Bell Micro Classic - Epilogue

Angela Stanford had started 129 events since her win at the 2003 ShopRite.  That victory came the week before the U.S. Open, where Angela got into a three-way 18-hole playoff and lost on Monday by one stroke to Hilary Lunke (Kelly Robbins finished three behind that day).  Makes you wonder how her career might have played out differently had she managed to collect win #2 that day.

In her last six events, Shanshan Feng has finished fourth or better three times.  Before that six event stretch, Feng had missed the cut 10 times in 14 starts with a best finish of T39.

Stanford had to withstand the Sunday charges of Feng and Kim Hall, but her nemesis Cristie Kerr never made a move.  Kerr got within four on the front nine but bogeys at 8 and 10 sent her down the road to a 73 and T10 finish.

The high swirling winds of the first three days created the highest average score by far I've seen at Magnolia Grove.  The average of 73.86 was 1.72 strokes higher than last November at the Mitchell Tournament of Champions.  Sometimes it's "hard to reason with hurricane season".

The Big Disappointment goes to Jee Young Lee, who missed the cut by four shots.  Jelly had been playing better of late with six Top 20s in her last seven starts but this third MC of 2008 puts her in position to fall out of my Top 30.  Not what I envisioned for her back in January.

Tough choice for the Big Surprise this week as five players registered career-best finishes.  I'll go with Auburn grad Danielle Downey, whose tie for fourth in her home state was the first Top 10 of her three-year LPGA career.  After she finished with birdie at 18 Sunday, Danielle yelled out "War Eagle" to honor her alma mater.  I'm afraid she's really going to be disappointed this Saturday night when her football team loses to LSU.

Shout-outs go to the rest of the career-best finishers.  Hall got her second Top 10 of the year, Hee Young Park got her fourth Top 10 while Mollie Fankhauser and Anna Rawson each earned the first Top 10s of their careers.  One more special mention:  Heather Daly-Donofrio returned to the site of one of her two career victories (2004 TOC) and posted her best finish (T21) since the Fields Open in February 2007.