Who is the LPGA Tour's Best Player in '09?
by Ryan Ballengee on Nov 4, 2009 9:52 AM EST
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PrintJiyai 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.
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I started reading this column, but got to this point...
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
Got bored and went to another website…
Every now and then, I have to throw in an LPGA Tour story like this. The next post is about something different, though!
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Nov 4, 2009 10:08 AM EST up reply actions
Nonsense, RB – it IS interesting to people who like and appreciate the LPGA. This is a timely and appropriate post. (though I still find it amusing that the women have a logical system for their HoF and P/RoY awards while the men have an emotional system)
The men should just rename their PoY award the Tiger Woods award and let him pick someone at the end of the year since there have been two legitimate winners since 1997 – Vijay Singh once, and Tiger Woods – every other year. The guy broke his knee and leg and STILL probably should have won PoY since Harrington won twice all year, they just happened to be majors. He didn’t even make the Tour Championship.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I do agree that the LPGA Tour’s POY race is a LOT more logical than the gibberish that the PGA Tour does.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Nov 4, 2009 10:25 AM EST up reply actions
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