Why Does the LET Get a Samsung WC Invite?
by Ryan Ballengee on Oct 2, 2008 3:10 PM EDT
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PrintThe 20 player field for the Samsung World Championship this week comprises the following:
The winners of all four majors in 2008, the leading player on the Ladies European Tour, the leading active player from the Hall of Fame, a sponsor’s invite and the balance of the field made up of money winners from the LPGA Tour, make up the list.
It's an ultra-limited elite field event with a $1 million purse. Yet, there's no carve out for the JLPGA or KLPGA. Why not? It's clear that both tours are on better footing than the Ladies European Tour. In terms of victories in the majors this year, Asia is dominant. Europe is nonexistent.
Despite that, the Rolex Rankings are weighted toward the LPGA and LET. Consider that three Europeans are in the Top 10 - Sorenstam, Pettersen, and Alfredsson (all Swedish). There are three Asians - Yani Tseng, Ji Yai Shin, and Seon Hwa Lee. Yes, Sorenstam and Alfredsson have had fantastic years, but the rankings seem to favor the Euros' weak fields on the LET more than the existing AND up-and-coming strength of the Asian-based tours.
The Constructivist had a post on this subject that I enjoyed, and wanted to bring the discussion to the present. Is there a bias against Asian golfers in the establishment?
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just one word
“tradition” — Europe and the US have always been tied together in golf. the Asian tours are relative newcomers.
Beats me why no one has thought to add an invite at least to the KLPGA this century – but the LET invitation has tradition on its side.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
maybe it should be Japan
All of those international players you mention made their mark (and the vast majority of their Rolex points) in LPGA events. The LET players who don’t play here are nowhere near the quality of those who do – Samsung just got lucky this year, getting Alfredsson instead of Gwladys Nocera or Bettina Hauert.
If you go by Rolex rankings, the KLPGA players aside from Shin don’t really deserve an automatic bid either – the best Korean players either come here or go to Japan. Those Koreans in Japan plus the locals who stay home make the JLPGA the most likely second-best ladies tour.
true enough...
…but by that reasoning – ALL the best players are playing on the US LPGA, so why invite anyone from the other tours ? Aside from tradition, what is the point in inviting the LET’s top player ? Alfredsson made most of her bones playing in the States and is getting close to the end of her career.
The KLPGA may not have great rankings there now, but that’s because so many of their best players are here and are winning. It makes sense to invite a possible future star.
The JLPGA has…who…Miyazto ? And she hasn’t exactly become the “rock star” she was in Japan.
The invite to the LET is more of a courtesy than anything – why not extend two more to KLPGA and JLPGA players ?
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I agree with Hound Dog, to a point...
But, then, I’m a little biased, as much from family and work ties to Japan as by the fact that I can’t stop covering the JLPGA. The point of my post that Ryan references, though, wasn’t that the Rolex and Golfweek
/Sagarin rankings are biased against the Asian tours (in fact, the top full-time Euros are ranked much lower than the top full-time Asians, and nobody ought to dispute that wins on the LPGA mean much more than any other kind of win in women’s golf), but just that the level of competition on the JLPGA is tougher than it looks from the outside. Sure, Ji-Yai Shin has finished 1-2-2-2 there in her 4 events (and Momoko Ueda has won twice in 7 tries), but Shin has won 5 times on the KLPGA to pull ahead of “old” rival Sun-Ju Ahn and young guns Hee Kyung Seo and Ha-Neul Kim. Yes, the KLPGA pipeline to the LPGA will remain as strong as ever, but only their top 6-8 golfers this season really have the games to make a big impact on the LPGA. It may just be me, but I really think that double that number from the JLPGA could be top 80 players on the LPGA, should they choose to go over. And should the number of JLPGA players on the LPGA reach a critical mass (say, a dozen) over the next several years, we’ll start seeing better performances from all of them than we have from either Miyazato or Ueda.
Although I would love to see Samsung extend invites to the top JLPGA and KLPGA money winners, I’d rather see them replace the LET invite with an invite to the top non-LPGA player on the Rolex Rankings starting next season. The LPGA is plenty international already and the LET is only a few steps above the Futures Tour and Ladies Asian Golf Tour (mainly b/c it’s much deeper, not b/c its best players are all that much better than the best there).
by The Constructivist on Oct 2, 2008 4:23 PM EDT reply actions
drum roll please...
…who would that have been this year ? Vicki Hurst ? :-)
your idea makes more sense than just simple tradition.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
on the other hand...
…if Amy Yang had been atop the LET money list, I wouldn’t mind seeing this LPGA rookie get a jump start on a great year next season in the big leagues!
by The Constructivist on Oct 2, 2008 4:45 PM EDT reply actions
correction
Suzanne Pettersen is from Norway, not Sweden.
Off Topic Question: I wonder how the top Koreans on the FUTURES Tour (MJ Hur, Jin Young Pak and Song Yi Choi) would fare on the KLPGA? For whatever reason, they skipped developing their games at home and came here. Would they be any better than those who chose to stay in Korea?
good question...
…they got their LPGA cards for ’09 – hard to say that they made the wrong choice against some pretty tough competition on the Futures Tour
Con – how much money can they make in Korea compared to the Futures Tour ?
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
much more
They definitely made a financial sacrifice to do what they did. When you consider that not only could they have gotten in KLPGA events but also LAGT events (Hee Kyung Seo is the leading LAGT money winner in ‘08 so far), you’re talking at least double and maybe even 5x. But given Hur’s problems on Sundays, and the fact that neither Pak nor Choi won multiple times, I’m not sure they’re ready to be top 80 players right off the bat on the LPGA. Vicky Hurst is the only FT star I have any real confidence in, Mindy Kim a bit, as she’s finished ahead of Stacy Lewis in FT events…. When even Song-Hee Kim needed a year of seasoning to really break through this season, top 5 on the FT is no guarantee of anything the next season, but it is cause for some optimism, career-wise.
by The Constructivist on Oct 2, 2008 6:34 PM EDT reply actions
confidence is a strange thing...
…you just never know what can happen when you get a little going your way. They all earned their way to the LPGA – and there are plenty of weak players below 60 or 70 on the Tour. A good year on the FT plus that little card can get the ball rolling sometimes.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
look at Eun-Hee Ji and Sun-Ju Ahn
Ji came 2nd behind Shin last season on the KLPGA and did fantastic in the handful of LPGA events she played in ‘07. And she’s doing pretty darn well this season, as well, despite a disappointing start at the Samsung WC. Ahn, who was #3 on the KLPGA last year but was having a bad season this one by her standards, just torched Mission Hills and is leading the Samsung event on the KLPGA this week. They’re prepared to be top 20 or better players right off the bat. For more than a couple of FT players to be better than top 50 in the same span is always a big surprise.
Remember Bill Jempty’s piece on the Newsweek golf blog about how well prepared this year’s rookie class is? The JLPGA and KLPGA will always be better than the FT. The LPGA should seriously consider giving each of their top 5 players an automatic bid to Final Qualifying School. Not all will make the trip, but if Saiki and Oyama could do so well at Mission Hills, what about the 12-15 players I just ranked ahead of them?
by The Constructivist on Oct 3, 2008 2:15 AM EDT up reply actions
about Alfreddson...
…she did earn her way in by winning the Evian, which was a dual LPGA-LET event that got her to the top of the LET money list despite having hardly played any other events on that tour. Another testimony to the weakness of the LET regulars—check out how many LPGAers won on their tour this season!
by The Constructivist on Oct 2, 2008 6:38 PM EDT reply actions
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