Quest For The Card - Money List Updated

LPGA.com seems to have their stats page woes corrected and the final 2010 money list has been posted.  Here is the lowdown on what transpired over the final weekend of the season.

Top 80

Laura Diaz made the storybook leap that all of the bubble players were dreaming of last Wednesday night.  She finished tied for fifth to more than double her earnings for the year, placing her at #68 and into Category-1.  Mariajo Uribe's T7 moved her into Cat-1 as well, into Position #70.  Mina Harigae held onto a Cat-1 spot by finishing 31^st.  Helen Alfredsson missed the cut but (as I predicted) held on at #79 #80.  Moira Dunn made the second-round cut, finished T64 and earned $3359 - almost $900 more than enough to jump past Irene Cho (who missed the second-round cut) and hang on to the 80^th spot.  Not quite - see the update after the next paragraph.

If you read that last paragraph carefully, you'll notice that two players jumped into Cat-1 but only one fell out.  As best as I can recreate it - Maria Hernandez was listed in the 66-70 range on the list prior to the Tour Championship and she is now shown at #96.  I don't have the prior list itself, only my spreadsheet which tells me Hernandez was nearly even with Janice Moodie and Ji Young Oh and now she has only about half as much money as they do.  Either the current list is wrong or the previous several were.  UPDATE:  Sometime Thursday, the list was updated to show Hernandez at #75 (thanks to sag for the tip) which moved about 20 players down - including Moira Dunn who moved out of the Top 80.  I hope Moira knew all along that she hadn't made it and didn't have to ride an emotional rollercoaster this week.  What a freakin' mess.

Top 100

Here is where the real action was.  Ilhee Lee finished T7 this weekend to jump to #88, earning a Cat-11 spot.  Julieta Granada finished 22^nd to grab #94.  Taylor Leon's T23 was good enough for #97.  Sarah Lee missed the third-round cut but the $2851 she earned with her T74 was enough to edge Diana D'Alessio (MC) by $160.

I was oh-so wrong about D'Alessio.  She ranked #96 coming in and would have to be passed by five players so I considered her a lock for the Top 100.  The four players I just listed plus Louise Friberg (T53) all went by her so Diana fell to #101.  Ouch.  The other two players to fall out of the Top 100 were Silvia Cavalleri (despite a T53!) and Allison Hanna (MC).

Top 125

Jimin Jeong and Beth Bader dodged the bullets - despite being in Positions #124-125 and missing the cut, neither were passed by Hye Jung Choi nor Tania Elosegui (finished #129 and 128 respectively), the only two players behind them who made the second-round cut.

Many of the players who missed out on the Top 100 are playing at Q-School right now, including Pernilla Lindberg (one shot out of the lead as I write this), Alison Walshe and Samantha Richdale.  A Top 20 finish there will bump them up from Category-15 to Cat-11.