Player Profiles - Part 6

26.  Hee Young Park  (43-29-25)

A second-year player who seems to be this close to breaking through, Park finished runner-up twice in 2009 (at Thailand and Mizuno) and in the Top 10 a total of six times.  Six missed cuts (three in a row at the beginning of summer) prevented her from threatening the HD Top 20.  Hee Young putted better this year (up from 74^th to 38^th) but dropped a bit in GIR (from 43^rd to 59^th) and did not remain among the very best in Total Driving (down from 3^rd to 26^th).  She lost six yards per drive off her rookie season average so I wonder if she was playing 3-wood more often to improve her accuracy.  If so she accomplished that but relative to the rest of the Tour, it wasn't a good trade-off.

27.  Seon Hwa Lee  (9-6-12)

One of my favorite players, Seon Hwa seemed to struggle all year.  Residing in or near the Top 10 ever since I began blogging, Lee's current ranking is the lowest of her career.  Oddly enough, her numbers aren't terribly out of line with previous seasons.  She missed three cuts, equal to 2008 and only one more than in 2007.  Her five Top 10s are the fewest in any of her four seasons but are only two fewer than in 2006 or 2008.  What is out of line is her 28^th-place finish on the money list (12^th in 2006 was her previous worst) and the fact she went winless for the first time.  Her Big Three numbers (19-40-33) mask whatever problem she might have had.  2009 was her best driving season and her second-best putting season (#1 in 2006).  It wasn't her worst GIR ranking - she was #46 as a rookie - but she was 25^th in scoring average, the lowest ranking of her career.  Basically, Seon Hwa had a somewhat tough scoring year and wasn't ever able to bunch four good rounds together to get that victory we always expect from her.  Other than that, she was about the same player as during her first three seasons.

28.  Ji Young Oh  (23-NR-13)

While Oh's first career victory at State Farm in 2008 surprised me (only three Top 10s in 40 prior career starts), her second at the '09 Sybase might have surprised me more.  Between the two wins she started 17 events, earning two Top 10s (no Top 5s) and missing two cuts.  She really hadn't been in contention again, which is strange for a player who had just become a Tour winner.  And after Sybase, she reverted back to a level more like her rookie year of 2007 - one Top 10 and five MCs in 17 starts.  If she wins again early in 2010, I'll be even more surprised.  As you might expect from her erratic results, Oh doesn't rank highly in any of the Big Three.  She's 49^th in GIR, 70^th in putting and 93^rd in driving.

29.  Momoko  Ueda  (35-NR-29)

Momoko only made 18 starts as she spent the entire fall in Asia, playing her only LPGA events in Korea and Japan after September 6.  It's a shame, because at the time she was playing her best golf of the year.  A tie for second in Canada was her first Top 10 of the season and she was T11 and T9 in the two Asian swing events.  A couple more Top 10s could have bumped her near the Top 20.

30.  Katherine Hull  (21-10-15)

Several of my preseason predictions didn't pan out - Hull becoming a Top 10 player, Seon Hwa Lee remaining there, Jee Young Lee recovering some of her game, Angela Park remaining in the Top 20.

Of those four predictions, the one which was on the shakiest ground was Hull.  Leaping to prominence in 2008 after four indifferent LPGA seasons, Katherine really shouldn't have been expected to climb further.  Her Big Three numbers in 2008 (125-38-36) didn't support such an expectation and even though her 2009 numbers are an overall improvement (63-55-13), they don't support being a Top 10 player either.  After registering five Top 5 finishes in 2008, Hull collected only one in 2009.