oyama (69, T16) and Shanshan Feng (70, T30) each bounce back from a double bogey to post under-par rounds gives me hope that they're on the comeback trail after frigid starts to their seasons.

When a new cast of characters steps up to challenge Ochoa after stumbles by Pat Hurst and Morgan Pressel (73, T85), Karrie Webb and Inbee Park (74, T101), Mi Hyun Kim and Se Ri Pak (75, T116), Angela Park (76, T126), Stacy Lewis (77, T131), and Christina Kim (78, T138), you know the competition on the LPGA is intense. We'll see how many players can keep up if Ochoa drops another mid-60s round on the field in the next 3 days, but the bottom line is this: this week is a great opportunity for someone to turn their 2009 around.

[Update 1 (10:15 am): Nice chatty piece by Tom Robinson on the Wie-Hurst-Lincicome pairing.]

[Update 2 (10:24 am): Dave Fairbank was impressed with Hurst, as well, while Rich Radford, Vic Dorr, and Dave Johnson focused on Lorena.]

[Update 3 (10:32 am): Nice behind the ropes stuff from the local media!]

Salonpas Cup Thursday: It's Crowded at the Top

The 1st round of the JLPGA's 1st major of 2009, the Salonpas Cup, is in the books, and the leaderboard is packed with some of the hottest golfers in Asia. Let's jump right to it!

T1/-4 Ji-Hee Lee, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Akiko Fukushima, Hyun-Ju Shin (68)
T5/-3 Shinobu Moromizato, Ah-Reum Hwang, Tamie Durdin, Yukari Baba, Yasuko Satoh (69)
T10/-2 Chie Arimura, Maiko Wakabayashi, Saiki Fujita, Yun-Jye Wei, Ai Ogawa (70)

T15/-1 Paula Creamer, Akane Iijima, Hiroko Yamaguchi, Yuki Ichinose (71)
T24/E Yuri Fudoh, Yuko Mitsuka, Erina Hara, Li-Ying Ye (72)
T34/+1 Sakura Yokomine, Miho Koga, Ayako Uehara, Bo-Bae Song, Eun A Lim, Woo Soon Ko, Da-Ye Na (73)
T49/+2 Hiromi Mogi, Rui Kitada, Mie Nakata, Nikki Campbell, Rikako Morita (74)
T65/+3 Gwladys Nocera, Miki Saiki, Midori Yoneyama, Yuko Saitoh, Sakurako Mori (75)
T79/+4 Na Zhang, Kaori Higo (76)
T97/+6 Ji-Woo Lee (78)
T104/+7 Riko Higashio, Esther Lee (79)
T110/+8 Kumiko Kaneda (80)

Asian Golf Daily does a decent job on the 1st round, but they should know that Hwang is not Korean and have a better sense of who the big names on the JLPGA are. At least they're covering the event--I'm still waiting on the Kyodo story to go online.... More later!

The Best of the Young Guns: Super Soph Edition, April 2009

Better late than never: here's my updated ranking of last year's LPGA rookie class, just in time for the Michelob Ultra. No desire to throw cold water on Ron Sirak's expertly-done hyping of the Solheim Cup-inspired American surge on the LPGA, but I have to doubt he'd sound so optimistic if the winners of the U.S.-Europe team showdown had to face the winners of a Team Korea vs. Team Japan Kyoraku/Pinx Cup competition. (Yeah, yeah, it got snowed out last year, but that just bolsters my case that the JLPGA and KLPGA should rethink the event.) (And, yes, even following up on my idea would not be inclusive enough, but gotta start somewhere and I can see the U.S. team becoming a Team Americas, Europe teaming up with Africa, Korea teaming up with mainland Asia, and Japan teaming up with the Asian-Pacific.) Sorry for the double digression there: my point is that the Class of 2008 is not the place to look for American dominance!

Simply the Best

1. Ya Ni Tseng. Already recognized as one of the top players in the world, she hasn't finished worse than 17th in 7 starts this season. But when will she finally get her 2nd win?
2. Na Yeon Choi. Still pitching a perfect game when it comes to making cuts, she's fallen further behind her Rookie of the Year rival in every major stat. But with Tseng's difficulty in notching win #2, it wouldn't take much for Choi to make up a lot of ground in a little time.

The Contenders
3. Momoko Ueda. For someone who just had her wisdom teeth removed, she's been playing all right, but unless she picks up her game, she's going to fall further down the world rankings. She's in little danger of falling down these rankings, though, as most of her peers are mired in sophomore slumps that make hers look miniscule in comparison.
4. Hee Young Park. Except for 2 fantastic rounds, she doesn't have much to speak of this season, but they certainly show what kind of talent she has.
5. Shanshan Feng. At least her bad start to this season isn't as horrific as her terrible start to her rookie season, but that's not much of a silver lining....
6. Amy Yang. Still nt playing close to her potential on the LPGA, but at least she's making cuts at a rate that suggests she can hang with the best once she starts playing like she's capable of.

Quantum Leap Candidates
7. Louise Friberg. She's going through what Meaghan Francella did after getting her 1st career LPGA win--suffering through a major slump. Francella seems to be coming out of hers, so give Friberg time....
8. Sandra Gal. Her stats are way off from last year
9. Anja Monke. She hasn't been able to maintain the level of play that brought her a pair of wins late in the LET '08 season, despite some solid winter golf, but once she starts putting better, look for some top 20s at least from her--that GIR rate it pretty impressive!

On the Bottom, Looking Up
10. Jimin Jeong. One of the few players in her class to show serious improvement from her rookie season, she's leapfrogged a lot of people and moved up to #158 on the current LPGA priority list. Her made cut rate suggests she has the potential to move up a rank next time I do this ranking.
11. Eunjung Yi. At #152 on the priority list, she should have many opportunities to play her way out of her bad start to the season.
12. Carolina Llano. At #130 on the priority list, she has a great chance to make the top 80 on the money list this season, if she can just start playing better.
13. Taylor Leon. At #156 on the priority list, she'll have her chances this season to make the top 80, but like Yi and Llano, she'll have to take better advantage of them when they come.
14. Sarah Kemp. At #162 on the priority list, she'll need a little more help to get into enough events to have a shot at the top 80....
15. Anna Grzebien. At #119 on the priority list, she's in the best shape of anyone at this level in her class, but she'll need to make more birdies to take advantage of that status.
16. Leah Wigger. At #147 on the priority list, she can't drop much further down it, so she should get into enough events to play her way out of her slump.
17. Ashleigh Simon. On the comeback trail from back injuries that sidelined her for most of the season, we'll see what shape her game is in this week. At #141 on the priority list, we should be seeing a lot more of her in the coming months.
18. Anna Rawson. Yikes! She seemed to have built up great momentum from Q-School and a solid Australian swing, but she's missed the cut in all 4 LPGA events she's gotten into. At #134 on the priority list, she'll have plenty of opportunities to stage a comeback, though.

On the Outside, Looking In (Futures Tour or worse in '09)
19. Onnarin Sattayabanphot. At #19 on the Futures Tour money list, she's played well below my expectations thus far.
20. Hannah Jun. Ditto, except she's at #26 on the FT money list.
21. Liz Janangelo. Ditto, except she's at #24 on the FT money list.
22. Sarah Oh. Played well in Australia this winter, including a win against a pretty strong field, so I'm not sure why she hasn't started playing on the FT yet....
23. Nicole Hage. At #14 on the FT money list, she's far exceeding my expectations.
24. Hwanhee Lee. At #56 on the FT money list, she's exceeding my expectations.
25. Sofie Andersson. At #68 on the FT money list, she's playing below my expectations.
26. Violeta Retamoza. At #95 on the FT money list, she's playing well below my expectations.
27. Chris Brady. At #104 on the FT money list, she's also playing far below my expectations.
28. Emma Cabrera-Bello. 2 missed cuts on the LET's Australian swing get her off to a slow start in '09, but she'll have plenty of chances to improve there.
29. Amie Hartje. Not yet listed as a FT member in 2009, I believe she's eligible for membership.
30. Sukjin Lee Wuesthoff. I can't find any evidence that she's playing professional golf anywhere.

For your reference--and mine--here are the stats on which I'm basing the April ranking.

2009 LPGA Money List (rank), stroke average (rank), birdies per round average (rank [in total birdies]), greens in regulation rate (rank): I focus on four key indicators of how well someone is playing this season--how much money they've made, how they've scored, how many birdies they've averaged per round, and how many greens they've hit in regulation on average per round, plus how they rank in each category (except for birdies, which LPGA.com ranks by total and not by average). I figure I can figure out how well they're hitting their irons and putting by comparing the last three figures, so I don't include putts per green in regulation here. Some of the figures Hound Dog thinks are the most important I'm looking at in the career stats (below), where I think they belong. These stats are all about the present and future.

1. Ya Ni Tseng, $366.4K (#5), 70.31 (#2), 4.27 (#1), 70.2% (#16)
2. Na Yeon Choi, $263.2K (#10), 71.27 (#7), 3.38 (#6), 68.2% (#22)
3. Hee Young Park, $181.0K (#17), 72.76 (#30), 2.48 (#41), 58.1% (#93)
4. Momoko Ueda, $52.3K (#46), 72.85 (#34), 2.54 (#85), 64.8% (#39)
5. Shanshan Feng, $41.3K (#54), 73.53 (#57), 2.63 (#48), 61.1% (#65)
6. Sandra Gal, $31.1K (#63), 73.82 (#64), 2.82 (#54), 56.5% (#102)
7. Jimin Jeong, $30.5K (#65), 73.46 (#55), 2.92 (#74), 60.2% (#74)
8. Taylor Leon, $20.9K (#78), 74.22 (#81), 2.67 (#103), 55.6% (#106)
9. Eunjung Yi, $20.0K (#79), 74.45 (#93), 2.73 (#92), 43.1% (#140)
10. Anna Grzebien, $17.8K (#86), 73.92 (#70), 2.17 (#99), 62.2% (#55)
11. Anja Monke, $17.1K (#87), 73.36 (#51), 2.43 (#81), 75.6% (#2)
12. Amy Yang, $16.0K (#90), 73.24 (#48), 2.53 (#62), 60.2% (#74)
13. Louise Friberg, $13.4K (#92), 75.72 (#122), 2.56 (#57), 52.8% (#117)
14. Carolina Llano, $13.1K (#95), 74.40 (#89), 2.30 (#109), 62.2% (#55)
15. Leah Wigger, $10.4K (#106), 74.64 (#98), 1.91 (#117), 58.3% (#89)
16. Sarah Kemp, $7.3K (#118), 73.57 (n.r.), ?, ?
17. Anna Rawson, $0 (n.r.), 75.63 (#119), 1.63 (#135), 55.6% (#106)
18. Ashleigh Simon, $0 (n.r.), 76.50, ?, ?

Career LPGA Money List (rank), # of LPGA events entered/majors/wins/top 3s/top 10s/top 20s/cuts made (made cut rate): About the only thing these stats are useful for is comparing people who entered the LPGA in the same year (although if you count generations by 3 years, it can be interesting). Between inflation, changing purses, and length/timing of careers, it's very hard to compare and contrast winnings across generations of LPGA greats. Fortunately the Super Sophs haven't been at this all too long, so the career money list is a decent stat for comparing them, even if it's a bit unfair to people who have not been exempt both years. What would really be great is if we had a world money list in inflation-adjusted dollars, with inflation- and exchange-adjusted other cash denominations added in (or just totalled up separately to avoid comparing dollars and yen), which included all each golfer earned as a professional on any tour. But even the guys don't have that, so that'll have to remain a dream for now--although Thomas Atkins has posted an inflation-adjusted LPGA Career Top 50 as of the end of the 2008 season over at Hound Dog's place and just come out with a Top 50 ranking. In any case, I include these other ways of seeing how the Super Sophs finished relative to their competition in the tournaments they entered because they reveal a lot about how well someone is able to compete at every level, from just making cuts to grinding out top 20s and top 10s to contending for wins. Many thanks to the LPGA for updating their 2009 Performance Chart after every event!

1. Ya Ni Tseng, $2.12M (#87), 34/1/1/9/15/25/33 (.971)
2. Na Yeon Choi, $1.36M (#128), 34/0/0/5/12/23/34 (1.000)
3. Hee Young Park, $655.7K (#230), 34/0/0/1/5/8/27 (.794)
4. Shanshan Feng, $514.1K (#257), 32/0/0/1/5/7/19 (.594)
5. Momoko Ueda, $465.8K (#263), 23/0/0/0/3/7/19 (.826)
6. Louise Friberg, $408.4K (#285), 31/0/1/1/3/4/18 (.581)
7. Sandra Gal, $212.3K (#371), 28/0/0/0/0/4/20 (.714)
8. Eunjung Yi, $115.2K (#437), 17/0/0/0/0/1/10 (.588)
9. Jimin Jeong, $112.4K (#441), 17/0/0/0/1/2/12 (.706)
10. Taylor Leon, $106.5K (#451), 20/0/0/0/2/4/9 (.450)
11. Carolina Llano, $101.0K (#456), 27/0/0/0/1/1/13 (.481)
12. Sarah Kemp, $80.7K (#485), 22/0/0/0/0/2/11 (.500)
13. Amy Yang, $76.8K (#490), 12/0/0/0/1/3/9 (.750)
14. Anna Rawson, $62.8K (#509), 17/0/0/0/1/2/5 (.294)
15. Anna Grzebien, $56.9K (#521), 19/0/0/0/0/1/8 (.421)
16. Anja Monke, $53.1K (#530), 9/0/0/0/0/0/7 (.778)
17. Liz Janangelo, $34.0K (#567), 22/0/0/0/0/0/9 (.409)
18. Hannah Jun, $32.0K (#572), 9/0/0/0/0/0/5 (.556)
19. Leah Wigger, $24.5K (#587), 10/0/0/0/0/0/5 (.500)
20. Ashleigh Simon, $24.5K (#589), 16/0/0/0/0/0/7 (.438)
21. Amie Cochran, $17.2K (#616), 5/0/0/0/0/1/1 (.200)
22. Onnarin Sattayabanphot, $8.6K (#664), 8/0/0/0/0/0/2 (.250)
23. Nicole Hage, $8.4K (#665), 7/0/0/0/0/0/2 (.286)
24. Chris Brady, $6.1K (#682), 4/0/0/0/0/0/2 (.500)
25. Violeta Retamoza, $2.5K (#715), 19/0/0/0/0/0/1 (.053)
26. Emma Cabrera-Bello, $0K (n.r.), 2/0/0/0/0/0/0 (.000)
27. Sarah Oh, $0K (n.r.), 3/0/0/0/0/0/0 (.000)
28. Hwanhee Lee, $0K (n.r.), 5/0/0/0/0/0/0 (.000)
29. Sukjin Lee Wuesthoff, $0K (n.a.), 0/0/0/0/0/0/0 (.000)
30. Sofie Andersson, $0K (n.a.), 0/0/0/0/0/0/0 (.000)

Other Career Measures: Rolex Ranking (as of 5/4/09) and rank, Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index (as of 5/3/09) and rank, International and Non-Member LPGA Wins (as of the end of the 2008 season): This is a way of seeing how those Junior Mints who sometimes or regularly or often compete on other tours stack up over the course of their careers to date (the RR includes results over the past 104 weeks on the LPGA, LET, JLPGA, KLPGA, and Futures Tour; the GSPI includes results over the past 52 weeks on all these tours except the KLPGA).

1. Ya Ni Tseng, 8.77 (#2), 69.66 (#6); 0
2. Na Yeon Choi, 3.67 (#12), 69.92 (#8); 4
3. Momoko Ueda, 3.05 (#24), 70.79 (#22); 7
4. Hee Young Park, 2.19 (#45), 71.44 (#47); 4
5. Shanshan Feng, 1.95 (#50), 72.03 (#72); 0
6. Amy Yang, 1.21 (#75), 72.04 (#73); 3
7. Louise Friberg, 1.04 (#86), 73.07 (#123); 0
8. Sandra Gal, .80 (#107); 71.96 (#69); 0
9. Anja Monke, .61 (#127), 73.03 (#122); 2
10. Jimin Jeong, .51 (#148), 72.96 (#116); 0
11. Sarah Kemp, .46 (#160), 74.27 (#225); 0
12. Eunjung Yi, .46 (#163), 72.57 (#94); 0
13. Anna Rawson, .38 (#191), 73.40 (#141); 0
14. Taylor Leon, .35 (#201), 74.39 (#236); 0
15. Anna Grzebien, .20 (#259), 73.51 (#150); 0
16. Ashleigh Simon, .20 (#260), 74.41 (#240); 1
17. Carolina Llano, .20 (#266), 74.08 (#206); 0
18. Sarah Oh, .20 (#268), 74.27 (n.r.); 0
19. Leah Wigger, .11 (#341), 74.15 (#210); 0
20. Emma Cabrera-Bello, .05 (#430), 75.22 (#303); 0
21. Liz Janangelo, .05 (#433), 74.83 (#278); 0
22. Onnarin Sattayabanphot, .05 (#446), 74.31 (#230); 0
23. Nicole Hage, .04 (#465), 75.71 (#332); 0
24. Amie Cochran, .03 (#520), 78.25 (n.r.); 0
25. Hannah Jun, .02 (#579), 74.21 (#218); 0
26. Violeta Retamoza, .01 (#639), 78.16 (#491); 0
27. Sofie Andersson, .01 (#719), 77.49 (#453); 0
28. Hwanhee Lee, n.r., 75.95 (#351); 0
29. Chris Brady, n.r., 77.48 (#451); 0
30. Sukjin Lee Wuesthoff, n.r., n.r.; 0

Here's my schedule for the rest of the season:

May: Young Guns (post-Corning)
June: Class of 2006 (post-Wegmans)
July: Class of 2007 (pre-WBO)
August: Class of 2008 (post-Safeway)
September: Young Guns (post-Longs Drugs)
October: Class of 2006 (post-Korea)
November: Class of 2007 (post-Stanford)
December: Class of 2008 (post-Q School)
January '10: Young Guns; Class of 2009 (final 2009 ranking)

Michelob Ultra Preview/Predictions/Pairings

The Michelob Ultra, which may well have the LPGA's best states-side claim to "5th major" status, is finally here! As always, Hound Dog's preview is the place to start, but also check out the tournament history, historical results, and last few leaderboards, along with my latest LPGA hot list. [Update (5/7/09, 2:03 am): And Hound Dog's.]

From the hole-by-hole overview, I'm trying to figure out why Jee Young Lee has always played the River Course so well. Perhaps it's the combination of short par 5s and longish par 3s? With water on 17 and 18, there certainly will be a lot of drama down the stretch, provided someone isn't lapping the field, as Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam have done 2 of the last 3 years. Here are my top picks for this week's Pakpicker at Seoul Sisters.com:

1. Ochoa
2. Lee Jee Young
3. Pettersen
4. Kerr
5. Webb
6. Hull
7. Tseng
8. Shin
9. Choi Na Yeon
10. Stanford
11. Hurst, Vicky
12. Wie

Alts: Christina Kim, Lang, Yang

The pairings are particularly well-done this week. Just take a look at who's grouped together in the late-morning back-side prime-time quadrant:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Michelle Wie
Vicky Hurst
Brittany Lincicome

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Ai Miyazato
Seon Hwa Lee
Angela Park

Start Time: 8:54 AM
Stacy Prammanasudh
Ji Young Oh
Hee Young Park

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Lindsey Wright
Silvia Cavalleri
Sun Young Yoo

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Meena Lee
Momoko Ueda
Jimin Kang

Start off with the long-hitting young Americans, go to the top precision players among the LPGA's Young Guns (who all have struggled at Kingsmill, by the way), then a trio with solid records at the River Course, and finish with a mix of international players who are itching to break through and whose games may well be ready for prime time. Not bad!

But as great as these pairings are, their counterparts going off the 1st tee are even better:

Start Time: 8:32 AM
Eun-Hee Ji
Hee-Won Han
Jee Young Lee

Start Time: 8:43 AM
Brandie Burton
Inbee Park
Louise Friberg

Start Time: 8:54 AM
Pat Hurst
Katherine Hull
Carin Koch

Start Time: 9:05 AM
Cristie Kerr
Suzann Pettersen
Karrie Webb

Start Time: 9:16 AM
Lorena Ochoa
Ji-Yai Shin
Angela Stanford

'Nuff said, eh? After that, it's hard to get that excited about the front-side early-afternoon pairings, but don't be fooled. Any of these players are ready to turn their 2009s around:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Mi Hyun Kim
In-Kyung Kim
Laura Diaz

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Meaghan Francella
Rachel Hetherington
Sophie Gustafson

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Giulia Sergas
Sarah Lee
Nicole Castrale

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Heather Young
Laura Davies
Song-Hee Kim

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Teresa Lu
Brittany Lang
Na Yeon Choi

And the last 4 names on this list have some pretty decent momentum heading into Kingsmill. That leaves the early-afternoon back-side prime-time quadrant to provide the interesting pairings:

Start Time: 12:10 PM
Young Kim
Wendy Ward
Alena Sharp

Start Time: 12:21 PM
Ya Ni Tseng
Jane Park
Lorie Kane

Start Time: 12:32 PM
Maria Hjorth
Candie Kung
Helen Alfredsson

Start Time: 12:43 PM
Christina Kim
Kristy McPherson
Morgan Pressel

Start Time: 12:54 PM
Se Ri Pak
Natalie Gulbis
Juli Inkster

Let's go in reverse order. 2 active Hall of Famers with a popular American star? Check. A trio of young Americans who are all playing pretty well coming into this week? Check. A trio of veteran international players (including 1 naturalized U.S. citizen) who could contend any given week? Check. A showdown between 2 of the top Young Guns on the LPGA? Check. A veteran playing great golf paired with 2 players in the prime of their careers who are hungry to break through? Check.

With Stacy Lewis 1st off the 1st and Karen Stupples last off the back, you know this field is packed. Should be a fantastic week--let's hope the weather holds up for them!

Recommended Reading: Happy Fan on Hee Kyung Seo

In case anyone was wondering why I ranked Hee Kyung Seo the hottest golfer in East Asia yesterday and the Seoul Sisters blog among the best on women's golf back in January, check out Happy Fan's profile of the winner of the KLPGA's 1st major of 2009....