BlogsThoughts on Historical Ratings
by hound dog
on Jan 6, 2009 6:29 AM PST
In the next couple of days, I will be posting a list of the greatest LPGA players of all time. At different times over the last two years, I've been working toward this goal. It started by researching individual seasons (going back to 1950) to rank the best players in each. Then, surprisingly, came the difficult part - determining how to turn those results into a comprehensive ranking of players across all eras of the LPGA's history.
When you're trying to figure out who is better than whom, Bill James taught me that you must first decide if you are trying to rank players by their peak ability or by the value of their career accomplishments. I decided that for golfers, the best method to use would be the latter. A player's peak season would often be very difficult to nail down (try doing that for Juli Inkster or Joanne Carner) and even if you managed to do it, you would wind up trying to convince people that Debbie Austin was as good "at her peak" as Pat Bradley or Donna Caponi. The golf world already looks at career totals above single seasons to identify the greats anyway, so swimming against that current would be more than futile.
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"There's always something..."
by hound dog
on Jan 5, 2009 6:23 AM PST
Just as I was getting back into the posting groove following my Christmas break, one of those accursed sinus infections laid me low.
While I recuperate, check out the fine series of player comparisions that The Constructivist is cranking out at Mostly Harmless along with Ryan's good work at Waggle Room.
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Countdown: 41 days
by hound dog
on Jan 2, 2009 8:15 AM PST
Seon Hwa Lee won the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship, in part because of this chip-in at 7 during the final round.
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Countdown: 44 days
by hound dog
on Dec 30, 2008 10:24 AM PST
Today's clip is from the final round of the LPGA Championship. Maria Hjorth takes hers "on the rocks" and goes on to birdie the 15th hole. Hjorth eventually lost to Yani Tseng in a four-hole playoff.
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Total Putting
by hound dog
on Dec 29, 2008 3:00 PM PST
Despite The Constructivist's warnings, I took the data that the LPGA does make available and built a Total Putting statistic. Using the Putts Per GIR and Putting Average numbers available at LPGA.com, I tried out several different combinations before settling on this formula:
(X-1)*Y where X=PPGIR and Y=Putting Average
My primary goal was to make certain that players who rate well in both categories would be near the top of the Total Putting list. I subtracted 1 from the PPGIR number in order to weigh that stat with more importance (I know that sounds backwards but trust me, it works out that way). Merely multiplying the two raw numbers favored the Putting Average leaders and I wanted the opposite to occur. Since "lower is better" in both stats, the same is true for Total Putting. Here are your 2008 leaders:
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Countdown: 45 days until SBS Open
by hound dog
on Dec 29, 2008 5:28 AM PST
I hope you all have had (or better yet, are still having) a great holiday season. To help get us all through the next wintry month-and-a-half, I'll be counting down the days with highlight clips from the 2008 season. Okay, I won't do this every single day but you get the idea...
Let's start with my favorite clip from last year's SBS Open. Russy Gulyanamitta tied for second when she rammed home this long birdie putt at the final hole.
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Happy Holidays!
by hound dog
on Dec 20, 2008 9:00 AM PST
For the next several days, I'll be celebrating the holidays out of town with family so posting will be very light. You should see my output get back to normal during New Year's week.
I would like to take a moment here to thank everyone who has visited Hound Dog LPGA this year. Whether your patronage dates back to the old Blogger site or you discovered me here at SB Nation, I greatly appreciate your interest in my writing. Special thanks go out to everyone who has replied in the comments, sent e-mail questions (and answers) and those who have submitted FanPosts. If any of you have a point you'd like to make or an idea for me to research or tell me whatever golfy stuff you're thinking about, please take advantage of that feature sometime soon.
I would like to specifically thank the folks at SB Nation for giving me my very own "dot.com" along with the chance to reach a larger audience. Also - thanks to Karen Palacios-Jansen and the generosity of PrimeSportsNetwork.com, you got the chance to hear me rambling semi-coherently every week on the topic I love. I never thought when I began this "hobby" two and a half years ago that this many people would be interested in what I think about women's golf. And finally - thanks ladies, for playing the kind of golf that moves me to words.
Here's hoping the New Year brings all of us more to be thankful for. Enjoy your holiday season!
Ken
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Player Profiles - Part 9
by hound dog
on Dec 19, 2008 5:50 AM PST
This is the final segment of my player profile series. If there are any other players you would like to see profiled, let me know in the comments.
#45 Kristy McPherson
Kristy's six Top 10 finishes were offset by seven missed cuts. She played her best in July when she rattled off three straight Top 10s at Arkansas, Farr and State Farm. There's not just one area of her game that McPherson can "fix" to gain improvement. She ranks in the 40s in driving, GIR and putting average while her PPGIR is T57. In all of these categories, you can consider her to be in the "good" range. To get better results, Kristy will have to improve one of these areas greatly or two of them significantly. I can't prove it but logically that seems to be a more daunting task than for say, expecting better results from Teresa Lu by improving her 68th-place ranking in GIR or Meena Lee by improving her poor putting stats.
#46 Leta Lindley
Won the Corning Classic in May, her first career victory which came in her 295th start. The win was among only two Top 10s for Leta this year (and 33 for her career), earning her the 2008 Fluke Victory of the Year Award. Lindley edges Louise Friberg for this "honor" because of her marginal (and lengthy) prior record and the fact that Louise collected one extra Top 10. Leta became the first player in three years to win an event immediately after missing a cut, and she also missed the cut the week after her victory.
Please don't get the impression from those comments that I think Leta Lindley is a bad player. Far from it - I ranked her #46, didn't I? "Surprise Victory of the Year" would be nicer terminology, but you shouldn't expect me to be PC all of the time. The main reason I talk about Fluke Victories is to showcase the unpredictability of the LPGA. On any given week, given the right set of circumstances, anybody in the field can win - and there's nothing bad about that.
#54 Louise Friberg
Lollo opened her rookie season by missing the cut at SBS but she finished T7 at Fields and then came from ten shots behind to win at MasterCard. In her next 16 events, she finished no better than T22 and missed the cut seven times. She closed out 2008 on the positive side, with a T6 at Navistar and no MCs in her final eight events.
I've mentioned Louise's blog before but in case you've missed it, go check it out sometime. Two or three times a week, she posts her thoughts on Tour life. I wish more players would let us know what being an LPGA touring professional is like. Lately she's been complaining about her putting. I don't know if she ever reads my blog but if she does - yes Louise, keep working on the flat stick. You drive the ball pretty well and reach the green with a good average. Get those putting numbers in line and you'll be just fine.
#56 Natalie Gulbis
Problems with her back prevented Natalie from starting any events after August. Even before that forced layoff, she wasn't herself. In 20 starts, Gulbis collected only one Top 10 (T9 at the British) and wasn't even in the money list Top 50. She returned to action at the Lexus Cup and played in the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (which aired last weekend). This was the second time in 18 months that Natalie had missed significant time because of her back. Like another favorite of mine, Grace Park, Natalie may find herself losing so much practice time because of her physical ailments that she can't possibly be competitive.
#63 Se Ri Pak
I ranked Pak #9 in the preseason (she finished 2007 at #13), which turned out to be one of the worst of those predictions. I suppose Brittany Lincicome was the worst. Se Ri only made 17 starts with three Top 10s (second at the Canadian Open) but seven missed cuts. Pak used to go four years playing a full schedule without missing seven cuts.
What happened? There is no mention of any injury in Se Ri's profile at Seoulsisters.com. Her driving stats were down (due to a 6.5 yard drop in distance) along with her GIR (32 down to 72). Her putting stats took the biggest fall - she ranked in the Top 20 of both in '07, down to the middle of the pack in '08. The occasional good showings lead me to believe that the talent is still there, but is the desire?
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Player Profiles - Part 8
by hound dog
on Dec 17, 2008 4:00 PM PST
#38 Meena Lee
Winner of the 2008 Yu Ping Lin Award for leading the Tour in driving accuracy, Meena only finished 40th in Total Driving due to a paltry 237-yard average distance (T140). Tied for second in Arkansas and tied for fourth at the Ochoa Invitational, the best of her four Top 10 finishes while missing four cuts. Lee's putting stats this year were the worst of her career - T89 in putting average, T103 in PPGIR - so if she can get that turned around, a Top 30 season is certainly possible in 2009.
#39 Lindsey Wright
By the end of April, Lindsey had three Top 10 finishes (third place at Fields) and was ranked #23 in May. Then over a 14-event stretch she failed to collect a single Top 10, only making the Top 20 twice and missing four cuts. Wright finished T9 in China to snap that streak but her subsequent results don't suggest that the hard times are over.
#40 Teresa Lu
This third-year player from Taiwan made one appearance in the Top 30 this year, at #30 in July. Teresa finished in the Top 10 four times, although three of those were 10th-place finishes. Her best performance came at the Ginn Open, where she collected a T3 and almost 30% of her season's earnings. Lu drives the ball well but loses a lot of ground approaching the green (68th in GIR) and loses more while putting.
#43 Hee Young Park
The only fully-exempt Korean rookie this year, Park finished in the Top 10 four times with her T4 at the Bell Micro being her best. She had missed six cuts by mid-July but missed no more after that and played very well in August and September. Faded a little over the last five events as rookies often do.
Only two players drove the ball better this year than did Park - Lorena Ochoa and Becky Lucidi. Her approaches could use a lot of work, as she only came in 43rd in GIR. If Hee Young can get that number up to where players of her length generally hang out (20th or better), she'll be a Top 30 player for sure and might even win herself a tournament one of these weeks.
#44 Michele Redman
Michele might have had the quietest season of any player in my Top 70. She never finished in the Top 10, she missed only one cut and she collected only five Top 20s with her best being a T12 at Wegmans. I only remember seeing her on TV a time or two, which for a veteran American player with experience at four Solheim Cups is rather remarkable.
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Player Profiles - Part 7
by hound dog
on Dec 17, 2008 3:56 AM PST
My final three installments of profiles will focus on an assortment of players who finished in the Top 70.
#31 Brittany Lang
As part of the greatest rookie class in LPGA history in 2006, Lang ranked #25 on Tour with seven Top 10 finishes. In comparison, Brittany's 2007 was - to put it nicely - crappy. 12 missed cuts in 27 starts with only two Top 10s. This year, she started off fairly well with Top 10s at Safeway, SemGroup and Sybase but suffered the summer heat with five missed cuts in one eight-event stretch. Then - just as she did during her rookie season - Lang closed out strong, running up five straight Top 10s to end the year.
What part of Brittany's game enabled the resurgence? I'm glad you asked. She drove the ball a little better in ‘08 and improved her GIR ranking from 26th to 10th. While her putting average was only a little better (92 to 83), her PPGIR improved significantly from T108 to T57. So the short answer seems to be - everything, but mostly putting.
#32 Juli Inkster
Only played 18 events, the fewest of her career besides those two seasons where she was out for maternity reasons (1990, 1994). Three Top 10s, two Top 5s, a playoff loss to Paula Creamer at SemGroup, only two missed cuts. I get the feeling she's going to play through next year's Solheim Cup and call it quits, either immediately or at the end of 2009.
#34 Jane Park
Even though she had yet to win, Jane moved as high as #20 in my July rankings on the strength of four Top 5 finishes. In my mind, there were only two players more likely than her to collect their first victory by the end of the season - Na Yeon Choi and Song-Hee Kim. I was wrong about all three. After tying for second in Arkansas and finishing T16 at State Farm, Park played ten more times without ever posting better than T20. It wasn't exactly a collapse as her worst finish was T53 but the word for Jane down the stretch was "mediocre".
#35 Momoko Ueda
My preseason pick for Rookie of the Year finished third in my rankings - behind Tseng and Choi - and fourth in Rolex points - behind Hee Young Park. If I had known during preseason that Momoko would only make 19 starts (and just two after August 3), I would have chosen somebody else. She missed some time because of a freak accident but she also chose to play several JLPGA fall events.
Have Miyazato and Ueda established the standard schedule that Japanese stars who come to America will continue to follow? Ai only played 21 times her rookie season, upped it to 25 in 2007 but cut back to 23 this year. By comparison, most of the Korean players who have "graduated" from the KLPGA usually wind up with about 28-30 starts per year. With the pressure I'm sure they get from their local media to play in front of the home folks plus their natural inclination to go back home a couple of times a season, we may continue to see less of the Japanese stars (including newcomers Shiho Oyama and Mika Miyazato) than we see of any other LPGA regulars.
#36 Stacy Prammanasudh
I expected Stacy to fall out of my Top 10 (she finished 2007 at #7) but NOT to fall out of my Top 30. She was hanging in there for most of the season but in her last eight events she missed three cuts and finished no better than T24. The culprit? Looks like the putter - T13 and T10 in the two putting stats for '07, T33 and T79 for '08. She actually drove the ball better this year and was about the same in GIR both years.
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