Kraft Nabisco at the Midway

by Mulligan Stu on Apr 4, 2008 9:16 PM EDT

Very interesting leaderboard at the Kraft Nabisco Championship after two rounds. You've got Lorena Ochoa tied for the lead, Annika Sorenstam lurking. Heck, you've even got my fave Se Ri Pak showing signs of life!

There's the possible Cinderella story, Heather Young. There's the major champion who hasn't done anything in years, Liselotte Neumann.

There are the very, very good veterans who've yet to win a major, but should win a major at some point: Mi Hyun Kim and Hee Won Han.

And there's Ai-chan. She's like a rock star in Japan (take a drink!).

Leaders
Lorena Ochoa, 68-71--139
Heather Young, 69-70--139
Maria Hjorth, 70-70--140
Mi Hyun Kim, 70-70--140
Hee-Won Han, 72-69-141
Annika Sorenstam, 71-70--141
Liselotte Neumann, 70-72--142
Ai Miyazato, 68-74--142
Se Ri Pak, 72-70--142
Karen Stupples, 67-75--142
Full Scores

Just outside this group are players like Gulbis, Tseng, Jee Young Lee, Shin.

The two players who are capable of shooting 63 and opening a big lead are Ochoa and Sorenstam, and they are in positions where if they do shoot 63 (or 65 or even 66), they will be very, very hard to catch. Or if they put together back-to-back 68s.

But with all the different types of players in the mix, the weekend is looking pretty good.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Brittany Lincicome:

Lincicome, 75-80--155

This is young player many expected to step up to a new level this year. But so far ... uh, no.

Lincicome has more rounds of 75 and higher (6)than she does of 70 or lower (2). She's had rounds of 77, 79 and 80 in the early going, has missed two of five cuts and finished no higher than 53rd.

But Brittany wasn't alone at the KNC. Stacy Prammanasudh (77-78) and In-Kyung Kim (77-78) stunk it up, too.

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Comments

nice job

Yeah, somebody should tell Doug Ferguson that Mi Hyun Kim is the best player w/o a major. Nothing against Paula Creamer, but she's definitely behind Kim and Han.

For the record, I was skeptical about Lincicome from the middle of last season on. Wasn't hearing the fire in the belly in interviews when she was playing well, and her game started to go downhill soon after. But she'll be back.

E is T16, so there are a lot of people within striking range if more leaders start coming back to the field like Ai-chan and Stupples did Friday. So far Ochoa has reached -7 and fallen back and Neumann has reached -6 and rebounded hard off that ceiling. And the rough is only going to get longer....

Like you said, there's still a chance for a few to go low on Moving Day and separate themselves from the pack, but I think it's even more likely we're going to have a classic Sunday free-for-all on CBS Sunday!

by The Constructivist on Apr 5, 2008 7:18 AM EDT reply actions

good ol' Fergie

Con - you forget that "Fergie" is looking at the women's game from his viewing position deep inside the rectum of Tiger Woods. His articles on the LPGA are usually poorly researched and written to a generally American audience.

Just a guess, but he could be picking Creamer as the player with the most (in his opinion) potential to win a major. Peanut has more wins on her resume, but she doesn't have the "power" game to win a major.

My guess is that Ferguson looks at Creamer and sees the higher ranking, younger age, and higher profile and plugs her into the "BPNTWAM" catagory since all three women ahead of her in the rankings have won at least one major.

Then he sees the diminutive Mi Hyun Kim and sees 8 or 9 years more in the age column and 6 more years of tour experience and sees more of a Corey Pavin (which makes no sense at all outside of size)

Personally, I don't doubt that Kim can win a major if she gets hot - but Creamer seems to have more upside to her game, at least on paper.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Apr 5, 2008 1:05 PM EDT reply actions

leader board! leader board!

Your college did that "score board! score board!" chant whenever the opposing team's fans did something clever when their team was losing, right?

You're dead on about Creamer's potential, but if Kim is playing this well only 80% back from knee surgery, she will have a much better year than I predicted for her.

And you know what? She's gotten longer the last few years. She'll be hitting it over 250 by summer. 10-15 yards longer than Creamer.

Very few writers and fans who are nuts about the Blonde Brigade pay much attention to the fact that Pressel and Creamer hit it shorter off the tee than most of the South Koreans....

If they have major-winning potential--and you're damn straight they do--then so do Ai-chan, Seon Hwa Lee, and Mi Hyun Kim.

Hee-Won Han, by the way, will again be one of the longer hitters on tour once she's fully recovered from her pregnancy.

Not that power plays as much of a role in the women's game as the men's, anyway.

by The Constructivist on Apr 5, 2008 4:51 PM EDT reply actions

check the stats

according to the LPGA stats, Creamer is just over 251 off the tee and Kim is right at 250.

the difference is more in their confidence in the flat stick than the big dog.

(any more cliche's I need to work in ?) :-)

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Apr 5, 2008 9:50 PM EDT up reply actions

I jinxed Mi Hyun

On driving distance, I was focusing mainly on this week's stats. (And I think I had a Baldry piece on Kim in mind, too.) So thanks for the reminder that not all fairways are as soft as Mission Hills apparently have been.

On putting for dough, you got that right!

I'll just shut up about the leaderboard right now--who knows where the two of them will end up? Right now it's Han with the best shot of shedding the "best w/o major" label, playing with two who did so last year!

by The Constructivist on Apr 6, 2008 5:22 AM EDT reply actions