Top 70 - 2009 Final

Once all of the tryptophan I ingested last week was purged from my system, I was able to complete the final player rankings of 2009.  The player's previous ranking from September is in parentheses and the rookies are in bold.  Comments follow the jump.

Like her Rolex streak, this is the fourth consecutive Hound Dog Player of the Year Award for Lorena Ochoa.  Her final margin over Shin was three points.  Lorena overcame her fourth-place money finish (to Shin's money title) by missing no cuts and having slightly better scoring and Top 10 averages.

Ai Miyazato and Cristie Kerr finished in a dead heat for third place.  They each won one event, missed no cuts and were almost even in scoring and Top 10 average.  I awarded Ai the position because although she finished one spot behind Kerr on the money list, the difference was only $2573 - less than two-tenths of a percentage point less, or a one-position difference in one event - and Miyazato earned her total in three fewer events.  The rest of the Top 10 weren't very far behind.  Na Yeon Choi wound up three points behind Miyazato and Kerr, and only 18 points separated third place from ninth.

Three rookies in the Top 10...that's a first.  Of course for two of those rookies you may feel like putting an asterisk beside their status, but the LPGA has a storied tradition of odd rookie designations.  Why should 2009 be any different?  I promise I'll get around to updating the rookie class comparisons soon (pretty sure 2009 beat out the Class of 2006) along with an analysis of the greatest rookie seasons ever.

Hee-Won Han dropped to #33.  This is the first time since I started ranking players back in 2006 that she isn't among the Top 30.  Seon Hwa Lee is endangering her status in that elite group of highly ranked players, which now also contains only Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer and Karrie Webb.