Jiyai Shin has locked up the Rookie of the Year award on the LPGA Tour, landing her mug on the Tour's media guide for 2010.  (What an honor!)  But, she also has an opportunity to sweep the Tour's triple crown of awards and become the first player since Nancy Lopez in '78 to win Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors.

Let's look at the Player of the Year points race.

1.  Jiyai Shin 141.00
2.  Lorena Ochoa 131.00
3.  Cristie Kerr 118.00
4.  Ai Miyazato 111.00
5.  Suzann Pettersen 110.00
6.  Na Yeon Choi 106.00
7.  Yani Tseng 104.00
8.  Angela Stanford 103.00

We have three events left on the ole calendar, in three different countries.  The Mizuno Classic is in Japan this weekend.  The LoCho Invitational is in Mexico the following week.  And then the Tour wraps up with its Tour Championship in the strange country of Houston.

Points are awarded uniformly in those three events to finishers in the top 10: 1st place - 30 points; 2nd - 12; 3rd -nine; 4th - seven; 5th - six; 6th - five; 7th - four; 8th - three; 9th - two; 10th - one.

If any player ranked two through five wins one of the next three events, Shin will face a much more stern test.  If Shin (or Ochoa) wins any of the next three, she will have a stranglehold down the stretch. 

Should be exciting to see how this plays out, particularly in Houston.  The Tour Championship has a cut structure that resembles that of the old ADT Championship, just with a 120 player field.  Were any of these players to miss the cut there, it could well dash their hopes of winning Player of the Year.

Regardless of outcome, this is the closest POY race in years on Tour.  Since the current format came into play in the mid 90s, no POY has won the award with less than 250 points, except Annika in '98.  That may well happen again this season.