21.  Sun Young Yoo  (33-28-19)

Yoo is probably the highest-rated player who even avid LPGA fans know nothing about.  She played her best golf of 2009 in back-to-back weeks, finishing tied for second at Arkansas and then tied for third at CVS.  Overall her record isn't terribly impressive - four Top 10s and two missed cuts.  What helps boost her to this position is seven other finishes in the Top 20 and the fact that the players ranked right behind her missed more cuts.

Like several others in this area of the rankings, Sun Young's game from tee-to-green is outstanding.  She ranks in the Top 10 of Total Driving and GIR but only #57 in Total Putting.  She was 27^th in putting a year ago so the chances of her moving into the Top 20 seem very good.  After four LPGA seasons of steady improvement, a win in 2010 is not out of the question.

22.  Morgan Pressel  (27-23-22)

Is this a third example of a player whose sum is greater than her parts (see yesterday's Lindsey Wright profile)?  Pressel ranked 37^th in both putting and GIR and 71^st in driving, yet collected three Top 3 finishes and rated as a solid Top 30 player all season long.  She was also Top 30 in 2008 with a win at Kapalua and a T2 at Sybase despite Big Three numbers indicative of a lesser player.  With Morgan you might naturally expect those great performances to have been on shorter courses but her win at '08 Kapalua and T2 at the '09 Ochoa Invitational were over 6600 yards and her runner-up at the '09 Farr was the only track among the five under 6400.

The trend extends backwards to 2007 as Pressel finished that year ranked fifth with Big Three numbers of 42-10-23.  In 2006 the effect is less pronounced as she ranked 18^th with a line of 15-14-57.  Before I get too excited about this "discovery", I should take a step back and investigate to see if there are players who consistently follow the opposite pattern.  I would hate to be misinterpreting my own data.

23.  Maria Hjorth  (28-NR-23)

Maria returned to action in April after the birth of her first child.  She started very slowly but by the fall she was playing as well as ever, with three straight Top 10s at CVS, Navistar and Korea and eight Top 20 finishes in her last ten starts.  Hjorth goes into the "needs to putt better" group with Brittany Lang, Sophie Gustafson and Sun Young Yoo, as she ranked eighth in Total Driving and fourth in GIR but only 71^st in Total Putting.

24.  Brittany Lincicome  (NR-NR-23)

In my opinion, Brittany executed the Shot of the Year on the final hole of the Kraft Nabisco.  Standing in the fairway of the par-5 18th needing a birdie to tie for the lead, she played her second shot over the lake to the center of the green.  The ball rode the slope around the back section of the green and came to rest about three feet from the pin.  Lincicome sank the eagle putt to win her first major championship by one stroke.

The rest of the season wasn't quite as heart-stopping.  Brittany finished fifth at the U.S. Open and collected two other Top 10s but she also missed seven cuts along with five finishes in the 60s.  Her Big Three rankings were 80-33-78.  It almost goes without saying - if Brittany Lincicome isn't in the Top 10 of Total Driving (and she hasn't been since 2007), something is bad wrong with her game.

25.  Natalie Gulbis  (56-NR-24)

On the face of it, a #25 ranking for Natalie looks pretty good.  Especially when you recall her physical problems in 2008 which kept her from playing the last three months and forced her to go through qualifying for this year's U.S. Open (which she unfortunately failed to make).

Her results weren't much to write home about, though - only two Top 10s (T10 at SBS, T7 at Michelob), five other Top 20s and three missed cuts.  And worse, she withdrew after the first round at the Ochoa Invitational and DNS'd at the Tour Championship, a sign that the health problems haven't quite gone away.  Count me among the hopefuls who are wishing Natalie a restful off-season and a return to success in 2010.