With six events in the books and an unwelcome two-week break staring us in the face, this is a logical time to update the player rankings.  2009 results count for 30% of the rating; the rest is still based on 2008.  Numbers in parentheses are the player's rank at the end of 2008, those in bold are rookies and notes on some of the players are after the jump:

It's a testament to how well Annika Sorenstam played last year that she remains in the Top 10.  Jeong Jang has already fallen out of the Top 20 due to zero starts in 2009 while Maria Hjorth is no longer in the Top 40.  Catriona Matthew is on her way down as well since she is out of action expecting her second child. 

Ji-Yai Shin climbs into the #2 spot over Paula Creamer.  Angela Stanford noses out Cristie Kerr for the #5 spot even though Kerr is playing extremely well.  Suzann Pettersen is still the best player in the world without an LPGA win over the last 14 months.  Put Na Yeon Choi and Song-Hee Kim at #2 and #3 on that particular list.

Putting Brittany Lincicome at #70 isn't an arbitrary decision - that's actually where she ranks in my system because her dismal '08 campaign drags her so far down.  She was ranked #141 going into KNC, if you can believe that.  I thought about placing her higher because she just won a major championship but...what if the win was a fluke?  What if Brittany plays the rest of 2009 like she did in 2008?  Not likely I'll admit but these rankings are based on what the player has done, not on what we expect her to do.  As a test, I estimated Lincicome's point total if she played the rest of this year like she did last year.  Since she came out about the same in that test as she does here, 70 it is.  Now if she maintains her current 2009 stats (scoring average, money list position, Top 10%, doesn't miss more than a cut or two), she will move up accordingly but the performance level required to do that is a far cry from her performance level prior to last Thursday.

Aside from Brittany, the big up-movers are Pat Hurst (NR to #45), Karrie Webb (+6 to #9), Angela Park (+11 to #14), Brittany Lang (+11 to #20), Sun Young Yoo (+10 to #23), Lindsey Wright (+12 to #27) and Kristy McPherson (+14 to #31).  Playing their way significantly down the list are Karen Stupples (-10 to #29), Laura Diaz (-9 to #33) and Stacy Lewis (-10 to #40).