ALERT! 2009 Priority List is out!
by hound dog on Jan 7, 2009 4:35 AM PST
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PrintWhile browsing the Players page at LPGA.com this morning, I noticed this little link near the top of the page:
I have no idea how long it's been there. You might think its release would have been worthy of a blurb on Page 1. I'll have comments after I look it over.
UPDATE: I compared the official list with the one I developed last month and found a few differences, one of which was my mistake. I left Ji-Yai Shin completely off my list (oops!). She is the only member of Category 7.
Amy Hung is listed as the final 1a player even though she finished the 2007 season 44th on the money list. Amy was in the Top 40 following the '07 Longs event which at the time was the cutoff point for establishing status. So I believe that is the reason she was placed in Cat-1a.
Kelly Robbins is the final player in Category 2, even though she is only 21st on the career money list. I believe she was given a medical extension and since she was in the Top 20 at the beginning of 2008 (Jeong Jang and Paula Creamer both passed her during the season), she qualified for Cat-2 and elected to be included. A player can only choose this option once in her career. Others who also chose to exercise that option for 2009 were Beth Daniel, Betsy King, Lorie Kane and Liselotte Neumann.
Medical extensions also place six players at the end of Category 1 - Joo Mi Kim, Young Jo, Stephanie Louden, Heather Daly-Donofrio, Aree Song and Laurie Rinker. Rinker was apparently given her third consecutive extension, as she finished 86th on the money list in 2005 and has only played 16 events in the last three years (and none in 2008). Category 11 has two medical extensions included - Nadina Light and Kris Tschetter - as does Category 20 - Simi Mehra and Hana Kim.
The Tour did as I expected by skipping over spots vacated in categories by players who had moved up. For example - in Cat-11 after #126 Lisa Strom, Marisa Baena would have been next but she still qualifies under Cat-6 so her spot is skipped and #127 becomes Michelle Wie.
Brandie Burton used her one-time option and is the only Category 14 player. At position #150, there should only be a couple of events she wouldn't be able to enter.
Category 15a contains 59 players, most of whom are retired. The players in this group I would most expect to enter any 2009 events would be Nancy Lopez, Jan Stephenson, Rosie Jones, Christa Johnson, Danielle Ammaccapane, Michelle McGann, Barb Mucha, Cindy Rarick, Maggie Will, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, Tina Barrett, Becky Iverson, Kate Golden and Jackie Gallagher-Smith. Note that any players below Cat-15a, while they may be listed at Priority #223 or higher, their real priority standing would be about 45 positions better because of the inactive players in this category.
Remember the unexplained four-player playoff for 21st-place at Q-School? Two players - Chella Choi and Leah Wigger - won the playoff, allowing 22 players to earn Category 11 status. I still don't have an explanation for why the playoff was conducted, but there were a couple more ramifications from it. As expected, Choi and Wigger are Cat-11 but Haeji Kang and Tania Elosegui, who officially finished 31st and 32nd, were moved up to the end of Cat-16, ostensibly to fill the spots vacated by Choi and Wigger. But get this - Sarah Oh, who finished 41st, was NOT moved up to Cat-20 (Taylor Leon in 42nd place already had Cat-15 locked up) to fill one of its "vacant" spots. If anybody at the LPGA office is reading this, please let me know the logic behind these decisions.
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Couple of Things
I see everyone is included, including Annika and other "retired"golfers.
How did Heather DD get a P-1? 21 events in 08 wouldn’t suggest a medical? She hasn’t finished in the top 80/90 since 05. Must have “Space Banked” her medicals for 06 and 07:)
Hung was a surprise in 1a. Thanks for the explaining.
P-2 Surprised to see Daniel and King prob won’t play many.
Note the few players in P-15, only 13 for 25 spots, really 12 ,Turner has announced her retirement.
15a Agree with Dog, at least 40 in that Priority will play in 0 events. Not sure even 10 will be Golfing “Full Time” P-19 and 21 have a similar look.
21-30 and 31-40: The playoff seemed to help Kang and Elosegui, but hurt Sarah Oh. 2 spots added for P-11 and P-16 but not P-20. People in Sarah Oh’s camp should be upset. There was no reason for a playoff. If anybody was added it should have been Sjodin and Yi. Adding players from Q school to replace players from the Money List makes no sense
Reordering- You guys read it the same way I do.? After the 7th event player in P 14-21 will be reordered by there current money list to play in the 9th event. I am pretty sure the player can only move up or down in her priority?
reordering
The way I read it, everyone after Category 14-21 is reordered after the 7th event, so you can move up and down in status depending on how you play in the events you get into. Even better is if you make it into the top 40 on the money list (or win an event)—those are the only 2 ways to leapfrog those in Category 13 and up capable of being leapfrogged.
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 11:10 AM PST up reply actions
whoops, it's categories 14-20
see p. 11, “Reordering,” for how it works for those lower-status players who don’t move up in the 2 LPGA ways (or 1 Futures Tour way) that HD lists below.
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 12:26 PM PST up reply actions
money list
As I argue in the post I link to below, the LPGA was right not to make the money list-based categories flexible. They shouldn’t have done so for Q-School finishes, either.
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 11:20 AM PST up reply actions
you got me
I would understand if Heather DD was in Category 6. Her situation resembles Nicole Perrot, who won in ’05 but took a medical for ’07. Heather won in ’04 with medicals in ’06 and ’07. I see no reasonable explanation for her being Cat-1.
As for the reordering – this is how it works:
1) any winning player immediately moves up to Cat-5 from any lower category
2) after Events 7, 14, 21 & 21, any player in the current Top 40 moves up to Cat-8 from any lower category
3) any Futures Tour player who wins three times immediately joins Cat-13
to finish answering you, Phil
Players will be jumping into higher priorities during the season if they fit the three qualifications I listed. As far as I can tell, no player can move DOWN in priority other than as a consequence of some other player moving up by fulfilling one of those three qualifications. And they certainly can’t be dropped to a lower Category level.
To be more specific, a player has to be in the Top 40 to move up. If she was ranked #41, she would not be moved up at all.
My last statement is wrong
I re-read the Reordering section at the bottom of the doc. Phil and TC are right – they will reorder everyone in Categories 14 thru 20 by the current money list after Events 7, 14, 21 & 28 AS WELL AS move anyone who is in the Top 40 up to Cat-8. Whew, I’m getting a headache!
could that Cat 20 clause have something to do with Oh's predicament?
Category 20 is made up of the “next 10 players after the 10 players eligible” under Category 16 “(regardless of whether they have a priority higher than that category), with priority based on the order of their finish at the Qualifying Tournament (and any ties broken on the basis of the lowest most recent round in the final Qualifying Tournament).” With those 2 restrictions in place, it seems that they’re considering Oh to have been knocked out by the playoff and so ineligible to be moved up.
I hope someone at the LPGA office is considering my advice:
http://mlyhlss.blogspot.com/2008/12/solution-to-lpgas-playoff-problem.html
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 11:08 AM PST reply actions
here's why no home page blurb
Big corporate reorganization over at LPGA HQ just got announced:
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 12:11 PM PST reply actions
actually looks good, but...
…no director of communications and new media?
Still betting on landing that TV deal, I think. Best of luck to them!
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 12:13 PM PST reply actions
I saw that announcement
But am not sure why that would prevent an announcement of the Priority List.
They need a Director of Communications? I can think of a couple of good candidates!
same reason some people can't chew gum and walk at the same time
or is that too harsh?
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 12:23 PM PST up reply actions
layoffs
Now there’s a reason!
http://www.golfweek.com/story/lpga-reorganization-news-010709
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 5:20 PM PST up reply actions
LPGA web site changes
For at least a couple of weeks they have been changing things on the web site. They started changing pictures of some players and have now added some pages for the 2009 rookies with pictures and their category status. No changes to biography pages that I have looked over. They have setup performance charts for 2009. Not all 2009 rookies have pages last I looked. I assumed that any announcement would be after completion not while changes happening.
Priority 11 status
I think that the intent was to have 40 players in the Priority 11 status, so when two players who had Priority 11 status from the money list improved their status via the Qualifying Tournament, they had the playoff for the two additional spots to maintain 40 players in Priority 11. That left a one year trap. Previous priority commitments to those who were in the previous top 40 (2007) as well as 81-100 (2008) dictated that have higher priority leaving less than 40 in the Priority 11 category. Next year there will be no problem as the Top 40 priority becomes Priority 12. So basically they chose to ignore the fact that there will be less than 40 in Prioirty 11 status for this one year. Therefore, no playoff problem.
yeah, but....
Unless they misunderstood their own rules, I don’t see how they could have intended 40 in Category 11. The rules as written don’t call for a playoff at anything but T20 in Q-School. That’s why I called for a rewrite.
by The Constructivist on Jan 7, 2009 5:23 PM PST up reply actions
yeah, but....
If they still consider the two players on the money list who improved their position to be members of the money list. Then they need to have two more players from Qualifying Tournament. Four players tied for 19th playing for 2 positions.
but but but...
I saw 4 tied for 21st. The 2 on the money list in the top 20 improved their position in Category 11. So if the LPGA goes by the common-sense principle that a player’s name should appear only once on the actual priority list—and then at the best possible position on the list—I don’t see how they can consider Mayorkas and Fankhauser to still be “on the money list.” Probably what the LPGA should do is rewrite their priority status rules to allow them to add Q-School spots by erasing from Category 11 any players who finished #81-100 on the money list that they know have higher priority status (via Categories 1a or 6, say, as well as via a good Q-School performance), in order to, like you said, get 40 players in Category 11. If they had followed this principle in ‘08, however, the playoff should have come at T25, as Francella, Lincicome, Davies, and Granada aren’t in Category 11. Why they erased Mayorkas and Fankhauser and not them is beyond me….
by The Constructivist on Jan 8, 2009 2:34 AM PST up reply actions
but
The point is that next year they will not move people in the Top 40 priority and Priority 11 status as in the four people you memtioned out of Priority 11 status, because the Top 40 Priority will be Priority 12. There will be no Priority 1a status. However, if someone plays in the Qualifying Tournament to improve their priority status with a money list position of 81-100 they still must honor the improved status, unless that do away with that option. As I said, they built a one year anomaly into the system to honor the previously earned Top 40 priority. You do however, have a good point about Priority 6 and several other Priorities (4 and 5a) based on winning in previous years, but the number of people in those Priorities based on previous wins will always be small.
No more buts
P-12 is a better fit than P-1a for Top 40 2 years ago.
Some other changes needed
They need to address players that enter Q school that are 81-100 on the money list. This year they could not have been handled more poorly. I still feel spots lost on the money list should be replaced by players on the money list, or even better, not replaced at all.
Give 6-10 Futures tour finishers better status than P-17.
Treat 21-30 Q School the same as 31-40 Q School.
by Phil E. Blunts on Jan 8, 2009 8:24 PM PST up reply actions
include me in "not replaced at all"
If a player has a qualification to jump up and vacate a spot, that spot shouldn’t be filled by moving other players up. There shouldn’t be a set number of players in any group.
small #s?
Yeah, it’s great that 1a is becoming 12. But even if the #s of those with those other exemptions you mention is small, the LPGA should figure out their procedure now for what to do with any such players who would otherwise have fallen into Category 11. If they’re going to erase money list results in this category when people earn higher status (as they did for Mayorkas and Fankhauser) to open up more spots for those in Q-School, then they should be consistent and erase them all (not just those who improved their status in Q-School)—and clarify that that’s the procedure that will be followed to determine how many spots to allocate from Q-School.
Personally, I think the playoff was a mistake and all they need to do is add that parenthetical language from Category 20 into 16 and 11, along with a statement a the start clarifying how the actual priority list is to be generated. Then it’s clear that Q-School results are what matters and that there will be no playoffs or added spots.
by The Constructivist on Jan 17, 2009 9:39 AM PST up reply actions
Wie missing from player list bios/rookies - lpga.com
Michelle Wie is not listed under the player bio and 2009 rookies page on lpga.com. Does anyone know why?
yeah, but that’s old. I’m just wondering why everyone had their 2009 bios up including the rookies, and not her. She’s not listed on this page either: http://www.lpga.com/players_rookies.aspx?mid=2&pid=10
Just wondering if there was some news we didn’t know about.
Rookies
Yesterday there were 13 rookies. Today there are 21 including Wie and Shin and 6 others that were just added. The additions are continuing, we just have to be patient.
Category 20 question...
Can someone please tell me how Simi Mehra and Hana Kim made the last two spots at 324 and 325? Mehra and Kim did not make the 72 hole cut…The next player after Angela Oh was Sarah Oh and after that was Taylor Leon who had the Money List priority so that 9th player would have been Garrett Philips and if they went 10 spots the last spot would have been Emma Cabrera.
Never Mind...Medical Exemptions is the answer
Never Mind….I read your blog again and saw the answer that Mehra and Kim have the medical exemptions….Yes I agree….the Sarah Oh people should be pissed off.
Looking at it again
If the LPGA had not had a playoff Burks would have been 20, Jackson would have been
30 and A Oh would have been 40. Choi and Wigger should be 21-30 and Kang and Elosegui should be 31-40.
Sarah Oh should not have made it. The fact that 2 were bumped to top 20 and 21-30 makes it bad. why weren’t Sarah and Leons “spot” bumped to 31-40?
To correct you Dave, Mackenzie and Leon would not have been skiped in 31-40.
No skipping due to higher standing. The only time the LPGA did this was for Fanhauser and Mayorkas, which created this whole mess.
If skipping was done Kang would have been 30 and Phillips at 40, with Burks still at 20.
Skiping Mayorkis and Fanhauser makes no sense. Their places on the money list were lost, not Q school. How many times have i said that?
Still no reason for the playoff and don’t expect one. We have had many included LPGA confused, needing a certain number, recover the lost spots on the money list and my favorite “to complicated to explain”. hard to explain the unexplainable.
you got it, Phil
My guess that somebody on-site at Q-School screwed up by sending that foursome out for a playoff keeps looking better everyday.
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