Longest Made-Cut Streaks

This past weekend during her final appearance as an LPGA regular, Lorena Ochoa made the cut for the 102^nd straight time.  She last missed the cut in October 2005 at the Longs Drugs Challenge.  Not every tournament trims the field after its second round but it can't be denied that Ochoa's streak is a very impressive one.  So how does it stack up against other made-cut streaks?

First, a little background information.  Officially the Tour keeps track of cuts made, not missed.  If there is no cut, every player in the field who starts the event "made it".  Under normal circumstances the difference between a made or missed cut is very clear.  Where it gets cloudy are in the cases when a player withdraws or is disqualified from an event.  To determine whether a cut was made or missed in these cases, I use what I have determined are the LPGA standards:

1)  if a player does not start (DNS) the event, there is no made cut or missed cut

2)  if a player WDs or DQs before the cut is made, they did not make the cut

3)  if a player makes the cut and WDs or DQs afterwards, they made the cut

The dividing line between #2 and #3 can be a little tricky.  Sometimes I've seen players WD after they finished Round Two but before the entire field completed play.  Since the cut doesn't happen until all players have finished, that player would technically not have made the cut.  Another wrinkle - the LPGA didn't have enough players to warrant making cuts until the mid-70s so we can't track them further back.  Going back to about 1980, here are the longest made-cut streaks I could find:

So it isn't quite a record but it's as close as anybody has come to catching Pat Bradley in 25 years.  Ochoa passed Patty Sheehan near the end of last year and became only the second player to reach triple-digits before announcing her retirement.  Surprisingly, three other active streaks rank in the top 15.  Cristie Kerr could reach triple-digits by mid-2011 and threaten Bradley sometime the following year.  Suzann Pettersen and Na Yeon Choi are barely halfway there but theoretically could get to 122 in 2013.  Until compiling this list, I had no idea that these three players also had active streaks in excess of 50 and that Paula Creamer was right there with them until her thumb injury ended hers after Round One in Thailand.

Juli Inkster's two streaks are amazing - there's a 15-year gap between the end of the first and the beginning of the second!  What's more, the second streak is half-again longer than the first!  Not surprising (but no less amazing) are the four appearances on the list of Annika Sorenstam.  Inkster, Bradley and Nancy Lopez are the only other players listed more than once.

I couldn't help but notice - both Ochoa and Sorenstam retired (or "stepped away" or whatever) with active made-cut streaks among the Top 25 all-time.  So they both could return at some point and extend them.  We already know Lorena will extend hers to 103 this November at the Ochoa Invitational - it's a limited field event with no cut.  Who knows - she may break Bradley's record yet.