Player Profile - Lindsey Wright

I realized the other day that I haven't been profiling players as much as I used to.  When I changed from ranking the Top 30 to my Top 70 list, I started leaving out the little blurbs on each player to keep the post from becoming too monstrous.  Those bits of information were always kind of cool to go back and look at several months later to see what state that player's game was in or whatever else was pertinent at the time.  So I've decided that every week or two, I'm going to profile at least one player and hopefully help you (and myself) learn a little more about these ladies.

 
Lindsey Wright is a 29-year-old Australian who was born in England.  In 1998 at the age of 18 she was low amateur at the Women's Australian Open.  From 2000 to 2003, Lindsey was a four-time All-American while playing at Pepperdine University.  She turned pro after finishing college and won a Futures Tour event during her first half-season, the G.E. Futures Professional Golf Classic.  Having earned low non-exempt status for her LPGA rookie season, Wright played fulltime on the Futures Tour in 2004, winning two more times along with a win back home on the ALPG Tour.  Her second-place finish on the Futures' money list earned her LPGA exempt status for 2005.

Since her first full LPGA season, Wright has been progressing through the Tour ranks.  Her seasonal rankings in my system have been 48^th (2006), 57^th (2007) and 39^th (2008).  Each year, she could be counted on for three or four Top 10 finishes but her tendency to miss four to six cuts every year hurt her chances to place higher.  So far in 2009 she's missed two cuts but has finished in the Top 5 three times including second place at the LPGA Championship, lifting her all the way into the Top 15.  Her Big Three stats for 2008 - Total Driving, GIR and Total Putting - were 50^th, 42^nd and 52^nd and she's up to 29^th, 9^th and 34^th in 2009, across-the-board improvement which isn't very common.

Now that she's a solid Top 20 player, Lindsey should be considered a candidate to win at every event she enters.  It wouldn't surprise me a bit if she were to collect her first career victory before the year is out.

You can read more about Lindsey Wright at her website and blog, at www.lindseywrightgolf.com or at her career bio page at LPGA.com.