Player Profiles - Part 2

Here is Part 1 if you missed it.  The numbers following the names are the player's final 2009 ranking, her 2010 preseason ranking and the highest level she reached during this season.

6.  Suzann Pettersen  (6-6-5)

For the fourth straight year Suzann ranks among the Top 10, even though like in 2008 she didn't win a single tournament.  She did collect 11 Top 5s (12 total Top 10s) in 19 starts and finished second or tied for second six times.  Pettersen missed no cuts, finished fifth on the money list and aside from her first-round exit at the Sybase Match Play, only finished outside the Top 20 twice.

Why doesn't she win more often?  More than once this season her putting was cited as a reason but she has ranked in the Top 30 of Total Putting four straight years.  Sure there are better putters around but it's not like she sucks at it.  In August 2009 I documented Pettersen's post-2007 problems with closing out events and that trend has been bucked only once, when she held on to win the '09 Canadian Open.  This year however, she relapsed. She led by four on the Sunday front nine in Thailand but played the final 11 in even par as Ai Miyazato blew past her.  She was tied for the lead at the HSBC Sunday turn but played the back in +1 as Miyazato won again.  She made fine late runs at KNC and the U.S. Open to grab at least a share of second place but in neither case was she ever playing with the lead.  At the Ochoa Invitational Suzann led going into Sunday, dunked her approach at 4 into the water to fall behind and never could haul down In-Kyung Kim.  Pettersen has the talent to win at least once or twice a season but her great game goes flat when the pressure is on.

7.  In-Kyung Kim  (12-9-7)

Speaking of trends, Kim has a positive one.  In her rookie season of 2007, she ranked just outside my Top 30.  She moved up to #20 in 2008, #12 last year and into the Top 10 for 2010.  Her victory at the Ochoa Invitational made it three straight seasons with an Inky win.  Every year Kim's results get a little bit better - this year she managed one more Top 10 than in 2009 despite having five fewer starts.  She also reduced her missed cuts to just one.  Inky ranked in the Top 16 of each of my Big Three stats, her best being third in GIR.  Is she a Player of the Year candidate for 2011?  Kim finished in the Top 5 of three of the four majors this year.  If she could break through that barrier next year, POY is not out of the question.

8.  Song-Hee Kim  (13-10-7)

The best player on Tour without a victory and has been since Na Yeon Choi broke through with her first in September 2009.  She's basically traced the same path as Inky, although Song-Hee's rookie year was much less successful.  Kim came in second in GIR and 12^th in Total Putting this year with a 29^th in Total Driving her only less-than-exceptional ranking, which resulted in six Top 5s, 15 Top 10s and no missed cuts in 22 starts.

I've analyzed Pettersen's close calls so I should do the same for Song-Hee.  Looking back at 2009, she took the Sunday lead at the Michelob Ultra with a birdie at 15 but a terrible approach at 16 led to double-bogey and a T3 finish.  Kim made a great run at the Farr to come up just short of the playoff.  She started the final round at Arkansas up by one, shot +1 with no birdies and came up one short of the playoff.  This season, she held a share of the lead on the Sunday front nine at HSBC but fell off the pace when she couldn't find any birdies on the back.  At the Farr, Kim started well on Sunday, didn't play great down the stretch but birdied 17 to make the four-way playoff.  At the first playoff hole she missed a five-footer that would have won the tournament.  In Korea, Song-Hee led by two through 8 but played the last ten holes in +4 to finish third.  So I would say from the evidence that Song-Hee certainly has the game to win but since she's isn't quite at the level of Pettersen, her opportunities have been fewer.  You may have noticed in my examples that the progression of "failures" has gotten somewhat worse - the Korea collapse was easily the worst of the bunch and not knocking down the putt to win the Farr speaks volumes.  Kim has the same mental block as Pettersen, only worse.  She's trying to get through it without the knowledge that she actually can win.

9.  Paula Creamer  (11-3-8)

In a lot of ways this was Paula's worst season but getting that first major - a U.S. Open, no less - makes up for a lot.  Limited to 14 starts because of early-season thumb surgery, Creamer collected only four Top 10s after never before having less than ten in any full season.  Her percentage of Top 10s was down as well, to 28.6 with her previous low being 44.0.  She missed two cuts, giving her a total of five in the last six years.  She finished tenth on the money list thanks to the hefty Open winner's check.

Paula has a great chance to defy the infamous U.S. Open champion's curse.  She collected two Top 5s late in the year (Korea and Ochoa) and with an off-season to rest and rehab properly, I expect to see her back in the HD Top 5 sometime in 2011.

10.  Inbee Park  (59-NR-10)

Speaking of that U.S. Open curse, Inbee did a wonderful job getting her game back two years after her Open victory at Interlachen.  She finished the 2009 season with back-to-back Top 10s, nudging herself into my final Top 70.  Park served notice of her return with a second-place finish at the Kia Classic, a Top 10 at the Kraft Nabisco and a third at ShopRite.  She didn't win this year but she collected 11 Top 10s in 19 starts (equaling the total over her first three seasons), finished 11^th on the money list and made every cut having never missed fewer than four in any previous season.

Inbee did this despite surrendering her two-time Total Putting crown (ninth in that Frankenstat this year), finishing 32^nd in GIR and coming in 58^th in Total Driving.  The latter two were huge improvements over 2009 (up from 138^th and 123^rd) yet are not indicative of a Top 10 player.  All three of Inbee's Top 5s were in stat-kept events so that external factor isn't at play here.  Based on these numbers, I would be surprised if Park can maintain this position through 2011.