For Hound Dog's readers, here are the top 12 members of the LPGA's Class of 2006.

Simply the Best

1. Seon Hwa Lee: She's suffering through the 1st so-so season of her career. But if she can just start hitting a few more greens per tournament, she could be back in the winner's circle any given week. Her putting's been pretty solid and has been improving of late, so she just needs to give herself more birdie chances to get back to contending. She's hitting an astounding 82.7% of her fairways and has average distance, so clearly it's time to work on her irons. Check out Happy Fan's career overview to see why I've put her at #1 in her class for what feels like forever.
2. Morgan Pressel: Isn't it so typical of golf that just as the swing changes you've been working on for a long time start to groove, your putter heads south? That was the story of Pressel's season until the Wegmans last week, when her putter came back online and she put herself in contention through 63 holes. But even though she's added distance this season (she's now averaging just over 240 yards off the tee), she's not quite accurate enough off the tee (her 74.1% average is down from 77.1% in 2008 and 76.7% in 2006, which is worse than it sounds because so many more players are hitting 70% or more of their fairways this year than in previous years) to compete with the LPGA's elite on a regular basis. Still, even with her disastrous final 9 at the Wegmans, she still hit over 78% of her fairways, so maybe she's on the right track for the rest of the season. It couldn't happen any sooner, as Jee Young Lee is ahead of her in every major statistical category except wins. So I'm going to go against both major ranking systems and keep Pressel at #2 in her class over her career--for now.
3. Jee Young Lee: Her driving stats are remarkably similar to Ya Ni Tseng's, but she's hitting far fewer greens and taking more putts than the best player among the Young Guns. I suspect she, like her namesake at the top of this list, needs to work on her approach shots. Why? So she can either move to #1 on my ranking of the best players on tour without a member win or get off it completely. Check out this profile by Brian Heard and career overview by Happy Fan to understand why Hound Dog and I are so high on her prospects.

The Contenders

4. Ai Miyazato: She's having the best season of any of the Senior Standouts thus far and still has loads of room for improvement. She's only put together 3 rounds in the mid-60s this season, despite being on in every aspect of her game, which helps explain why her ongoing 6-event top-20 streak only has 3 top 10s mixed in the stretch and why she hasn't been able to crack the top 3 just yet. I still think she made a mistake to go home to play in the Suntory Open and celebrate her birthday in Japan, but she should be fully recovered from jet lag and ready to contend from now on.
5. Brittany Lang: She's having the 2nd-best season of the Senior Standouts, is one of the best drivers on tour, and has been hitting a ton of greens, so she could win any week her putter gets hot. It wouldn't hurt to work on her irons, too. She should be making a lot more birdies than she has been this season and it can't all be her putter's fault.
6. Sun Young Yoo: This late bloomer continues to quietly impress this season. She's one of the better drivers on tour, is hitting a bunch of greens, and putting pretty well, so it was great to see her get her 2nd top 10 of the season last week at the Wegmans, breaking a 5-event string in which she struggled just to make cuts. Perhaps this is the start of another top-20 streak like the 5-event one she started the season with? Or something a bit more impressive? In any case, she deserves a promotion--her quantum leap has been made.

Quantum Leap Candidates

7. Meaghan Francella: She's finally healthy and playing well again. If she could capitalize more on her ability to hit fairways (she's doing so 77% of the time), she'll hit more greens, give herself better birdie chances, and start making more birdie putts. That 1.83 PPGIR rate needs improvement if she's going to contend for win #2 any time soon--or beat Teresa Lu and Kyeong Bae to the $1M mark in career winnings.
8. Teresa Lu: I think she's playing hurt, as she WDed from the Sybase and hasn't broken into the top 50 since. But if she ever gets her irons going, watch out for her. With a 1.87 PPGIR rate, she clearly isn't putting the ball close to the hole that often, but still is averaging 3.19 birdies per round, despite hitting the green in regulation 64.4% of the time. Brian Heard argues she's here to stay, and I agree.
9. Kyeong Bae: Finished 4th at the LPGA Championship, but a final-round 79 at the Wegmans torpedoed what had been a decent comeback from her 1st-round 74. If she could become a better wind and rain player, she'd be a lot more consistent, but when the weather's good, watch out for her. She's averaging 3.25 birdies per round despite hitting the fairway less often (just under 66% of the time) than she hits the green (just over 68% of the time) and averaging 1.85 PPGIR. If she's ranked this high when she's struggling as much as she has this season (and frankly, over much of her LPGA career), I wonder where she'll be when she starts realizing her potential?
10. Hye Jung Choi: Enduring the worst season of her LPGA career thus far, she needs to improve almost every aspect of her game. Minea Blomqvist is hot on her heels and showing signs of life.
11. Minea Blomqvist: She's still not hitting many greens this season, but is making a bunch of birdies, so watch out for her once her ballstriking improves, as it's bound to do soon.
12. Julieta Granada: She's finally got a decent run going, having made her last 3 cuts in a row, but unless she plays great the next 2 weeks, look for her to spend most of the summer in Europe, where she has full status on the LET.


Over at Mostly Harmless, I cover all 25 active members and show my work.  Check it out when you get a chance!