Click the links if you missed Part 1 or Part 2.

#11  Inbee Park  (NR-NR-6)

It was a curious path Park walked in 2008.  She began with missed cuts in the first two events in Hawaii.  March brought three straight Top 10s, one of them a tie for third at Corona.  A lull in April and May culminated in another missed cut at Corning.  The next week at the Ginn Tribute, Inbee finished tied for sixth and two weeks later at Wegmans, she did the same.  Then came Interlachen - Park won the U.S. Open by four shots, the youngest player ever to win the championship at 19 years 11 months.  The next week at Arkansas, Inbee finished tenth.  The rest of the way she started ten events with only one official Top 20 (19^th in the 20-player Samsung field) and only two others in the Top 30.

I haven't heard any reports of injury or swing changes to explain Park's recent struggles.  This may be Inbee's MO - flashes of brilliance from an otherwise mid-30s caliber player.  Her 2007 season had similar flashes - T4 at the U.S. Open and T2 at Safeway - so this may just be par for the course.  Two seasons of data isn't enough to say for sure. 

#12  Jeong Jang  (11-7-5)

Three runner-up finishes (including a playoff loss at Corning to Leta Lindley) and a fourth straight million-dollar season highlight JJ's 2008.  Rose to #5 in my rankings in April, remained there in May but slowly slid down to this point as other players won to jump in front.  Jang finished on a strong note with three straight Top 10s so if the off-season is good to her ailing wrist, I expect her back in the Top 10 in '09.

#13  Eun-Hee Ji  (NR-23-11)

Ji is my proudest pre-season prediction.  I picked her #23 and she exceeded even that level.  Won Wegmans and collected four more Top 5s, mostly during the summer months.  In 31 career LPGA starts, Eun-Hee now has six Top 5 finishes.  An almost certain Top 10 preseason pick for 2009.

#14  Helen Alfredsson  (NR-NR-14)

My choice for 2008 Comeback Player of the Year.  After coming in second at the U.S. Open, Helen won the Evian Masters in a playoff over Na Yeon Choi and Angela Park.  In October she won the Grand China Air event.  Alfredsson ranks this low because of six missed cuts (all before the U.S Open and four of them to open the season), only four total Top 10s and a less-than-stellar scoring average.  The wins plus her fifth-place finish on the money list balance the scales.  With her health and game in such good order, it will be interesting to see if she changes her tune about only playing another year or two like she was saying over the summer.

#15  Karrie Webb  (23-22-8)

When I first started my blogging ways in 2006, Pat Hurst quickly became my official Jekyll-Hyde player with her pattern of great results followed by missed cuts or indifferent finishes.  Karrie Webb has now assumed that moniker.  Five Top 5s with seven finishes of 35^th or worse only begins to describe it.  The week-to-week progressions are maddening - T5, MC, T13, T38, T3, T38 to start the year, followed by T67, 2, T29, T38, 5, T25, T9.  Karrie strung together four reasonably good performances in August and September but went down the chute in October.  Then, after convincing me her season was toast - second by a shot at the ADT Championship.  You want to lose your house betting on golf?  Take Karrie Webb on any given week.

Webb has now gone 42 consecutive events without winning, dating back to the 2006 Mizuno Classic.  That is the longest such stretch of her LPGA career.  All three of the winless seasons in her career have occurred in the last four years.