Aging Gracefully

A couple of years ago, the LPGA abruptly stopped listing the birth dates and ages of its members.  Used to be, you could find a document like this on LPGA.com rather easily:

2006 Players by birthday

At first I thought "ok, they're just being sensitive to the veterans".  But since that time I've noticed something weird - the Tour regularly releases tournament notes and statistics which mention a player's age, such as the "Youngest Winner of Major Championships" list that followed the final three majors of 2008.  The last of those lists can be found here, about three-quarters of the way down the page.  So they talk about the young guns but keep the vets' ages a secret, right?  LPGA.com called Karrie Webb a "34-year-old Aussie" after she won at Phoenix.  When Helen Alfredsson won Evian last year, the Tour's note about her move up the Rolex Rankings stated that she was 43 years old.

So if you're going to mention their ages anyway, why not emulate all the other sports organizations and list complete bio data for each of your members?  While the Tour ponders that question, I've compiled my own list of player birth dates.

Player birthdays spreadsheet - updated

Gathered via Google (the Official Search Engine of Hound Dog LPGA), this spreadsheet contains the names of all players in Priority Category 20 and higher with the exception of those players in Cat-15a and Cat-19 who have retired.  It is still somewhat incomplete.  You will probably notice the blanks next to Sandra Gal and Paige Mackenzie - I'm also missing the exact birthdates of Mika Miyazato and Sarah Kemp.  If anybody has all or part of this info, please pass it along and I will update the spreadsheet.  UPDATED:  Thanks, Sag.

As usual when I build a sheet like this, certain things jumped out at me so I thought I would share a few age-trivial things with you:

• There are currently 21 players who are under 21 years of age.  Six of those players - Ji-Yai Shin, Morgan Pressel, In-Kyung Kim, Ji Young Oh, Inbee Park and Yani Tseng - already have at least one LPGA victory.
• The youngest Tour player is Haeji Kang (born November 14, 1990).
• The oldest Tour player who has competed in 2009 is Cindy Rarick (born September 12, 1959).
• According to the info I currently have, there are NO players on Tour who share the same birth date.  Samantha Head or Naree Song would eliminate that shortage should they become Tour members while their twin sisters Johanna Mundy and Aree Song keep their cards.