BlogsJamie Farr Classic - 2nd Round
by hound dog
on Jul 3, 2009 4:09 PM PDT
5 comments
Sarah Kemp and Laura Diaz are tied for the lead at -11 after two rounds at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. Morgan Pressel is alone in third place one shot back while Jiyai Shin, Seon Hwa Lee and Natalie Gulbis are tied for fourth at -9.
Kemp shot 28 on the front nine (her back nine) en route to a career-best 63. That nine-hole total was one off the LPGA record - only three players have ever played nine in 27 strokes, among them Paula Creamer during last year's Round One 60. Diaz was even par on the day until she birdied four of her last six holes (including a Surprise! putt at the last which fell in from the right edge as Laura was walking after it) to reach -11. Pressel just missed chipping in for birdie at 18 or else she would be tied with Kemp and Diaz. Lee equaled her career-low with a 63 - four birdies on each nine and no bogeys for Seon Hwa through the first 36 holes. Gulbis posted 65 to join Lee and Shin at -9, as Jiyai carded a 67. Michelle Wie was only one shot behind going to the par-5 18th but she flew her third over the green and three-putted for a double-bogey. Kyeong Bae fired a 64 (29 on the front nine) to move into a tie for seventh at -8.
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Jamie Farr Classic - 1st Round
by hound dog
on Jul 2, 2009 8:13 PM PDT
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Laura Diaz, Morgan Pressel and Song-Hee Kim opened with 64s to lead at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. Suzann Pettersen and Michelle Wie are tied for fourth one shot behind while six others are two shots back.
There were birdies aplenty today as an incredible 65 players scored in the 60s and 115 shot even par or better. Only six of the 146 players who started the day shot worse than +3 74. For Diaz, it was her best round of the season by four shots as she played the back nine in -5 31. It was Pressel's best round of the year by two strokes and it matched her career best. Kim actually bogeyed twice (at 1 and 16) but nine birdies (seven coming in a ten-hole stretch) tied her for the lead. Pettersen aced hole #2 (her 11th of the day), the second hole-in-one of her LPGA career.
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No Vacancy
by hound dog
on Jul 1, 2009 4:33 AM PDT
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As Commissioner Bivens has made clearer her vision of growing the LPGA brand, it was presumed by a few (myself not included) that she was going to shrink the Tour's rank and file and feed them to the Futures Tour. While that hasn't exactly happened, we do seem to be heading towards a similar situation.
The sparse schedule during the first half of the 2009 season has shown me a trend that, while I was aware of its primary effect, had escaped me when I first realized the number of off-weeks. Take a look at the Tour leaders in Events Played going into the Farr. 11 players have played every single event so far this season while 31 others have played 12 of them. 22 more players have made 11 starts and 52 more have made 10. That means about 80% of the field for each tournament is getting filled by the same players - the ones with the highest priority. This is happening because there have been enough natural breaks in the schedule for the higher priority players to rest. Last year's 13th event was Corning on Memorial Day weekend. Prior to Memorial Day 2008 there were only two off-weeks and Corning was the ninth consecutive week the Tour competed. This year there were seven off-weeks prior to Event #13 and we have yet to play more than three consecutive weeks, and won't until Safeway-Canada-Arkansas-Samsung starting at the end of August. Last year's schedule required players to skip an occasional event - this year's forces them to play as often as possible.
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Kapalua Kaput
by hound dog
on Jul 1, 2009 4:09 AM PDT
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First Caddie Larry reported the rumor, then The Constructivist found confirmation. Here's another report on the demise of the Kapalua LPGA Classic.
We're down to 28 events now. There will be a two-week break in the schedule this October between Navistar and China (which BTW still doesn't have a host course determined). If I weren't going on vacation Friday I would really be depressed right now.
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Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Preview
by hound dog
on Jun 30, 2009 3:00 PM PDT
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Defending Champion - Paula Creamer Sylvania, Ohio 72 holes, begins Thursday Par 71, 6428 yards Field Score - 95 Tournament Odds - from Oddschecker.com Last Player In - Michelle Ellis (#165) First Players Out -Becky Lucidi (#167), Carri Wood Scoring Averages - 71.48 (2008), 72.04 (2007), 71.56 (2006) 2009 Scoring Average to date - 72.78
U.S TV coverage (all times EDT): Fri 4p-6p ESPN2 Sat 3p-5p ESPN2 Sun 4p-6p ESPN2 |
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Who Stands Out Among the Senior Standouts?
by The Constructivist
on Jun 30, 2009 10:51 AM PDT
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For Hound Dog's readers, here are the top 12 members of the LPGA's Class of 2006.
Simply the Best
1. Seon Hwa Lee: She's suffering through the 1st so-so season of her career. But if she can just start hitting a few more greens per tournament, she could be back in the winner's circle any given week. Her putting's been pretty solid and has been improving of late, so she just needs to give herself more birdie chances to get back to contending. She's hitting an astounding 82.7% of her fairways and has average distance, so clearly it's time to work on her irons. Check out Happy Fan's career overview to see why I've put her at #1 in her class for what feels like forever.
2. Morgan Pressel: Isn't it so typical of golf that just as the swing changes you've been working on for a long time start to groove, your putter heads south? That was the story of Pressel's season until the Wegmans last week, when her putter came back online and she put herself in contention through 63 holes. But even though she's added distance this season (she's now averaging just over 240 yards off the tee), she's not quite accurate enough off the tee (her 74.1% average is down from 77.1% in 2008 and 76.7% in 2006, which is worse than it sounds because so many more players are hitting 70% or more of their fairways this year than in previous years) to compete with the LPGA's elite on a regular basis. Still, even with her disastrous final 9 at the Wegmans, she still hit over 78% of her fairways, so maybe she's on the right track for the rest of the season. It couldn't happen any sooner, as Jee Young Lee is ahead of her in every major statistical category except wins. So I'm going to go against both major ranking systems and keep Pressel at #2 in her class over her career--for now.
3. Jee Young Lee: Her driving stats are remarkably similar to Ya Ni Tseng's, but she's hitting far fewer greens and taking more putts than the best player among the Young Guns. I suspect she, like her namesake at the top of this list, needs to work on her approach shots. Why? So she can either move to #1 on my ranking of the best players on tour without a member win or get off it completely. Check out this profile by Brian Heard and career overview by Happy Fan to understand why Hound Dog and I are so high on her prospects.
The Contenders
4. Ai Miyazato: She's having the best season of any of the Senior Standouts thus far and still has loads of room for improvement. She's only put together 3 rounds in the mid-60s this season, despite being on in every aspect of her game, which helps explain why her ongoing 6-event top-20 streak only has 3 top 10s mixed in the stretch and why she hasn't been able to crack the top 3 just yet. I still think she made a mistake to go home to play in the Suntory Open and celebrate her birthday in Japan, but she should be fully recovered from jet lag and ready to contend from now on.
5. Brittany Lang: She's having the 2nd-best season of the Senior Standouts, is one of the best drivers on tour, and has been hitting a ton of greens, so she could win any week her putter gets hot. It wouldn't hurt to work on her irons, too. She should be making a lot more birdies than she has been this season and it can't all be her putter's fault.
6. Sun Young Yoo: This late bloomer continues to quietly impress this season. She's one of the better drivers on tour, is hitting a bunch of greens, and putting pretty well, so it was great to see her get her 2nd top 10 of the season last week at the Wegmans, breaking a 5-event string in which she struggled just to make cuts. Perhaps this is the start of another top-20 streak like the 5-event one she started the season with? Or something a bit more impressive? In any case, she deserves a promotion--her quantum leap has been made.
Quantum Leap Candidates
7. Meaghan Francella: She's finally healthy and playing well again. If she could capitalize more on her ability to hit fairways (she's doing so 77% of the time), she'll hit more greens, give herself better birdie chances, and start making more birdie putts. That 1.83 PPGIR rate needs improvement if she's going to contend for win #2 any time soon--or beat Teresa Lu and Kyeong Bae to the $1M mark in career winnings.
8. Teresa Lu: I think she's playing hurt, as she WDed from the Sybase and hasn't broken into the top 50 since. But if she ever gets her irons going, watch out for her. With a 1.87 PPGIR rate, she clearly isn't putting the ball close to the hole that often, but still is averaging 3.19 birdies per round, despite hitting the green in regulation 64.4% of the time. Brian Heard argues she's here to stay, and I agree.
9. Kyeong Bae: Finished 4th at the LPGA Championship, but a final-round 79 at the Wegmans torpedoed what had been a decent comeback from her 1st-round 74. If she could become a better wind and rain player, she'd be a lot more consistent, but when the weather's good, watch out for her. She's averaging 3.25 birdies per round despite hitting the fairway less often (just under 66% of the time) than she hits the green (just over 68% of the time) and averaging 1.85 PPGIR. If she's ranked this high when she's struggling as much as she has this season (and frankly, over much of her LPGA career), I wonder where she'll be when she starts realizing her potential?
10. Hye Jung Choi: Enduring the worst season of her LPGA career thus far, she needs to improve almost every aspect of her game. Minea Blomqvist is hot on her heels and showing signs of life.
11. Minea Blomqvist: She's still not hitting many greens this season, but is making a bunch of birdies, so watch out for her once her ballstriking improves, as it's bound to do soon.
12. Julieta Granada: She's finally got a decent run going, having made her last 3 cuts in a row, but unless she plays great the next 2 weeks, look for her to spend most of the summer in Europe, where she has full status on the LET.
Over at Mostly Harmless, I cover all 25 active members and show my work. Check it out when you get a chance!
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Hot 20 - Jamie Farr Classic
by hound dog
on Jun 29, 2009 3:00 PM PDT
0 comments
Going into the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, these are the 20 hottest players in recent weeks. All 20 are in the field at Farr.
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1. Jiyai Shin 2. Yani Tseng 3. In-Kyung Kim 4. Kristy McPherson 5. Lindsey Wright 6. Cristie Kerr 7. Angela Stanford 8. Paula Creamer 9. Mika Miyazato 10. Song-Hee Kim |
11. Ai Miyazato 12. Stacy Lewis 13. Suzann Pettersen 14. Anna Nordqvist 15. Michelle Wie 16. Hee-Won Han 17. Haeji Kang 18. Na Yeon Choi 19. Se Ri Pak 20. Meaghan Francella |
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Hound Dog's Frankenstats
by tatkins
on Jun 29, 2009 2:36 PM PDT
9 comments
I tend to enjoy Hound Dog's Frankenstats because they recognize that a lot of the individual stats given by the LPGA and PGA do not really have a lot of meaning. The PGA Total Driving stat (that uses the place on each list and the one with the lowest total when added together is rated as the best) is a total joke. Hound Dog's method of using the actual data for each player and calculating a rating against a set standard is so far superior that the same calculation should be used to calculate the Total Driving for the PGA Tour. This would also give a numeric value for comparison of the driving of LPGA players versus the PGA players showing the strength of men versus the strength of women.
However, I feel the calculation Hound Dog used for Total Putting missed the mark. The biggest problem is the Putts Per Round Average is a strong function of the Greens In Regulation as well as putting. Using the following data for each player I calculated an Adjusted Putting Average: total putts, number of rounds, putts per round, greens in regulation putts, percent greens in regulation. I first calculated the following: greens made per round, greens missed per round, greens in regulation putts per round, greens missed putts per round, putts per greens missed. Then using the putts per green in regulation and putts per greens missed I calculated an adjusted putting average for each player, based on each player hitting 12 greens and missing 6 greens in regulation. I have included the top 30 below. I believe that this method gives a better comparison of how the players should be rated on average putts per round. These calculations use data available after the LPGA Championship.
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