I have to admit that even before I settled on the method by which I would measure them, I had already figured that the 2009 rookie class must be the greatest in LPGA history.  No other class had ever placed three players in my Top 10.  The 2006 class, which was an easy choice for the greatest when I studied this subject three years ago, had only Rookie of the Year Seon Hwa Lee among the Top 10 (and she only ranked #9).  2009 just had to be the best ever, right?

To make the final determination, I used the same scoring chart as before to award points for each rookie in the Top 40 in a given season - 100 for a player ranked #1, 90 for #2, on down to one point for #40 - but with a twist.  I decided to modify my scoring method in a way that Bill James did in one of his baseball studies.  Realizing that I needed to give extra weight to seasons which had multiple rookies in the Top 40, the points for the second-best rookie would be increased x2, the third-best x3, and so on.  Using that method, here are the greatest rookie classes dating back to 1962 (the first year a Rookie of the Year was honored):

The players in bold joined the Tour the previous summer (via a second Q-School which is no longer in existence) but were still designated rookies during the season in which they are listed.  For your reference, the point total formula for the 2006 players is 48+(30x2)+(24x3)+(22x4)+(19x5)+(16x6) and for the 2009 players is 90+(60x2)+(48x3)+(9x4)+(1x5).  If the multipliers weren't used, ‘09 would beat out ‘06 by a count of 208 to 159.  But by leaving them out, a deep season like 2007 (with four rookies in the Top 40 and one of them in the Top 10) gets bested by a single great player season like 1996 Karrie Webb.  I feel that isn't the proper way to measure classes, as I definitely want to lean towards favoring the deeper ones.

By the way, I was dead wrong last month when I said that three or more rookies had ranked among my Top 40 only once over the LPGA's first 55 seasons (1950-2004).  It actually happened five times in that span - 1965, 1966, 1978, 1983 and 1988.  That gross mistake only slightly diminishes my original point - the current streak of four seasons with three-plus rookies in the Top 40 is a great indicator of how the Tour's talent base is growing faster than ever before.  Note that six of the last seven seasons rank among the 14 best classes.

Basically 2006 retains its title of Greatest Class because its sixth-best rookie was the 25^th-best player that year, an amazing feat when you think about it.  No other season had six rookies in the Top 40, much less the Top 25.  The fact that 2009 barely got within shouting distance of it despite its Big Three makes the Class of '06 even more admirable.