Our next LPGA tournament, the Corona Championship (which begins two weeks from tomorrow) will be the seventh event of the 2009 season.  The significance of that occasion is that at its conclusion, the updated money list standings will reorder the Priority Eligibility positions for a large number of players.  This reordering will also occur after events 14 (Farr) and 21 (Samsung).  It would also happen after event 28 if there were more than 29 scheduled events - as of this moment, there are not.  The new priorities get used for the first time at events 9 (Sybase), 16 (Evian) and 23 (Navistar).

There are two areas in the Priority rankings that will be affected.  Any player in Category 9 or lower who ranks in the Top 40 of the money list at the cutoff point will be elevated to Category 8.  Also, all players in Categories 14 through 20 will be reordered by their current money list standing and fall in line behind Category 13.

Let's look at the possibilities for that first area.  Going into Corona, the only player in the money list Top 40 who isn't already in Category 7 or better is #24 Michelle Wie.  I can safely estimate that 17 players will not be able to pass Michelle so she will move from Cat-11 (position 127) to Cat-8 (position 109).  Not a great improvement but it could make a difference in a limited field somewhere down the line.  #64 Vicky Hurst is the next player who has a reasonable chance to move up but even if she were to earn enough money at Corona to make the Top 40 ($32,000 would probably do it), she would only move up one position in priority.  The player right behind Vicky, #65 Louise Stahle, would benefit greatly by a good finish.  $34,000 - about a seventh-place finish - would bump Louise up from position 142 to 110.  In a full-field event, that's the difference between barely-in and absolutely-in.  #66 Kris Tamulis (position 131), #67 Marcy Hart (143), #69 Johanna Mundy (135), #70 Taylor Leon (156) and nearly all of the players below them go to Corona with the same objective as Stahle - a great finish will bring a great move up the chart.  Even a player who hasn't earned ANY money in 2009 could make the Top 40 with a fourth-place or better.

The second area of the rankings will change in a different way.  Each player in Cat-14 down to Cat-20 gets reordered by the money list, rather than single players getting moved up by hitting a predetermined target.  Early in the season, however, it is simpler to figure out than you might imagine.  Going into Corona, there are only twelve players from those categories who have earned money in 2009:

Those players plus any others in Cat-14 through Cat-20 who earn money at Corona would line up behind Category 13 (which currently has no members) in what I would assume would be Category 13a, although that isn't listed in the Priority Eligibility document.  For most of the twelve listed above, the jump to positions 150-161 wouldn't  be a large one.  Kang is currently at position 230 but is realistically about #175 - only a handful of the 59 players in Cat-15a have entered an event this year - and her jump of about 20 spots would be the largest of the twelve.  I don't want make light of those small jumps, though.  Every position gained by a player in this area could easily be the difference between making or missing a tournament.  I assume that all players who have not earned any money as of the cutoff point would remain in their current categories, and would get pushed down an appropriate number of positions by all of those players who jump past them.

Now if somebody in Category 20 who hasn't earned any money this year like Janell Howland or Pornanong Phatlum (I've been looking for an excuse to type that name!) can get into the Corona field and just make the cut, the jump in priority would be about 35 "real" positions and move the player from the level of 1-2 tournaments a year to 8-10 tournaments a year.  That's a promotion to buck for!