HSBC Women's Champions - Epilogue

One of my favorite phrases comes from the Ian Fleming book and the movie production of Goldfinger.  Auric Goldfinger explains his viewpoint on repeated encounters with 007 by saying "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence but three times is enemy action".  That progression seems to apply to Ai Miyazato in regards to her assault on the title of World's Best Female Golfer.  Almost anybody on Tour can win once and even players not among the Top 20 occasionally win twice.  Win three times in less than eight months and it's time to start talking about being the best in the game.  Take note of the four previous players to win the first two events in an LPGA season - Babe Zaharias, Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright and Marilyn Smith.  All four are in the Hall of Fame.

Miyazato overcame four Sunday bogeys - rare for a winner who didn't have a sizeable overnight lead - along with the Singapore heat and high humidity.  For most of the back nine, she walked between shots under an umbrella with an ice pack on her neck.  While she missed a four-footer to bogey 14, her short game carried the day.  Her birdie at 12 was from 35 feet, the one at 13 was 15 feet and she made a great chip at 16 to set up the birdie which gave her the lead.

Cristie Kerr is challenging Suzann Pettersen for the title of Worst Closer.  Going to 17 with a one-shot lead, she drove way left under a tree and unfortunately also into a bed of fire ants.  She got a free drop from the ants (yes, that was the official reason) and played her approach through the green into a bunker.  She blasted 18 feet past the hole and took bogey.  At 18 she lost her drive right into a fairway bunker.  Her position was so bad she could only punch out to the fairway.  Her third went through the green and her chip for par didn't go in.  Cristie did save a lot of cash by dropping her 10-foot bogey putt - the difference between solo second and a five-way tie would have been about $47,000.

Momoko Ueda melted down too.  Standing -8 and one shot out of the lead through 13, she bogeyed 14 when she missed a short putt and then exploded at 15.  On the par-5 she pushed her lay-up into the right-hand rough, giving her an awkward side-hill lie.  She proceeded to drop her third into the water and take double-bogey.  A bogey at 18 dropped her to -4 T15.

She's still too good of a player to really be qualified for this, but I'm giving Juli Inkster the Big Surprise Award.  The T9 finish was her best since the 2008 Samsung, she shared the Saturday overnight lead and she stayed in contention until her putting woes returned on the Sunday back nine.  There are several candidates for Big Disappointment but I'm going to choose Lorena Ochoa.  After opening with 68 and a share of the lead, she fell out of contention with a 79 on Friday and finished T38.

Now comes our first and longest stretch of off-weeks in the 2010 schedule.  The Kia Classic begins March 25, exactly one month after the HSBC's first round.  Many LPGA regulars will be in action the next two weeks at the ANZ Ladies Masters and the Australian Open.  TC's idea of the Tour working out a co-sanction agreement with the LET for these two events sounds like a pretty good one now, doesn't it?