Top 40 Players of the Decade
You knew I wasn't going to let this one slide by before the year was out...
To rank the best players of the 2000s, I used the same method I have used in the past to rank players across multiple years (such as the Sorenstam Era and the Best of the ‘90s). I took my seasonal rankings for all ten years and awarded points for finishing in the Top 30, from 100 points to the Player of the Year down to one point for 30th place. After adding them all up, here are the best 40:
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1. Annika Sorenstam 2. Lorena Ochoa 3. Karrie Webb 4. Cristie Kerr 5. Se Ri Pak 6. Mi Hyun Kim 7. Juli Inkster 8. Paula Creamer 9. Hee-Won Han 10. Meg Mallon 11. Grace Park 12. Rosie Jones 13. Jeong Jang 14. Suzann Pettersen 15. Lorie Kane 16. Catriona Matthew 17. Jiyai Shin 18. Pat Hurst 19. Seon Hwa Lee 20. Michele Redman 21. Rachel Hetherington 22. Laura Diaz 23. Candie Kung 24. Angela Stanford 25. Yani Tseng 26. Natalie Gulbis 27. Michelle Wie 28. Na Yeon Choi 29. Dottie Pepper 30. Ai Miyazato 31. Morgan Pressel 32. Carin Koch 33. Laura Davies 34. Sophie Gustafson 35. Beth Daniel 36. Karen Stupples 37. Stacy Prammanasudh 38. Janice Moodie 39. Jee Young Lee 40. Anna Nordqvist |
Keep in mind that only about a third of these players played regularly the entire decade so the ones that didn't had fewer seasons to amass points. I don't make any adjustments for number of seasons played because I believe the best measurement of a player's career value is the total area under the curve, as opposed to any perceived average value. Nearly all of the 40 rated as a Top 10 player in at least one of the seasons and most made that list in two or more.
Also - as you're checking out the list, beware of falling into the "so-and-so should be ranked higher because she has more wins than what's-her-name" trap. My rating system takes a lot more than just victories into account and this list reflects that as well.
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Comments
I’m not a stats geek so I can’t even begin to argue about position on the list. Frankly, most look about right. The one issue I have is with number 40, Anna Nordqvist. I have a hard time believing a player with less than a full season, even though she had two victories, would qualify in the player of the decade rankings. Longevity really should be considered when the time frame is ten years.
Truth has a well-known liberal bias.
I do consider longevity. If I didn’t, Nordqvist’s “average season” would probably have landed her in the Top 10 when compared with the “average season” of everybody else.
Maybe this example will help explain how this ranking is set up – suppose Anna had played the first nine years of the decade, didn’t finish in the Top 30 during any of those years and then had the 2009 she actually had. She would rank #40 for the decade.

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