Mostly Harmless

Daio Paper ElleAir Ladies Overview: Arimura Hits the -20 Mark, Gets Win #5 of '09

2009-11-22T09:13:00.000-05:00

2nd-round leader Chie Arimura followed up on yesterday's scintillating 62 with a bogey-free 67, her 2nd of the week at the Daio Paper ElleAir Ladies, to reach -20 over the 54-hole event and match Shinobu Moromizato and Sakura Yokomine with 5 wins on the season. 3 birdies in her last 4 holes sealed an 8-shot margin of victory over amateur Harukyo Nomura, one of the largest in my memory of covering the JLPGA. Yuko Mitsuka, who's headed for LPGA Q-School in a couple of weeks, was the only other player in the field to break 70 all 3 rounds, and she ended up 9 behind Arimura.

1st/-20 Chie Arimura (67-62-67)
2nd/-12 Harukyo Nomura (67-66-71)
T3/-11 Rui Kitada (70-67-68), Yuko Mitsuka (68-69-68)
T5/-10 Michie Ohba (71-68-67), Mayu Hattori (72-66-68), Momoko Ueda (67-71-68), Nikki Campbell (66-70-70)
T9/-9 Shinobu Moromizato (68-71-68), Yuri Fudoh (70-68-69), Ah-Reum Hwang (68-69-70), Ji-Hee Lee (67-70-70), Toshimi Kimura (68-66-73)

T14/-8 Kuniko Maeda (70-68-70), Maria Iida (70-68-70), Julie Lu (69-69-70)
T18/-7 Bo-Bae Song (72-67-70), Yukari Baba (66-72-71)
T20/-6 Miho Koga (70-71-69), Hyun-Ju Shin (70-71-69), Miki Saiki (69-69-72)
T24/-5 Na-Ri Lee (72-69-70), Eun-A Lim (75-65-71)
T27/-4 So-Hee Kim (73-70-69)
T29/-3 Yumiko Yoshida (75-69-69), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-73-70), Hiromi Mogi (75-67-71), Ji-Woo Lee (68-73-72)
T37/-2 Sakura Yokomine (74-70-70), Yuko Saitoh (72-69-73)
T40/-1 Esther Lee (73-69-73), Akane Iijima (72-70-73), Erina Hara (71-71-73)
T47/E Saiki Fujita (73-71-72), Yun-Jye Wei (74-69-73)
54th/+4 Yuki Ichinose (69-74-77)

With 1 week to go in the money-list race, Moromizato's 7-shot lead on Yokomine this week didn't translate into that much of a bigger lead in yen. And Arimura is right in the mix.

1. Shinobu Moromizato ￥155.43M
2. Sakura Yokomine ￥150.02M
3. Chie Arimura ￥138.39M

4. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥126.18M

5. Yuko Mitsuka ￥89.79M

6. Bo-Bae Song ￥71.21M
7. Ji-Hee Lee ￥69.86M
8. Miho Koga ￥69.70M

9. Yukari Baba ￥56.18M

10. Nikki Campbell ￥49.75M
11. Ayako Uehara ￥46.68M
12. Eun-A Lim ￥46.36M
13. Akiko Fukushima ￥45.79M
14. Yuko Saitoh ￥43.84M
15. Yuri Fudoh ￥43.49M
16. Rui Kitada ￥42.47M
17. Miki Saiki ￥41.92M
18. Ai Miyazato ￥41.06M

19. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥39.59M
20. Ji-Yai Shin ￥37.42M
21. Tamie Durdin ￥37.00M
22. Momoko Ueda ￥37.00M

23. Erina Hara ￥34.79M
24. Mayu Hattori ￥34.64M
25. Akane Iijima ￥32.80M
26. Hiromi Mogi ￥32.35M

27. Rikako Morita ￥30.40M
28. Michie Ohba ￥29.00M
29. Na-Ri Lee ￥28.29M
30. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥28.16M
31. Ji-Woo Lee ￥27.04M
32. Midori Yoneyama ￥26.91M
33. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥26.41M
34. Saiki Fujita ￥26.38M
35. Kaori Aoyama ￥26.05M
36. Li-Ying Ye ￥25.01M

37. So-Hee Kim ￥20.74M
38. Julie Lu ￥20.07M
39. Yuki Ichinose ￥19.21M

40. Nobuko Kizawa ￥17.81M
41. Hiromi Takesue ￥17.59M
42. Yui Kawahara ￥16.72M
43. Junko Omote ￥16.56M
44. Mie Nakata ￥16.52M
45. Tomoko Kusakabe ￥16.50M
46. Maria Iida ￥16.48M
47. Kuniko Maeda ￥15.75M
48. Yun-Jye Wei ￥15.32M
49. Natsu Nagai ￥15.06M
50. Tomomi Hirose ￥14.83M

So these players won't have to do JLPGA Q-School. The 2009 winners face off in the Ricoh Cup for all the marbles! Should be good!

Paging Bill Huffman...and Geoff Shackelford

2009-11-21T06:45:00.004-05:00

Bill Huffman is a very angry man right now. And it's hard for me to blame him. If it were the Wegmans in Rochester that had bitten the dust and not the Phoenix event in his neck of the, uh, desert, I'd be far madder than he is. But with Geoff Shackelford egging him on, the twin targets of Huffman's rant are likely to be lost, with the spotlight likely to be on the "LPGA leaving Phoenix," as Shackelford puts it, and not on Huffman's more accurate "we will rue the day we let this tournament get away" line.

What Huffman inconsistently acknowledges is that it takes 2 to tango (see my 4th and 5th points in my own hitchhiker's guide to the 2010 schedule). If there's no LPGA tournament in Phoenix next season, they have only themselves to blame. Check the following lines from his piece where he as much as acknowledges this:

After all, it wasn’t that long ago--2005--that the LPGA left Tucson after a similar run ended with no corporate sponsor.

In fact, with no real group in charge of pushing to bring the women's tour back to the Valley any time soon, there was not even anyone to call locally for a reaction. I did try the Portland-based Tournament Golf Foundation, which had managed the event for the past six years, but its spokesperson failed to call back....

[W]hen the LPGA's shrunken 2010 sked was released Wednesday, there really were no surprises as far as Phoenix was concerned. Most people had expected Arizona to be left off the master plan chiefly because corporate sponsorship for golf in the Valley has been nil since the economy went belly up. Or did you forget that the Champions and Nationwide tours met a similar demise here, and that the FBR Open is desperately searching for a title sponsor?

So just who should Huffman be pissed off at here? Michael Whan for recognizing that the women's game has gone global? Uh, Bill, it was Marty Evans and Zayra Calderon who were in charge of salvaging the 2010 schedule after Bivens left town with 9 tournaments set in stone. How about the LPGA leadership for taking the tour where the most committed fans, sponsors, and tv entities are based? So they're supposed to pass up opportunities abroad out of, what, patriotism? OK, how about the tour for not having the financial resources to float the Phoenix event for the 2nd-straight year? Ah, now we're on to something! Huffman is mad because the LPGA wouldn't provide Phoenix with another year of corporate welfare. Let's see, they're losing revenues, laying people off, on the hook for the LPGA Tour Championship (which is riddled with TBAs and TBDs), and they should make their #1 priority doing for Phoenix what Phoenix can't do for itself?

Look, Bill, this is no time to wax nostalgic:

What's hard to believe is the LPGA in Phoenix died without a whimper despite it being so successful, annually drawing over 100,000 fans for the week. A truly amazing downward spiral considering all that’s happened here since one-time superstar Jan Stephenson captured the original event in Sun City way back in 1980.

I mean who can forget Annika Sorenstam's one-and-only 59 recorded here in 2001, one of her three victories in Phoenix? Or Laura Davies' record-breaking four in row at Moon Valley from 1994 to 1997? Or the fact that Lorena Ochoa helped propel herself to No. 1 in the world thanks in part to her back-to-back victories at Superstition Mountain in 2007-08, a stunning feat that thrilled her Hispanic following and created a truly rare moment in the lily-white sport of golf?

Don't mourn: organize! If Huffman would take a chill pill, stop, and think, he'd realize he should be talking to everyone in Phoenix (and, I suppose, some people in Portland) about putting in a bid to host the LPGA Tour Championship next season in Arizona. If the LPGA is going to lose domestic events in the short run, far better to upgrade the tournaments that have shown the most loyalty and support to the tour than to let them die. With the LPGA Championship coming to Rochester, NY--masking, as Hound Dog pointed out, a net loss of 1 tournament from the 2008 schedule--why doesn't Phoenix follow suit and put up some serious money to host the tour's season-ending event?

For the longer term, the issue is not globalization or the success of golfers of Asian descent. I'm a fan of both trends, but even I don't see all that much room for the LPGA to expand in the Asian Pacific. Let's say Whan follows my advice and seeks co-sponsorships with the tours in that region, so that, say, by 2012--following the return of the ADT Championship to Florida and the upgrading of the unofficial event in Rio to the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship in late January--the LPGA goes from Korea (with the KLPGA) to Thailand (with the JLPGA) to Taiwan (and now I'm really dreaming here, with the CLPGA) to Australia (with the LET and ALPG) to Singapore (with everyone) for 6 events in February and March--all regular full-field tournaments, with cuts. Wouldn't taking the risk on that kind of international travel be a better deal for the LPGA's rank-and-file than tuning up on the Cactus Tour and the SunCoast Series? After all, the top players can miss cuts just like everyone else. That's kind of how they stop being top players.

Not only could such globalization benefit American players, but so would moving the later Asian swing to follow fairly directly upon the European swing, as Happy Fan has suggested over at Seoul Sisters.com, and upgrading them to full-field events with cuts. The weather would be better in late August and early September than late October and early November in China, Korea, and Japan (and perhaps 1 or 2 more Asian countries, but more likely India than Malaysia or the Philippines, as Huffman snarks at the end of his piece), plus it would be a great follow-up to the annual mid-August synchronized Solheim/Kyoraku-Pinx Cup global showdown I've been calling for for awhile now. And best of all, doing this would allow the LPGA to concentrate its North American events--including the ones in Canada and Mexico, which almost everyone not named Bill Jempty is counting toward the international total when they're played in the same time zones as American ones--in a stretch run in the fall that could capitalize on the momentum from the late summer abroad and drum up more interest in what are just as likely to be tight pennant races then as now.

So even a globalization booster like myself can't envision more than 10-12 LPGA events in the Asian Pacific and South America in the medium term--and just about all of them would be co-sponsored with other women's tours, if I had my way. That puts the ball squarely in the court of the LPGA's North American sponsors. If they would step up and commit to doubling the number of events outside North America, the LPGA would have a minimum of 30-36 events by 2012 and globalization would end up being a win-win for everyone. I don't see why this scenario is any less realistic than Huffman's Chicken Little act.

In the meantime, there's nothing stopping American players from trying to get dual membership on the KLPGA (or, more likely) the JLPGA starting in 2011. Let's say you're a LPGA player or hopeful who doesn't finish in the top 100 on the money list or the top 20 in Q-School at the end of 2010. Why supplement your limited LPGA schedule in 2011 by playing the Futures Tour for peanuts when you could be making a half-million dollars on a minimal schedule on the JLPGA? Sure, the competition is tougher over there than on the FT, but the rewards are much much greater. And if you're tanking against LPGA competition, struggling to make $125K and keep your card for the following season by finishing in the top 80 on the money list, why not play more events and give yourself a fighting chance for the top 50 on the JLPGA (where you'll be making the equivalent of $150K or more)? Language barriers? Culture shock? Fear of the unknown? Ah, so you must really believe the Asian players who come over here are a lot better than you, eh?

The bottom line is, American sponsors and players are going to have to step up their games if they want to compete on a planetary scale. Enough ranting and joking, already! It's time to get serious!

[Update 1 (9:00 am): Are my eyes deceiving me? Is Sal Johnson making more sense than Bill Huffman? Well, Huffman remains the better writer, that's for sure. But Johnson is showing himself to be the better thinker, on the schedule and on Whan, in particular.]

[Update 2 (2:15 pm): Wonder if John Paul Newport has been drinking the Mostly Harmless koolaid, as well?]

[Update 3 (2:25 pm): Hmm, unofficial talks with ADT for 2011? The only change I'd want to see in the format is start with 64, get it down to 32 with a stroke-play cut, then do 2 rounds of match play, and have the final 8 play 18 for $1M.]

[Update 4 (2:30 pm): Nice job by Randall Mell on the players and Whan. And Wie's ankle.]

Daio Paper ElleAir Ladies Update: Arimura's 62 Today Makes Her the Player to Beat

2009-11-21T05:05:00.001-05:00

At this time last year, Sakura Yokomine broke through for her 1st and only victory at 2008's last regular-season event, the Daio Paper ElleAir Ladies, with a convincing win over Midori Yoneyama, Ai Miyazato, Momoko Ueda, and Ji-Hee Lee that brought her into the 100 Million Yen Club for the 2nd straight season and gave her a shot at a money-list title that had been eluding her since 2005, when she finished 4th. But when Miho Koga walked away with a miraculous victory at the following week's final major of the season, the Ricoh Cup, thanks to an epic fail down the stretch by Mi-Jeong Jeon, Yokomine would once again have to settle for a top 3 finish.

Flash forward to the present, when Yokomine's wire-to-wire win last week pulled her within 4 million yen of money-list leader Shinobu Moromizato, and all the momentum seemed to be going her way. But she started her title defense with a lackluster 74 that put her 8 shots behind leaders Nikki Campbell and Yukari Baba and 6 shots behind Moromizato. Well, Yokomine bounced back today with a 70 that ensured she'd be playing tomorrow, but she's now 15 shots behind another player who can put herself in a great position to deny Yokomine yet another money title. Yes, Chie Arimura shot an amazing 10-birdie 62 to take a 4-shot lead on amateur Harukyo Nomura and a 5-shot lead on veteran Toshimi Kimura. But Yokomine is now only 5 behind Moromizato. Assuming neither of them makes a huge move tomorrow, an Arimura win would put her even with them at 5 wins on the season and give her a chance to take the money title with a victory at next week's Ricoh Cup.

But there are still 18 holes left to be played this week. Here's how the leaders and notables stand heading into the final round:

1st/-15 Chie Arimura (67-62)
2nd/-11 Harukyo Nomura (67-66)
3rd/-10 Toshimi Kimura (68-66)
4th/-8 Nikki Campbell (66-70)
T5/-7 Rui Kitada (70-67), Yuko Mitsuka (68-69), Ah-Reum Hwang (68-69), Ji-Hee Lee (67-70)
T9/-6 Mayu Hattori (72-66), Yuri Fudoh (70-68), Kuniko Maeda (70-68), Maria Iida (70-68), Tomomi Hirose (70-68), Miki Saiki (69-69), Julie Lu (69-69), Momoko Ueda (67-71), Yukari Baba (66-72)

T18/-5 Bo-Bae Song (72-67), Shinobu Moromizato (68-71)
T21/-4 Eun-A Lim (75-65)
T25/-3 Yuko Saitoh (72-69), Na-Ri Lee (72-69), Miho Koga (70-71), Hyun-Ju Shin (70-71), Ji-Woo Lee (68-73)
T31/-2 Hiromi Mogi (75-67), Esther Lee (73-69), Akane Iijima (72-70), Erina Hara (71-71)
T40/-1 Yun-Jye Wei (74-69), So-Hee Kim (73-70), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-73), Yuki Ichinose (69-74)
T48/E Yumiko Yoshida (75-69), Sakura Yokomine (74-70), Saiki Fujita (73-71)

Some painful missed cuts for some young stars and living legends:

T57/+1 Kumiko Kaneda (75-70), Ayako Uehara (72-73)
T67/+3 Woo-Soon Ko (77-70), Rikako Morita (75-72)
T74/+4 Maiko Wakabayashi (73-75)
T84/+6 Sakurako Mori (79-71), Ai-Yu Tu (76-74), Da-Ye Na (74-76)

So Yokomine will be looking to chase down Moromizato, while Arimura will be looking to extend her lead on her nearest competitors. We'll see who achieves her goals tomorrow!

[Update 1 (2:41 pm): Hee Kyung Seo heads into the final round of the last KLPGA event of the season 2 shots back of a lesser-known player. Can she avoid getting beat like her rival So Yeon Ryu did last week?]

LPGA Tour Championship Friday: Houston, We Have a Problem!

2009-11-21T04:20:00.003-05:00

LPGA official Doug Brecht said they got some "bonus golf" in on the Houstonian today when it appeared heavy rains would wash away the entire 2nd round of the LPGA Tour Championship. True, half the field didn't even get to tee it off and nobody in the morning pairings actually finished her round. So they're going to need the course to drain well, more rain to hold off, a lot of fast play from the remaining golfers in the field (Candie Kung, Seon Hwa Lee, and Silvia Cavalleri joined Michelle Wie in withdrawing), and a little luck to finish all 72 holes by Sunday afternoon now. But Brecht practically guaranteed that all 72 holes would be played, even if it takes a Monday finish:

Because this is our Tour Championship, it affects Player of the Year, it affects a lot of--all the major awards. If affects players going--who has to go to Q-School and who doesn't have to go to Q-School. It affects players on our priority list and where they fall on that priority list.

There's a ton of things riding on this tournament. Because of that and the importance of it, we are committed to playing 72 holes.

That's music to my ears! I can't tell you how many times over the last few years that the LPGA has annoyed me by cutting 72-hole tournaments back to 54 holes in response to bad weather. If they're not going to take themselves seriously, why should anyone else? This is definitely a step in the right direction.

Speaking of which, it seems that the players who could draw on a wealth of experience took the most steps in the right direction despite the challenging conditions yesterday. Wendy Ward and Helen Alfredsson were -3 on their rounds and for the tournament with 6 and 7 holes left to play on the back, respectively. Juli Inkster joined them at -3 overall after a bogey on the 1st hole brought her back to -1 on her round. They're all 1 shot behind Sophie Gustafson, who birdied 3 of her 1st 6 holes today and played her next 5 holes in +1. If she can finish strong and pass 1st-round leader Lorena Ochoa at -6, she'll be the leader in the clubhouse for quite some time. Meanwhile, Cristie Kerr and Suzanne Pettersen shot 35s on the back to move to -1 overall and are poised to turn up the heat on Ji-Yai Shin, Na Yeon Choi, Ya Ni Tseng, and Ochoa.

But it wasn't only the vets who played well yesterday. Haeji Kang has held steady at -3 overall as she started hot on her 1st 7 holes (playing them in -2) on the back and cooled off over her next 7 (playing them in +2). Jane Park shot a 33 on the front to join Kerr, Pettersen, Karen Stupples, and Mikaela Parmlid at -1 overall. Julieta Granada (-3 today with 3 left to play on the front), Jee Young Lee (-2 today with 6 to go on the front), and Ai Miyazato (35 on the back) lead the players charging to E overall. Amy Yang matched Park's 33 on the front and M.J. Hur is -3 with 6 holes left to play on the front as both players fight to improve on their +1 standing thus far. And if Paula Creamer can turn it around from Thursday and birdie every hole she bogeyed on the back the 1st time around, she'll birdie the par-5 18th and join them at +1 with a 33 this time around.

The 1st cut line will fall at the top 70 and ties. Fighting to be on the right side of it are Marisa Baena (-3 today through 16, but +4 overall, T85 right now with Catriona Matthew and Jennifer Rosales, among others) and Minea Blomqvist (-2 today with 5 to go on the front, T74 at +3 with Eunjung Yi and Shanshan Feng, among others). Unfortunately, Brittany Lang has fallen back to +4 overall and only has 8 holes left on the front to make up enough ground to make it possible to get into the top 30 through 54 holes, while Moira Dunn is at +6 with 5 to play on the front and will need a sharp turnaround just to keep playing on the weekend. With Taylor Leon, Heather Bowie Young, and Irene Cho off to solid starts, and others within $20K of her on the money list looking to play all 4 rounds this week, Moira needs to play great tomorrow morning to give herself a chance to control her destiny when it comes to staying in the top 80 on the money list.

Play is expected to start at 7 am and the plan is to start the 3rd round around 2 pm. Let's hope we've seen the last of the weather-related problems at the Houstonian this year!

[Update 1 (5:27 am): We've been in Kitchener following Daisuke Takahashi at Skate Canada since Thursday afternoon, so I haven't been able to read around the last couple of days. But I have to say I've been impressed by Jeff Skinner's LPGA blogging of late. Sure, he's been inspired by Michelle Wie, like all the LPGA irregulars, but check out his nice piece on Stacy Lewis. Michelle Wie has also gotten Stephanie Wei's attention. It's Lorena Ochoa who's brought Jamie RS back to the keyboard. And Bill Jempty saved a few zingers for Steve Elling. Good stuff--check it out! And if you think scoring conditions are tough in Houston, try the KLPGA's season-ending event!]

[Update 2 (7:41 am): Not a good sign--players tweeting about rain on the way to the course this am!]

[Update 3 (8:52 am): Just realized that Ai-sama's birdieless 37 on the back yesterday broke her 21-round streak of shooting par or better. Time to start a new one today! And break that pesky 6-event streak of failing to break 70. The Vare Trophy is still within reach! Gambatte!]

LPGA Tour Championship Thursday: Ochoa Leads, Wie WDs

2009-11-19T23:27:00.001-05:00

Lorena Ochoa opened up a 4-shot lead on Player of the Year race leader Ji-Yai Shin in the 1st round of the LPGA Tour Championship today. Both players started on the back in the morning pairings, but they finished quite differently. Ochoa fired a tournament-leading 66, making 3 of her 8 birdies on the day in her last 4 holes, while Shin was busy bogeying 2 of her last 4 holes and finishing +2 over her last 8 holes to drop back to T9 at -2. Meanwhile, Michelle Wie, who finished +3 over her last 6 holes, including a double bogey on the par-3 17th, to settle for a 72, later announced that her ankle injury was forcing her to withdraw.

With Ya Ni Tseng the only elite player to break 70 besides Ochoa--no disrespect to Reilley Rankin (67), Taylor Leon (68), or the others who also shot 69s, including Solheim Cupper Kristy McPherson and 6-time winner on tour Pat Hurst--Ochoa has opened up a little bit of breathing space for herself. But Na Yeon Choi (70), Anna Nordqvist (70), Stacy Lewis (70), Katherine Hull (71), Cristie Kerr (72), Suzann Pettersen (72), Se Ri Pak (72), Hee-Won Han (72), Morgan Pressel (72), Angela Stanford (73), Ai Miyazato (73), In-Kyung Kim (73), and Song-Hee Kim (73) have just the game needed to tame the Houstonian over the next 54 holes, in addition to Shin and Tseng, so there's no way Ochoa can let down if she wants to win her 4th-straight POY and Vare Trophy. Meanwhile, players as great as Karrie Webb (75), Paula Creamer (76), Eun-Hee Ji (76), Vicky Hurst (76), Amy Yang (76), Candie Kung (78), Christina Kim (79), and Seon Hwa Lee (79) will need to play great tomorrow just to make it into the weekend. As for making the Saturday cut (top 30 and ties), that's going to take another 18 great holes. Let's see what happens!

A Hitchhiker's Guide to the 2010 LPGA Schedule

2009-11-19T07:10:00.004-05:00

I've been checking out all the reactions to the announcement of the 2010 LPGA schedule that google can bring my way, from neutral ones like Bill Jempty's, Ryan Ballengee's, Hound Dog's, and Steve DiMeglio's, to mildly optimistic ones like Brent Kelley's and Stephanie Wei's, to pessimistic ones like Mick Elliott's and Steve Elling's. I've also been tracking the fate of tournaments not (yet?) on the official list, like the very popular Phoenix event (which still can't pull together enough sponsorship support) and the Sybase (which suddenly lost ShopRite's support when they decided to go back to sponsoring their own event in Atlantic City).

So here's what I think.

(1) Michael Whan is one lucky guy. The huge bet ("all down on Wie winning!") which was the essence of Carolyn Bivens's business model may still pay off for her successor. As Brent emphasized, Marty Evans did a fantastic job of salvaging the 2010 schedule and it remains to be seen what else can be salvaged in the wake of Michelle's 1st win. But even if the LPGA ends up in the low 20s instead of the mid-20s next season, as Hound Dog points out is entirely possible, Steph's optimism for the medium-term is also well founded. Whan has the chance of a lifetime to be the white knight here. If he's the anti-Bivens when it comes to cultivating relationships with tournament organizers, convincing sponsors of the increasing value of LPGA events (rather than issuing ultimatums like Bivens did with the Donald and the ADT), and selling the LPGA as the premier global golf tour, he might be able to lure the Corning and the ADT back, pursue those international co-sponsorships with the ALPG, LET, KLPGA, and JLPGA I argued ought to shore up the spring schedule (the advice I tried to give to Bivens back in February is still mostly relevant for Whan's 2011 planning), and develop and enact a full-spectrum new media access/distribution/interaction plan to reach out beyond TV's dwindling audiences and bring new fans to the LPGA (on that front, it was great news to read in the press conference that J Golf will be launching an LPGA site in Korean; let's hope the LPGA learns from their global partners when it comes to using new media and taking advantage of social networking technologies).

(2) Is there a South Korean surprise up the LPGA's sleeve? I'm not talking about the Hana/KOLON event, on which Evans said, "With regard to Korea, we are continuing discussions with our partner Hana Financial Group. In the near future we expect to announce the specifics of our Korean event." Nope, here's what she said that perked my ears right up:

The LPGA Tour remains the preeminent sports association in the world, and there is no doubt that we are poised for greater things in the years ahead. Never did it hit me more than a couple weeks ago in South Korea, where there is a national craze for golf and for women's golf in particular, and where recession economics are perhaps a memory. There we're in talks with a number of companies wanting to sponsor tournaments.

Stay tuned!

(3) Rochester rocks! Now I get to bring the family to a major! I only hope Wegmans can outbid other potential sponsors who seem to be interested in hosting the LPGA Championship for the long term. If I'm reading Evans's circumlocutions in the Q & A correctly, Wegmans was holding out for something bigger and more prestigious than simply a contract renewal, and when it became clear that the LPGA wasn't going to be able to close any deals with prospective title sponsors this year for the LPGA Championship, they were able to go back to Wegmans with a proposal to turn its tournament into a major for a year.

(4) Don't give up on the early spring! It's easy for LPGA watchers to forget that the 2 LET-ALPG events in Australia are scheduled for March 4-7 (ANZ Ladies Masters) and March 11-14 (Women's Australian Open). This means that the LPGA's finest have 4 weeks in a row to start the season, as they move from Thailand to Singapore to Australia. And we could be talking 7 weeks in a row if the Phoenix event were able to be slipped in, right before the new J Golf event outside San Diego and the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills.

If the LPGA is interested in increasing purses, they should be entering into talks with other tours right now to lock in this schedule for 2011, creating a co-sponsored event with the KLPGA in early February, co-sponsoring Thailand with the JLPGA, partnering with every women's tour in the world for the HSBC, and doing what it takes to join in on co-sponsoring the Australia events. Then they have a block of 8 events leading up to the LPGA's 1st major. And if ADT wanted to step in with a kickoff event and HSBC wanted to resurrect the Women's World Match Play Championship, there's room in late January and early February to expand that block. And if a Hawaiian sponsor wanted to become the bridge between Asia and Mexico in March, there's certainly room to slide the North American events back to make room for it.

(5) It's high time for North American sponsors to step up. The LPGA has plenty of room for expansion in the U.S. in particular, as Mexico and Canada are more than pulling their own weight. That gap between the KNC and the run-up to the summer majors from mid-April to early June sure is painful, ain't it? There's also little rhyme or reason to the schedule between the summer European swing and the fall Asian swing, is there? Sure, there's room to slide the late-summer/early fall schedule back to make room for a Hawaiian interlude before the Asian swing, but the real issue here is the mainland. Where are the southern sponsors for the late spring? Where are the northern sponsors for the late summer? Elling and Elliott are idiots to blame the LPGA for having only 13 domestic events. Yes, Bivens screwed up royally with the ADT, but it wasn't the shift in date so much as the financial ultimatum that killed it. The real problem is American companies not being willing or able to commit to the LPGA, even when they've finally figured out they need to offer different tournament tiers. It's not the LPGA's fault American players aren't winning more. It's not the LPGA's fault the American media can't get excited about global stars and national heroes from other countries, much less the best pennant races in decades. It's not the LPGA's fault American fans aren't outraged at the media's assumption of their indifference or antipathy toward anyone who isn't American.

So maybe Bivens's big bet on Michelle Wie will finally start paying off for Michael Whan and the LPGA. Maybe American fans, media, and sponsors will catch up with the rest of the world. I'm not holding my breath. But I'm guardedly optimistic.

[Update 1 (9:25 am): There's more:

(6) Don't underestimate the power of the Olympics. The LPGA got to Rio well before the Olympics, so if HSBC is ever inclined to bring back their women's match play championship, Rio would be a natural site for such an event. But this is not just a retread of #1 and #4 above; my point is that there are plenty of opportunities for the LPGA to expand its opening and closing international schedules. With all the great Taiwanese players on tour, and with relations between China and Taiwan thawing, isn't it a matter of time before Taiwan/Chinese Taipei hosts an LPGA event? If Mariajo Uribe turns out to be better than Julieta Granada, as I believe she will be, why not an LPGA event in Colombia? Heck, if Ashleigh Simon ever starts living up to her potential, why not a South African event?

(7) What if the cable takeover of a network actually goes through? If NBC ends up under the control of Comcast, isn't that a good thing for the LPGA when it comes to getting onto network TV? And hey, I don't even have to have had cable to know just how badly Golf Channel coverage of the LPGA has sucked. But they showed what they're capable of with their Solheim Cup coverage. And they're going to pursue ratings and profits just like any other company would. If Michelle Wie is playing most every LPGA event in 2010, and Americans are regularly putting themselves in contention, do you think really think anything's going to stop them from making the LPGA the #2 tour on their channel?

OK, that's it for me. What about you? What you think of the LPGA's prospects for 2010 and beyond?]

LPGA Tour Championship Preview/Predictions/Pairings

2009-11-18T04:39:00.006-05:00

The LPGA Tour Championship is here. This one's for all the marbles! It all comes down to this! [Insert your cliche here.] Jeff Skinner lays out what's at stake this week for the top LPGA golfers. Rookie of the Year Ji-Yai Shin may have clinched the money-list title last week in Guadalajara, but Lorena Ochoa can walk away from Houston with her 4th-straight Player of the Year award and Vare Trophy. But can Michelle Wie play spoiler for the 2nd week in a row? Can Cristie Kerr sneak away with both the POY and the Vare Trophy for herself? (It's mathematically possible, according to Hound Dog! And check out his own POY scoring system while you're at it.) Can Ai Miyazato remember how to make birdies in bunches and end up with the lowest scoring average on tour this season? Can Paula Creamer or Seon Hwa Lee get that win that's been eluding them all season? Can Song-Hee Kim or Brittany Lang or Hee Young Park or Amy Yang or Vicky Hurst become the 4th player on my list of players looking for her 1st career LPGA win to finally get it?

Well, the Rees Jones-designed Houstonian Golf and Country Club may draw sneers from someone like Geoff Shackelford, but the layout provides for plenty of drama, with water in play behind the 1st green, left of the 2nd fairway and green, right of the 5th fairway, behind and to the left of the 6th green, all the way down the 7th and 10th fairways and green complexes, and from the 13th through the 17th holes. While it can certainly play long by LPGA standards, the bombers will have to very careful, as water comes into play on every par 5--the 2nd in particular looks tricky, as trees guard bailout areas to the right. You better be trusting your swing coming into this week! With so many different tees, the tournament organizers can set the course up very differently each day. It'll be interesting to see how short they decide to make the 6th and the 14th (both water holes) over the course of the week--will they try to tempt anyone to drive those greens? From the pictures on the club site, my guess is that Jones tried to compensate for the flatness of the land by creating lots of undulations in the fairways and elevating lots of greens. Unfortunately Google Earth photos must have been taken in winter or early spring, so the course doesn't look as nice there as it probably will on Golf Channel.

The field consists of the top 120 golfers on tour, with some interesting absences, as IceCat points out at Seoul Sisters.com (including Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang, Laura Diaz, Inbee Park, Angela Park, Momoko Ueda, Shiho Oyama, Kyeong Bae, Shi Hyun Ahn, and Ashleigh Simon, to name a few). Some of those players are in danger of dropping out of the top 80 or top 100 on the money list, which would mean losing full or near-full status on tour in 2010 (although some of them have recent wins they can bank on for what's essentially full status next season). Speaking of milestones, I'd love to break the 100-point barrier in the season-long PakPicker competition, even if a win (and most likely a runner-up, too) is out of reach. Here are my last picks of the season:

1. Miyazato Ai
2. Shin Ji-Yai
3. Creamer, Paula
4. Ochoa, Lorena
5. Choi Na Yeon
6. Kim In-Kyung
7. Kerr, Cristie
8. Hurst, Vicky
9. Lang, Brittany
10. Wie, Michelle
11. Pressel, Morgan
12. Kim Song-Hee

Alts: Tseng Ya Ni; Lee Seon Hwa; Pettersen, Suzanne

As for the pairings, the prime-time quadrant going 1st off the 10th is pretty impressive:

Start Time: 7:50 AM
Natalie Gulbis
Vicky Hurst
Leta Lindley

Start Time: 8:00 AM
Jimin Kang
Anna Nordqvist
Lorie Kane

Start Time: 8:10 AM
Morgan Pressel
Rachel Hetherington
Stacy Lewis

Start Time: 8:20 AM
Lorena Ochoa
Karrie Webb
Ya Ni Tseng

Start Time: 8:30 AM
Ji-Yai Shin
Na Yeon Choi
Brittany Lincicome

But then so is the one going 2nd off the 1st:

Start Time: 11:20 AM
Nicole Castrale
M.J. Hur
Jee Young Lee

Start Time: 11:30 AM
Lindsey Wright
Juli Inkster
Meaghan Francella

Start Time: 11:40 AM
Catriona Matthew
Suzann Pettersen
Brittany Lang

Start Time: 11:50 AM
Cristie Kerr
Michelle Wie
Christina Kim

Start Time: 12:00 PM
Ai Miyazato
Angela Stanford
Paula Creamer

That leaves some very good but less-well-known players to go 2nd off the 10th:

Start Time: 11:20 AM
Helen Alfredsson
Jane Park
Eunjung Yi

Start Time: 11:30 AM
Pat Hurst
Eun-Hee Ji
Wendy Ward

Start Time: 11:40 AM
Sophie Gustafson
Giulia Sergas
Seon Hwa Lee

Start Time: 11:50 AM
Amy Yang
In-Kyung Kim
Katherine Hull

Start Time: 12:00 PM
Michele Redman
Mika Miyazato
Hee Young Park

and 1st off the 1st:

Start Time: 7:50 AM
Carin Koch
Song-Hee Kim
Janice Moodie

Start Time: 8:00 AM
Hee-Won Han
Maria Hjorth
Laura Davies

Start Time: 8:10 AM
Kristy McPherson
Meena Lee
Se Ri Pak

Start Time: 8:20 AM
Ji Young Oh
Silvia Cavalleri
Candie Kung

Start Time: 8:30 AM
Sun Young Yoo
Meg Mallon
Sandra Gal

I'll be rooting for NYers Moira Dunn (starting on the front with Shanshan Feng and Minea Blomqvist at 12:40 pm) and Danielle Downey (going off the same side at 7:20 am with Irene Cho and Taylor Leon), in particular, but I'll be watching the 1st group off the 1st tee very carefully, as Katie Futcher is at #80 on the money list right now, Alena Sharp is at #76, and Allison Fouch is at #73--and less than $10K separates the 3 of them. Many of my questions from last week still stand. I'd love to see 2009 end up a better year for making a million and breaking 71 than even 2004. We'll know the answers to all of them and the results of all the year-long races in a mere 72 holes. Game on!

[Update 1 (4:57 am): We're about 4 hours away from the official release of the 2010 schedule, and Beth Ann Baldry is reporting that there'll be 23 events on it and that Wegmans will be sponsoring the LPGA Championship. Is this in addition to their own event in Rochester? We'll have to wait and see!]

[Update 2 (5:14 am): Ron Sirak leaks many more details on the 2010 schedule. Looks like the Wegmans will be merged with the LPGA Championship. But how is there possibly no Korea event in the fall? Oh, and it's nice to see him picking up on one of my ideas to enhance the LPGA's future (more coordination of schedules and co-sponsored events with other women's tours), but what's up with his hating on cuts? More on all this later.]

[Update 3 (5:30 am): Bob Young speculates on the fate of the Phoenix event, which is not (yet?) on the schedule Sirak leaked, either.]

[Update 4 (5:37 am): In response to some of Sirak's ideas, Ryan Ballengee brings the skepticism on any rivals to the LPGA Tour emerging in the U.S.]

[Update 5 (2:59 pm): Here's Brent Kelley on the 2010 schedule. More after work!]

Paging Global Golf Post

2009-11-17T03:00:00.001-05:00

Following a suggestion from a long-time reader, I subscribed to Global Golf Post, a new Orlando-based digital magazine edited by Brian Hewitt (formerly of Golf Channel), in hopes that I'd learn something new about golf on this planet. Well, after reading their November 9th issue, I've come to the conclusion that the editorial staff put a lot more effort into their media kit.

Consider this: in their 19-page inaugural issue, Futures Tour Q-School got slightly more inches than the Mizuno Classic (and they were better inches, as they were drawn from a Lisa Mickey press release instead of from the AP). And that was it from the world of women's golf. Seriously.

Anything on the joint LET-KLPGA event with the silly name going on that week? On Hee Kyung Seo clinching KLPGA Player of the Year? On Shinobu Moromizato, Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Chie Arimura battling it out down the stretch on the JLPGA? On the sharp rise in dual LPGA-JLPGA membership attempts this year--mostly from Koreans on the LPGA planning to try out JLPGA Q-School in the last week of November and 1st of December? Or even on the no-brainer: the global nature of the LPGA's pennant races--the tightest since the days when Karrie Webb and Grace Park were challenging Annika Sorenstam for the dominance in wins, winnings, and scoring average? Of course not. But, hey, there was room for a moderately funny (and half-page!) top 10 to-do list for incoming commissioner Michael Whan. w00t!

I mean, come on! Not even a Rickie, Jamie, Rory, Ryo, Danny, Tadd, etc., Global Generation Next piece? Or a cautionary tale on the last crop of Global It Boys' recent travails? You got a week to get each issue out and this is what you come up with? Really?!

As for the sequel, well, I expected to have the link to it in my inbox by now and was eager to see what Hewitt & Co. decided to do with Michelle Wie's breakthrough win in Lorena's tournament in Guadalajara coming the same week Tiger won down under. Hasn't happened. Still waiting.

Opening-issue glitches are no big deal in the big picture. But they do make me worry that the Global Golf Post people don't yet get that their main competition is not print media. The week before their 1st issue came out, I learned more from the blogs on my sidebar and my twitter feed (and yes, the golfy media's web outposts) than they could gather and get permission to reprint. Yeah, it's great that they have Lewine Mair, Lorne Rubenstein, and Leonard Shapiro, among others. But if they don't approach content in a more comprehensive and creative way and really commit to covering the wide world of golf, they won't even be able to keep giving this thing away for very much longer.

To be sure, they're just getting out of the gates...have room to grow...are just finding their sea legs...and all that. Cliches well taken. But the last thing Global Golf Post needs right now is an "Attaboy" or "You go, girl!" They say they "know precisely what super avid core golfers want in a weekly golf publication...and as importantly, what they do not want." I call bullshit. It's not just that they're not even 25% of the way to that "weekly summary of the competitive game as played the previous week at both the professional and amateur levels, around the world" goal from their media kit. No, the problem is much bigger than that. As long as they rely on the "news, results, and commentary" model from print journalism, they are dead dead dead. How about artistry, background, and context? How about depth, expertise, and flair? Shall I go through the rest of the alphabet?

Seriously, the "super avid core golfer digital native" audience Global Golf Post is supposedly targeting already knows how to find out the results of pretty much any competition around the world and can find all kinds of news and commentary from existing corporate media web sites, high- and low-traffic blogs and microblogs, player and fan sites, and google searches. So basically the only ones willing to pay for this digital magazine down the road will be, uh, people who don't want to do any of that for themselves? Aren't those precisely the people who seem to be pretty satisfied with the online offerings of ESPN, Golf.com, Golf Channel, Golf Digest, Golfweek, Golf Observer, and Golfstat.com? Or at least who will reluctantly migrate to them when the last golf magazine has finally been printed? Last I checked, I got plenty of Tiger and Phil in Shanghai and Tiger Down Under from those sources. I don't need more of the same and I don't see why the "super avid core golfer digital newbies" that Global Golf Post is really targeting would, either.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not cancelling my subscription just yet. But basically I'm getting the feeling so far that I'm driving by a car wreck, craning my neck to see who was hurt, how bad the damage was, and what the paramedics are doing. That's not even close to what I was hoping for. Or what Global Golf Post could be and do.

[Update 1 (10:21 am): Whoops, turns out Hewitt doesn't pick up editing responsibilities until January 1, 2010, so I'll give him a little more time to change my mind than most people will give Michael Whan when he starts his job as LPGA Commissioner a few days later!]

Wie Wins! Wie Wins! Whoa, Whoa, Whoa: Some Perspective, People?

2009-11-16T23:54:00.005-05:00

I'm as happy as the next guy that Michelle Wie has become the 3rd player of the top 8 without a win as an LPGA member I labelled as "most likely to win this season" to fulfill my expectations and, well, win in this season. After Ai Miyazato and Na Yeon Choi, Wie has been playing the best among the LPGA winless of late, and without jet lag or the pressure of competing for Player of the Year, the Vare Trophy, and money list queen to deal with yesterday, it's no huge surprise that the cookie finally crumbled her way. But let's be honest here: while she definitely deserved the win, she was one of several spoilers in the mix down the stretch at Lorena's tournament.

Top disappointment must go to Cristie Kerr once again. Think what kind of a year she could have had if she had been able to play better on the back 9 on a few more Sundays this season: no majors for Brittany Lincicome or Eun-Hee Ji, that's for sure. Even though she hit an incredible 60 greens at Guadalajara Country Club, those 121 putts she took were a few too many to really put pressure on Wie. While still technically alive in the Player of the Year race, according to Hound Dog, I don't believe Kerr (or anyone else) can take the money title away from Ji-Yai Shin.

Speaking of Shin, would we have seen the same wave of adulation and excitement if she had clinched POY, too, at Lorena's place? All she needed was a normal weekend by her standards, but instead what she got was the reverse of her 1st win as an LPGA member at the HSBC Women's Champions back in February, when she started slow and finished incandescent. This time, her weak weekend not only cost her her 4th win of the season, it handed back to Lorena Ochoa the lead in the scoring-average race, by .05 of a stroke, leaving Shin tied with Kerr and .07 ahead of Ai Miyazato.

Speaking of Ai-sama, the hottest golfer in the world has now failed to shoot in the 60s in her last 5 rounds. Like Kerr, I suspect her putting is to blame; whereas 50 greens in regulation is only a bit below her season average, 10 birdies for the entire tournament is way off her usual pace of close to 4 birdies per round. Even while not going over par for a singe round in her last 6 LPGA tournaments, she seems to have regressed recently to where she was at the start of the season--playing really solid golf, but scoring much worse than she was playing. Even if she gets back on track in the last events of the LPGA and JLPGA season (where she'll be competing next week in the Ricoh Cup with Momoko Ueda and Ji-Yai Shin, who also won this season on the JLPGA, and alongside the former and against the latter in the Team Japan vs. Team Korea Kyoraku Cup the following week), even if she becomes a $2M winner on both tours combined in '09, this is going to remain the "what could have been?" year for Ai-sama. Her decisions to skip the LPGA Championship to play hostess at the Suntory Open on the JLPGA and skip the Hana Bank/KOLON Championship in Korea to vacation in the U.S. could well end up being all that stood between her, POY, and top of the money list.

As I've suggested, even though Lorena Ochoa didn't put herself in the mix on her birthday this past Sunday, she still kept her hopes alive for her 4th consecutive Player of the Year award and Vare Trophy. That Wie was able to beat her on her home course, along with Kerr, Shin, and Miyazato, defnitely speaks to how impressive a spoiler she was. The 4th rookie to win this season, Wie could join Shin in the Million Dollar Club with a good finish in Houston this week. In that case, they'd be the 2nd pair of LPGA rookies ever to accomplish this feat, following on Ya Ni Tseng and Na Yeon Choi from last season. That's pretty good company, and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't make like Tseng and Choi this season and also break the $1M barrier in season winnings in 2010.

But the difficulties of Paula Creamer and Seon Hwa Lee this season should strike a cautionary note for those who want to see in Wie's win some kind of changing of the guard or new era in LPGA history. Creamer and Lee are the only 2 players who started playing the 2nd half of this decade to be averaging more than 1 win per season, yet both are in danger of going 0-for-2009. Creamer's litany of injuries and illnesses this season clearly explain why she couldn't contend for any of the top year-end honors, but Lee's absence from the winner's circle is more mysterious. While she needs to shoot 4 rounds in the 60s this week to match her career high in a season, which she established in her rookie year, none of her key performance stats are that much worse than her career averages. So why has she dropped from the top of the money list to barely in the top 30? Well, it certainly didn't help that she played so badly in the majors. Nor has she been getting top 10s and top 20s with the regularity we've become accustomed to seeing from her. I'm sticking by my theory that with mre gaps in the LPGA schedule this year than any of her previous seasons on tour, she lost some advantage on the field from her better conditioning. With other players able to rest more, she wasn't able to outplay them under the mental and physical stress of a lot of weeks in a row.

That's something Michelle Wie isn't going to have to worry much about next season. I doubt this win will change her plans to play about 20 events per season while working toward her undergraduate degree. Even if she decides to play more, it remains to be seen how many more events the LPGA can offer its players in 2010 (although it's certainly good news that the ShopRite Classic is back!). Actually, we should have a pretty clear sense by Wednesday....

Anyway, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but when you consider how long it took for a player of Ya Ni Tseng's caliber to get win #2, we shouldn't be heaping loads of extra expectations on Michelle Wie's shoulders the second after she got that 1st-win monkey off her back. Whatever happened to letting a player enjoy her win and helping her keep it in perspective?

Lorena Ochoa Invitational Sunday: On This Day in History...

2009-11-15T18:42:00.012-05:00

Ah, now I understand how the pros do it! They write their Michelle Wie breakthrough piece months, even years, in advance, then furiously rewrite it every Sunday that she's in contention. I'm usually the 1st one with a more in-depth treatment than the AP for every LPGA tournament, at least since Hound Dog stepped away, but this time I got beat by Alan "Welcome to the Wie Era" Shipnuck. That's what I get for actually deciding to help make dinner tonight. And now onechan, whose fever is making a comeback on her all of a sudden this weekend, wants to go to bed early? Truly a momentous day. I expect all today's Wie-tweeters--from Ron Sirak to Steve DiMeglio to Jason Sobel--to make like Bill Jempty and beat me, as well. Oh well! Back when I'm back! But maybe I'll report back for duty in my Jesus's Generalissimo Constructivist Gol-bert persona which proved so prescient today.

[Update 1 (11/16/09, 6:04 am): Those girls of mine are clever! Took them 2 and a half hours to finally fall asleep and by then, so was I. No hope of waking up in the middle of the night while recovering (and, it seems, fighting off a new stomach bug at the same time!). So no time now to do anything but link to Stephen "First at Last" Wade, Ron "No Stopping Now" Sirak, Randall Wie-Mania Reborn" Mell, Beth Ann Now Do It Again" Baldry, Jason "Come on, Guys, Give Me a Better Title, Will Ya?" Sobel, and the SI "We Won't Talk About Women's Golf Until Michelle Wie Wins" Guys. Here's Golf Central's interview with Wie, commentary, and highlights.]

[Update 2 (11/16/09, 4:27 pm): Did you all see that Hound Dog's back from his sabbatical?! Now that deserves a w00t!]

[Update 3 (10:53 pm): I'll survey more bloggey reactions soon, but for now check out the LPGA's compilation of stories and highlights.]

[Update 4 (11/17/09, 12:33 am): Now for a quick tour of the golfoblogosphere, here are Ryan "Wie v. Tiger" Ballengee, Stephanie "Wie Is for Victory" Wei, the Armchair "Free Wie Book Drawing" Golfer, Jay "Question Mark" Busbee, Jeff "Comeback POY" Skinner, Patricia "Wie Warrior" Hannigan, and Cash "Apocalypse Now" @ Bushwood Country Club.]

[Update 5 (1:02 am): Ah, here's Steve "In the Nick of Time" Elling! Surprisingly, I don't have too many bones to pick with him this time around. Sure, it's good for the LPGA if Wie, Creamer, and Pressel (and Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, Kristy McPherson, Jane Park, Christina Kim, Mina Harigae, and hopefully Tiffany Joh once she becomes a member) are regularly putting themselves in contention. It's not like I want to see Americans shut out on the LPGA from here on out. But let's face it--with as many really really good players on tour as there are (and are coming), Wie is right and Elling is wrong--she does have a lot of improvement to make to truly become a dominant player on tour.]

[Update 6 (11/18/09, 5:19 am): Tim Rosaforte does the W thing with Woods and Wie. For Wie to fulfill hopes raised by such a comparison, she's going to need to work on her accuracy off the tee. If she starts hitting even 2/3 of her fairways, the sky's the limit for her.]

[Update 7 (5:35 am): Randall Mell focuses on the Wie little buzz down in Houston. Definitely check out the Wie clips at Golf Channel for more!]

[Update 8 (2:58 pm): I don't know how I missed Brent Kelley's reaction earlier!]

[Update 9 (11/19/09, 5:51 am): Wow, even Bloomberg is following the LPGA now!]

Ito-En Ladies Overview: Yokomine Goes Wire-to-Wire for Win #5 of '09

2009-11-15T09:36:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the paucity of JLPGA coverage this week. With the Full Metal Archivist and I still feeling the aftereffects of H1N1 and imoto getting her turn right now to experience its particular pleasures, it's been...not fun. So anyway here's a tournament overview of the latest JLPGA event.

The Ito-En Ladies is the 2nd-to-last event on the 2009 JLPGA schedule. Last year, Miho Koga began the charge that lead to her money title right here, with a gritty win over Ai Miyazato and Yuko Mitsuka. This year, Koga was in the mix, but never quite in the thick of things, as Sakura Yokomine maintained slim leads on Mi-Jeong Jeon (1 shot) and Ayako Uehara (2) over the 1st 2 rounds. With Jeon's unfortunate collapse over her final 12 holes today, along with Uehara's slow start, Yokomine finally saw some daylight when she birdied 3 of her 1st 4 holes and returned to that -3 mark on the day when she birdied the short par-4 14th. Thus, when Koga offset her late trio of birdies that had pulled her within 3 of the lead with a closing pair of bogeys, Yokomine found herself cruising to a wire-to-wire win.

And where was the money-list leader while all this was going on? You'll have to look a ways down the list of leaders and notables:

1st/-10 Sakura Yokomine (67-70-69)
2nd/-6 Ayako Uehara (69-70-71)
3rd/-5 Miho Koga (70-71-70)
4th/-3 Yuki Ichinose (71-70-72)
T5/-2 Kaori Aoyama (72-71-71), Chie Arimura (71-71-72), Tamie Durdin (69-73-72)
8th/-1 Yun-Joo Yeong (73-71-71)
9th/E Mi-Jeong Jeon (68-70-78)
T10/+1 Hyun-Ju Shin (74-73-70), Yuriko Ohtsuka (74-73-70), Tomoko Kusakabe (70-74-73)

T13/+2 Na-Ri Lee (71-76-71), Akane Iijima (72-73-73), Hiromi Mogi (70-74-74)
T17/+3 Shinobu Moromizato (71-73-75), Yuko Mitsuka (70-72-77)
T21/+4 Maiko Wakabayashi (76-72-72), Yumiko Yoshida (74-71-75), Nikki Campbell (73-71-76)
T25/+5 Rui Kitada (71-75-75), Ah-Reum Hwang (72-72-77)
T30/+6 Mai Arai (74-75-73), Yuri Fudoh (75-72-75)
T34/+7 Ji-Woo Lee (70-79-74), Julie Lu (78-71-74), Yun-Jye Wei (72-76-75), Saiki Fujita (72-75-76), Mayu Hattori (71-72-80)
T45/+10 Erina Hara (75-74-77)
T50/+13 Akiko Fukushima (74-74-81)

Missing the cut this week were Yuko Saitoh, So-Hee Kim, Rikako Morita, Eun-A Lim, Sakurako Mori, and Miki Saiki. Bo-Bae Song either withdrew during the 1st round or didn't start, while Ji-Hee Lee WDed after an opening 74. Looking at the majority of the scores, my guess is the weather conditions were challenging all week.

Be that as it may, the race for the top of the money list is now tighter than it's been in a long time, and not just at the very top:

1. Shinobu Moromizato ￥153.42M
2. Sakura Yokomine ￥149.45M

3. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥125.51M
4. Chie Arimura ￥122.19M

5. Yuko Mitsuka ￥82.68M
6. Bo-Bae Song ￥70.34M
7. Miho Koga ￥68.82M
8. Ji-Hee Lee ￥67.85M
9. Yukari Baba ￥55.08M

10. Ayako Uehara ￥46.68M
11. Akiko Fukushima ￥45.79M
12. Nikki Campbell ￥45.59M
13. Eun-A Lim ￥45.57M
14. Yuko Saitoh ￥43.28M
15. Yuri Fudoh ￥41.49M
16. Ai Miyazato ￥41.06M
17. Miki Saiki ￥41.04M

18. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥37.58M
19. Ji-Yai Shin ￥37.42M
20. Tamie Durdin ￥37.00M
21. Rui Kitada ￥35.36M
22. Erina Hara ￥34.31M

23. Momoko Ueda ￥32.85M
24. Akane Iijima ￥32.32M
25. Hiromi Mogi ￥31.68M
26. Mayu Hattori ￥30.48M
27. Rikako Morita ￥30.40M

28. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥28.16M
29. Na-Ri Lee ￥27.49M
30. Midori Yoneyama ￥26.91M
31. Ji-Woo Lee ￥26.38M
32. Saiki Fujita ￥25.98M
33. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥25.53M
34. Kaori Aoyama ￥25.38M
35. Li-Ying Ye ￥25.02M
36. Michie Ohba ￥24.84M

37. So-Hee Kim ￥19.98M
38. Yuki Ichinose ￥18.86M
39. Julie Lu ￥18.70M
40. Hiromi Takesue ￥17.59M
41. Nobuko Kizawa ￥17.33M
42. Yui Kawahara ￥16.72M
43. Mie Nakata ￥16.52M
44. Tomoko Kusakabe ￥16.50M
45. Junko Omote ￥15.90M
46. Maria Iida ￥15.11M
47. Yun-Jye Wei ￥14.97M
48. Natsu Nagai ￥14.58M
49. Kuniko Maeda ￥14.38M
50. Tomomi Hirose ￥14.16M

The top 50 on the 2009 money list get full memberships for 2010. As the final event of the season, the Ricoh Cup, is open only to winners of 2009 JLPGA events, next week's Daio Paper ElleAir Ladies (where Yokomine got her 1st and only win of 2008) is for all the marbles for those fighting to get into the top 50, among them youngsters like Kumiko Kaneda (#54), Da-Ye Na (#64), Esther Lee (#67), Sakurako Mori (#68), and Na Zhang (#74). Zhang's been sidelined by injuries most of this season, so I don't know if she (or Shiho Oyama, for that matter) get medical exemptions into next season, or have to tee it up in JLPGA Q-School at the end of the month and/or start of next month. More on that when I find out.

Lorena Ochoa Invitational Saturday: Shin Makes Like Tiger--and Not in a Good Way

2009-11-14T21:15:00.003-05:00

Just as Tiger Woods gave up a lead on moving day down under this week, Ji-Yai Shin did the same today in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Even though her birdie barrage of the 1st 36 holes had slowed to a trickle over her 1st 10 holes today, she was still -12 for the tournament, ahead of playing partners Paula Creamer by 1 and Michelle Wie by 2. Sure, by that point In-Kyung Kim was well on her way toward posting her round-of-the-day 65 and Sun Young Yoo her 67, but to someone playing as well as Shin this week, they must have seemed liked distant echoes, not at all threatening. And nobody else was making much of a move while Shin struggled to find her birdie gear. Even a rare bogey on the par-4 12th must have seemed like just a blip at that point to the leader. She still held a share of the lead with Creamer and when Wie offset her previous hole's birdie on it, Shin must have felt some relief to have maintained a 1-shot lead on her.

Little did Shin know when she hit the 13th tee that she wouldn't make a single birdie the rest of the way, but would instead bogey 16 and 17, opening the door to everyone in the field. In-Kyung Kim would suddenly find herself within 3 shots of the former leader, Yoo within 5. And all of a sudden, it seemed like everyone was making late charges. Ya Ni Tseng closed with 3 late birdies and only a bogey on the tough par-3 17th kept her from finishing the day within 1 of Shin. A similar result on the penultimate hole dropped 1st-round leader Song-Hee Kim back into a tie with Shin--and Creamer, who would bogey 3 of her last 4 holes herself (the lone non-bogey, fortunately for her, was a birdie). But the co-leaders at the end of the day ended up being Wie, who offset her birdie on the par-3 13th with a bogey on the par-4 15th, and Cristie Kerr, who eagled the par-4 16th for a bogey-free 67 of her own that pushed her 1 ahead of Shin.

So whereas it was looking like a potential runaway win for Shin at the halfway point, at the three-quarters mark, things look quite different. If she's had an Achilles heel this season, it's been her unexpected tendency for those who have been following her short but brilliant career to let 1 round get a little out of hand and force her to play catch-up. Well, it showed up this week at the worst possible time. There are now 11 golfers within 5 shots of the lead. All of a sudden, it's looking like pretty equal odds that we could have a career 1st-time winner (Wie, SH Kim, Lang, McPherson), a seasonal 1st-time winner (Creamer, Pressel), or a repeat winner (Shin, Kerr, Tseng, IK Kim, Pettersen) at the '09 LOI when all is said and done.

In the money-list race, Ai Miyazato (70) is back within 6 of Shin, Lorena Ochoa (72) within 5, Suzann Pettersen (72) within 4, and of course Kerr is ahead of her by 1. I'm too nervous for Ai-sama to keep calculating scoring averages after every round, but that race is wide open again.

What I'm trying to get at is that this is exciting, people! Let's go see who else is getting this!

[Update 1 (9:30 pm): Let's start with the players in LPGA.com's notes and interviews. And for good measure let's take a look at the pairings for those with everything from 1/10th of a hope of winning to more than half:

Start Time: 10:56 AM
Brittany Lincicome
Ai Miyazato
Anna Nordqvist

Start Time: 11:07 AM
Catriona Matthew
M.J. Hur
Lorena Ochoa

Start Time: 11:18 AM
Brittany Lang
Suzann Pettersen
Sun Young Yoo

Start Time: 11:29 AM
In-Kyung Kim
Kristy McPherson
Morgan Pressel

Start Time: 11:40 AM
Paula Creamer
Ji-Yai Shin
Ya Ni Tseng

Start Time: 11:51 AM
Cristie Kerr
Michelle Wie
Song-Hee Kim

Sorry, the AP story left me, "blah" this time around. Don't know why. Guess it's too soon to expect other reactions just yet.]

[Update 2 (9:56 pm): Why is it whenever I watch Golf Channel highlights on the web, I get an uncontrollable urge to root for Ji-Yai Shin or Song-Hee Kim or Ya Ni Tseng or In-Kyung Kim or--you guessed it--anyone but an American? Don't get me wrong: I really really like Paula Creamer (just not quite as much as onechan or imoto), I really like Morgan Pressel (just not quite as much as my Syracuse relatives), I like Michelle Wie and wish her all the best, and I even respect Cristie Kerr. But come on, GC people, the golfy Olympics aren't till 2016. OK, yeah, to give you credit, you didn't reach down the leaderboard and try to put pressure on Pressel (or McPherson or Lang or Lincicome) to break that darn ol' losing streak. But if I want to hear someone crying me a river, I'll page Steve Elling. Could you talk for a second about what a 1st-time win would mean to Song-Hee Kim? Or a come-from-behind win to Tseng? If this is what I can expect from y'all in 2010, I don't see any reason to pay for digital cable!]

[Update 3 (11/15/09, 12:20 pm): Thanks for the linkage, Golf Girl! And good luck to your girl, Cristie Kerr, today. But did you catch that idiot at Waggle Room waxing all ultra-super-patriotic? Ryan's really letting the riffraff in over there these days!]

Ito-En Ladies Update: Yokomine and Jeon Neck-and-Neck

2009-11-14T11:20:00.000-05:00

Sakura Yokomine and Mi-Jeong Jeon are pulling away from the field in the Ito-En Ladies event on the JLPGA this week. As the 2nd round was postponed due to darkness, Yokomine was -8 and Jeon was -6 with 4 holes to play. Ayako Uehara (-4 through 14), Miho Koga (-3 through 17), Yuko Mitsuka (-3 through 15), and Chie Arimura (-2 after her 2nd-straight 71) are notables who could claw their way into the hunt with some fine play tomorrow. Money-list leader Shinobu Moromizato is stuck at E and will need to make a charge tomorrow just to minimize the chunk Yokomine, Jeon, and Arimura will be trying to take out of her lead on them. Given the health situation at home and my own energy levels, I'll do a tournament recap after the completion of the tournament--hopefully on Sunday!

Lorena Ochoa Invitational Friday: Can Anyone Derail the Shin Express?

2009-11-13T23:50:00.004-05:00

After 13 birdies in the 1st 36 holes of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational and her 2nd-straight round in the mid-60s, Ji-Yai Shin has ensured that only 1 real question remains: can anyone derail her campaign to clinch all 3 major LPGA year-end prizes this week? With a 3-shot lead on the player in the runner-up position for Rookie of the Year, Michelle Wie, who was the only player in the field to match her 66 today, Shin extended her lead on Lorena Ochoa from 4 to 7 shots, on Ai Miyazato from 4 to 10 shots, on Cristie Kerr from 2 to 6 shots, and on Suzann Pettersen from 5 to 6 shots. In fact, the only players besides Wie within 5 shots of Shin right now are Paula Creamer (who broke 70 for the 2nd-straight time and is actually outdriving Shin by about 10 yards, although she's about 30 behind the player she's tied with at -8) and Song-Hee Kim (who needed a flurry of 5 birdies on the back just to offset all her costly mistakes and stay at -7).

It's not like everyone else is standing with their mouths open while Shin drives to the hole (alert: basketball metaphor!). It's just that it's damn hard to keep up with her. Mariajo Uribe was -8 for the tournament after making a birdie on the par-3 13th, but bogeyed her next 3 holes to drop back into a tie with Kerr, Pettersen, and the Brittanys (Lang and Lincicome). Morgan Pressel and Ya Ni Tseng shot fine 68s (the former with 4 birdies in her 1st 7 holes and the latter with 6 birdies in a 7-hole stretch midway through her round) yet lost ground, as did 69ers Ochoa and Kristy McPherson, who joined them at -4. Miyazato battled back on the back for a 72 that gave her a chance to extend her streak of LPGA tournaments without shooting a single round over par to 6 (oh, and in the 4 JLPGA events she played since her last over-par LPGA round on Sunday in the Women's British Open, she's had a grand total of 3 rounds over 72--that's 3 since early August!!), but by failing to break 70 for the 3rd-straight round (dating back to Sunday in the Mizuno Classic), she's given herself quite a mountain to climb over the next 36 holes.

Speaking of near-insurmountable obstacles, the only year-end trophy Ochoa may be able to garner in 2009 after her own tournament is complete could well turn out to be the Vare Trophy. By my unofficial count, though, her current season scoring average of 70.2179 has already fallen behind Shin's 70.2143. Kerr is a little less than .08 behind Shin, while Miyazato has fallen over .1 off the pace. Unless we see something incredible from someone else over the final 6 rounds of 2009, there's no one else on that dance floor.

The end of the season brings home the fact that every shot matters. Who will make theirs matter the most?

[Update 1 (11:59 pm): Credit where it's due: Stephen Wade filed a good AP story.]

[Update 2 (11/14/09, 12:26 am): Golf Channel has to be pretty happy with those final pairings:

Start Time: 12:01 PM
Anna Nordqvist
Eun-Hee Ji
Ai Miyazato

Start Time: 12:12 PM
Lorena Ochoa
M.J. Hur
Candie Kung

Start Time: 12:23 PM
Ya Ni Tseng
Morgan Pressel
Kristy McPherson

Start Time: 12:34 PM
Cristie Kerr
Brittany Lincicome
Mariajo Uribe

Start Time: 12:45 PM
Song-Hee Kim
Suzann Pettersen
Brittany Lang

Start Time: 12:56 PM
Ji-Yai Shin
Michelle Wie
Paula Creamer

More Solheim Cuppers and Major winners than you can shake a stick at. Now if only Natalie Gulbis hadn't WDed!]

[Update 3 (10:58 am): No rest for the young and talented! Chinese media are reporting that Ya Ni Tseng has committed to the year-end joint KLPGA-CLPGA event--and that Ji-Yai Shin is close to entering the field, as well.]

Lorena Ochoa Invitational Thursday: Will We See a 1st-time Winner This Week?

2009-11-12T17:05:00.001-05:00

With Song-Hee Kim making birdies on every par 5 at Guadalajara Country Club on her way to a bogey-free 65 in the 1st round of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, I have a new question to be added to yesterday's list: will we see yet another 1st-time winner this week? After all, new pro Mariajo Uribe is bouncing back from a disappointing week at Futures Tour Q-School in a big way: she's only 2 behind Kim with 1 hole to play. A win this week would allow her to withdraw from LPGA Q-School in early December. And who's that at -3 through 13? Some of you may have heard something about her: Michelle Wie.

But of course that 1st LPGA win never comes easy. Just ask Hee Young Park, who came as close as anyone in the field did last week to catching Bo-Bae Song at the Mizuno Classic. What did the Rocket shoot today? Let's just say she had a hat trick of double bogeys and leave it at that, shall we?

Of course, the LPGA's best aren't going to just stand aside for Kim or Uribe. Ji-Yai Shin is playing like she wants to clinch Player of the Year and money list leader this week--at -5 through 12, she could easily be the leader at the end of the day. Paula Creamer is back to making birdies in bunches; she's tied with Uribe and Shin through 13 holes. Eun-Hee Ji had her best round in ages, a 68 that leaves her within striking distance of Kim.

I'll be back when I can. Got to pick up the girls and figure out who's healthy enough to take onechan to the ceremony where she gets named Student of the Month for her school building. Don't ask me how that happened!

[Update 1 (7:24 pm): Well, nobody got any closer to Kim. Uribe, Shin, and Creamer ended up with 67s, Catriona Matthew joined Ji at 68, and Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lang, and Brittany Lincicome were the only other players to break 70. Here's how other big-name players fared:

70 Michelle Wie, In-Kyung Kim
71 Lorena Ochoa, Ai Miyazato, Juli Inkster
72 Ya Ni Tseng, Suzanne Pettersen, Morgan Pressel
73 Karrie Webb, Angela Stanford
74 Na Yeon Choi, Natalie Gulbis
75 Se Ri Pak
76 Laura Davies

With just over half the field going under par today, it's looking like the tournament record is in danger of falling this week!]

Not So Fast! Na Yeon Choi and Eun-Hee Ji Choose Kyoraku Cup Over JLPGA Q-School

2009-11-11T05:15:00.000-05:00

The Korea Times is reporting that Na Yeon Choi and Eun-Hee Ji will be joining Team Korea in the international competition known as the Kyoraku Cup this year because it's being hosted by Japan (in Okinawa, actually). They'll be joining fellow LPGAers Ji-Yai Shin, In-Kyung Kim, and Sun Young Yoo, KLPGAers Hee Kyung Seo, So Yeon Ryu, Jeoung-Eun Lee, and Bo Mi Lee, and JLPGAers Ji-Hee Lee, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Bo-Bae Song, and Eun-A Lim, rather than entering the final stage of JLPGA Q-School, as expected. (H/t: Happy Fan.)

Team Japan will be lead by Ai Miyazato, Momoko Ueda, Shinobu Moromizato, Sakura Yokomine, Miho Koga, and Yuri Fudoh. I haven't been able to confirm who their 7 other teammates will be, although I'm hoping that Okinawans Mika Miyazato and Ayako Uehara make the team. My guess, going by the current JLPGA money list, is that Chie Arimura, Yuko Mitsuka, and Yukari Baba are locks, but I'm unsure who the other 4 will be. Akiko Fukushima, Yuko Saitoh, Miki Saiki, and Uehara, as the money list would suggest? Or will Mika-chan get an LPGA bye and knock out 1 of them? Or will some of these players be unable to compete that week and new ones step up, like Rui Kitada, Erina Hara, Akane Iijima, Rikako Morita, Hiromi Mogi, Maiko Wakabayashi, or Mayu Hattori?

I wish the JLPGA and KLPGA would set their collective minds on eliminating this scheduling conflict with JLPGA Q-School. How are they going to follow my much more ambitious suggestion for hooking up with the Solheim Cup if they can't get their own schedules ironed out?

Lorena Ochoa Invitational Preview/Predictions/Pairings

2009-11-11T04:33:00.003-05:00

There are a lot of questions that remain to be answered in the final 2 events of the LPGA's 2009 season. Some have to do with the tour's major awards. Can Ji-Yai Shin hold off Lorena Ochoa in the Player of the Year race and become the 1st person since Nancy Lopez to win Rookie of the Year and POY awards in the same year? Can Ochoa come back for her 4th-straight POY? Or will Cristie Kerr, Ai Miyazato, Suzann Pettersen, Ya Ni Tseng, or Na Yeon Choi find a way to deny both Shin and Ochoa? In the race for the money title, only Ochoa, Pettersen, Kerr, and Miyazato have a chance to catch Shin--can any of them do it? It's looking to me like 1 of them would have to win both remaining events for it to happen--and Shin would have to play badly in both. Meanwhile, Ochoa has a slim lead on Miyazato, Shin, and Kerr in scoring average--can she hold on for her 4th-straight Vare Trophy?

There are other milestones to consider, as well. Can Karrie Webb, Song-Hee Kim, and Eun-Hee Ji join the Million Dollar Club? If so, 2009 would match last season's peak of 13 players in this still-exclusive LPGA club. Can the 2009ers beat the 2004 record of 12 players with scoring averages under 71? (Right now there are 13.) Can they set the standard for number of players averaging 4 or more birdies per round? (Right now there are 3 above that mark and another 3 within .1 birdie per round of getting there; 4 did it in 2004, the previous high.)

Other questions have to do with the strategies players use in putting together their schedules. Was it a better decision to play the last 4 LPGA events of the season, as Shin, Ochoa, Tseng, and Choi will have done? Or was skipping some of them, as Miyazato, Kerr, Pettersen, and this week's defending champion Angela Stanford did, the right call? Kerr and Pettersen played some fantastic golf in the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge this week, so it's looking like they're coming into the Lorena Ochoa Invitational pretty sharp. As for Michelle Wie, who's been enjoying Stanford's autumn quarter, the state of her game might be the biggest question mark of all for the casual LPGA fan.

So who in the field of 36 will play Guadalajara Country Club the best over the tournament's 72 holes? GCC boasts a longish, tree-lined, heavily-bunkered layout, with lots of water in the 1st 13 holes. Since 2008 was the inaugural playing of this event, we don't have a lot of data to go on, but the course seems to favor those players who combine distance and accuracy off the tee (Stanford, Lang, Sorenstam, Yoo), although a little surprisingly precision players tended to do better than bombers. Here's who I think will do well this time around:

1. Miyazato Ai
2. Lang, Brittany
3. Kim Song-Hee
4. Choi Na Yeon
5. Shin Ji-Yai
6. Tseng Ya Ni
7. Ochoa, Lorena
8. Kerr, Cristie
9. Pettersen, Suzanne
10. Creamer, Paula
11. Wie, Michelle
12. Yoo Sun Young

Alts: Kim In-Kyung; Nordqvist, Anna; Wright, Lindsey

There's not a single weak pairing that'll be heading off between 11 am and 1 pm tomorrow. I find it very interesting how the tournament organizers generally mixed together players with very different styles, such as Sophie Gustafson (classic bomber), Brittany Lang (long and straight), and Kristy McPherson (classic precision player) at 12:06 pm. In the final 3 pairings, though, there's a preponderence of long hitters:

Start Time: 12:39 PM
Michelle Wie
Paula Creamer
Suzann Pettersen

Start Time: 12:50 PM
Cristie Kerr
Angela Stanford
Ji-Yai Shin

Start Time: 1:01 PM
Brittany Lincicome
Ai Miyazato
Lorena Ochoa

It'll be interesting to see how Creamer, Shin, and Miyazato handle it. I'm looking forward to getting some preliminary answers to all my questions tomorrow!

[Update 1 (1:47 pm): Stina Sternberg gets it. Where is the rest of the golfy media?]

[Update 2 (1:50 pm): OK, nice to see the AP gets Shin's appeal.]

Sayonara, Aunt Sally

2009-11-09T15:00:00.021-05:00

The funeral for my Aunt Sally is being held right now in Syracuse. Between work and H1N1, I'm not able to be there. No time to go all Speaker for the Dead on y'all, but you can be sure a lot of memories going through my head right now could make their way into stories to share in the coming months. For now, I'll just ask, what is it about golf and bridge that would attract a Polish immigrant who came to the States as a young girl in the WWI era, who was a career woman for most of her life, who had an independent streak a mile wide and never shied away from a good argument? And just how far back does this golf bug go in my family, anyway?

Sayonara, Aunt Sally. We'll miss you.

On Being an Ai-sama and Dai-chan Fan

2009-11-09T06:00:00.005-05:00

Sure, we're dealing with head lice and what seems to be H1N1 here in the Constructivist household the last couple of weeks, but you want to know what's really gotten us down lately? No, it's not Tiger's inability to win from the final pairing yet again this year (the Full Metal Archivist is a Phil fan, anyway!). It's Daisuke Takahashi's performances at the NHK Trophy in his 1st of 2 competitions in the ISU's 2009-2010 Grand Prix.

He fell during his step sequence in the short program:

This is the guy known for his step sequences! Plus, he could barely land a jump in his long program:

This is the guy who, when he was healthy, made quads look effortless.

Yes, Dai-chan still came in 4th, because that's how good he remains, even while rehabbing a knee injury no skater has ever come back from. But he's got less than 2 weeks to regain the momentum from his win in the minors a month ago and qualify for the Grand Prix finals in Tokyo early next month. To do that, he needs to move into the top 6 in the standings. With Evan Lysacek and Tomas Verner likely to take 1st and 2nd in Skate America this week, they'll probably move into the 2nd and 3rd spots in the standings, sending Brian Joubert, who won in Japan, into 4th. Canadian Patrick Chan is himself coming back from an injury, so it's looking like Dai-chan's chief competition at Skate Canada the following week will be Czechoslovakia's Michal Brezina, who came in 3rd in Japan. Now, a Dai-chan win in Canada would tie him with Joubert and put him ahead of Johnny Weir, who came in 2nd in Japan. So even if Brezina finishes 2nd in Canada and moves ahead of both Joubert and Dai-chan in the overall standings, it's no problem--Dai-chan would still make it to the finals. But say Brezina beats him--then, he'd have to finish 2nd with enough overall points to beat Weir in the tie-breaker for the 6th spot. No pressure, eh? It's a good thing for Dai-chan that Evgeni Plushenko, who won before the home crowds in Russia, decided not to enter another Grand Prix event this season. If he had and had skated at all well in it, Dai-chan would have needed to win in Canada and beat Joubert in overall points to win the 6th-place tie-breaker. At least now he has some small margin of error!

If I'm this nervous for Dai-chan, I can't imagine what the Full Metal Archivist is going through. When Ai Miyazato began showing signs of life in the 2nd half of last season while coming back from an injury she suffered midway through the previous one, I was confident that she would eventually get enough events under her belt to regain her swing and her swagger. And, sure enough, it happened. Yes, I've questioned 2 of her decisions to skip key LPGA events. But her playoff loss to Nikki Campbell on my birthday and 1st so-so round in ages yesterday don't bother me at all. I truly believe Ai-sama's playing well enough to win the last 2 events of the LPGA season and take the money title, scoring-average trophy, and Player of the Year award away from Ji-Yai Shin. And even if she doesn't, I'm not worried for her 2010 season, as she's poised for an even better year, now that she's playing like herself again.

By contrast, skaters have so few events in which to make their mark that it's not just a matter of regaining your form but of remembering how to produce under pressure again, as well. To tell you the truth, I have no idea where Dai-chan's body or mind is at, with Skate Canada only 11 days away. And I have even less idea how we'll handle watching him live instead of on youtube.

To give you a sense of how big into Dai-chan this family is, imoto, who's all of 3 and a half, is already trying to do spinning jumps in our living room. When onechan went out on the ice for the 1st time last month in group skating lessons offered by my university, the 1st thing imoto said was, "Like Dai-chan!" So you can imagine how happy she was a couple of weekends ago when my mom bought her skates of her own and we ventured out on the Hamilton College rink for her 1st time on the ice. (First she didn't want to go on it, then she crawled on it, and finally she let my mom and I hold her hands.) Going out on the ice myself for the 1st time in over 30 years raised my awe level at what Dai-chan's accomplished and what he's attempting immeasurably.

Get this: the Grand Prix finals are huge, but 2010 is an Olympic year. The Japan Skating Federation has pinned all its hopes on Dai-chan, even though his rival Nobunari Oda will be the top-ranked men's skater headed into the Grand Prix finals. Moreover, Vancouver will most likely be Dai-chan's final competition. On top of all the competitive pressure, then, he'll be dealing with several other kinds: pressure to justify his Olympics selection, pressure to end his career with a bang, pressure to position himself for future endorsements. That financial pressure is nothing to scoff at: Dai-chan won all of $3,000 for his 4th-place finish in the NHK Trophy. A win is worth only $15K more. Basically, you can win more on the Futures Tour in a season than by being one of the best skaters on the planet. But all that pressure is nothing compared to that which comes from his fans. Check out the crowds at his exhibition skate--and what the announcer says in English at its end:

Gambare, Dai-chan!

[Update 1 (11/14/09, 12:21 am): Hold your horses! Lysacek skated well yesterday, but Verner screwed up, big-time. He's fallen to 11th place after the short program, more than 15 points out of 3rd place. He'll need an amazing comeback to 4th just to tie Weir in the overall standings, and a miracle to get to 3rd, which would tie him with Joubert. Anything worse and he's out of the running completely. Of course, given the previous results of those ahead of him at the moment, maybe he has little to worry about. We'll see!]

[Update 2 (11/15/09, 4:15 pm): OK, Lysacek won Skate America and moves into 2nd overall. Verner clawed his way back to 5th, which leaves him 5th overall with 20 points. So now Dai-chan has 3 main rivals next week, Czechoslovakia's Michal Brezina, Italy's Samuel Contesti, and America's Jeremy Abbott. The bottom line for Dai-chan is this: win, and you're in (you move up to 3rd or 4th in the overall standings, depending on how high your score is and whether you pass Joubert or not in the tiebreaker); if you can't win, at least finish 2nd (the worst Dai-chan can do overall in that case is beat Weir in a tiebreaker for 5th place--it doesn't matter whether Brezina, Contesti, or Abbott is the one to beat him); if you can't get a gold or silver, get a bronze and finish ahead of Brezina, Contesti, and Abbott (a bronze is only good enough to get Dai-chan into a tie-breaker with Verner, which he'd lose, since Verner's best finish was a silver, so Dai-chan would be the odd man out if anyone else pushed Verner from 5th to 6th). So a gold or silver next week from Dai-chan gets him into the finals, but a bronze leaves his future in 3 other skaters' hands. The odds of all of them screwing up are pretty slim. Looks like Verner's falls at Skate America didn't really relieve any pressure on Dai-chan for a 1st- or 2nd-place performance next week.]

[Update 3 (4:43 pm): Here's the latest Japanese tv special on Dai-chan:

Basically a recap of his 2009.]

Mizuno Classic Sunday: Song Holds Off Ochoa

2009-11-08T05:51:00.005-05:00

Golf fans got neither the hoped-for Tiger vs. Phil showdown at the WGC-HSBC Champions nor Ji-Yai Shin vs. Ai Miyazato at the Mizuno Classic, but what they got instead was pretty darn exciting. 63s by Ernie Els and Rory McIlroy were not enough to chase down Phil Mickelson in Shanghai, while a bogey-free 64 from Lorena Ochoa was too little, too late, to make a dent in Bo-Bae Song's huge lead, which dropped from 6 with 5 to play to 3 at the end.

Actually, Hee Young Park had cut Song's lead to 2, but bogeyed the last hole to tie Ochoa and Brittany Lang, who had done the same with a bogey on the par-5 16th, for 2nd. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? I'm sure Ryan Moore's 68, which left him 2 shots off Mickelson's pace, will be far overshadowed by Tiger's +4 start in his 1st 7 holes today. At least Ai Miyazato's inability to get anything going today (she ended up with the same 72 that Woods did, but got passed by many more players) will probably overshadow nobody's good round. Ya Ni Tseng bounced back from a pair of late doubles yesterday with a bogey-free 67 today that vaulted her into a tie for 5th, 4 shots behind Song, along with Ji-Yai Shin, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Inbee Park (who all shot solid 69s). Similar 67s by Sakura Yokomine and Maria Hjorth couldn't quite allow them to join the double-digits-under-par club, which was filled out by Momoko Ueda (70), Rui Kitada (71), and In-Kyung Kim (72), but they did finish T12 with Song-Hee Kim (71), Eun-A Lim (69), and Akane Iijima (73). Ji Young Oh's 7-birdie 67 won't get that much attention, to be sure, as it only moved her up to T37, nor does it deserve as much as Daisuke Maruyama's 63 or Shingo Katayama's 65.

Here's hoping the golfy media don't miss the forest for the trees, though. Whereas the WGC-HSBC Champions doesn't count toward the PGA Tour's money list, the Mizuno Classic counts toward both the LPGA's and JLPGA's. So where does Ochoa's runner-up put her? About $400K behind Shin with 2 events to go--almost certainly too far back to catch her. Here's the new LPGA top 10:

1. Ji-Yai Shin $1.71M
2. Ai Miyazato $1.47M
3. Cristie Kerr $1.43M
4. Suzann Pettersen $1.32M
5. Lorena Ochoa $1.31M
6. Na Yeon Choi $1.24M
7. Ya Ni Tseng $1.24M
8. In-Kyung Kim $1.21M
9. Angela Stanford $1.06M
10. Paula Creamer $1.03M

But Ochoa cut Shin's lead in the Player of the Year race to 4 points and opened up a .07 scoring-average lead on Miyazato, .08 on Shin, and .09 on Kerr, so she could still win 2 of the 3 major end-of-year awards on the LPGA.

How about the JLPGA's top 40?

1. Shinobu Moromizato ￥152.41M
2. Sakura Yokomine ￥133.26M
3. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥123.28M
4. Chie Arimura ￥118.45M
5. Yuko Mitsuka ￥81.68M
6. Bo-Bae Song ￥70.34M
7. Ji-Hee Lee ￥67.85M
8. Miho Koga ￥62.52M
9. Yukari Baba ￥55.09M
10. Eun-A Lim ￥45.57M
11. Akiko Fukushima ￥45.44M
12. Nikki Campbell ￥44.76M
13. Yuko Saitoh ￥43.28M
14. Ai Miyazato ￥41.06M
15. Miki Saiki ￥41.04M
16. Yuri Fudoh ￥40.82M
17. Ayako Uehara ￥38.76M
18. Ji-Yai Shin ￥37.42M
19. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥36.84M
20. Rui Kitada ￥34.63M
21. Erina Hara ￥33.92M
22. Tamie Durdin ￥33.26M
23. Momoko Ueda ￥32.85M
24. Akane Iijima ￥30.96M
25. Rikako Morita ￥30.40M
26. Hiromi Mogi ￥30.31M
27. Mayu Hattori ￥29.92M
28. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥27.33M
29. Midori Yoneyama ￥26.91M
30. Na-Ri Lee ￥26.13M
31. Ji-Woo Lee ￥25.81M
32. Saiki Fujita ￥25.42M
33. Li-Ying Ye ￥25.02M
34. Michie Ohba ￥24.39M
35. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥23.85M
36. Kaori Aoyama ￥21.63M
37. So-Hee Kim ￥19.98M
38. Julie Lu ￥18.14M
39. Nobuko Kizawa ￥16.89M
40. Mie Nakata ￥16.52M

Hopefully we'll see more than a couple players from the top of this list in the HSBC Women's Champions event in late February 2010. And here's hoping Yuko Mitsuka does well in LPGA Q-School to join Song as a new member of the American tour next season. Depending on how the last 2 stages of JLPGA Q-School go, we could have as many as 16 dual LPGA-JLPGA members in 2010 (and possibly more if the JLPGA hasn't yet publicized the names of LET players with LPGA membership exempt into those stages who made the entry deadline last month)--8 Korean players, 5 Japanese, 2 Taiwanese, and 1 mainland Chinese.

So while I'm deeply disappointed for Ai-sama and Ryo-kun (who also got passed by a bunch of people today when he could have put himself in contention), I'm excited about the last 2 LPGA and last 3 JLPGA events and feeling pretty optimistic about the 2010 season.

[Update 1 (6:03 am): Man, what is it with Ernie Els and the 72nd hole?! That Shanghai finish was even wilder than I thought.]

[Update 2 (11:54 am): Happy Fan reports that Hee Kyung Seo just missed the playoff at -1 in this week's co-sponsored LET-KLPGA event's final round. The playoff itself eliminated the LPGA's Sarah Lee, so after it resumes in the morning (it was postponed due to darkness), it's So Yeon Ryu looking to beat Hyun-Ji Kim and make the Player of the Year race on the KLPGA even more interesting. Anna Rawson and Rebecca Coakley were the only LETers to come close to the top of the leaderboard, by the way.]

[Update 3 (11/9/09, 3:52 am): Upset win for Hyun-Ji Kim! She now has LET membership for 3 years. Fitting, as she birdied the 18th 3 times in a row to get it.]

[Update 4 (11:45 am): Whoops, either because Ryu didn't win or because the win wouldn't have counted anyway (it being a joint LET-KLPGA event and all, although that didn't stop the joint LPGA-KLPGA or LPGA-JLPGA events from counting on both tours before this week!), Hee Kyung Seo has clinched the KLPGA Player of the Year award.]

Mizuno Classic Saturday: Now That's a Moving Day!

2009-11-07T05:05:00.002-05:00

The #1 and #2 players on the LPGA money list matched cards for the 2nd-straight round at the Mizuno Classic, but 67s by Ji-Yai Shin and Ai Miyazato were only good enough to move them into a tie for 5th at -8 with Inbee Park (bogey-free 66), Song-Hee Kim (6-birdie 67), Momoko Ueda (bogey-free 68), Mi-Jeong Jeon (ditto), Hee Young Park (4-birdie 69), and Brittany Lang (3-birdie 70). They all sit 3 shots behind Japan Women's Open champion Bo-Bae Song, who opened with a 30 and birdied 2 of her final 4 holes to post a 65. Yet Song's walkoff birdie is the only thing keeping her ahead of Akane Iijima, who opened with a 31 of her own and kept the pedal to the metal on the back, firing a 33 that lifted her to -10 overall and into a tie with In-Kyung Kim, who birdied 7 of her last 12 holes and has gone -10 in her last 29 holes of bogey-free golf. Rui Kitada's 7-birdie 66 that pulled her within 2 shots of the lead was almost lost amid all these fireworks!

Consider this: Anna Nordqvist birdied 7 of her 1st 11 holes and parred out from there for a bogey-free 65 that brought her even with Ya Ni Tseng (69), Eunjung Yi (69), Eun-A Lim (68), and Ah-Reum Hwang (68) at -6 (T17). Shi Hyun Ahn matched Nordqvist's feat, but a bogey on the par-5 13th dropped her back into a tied at -5 (T22) with Kyeong Bae (68), Li Ying Ye (68), Yukari Baba (69), Miho Koga (70), Miki Saiki (70), and Nobuko Kizawa (72). Jimin Kang birdied 3 of her 1st 4 holes on the back, then made the turn with an eagle and birdie to start the front, but her 66 was only enough to move her into a tie for 44th at -2. Let's put it this way: with 16 68s and 16 69s going up on the scoreboard today, players like Na Yeon Choi, Jee Young Lee, Hee-Won Han, Amy Yang, Hyun-Ju Shin, and Rikako Morita (who shot the former number) and Lorena Ochoa, Sakura Yokomine, Candie Kung, Vicky Hurst, Lindsey Wright, Yuko Mitsuka, Yuri Fudoh, Ayako Uehara, and Maiko Wakabayashi (who shot the latter) were basically treading water on moving day.

At -4 through 36 holes, Ochoa and Choi will have to make much bigger moves tomorrow if they want to catch Tseng, much less the Kims, Shin, and Miyazato. For Shinobu Moromizato and Chie Arimura, both stuck at +2 overall, they'll be looking to make up ground on Yokomine at -4, but Jeon at -8 is most likely well out of their reach. The implications of tomorrow's round for the top of the LPGA and JLPGA money lists and head of their Player of the Year races are huge. Shin is coming off 4 birdies in her last 6 holes today, while Miyazato has to shake off a walkoff bogey. Let's see who handles the pressure and turns the momentum her way early!

Once the LPGA posts today's post-round interviews, you can compare the way the leaders were talking after the 1st and 2nd rounds. For now, just feast your eyes on the final-round pairings:

Start Time: 8:40 AM
Vicky Hurst
Anna Nordqvist
Ah-Reum Hwang

Start Time: 8:50 AM
Hyun-Ju Shin
Jee Young Lee
Hee-Won Han

Start Time: 9:00 AM
Momoko Ueda
Hee Young Park
Brittany Lang

Start Time: 9:10 AM
Ji-Yai Shin
Song-Hee Kim
Mi-Jeong Jeon

Start Time: 9:20 AM
Rui Kitada
Inbee Park
Ai Miyazato

Start Time: 9:30 AM
Bo-Bae Song
Akane Iijima
In-Kyung Kim

When you consider that Stacy Lewis gets to play with Karrie Webb, Teresa Lu (who's playing in the 3rd stage of JLPGA Q-School the last week of November) gets to watch Lorena Ochoa and Sakura Yokomine face off (and try to outdo them), Aussies Tamie Durdin of the JLPGA and Lindsey Wright of the LPGA are paired together (the former is headed to LPGA Q-School in less than a month), Seon Hwa Lee and Chie Arimura are in the same group, and Christina Kim is playing with Yuri Fudoh and Yuko Mitsuka (who's also entered LPGA Q-School), you begin to understand just how special these jointly-sponsored events are. Here's hoping Michael Whan tries to negotiate more of them with the JLPGA and KLPGA at the start of the 2010 season.

[Update 1 (5:24 pm): Happy Fan has the details on Hee Kyung Seo's title defense attempt in the 2nd round of the joint LET-KLPGA event this week.]

Futures Tour Q-School Friday: Yes!! T-Joh Medals!

2009-11-07T03:25:00.000-05:00

The wind played havoc with scoring at the Lake Region course in the final round of Futures Tour Q-School--Ecuador's Kitty Hwang was the only player to break 70 among the 96 players who made the 72-hole cut and there were only 2 other under-par rounds on the day--but Tiffany Joh hung tough and walked away with a 1-shot victory over playing partner and former co-leader Danielle Mills. As Lisa Mickey reports, despite missing 4 of 5 greens down the stretch, Joh scrambled her way to victory, while Mills's putter let her down.

Here are the final results for the leaders and notables; I've *ed the players who will be competing in LPGA Q-School the 1st week of December:

[Note: B=Bridgewater, H=Huntington Hills, L=Lake Region, R=Ridgewood Lakes]

1st/-12 Tiffany Joh* (67L-69R-72B-67H-73L)
2nd/-11 Danielle Mills (67R-71B-69H-68L-74L)
3rd/-7 Laura Bavaird (71R-69B-71H-71L-71L)
T4/-5 Kitty Hwang* (70R-72B-71H-73L-69L), Mallory Blackwelder* (71R-74B-66H-70L-74L)
T6/-4 Jane Rah (74B-70H-71L-71R-70L), Jodi Ewart (69B-73H-73L-67R-74L)
8th/-3 Stephanie Connelly* (69L-70R-73B-71H-74L)
9th/-2 Laura Kueny (68R-70B-70H-73L-77L)
10th/-1 Nannette Hill* (72R-70B-72H-71L-74L)

11th/E Leanne Bowditch* (73B-67H-74L-74R-72L)
T15/+4 Rebecca Flood (69B-72H-70L-76R-77L)
T18/+5 Chelsea Curtis (68B-71H-70L-79R-77L)
T24/+6 Miriam Nagl* (76L-73R-70B-72H-75L)
T32/+8 Virada Nirapathpongporn* (73H-75L-77R-71B-72L), Lauren Doughtie* (71B-73H-69L-75R-80L)
T38/+9 Mariajo Uribe* (71H-76L-68R-78B-76L)
T78/+17 Michelle Yang (71H-68L-75R-82B-81L)

Very nice to see Oui, who's coming back from shoulder surgery, play as solid golf as anyone over her 2 final rounds, particularly on the tough Bridgewater track yesterday. Sarah Brown, an amateur from NJ, ended up at +4 overall (T15) in her tune-up for LPGA Q-School. Depending on who gets what status there, the Futures Tour will adjust its own membership/status lists accordingly. Good luck to all!

Mizuno Classic Friday: Lang Leads, Shin, Miyazato, and Tseng Lurk

2009-11-06T04:20:00.003-05:00

LPGA Player of the Year rivals Ji-Yai Shin (5-birdie 69 with bogeys on 9 and 18), Ai Miyazato (bogey-free 69), and Lorena Ochoa (2-birdie 71) didn't hurt themselves in the 1st round of the Mizuno Classic, but they didn't light it up like the leaders. Brittany Lang lead the way with a 66 that was sparked by an eagle on the par-5 7th, but hot on her heels were former KLPGAer Hee Young Park (who started slow on the back with bogeys on 10 and 18, but fired an incandescent 31 on the front) and JLPGAer Nobuko Kizawa (who shot a 6-birdie 67). Mi-Jeong Jeon and Bo-Bae Song lead the way among the JLPGA notables at -4. And don't count out the LPGA's other Young Guns, Ya Ni Tseng (who was 1 of 4 players to eagle the par-5 13th today), In-Kyung Kim, and Song-Hee Kim.

Here are the leaders and notables:

1st/-6 Brittany Lang (66)
T2/-5 Hee Young Park, Nobuko Kizawa (67)
T4/-4 Momoko Ueda, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Vicky Hurst, Bo-Bae Song (68)
T8/-3 Ji-Yai Shin, Ai Miyazato, Ya Ni Tseng, In-Kyung Kim, Song-Hee Kim (69)
T8/-3 Sophie Gustafson, Hee-Won Han, Jee Young Lee, Eunjung Yi (69)
T8/-3 Miho Koga, Miki Saiki, Rui Kitada, Hyun-Ju Shin (69)

T21/-2 Karrie Webb, Inbee Park, Katherine Hull, Stacy Lewis, Teresa Lu (70)
T21/-2 Eun-A Lim, Yukari Baba, Hiromi Mogi (70)
T32/-1 Lorena Ochoa, Candie Kung, Maria Hjorth, Kyeong Bae (71)
T32/-1 Sakura Yokomine, Mayu Hattori, Li Ying Ye (71)
T39/E Pat Hurst, Seon Hwa Lee, Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, Ji-Young Oh (72)
T39/E Lindsey Wright, Sandra Gal, Ayako Uehara, Saiki Fujita, Tamie Durdin (72)
T52/+1 Christina Kim, Shi Hyun Ahn, Anna Nordqvist, M.J. Hur, Mika Miyazato (73)
T52/+1 Erina Hara, Yuko Saitoh, Ji-Woo Lee (73)
T60/+2 Meena Lee, Amy Yang, Sun Young Yoo, Angela Park (74)
T60/+2 Yuri Fudoh, Shinobu Moromizato, Yuko Mitsuka (74)
T69/+4 Jimin Kang, Meaghan Francella (76)
T69/+4 Chie Arimura, Rikako Morita, Maiko Wakabayashi (76)
T75/+5 Nicole Castrale, Nikki Campbell, Midori Yoneyama (77)
DNS Ji-Hee Lee, Hiromi Takesue

Let's see if Moromizato (who was 1 of 4 players to eagle the 7th) and Arimura can charge back from their slow starts--not to mention who among those stuck near E will make a big move on moving day.

[Update 1 (3:37 pm): Meanwhile, in the joint LET/KLPGA event, Hee Kyung Seo has the 1st-round lead and is looking to move up the LET money list with a successful title defense this week. The prize money doesn't count toward the KLPGA's season totals, though, so she can't extend her lead on So Yeon Ryu this week.]

[Update 2 (3:39 pm): Check out Stacy Lewis rockin' the hi socks in round 1!]

Futures Tour Q-School Round 4: Joh and Mills Achieve Escape Velocity

2009-11-06T03:43:00.001-05:00

Tiffany Joh and Danielle Mills are locked in a duel for medalist honors at the Futures Tour Q-School. With 1 more round left to play on the Lake Region course, they're knotted at -13, 6 shots ahead of their nearest competitors.

[Note: B=Bridgewater, H=Huntington Hills, L=Lake Region, R=Ridgewood Lakes]

T1/-13 Tiffany Joh (67L-69R-72B-67H), Danielle Mills (67R-71B-69H-68L)
T2/-7 Mallory Blackwelder (71R-74B-66H-70L), Laura Kueny (68R-70B-70H-73L)
T5/-6 Jodi Ewart (69B-73H-73L-67R), Laura Bavaird (71R-69B-71H-73L)
7th/-5 Stephanie Connelly (69L-70R-73B-71H)
8th/-3 Nannette Hill (72R-70B-72H-71L)
T9/-2 Jane Rah (74B-70H-71L-71R), Kitty Hwang (70R-72B-71H-73L)

T11/-1 Rebecca Flood (69B-72H-70L-76R)
T15/E Leanne Bowditch (73B-67H-74L-74R), Lauren Doughtie (71B-73H-69L-75R), Chelsea Curtis (68B-71H-70L-79R)
T24/+3 Miriam Nagl (76L-73R-70B-72H)
T33/+5 Mariajo Uribe (71H-76L-68R-78B)
T53/+8 Virada Nirapathpongporn (73H-75L-77R-71B), Michelle Yang (71H-68L-75R-82B)

Nice move up the leaderboard, Oui! The LET's Nagl has done a good job staying calm after a disappointing start, too. Both players get to have their revenge on the Lake Region today. Watch out for them and Uribe to move sharply up the leaderboard.

The rest of the field won't be playing Friday, although they'll get low status memberships on the Futures Tour in 2010 if they want them.

+15 Kelly Nakashima (78B-77H-72L-76R)
+17 Maiya Tanaka (73B-77H-75L-80R), Cindy Miller (74H-74L-76R-81B)
+18 Rebecca Kim (74H-75L-79R-78B)
+19 Eri Miyake (77L-79R-78B-73H)
+21 Mallory Hetzel (77B-78H-78L-76R), Woori Shin (75L-76R-82B-76H)
+23 Elena Kurokawa (77H-79L-79R-76B), Kathryn O'Rourke (79R-78B-78H-76L)
+29 Mariko Makabe (76H-82L-81R-78B)
+38 Jillian Fraccola (76L-83R-84B-83H)
+41 Paula Pearson-Tucker (86B-77H-83L-83R)
+48 Yukiko Ishizaka (86R-81B-83H-86L)

So there you have it. Only 1 NYer will be playing regularly on the FT next season and nobody of obvious Japanese descent (although it took most of this season for me to realize that Samantha Richdale is part-Japanese, so I'm going to leave that qualifier in there for now).

[Update 1 (4:40 pm): Nice Beth Ann Baldry profile of Mallory, Myra, and Worth Blackwelder.]

Mizuno Classic Preview/Predictions/Pairings

2009-11-05T07:21:00.001-05:00

35 of the JLPGA's finest tee it up tomorrow in the Mizuno Classic, looking to follow in Momoko Ueda's footsteps and get LPGA membership without going through Q-School. Yuko Mitsuka, currently 5th on the JLPGA money list, still has a chance to break into the 100 Million Yen Club in season winnings; a win this week would save her a trip to Florida in December. Miki Saiki, who failed miserably at last year's LPGA Q-School, would find sweet vindication in a victory this week. But the biggest threats to preempt the LPGA showdown between Ji-Yai Shin, Lorena Ochoa, and Ai Miyazato are the JLPGA's Big 4, all of whom have already joined the 100 Million Yen Club: ex-LPGAer Shinobu Moromizato, Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Chie Arimura. Don't discount the chances of Ji-Hee Lee or Miho Koga, either. Sure, Koga is coming off a missed cut, but she's an explosive player who finished last season by sandwiching a missed cut between 2 wins and taking the money title from Lee.

Golf Observer's historical stats are most relevant for the last 3 years, when the tournament has been played on this rather long course. But I'm going to ignore recent history and go with the players I think are hottest right now in my PakPicker entry this week.

1. Miyazato Ai
2. Shin Ji-Yai
3. Kim Song-Hee
4. Tseng Ya Ni
5. Choi Na Yeon
6. Hjorth, Maria
7. Ochoa, Lorena
8. Lang, Brittany
9. Moromizato Shinobu
10. Lee Jee Young
11. Jeon Mi-Jeong
12. Yokomine Sakura

Alts: Ueda Momoko; Fudoh Yuri; Koga Miho

The tournament organizers did a nice job with the pairings. Meena Lee and Teresa Lu, who will be playing in the 3rd stage of JLPGA Q-School later this month, are paired with up-and-coming JLPGA stars. Na Yeon Choi, Candie Kung, Eun-Hee Ji, Seon Hwa Lee, Inbee Park, and Amy Yang, who get byes into the final stage, are mainly playing with fellow LPGAers, except for Choi, who's in the next-to-last pairing on the front with Karrie Webb and Yokomine, and Yang, who goes off early with Yuri Fudoh and Rikako Morita.

This should be good!