U.S. Women's Open - Epilogue
by hound dog on Jul 12, 2010 6:36 AM PDT
3 comments
Paula Creamer's first major championship was her ninth career victory and moved her into double-digits on the Hall of Fame point chart. Not yet 24 years old, she's over a third of the way towards automatic qualification. Now that she's got that BPWAM (best player without a major) monkey off her back, look for her to grab a couple more in the next year or two. She finds herself in contention at these things more often than not, and now that she knows she can do it...
After Cristie Kerr won the LPGA Championship and assumed the Rolex #1 position, a lot of folks were wondering if those accomplishments would spark renewed interest in women's golf in America. I felt that it would help, but the accomplishments would have been magnified had the American player in question not been Cristie Kerr. I've watched a lot of LPGA action in recent years and seen a LOT of Kerr interviews - as gracious as she tries to be, Cristie hasn't the warmest of personalities. In addition, the vast majority of anecdotes on Kerr you will find on the interwebs paint her in a negative light. This may not be fair, but you know what they say about perception and reality. Paula Creamer is a much more likely candidate to drive that resurgence with her already significant popularity. With the domestic championship in hand and a likely subsequent drive towards the #1 ranking, Paula could be the real spark that sets off the American push towards "reclaiming" the LPGA Tour.
The scoring average at Oakmont was 76.38, the highest of any tournament (U.S. Open or otherwise) I have recorded dating back to 2004. The previous high mark was 76.01 at the 2007 British Open at St. Andrews. Oakmont's average relative to par (+5.38) is also the highest I have on record, surpassing the 2005 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills (+4.80). Most of that damage occurred over the first three rounds as the Sunday tees were moved up and the greens seemed much more receptive. Sunday's average was 73.74 for the 68 rounds played - the 379 rounds prior to that averaged 76.85, nearly six strokes over par.
A couple of years ago, I ran an unpublished study on how players performed in the events just prior to a victory. Probably the strongest trend I discovered was the one concerning missed cuts. Over the 2.5 years I surveyed nobody who won a tournament had missed the cut in her previous start. I had to go back to 2005 to find where Creamer had MC'd the week before her first career win at Sybase. A couple of weeks after I completed the study, Leta Lindley turned the trick at Corning. Last year, Eunjung Yi won the Jamie Farr after missing the Wegmans cut. So we could chalk these exceptions up to some "fluke" or "first-timer" rule, right? Yesterday, Paula Creamer made it two "MC Wins" in a row, following up Na Yeon Choi, who did it at the Farr. Neither of these wins was a fluke and neither was by a first-timer. The longer I study these things, the more I realize that there Are No Rules.
Speaking of NYC, what a great run she made over the front nine yesterday! If not for the poor first putt at 13, she might have kept enough pressure on Paula to alter the outcome. Choi is on my short list of British Open favorites, along with Creamer and Shin. The NBC crew kept saying that Suzann Pettersen would be winning the event if she could putt at all yesterday. I'll counter with the opinion that if Pettersen was putting decently on Sunday, she probably would have started pulling her tee shots due to the pressure (as she often has in past major contention). She deserves a lot of credit for rallying to finish tied for second but nobody gave Creamer this title.
Before I hand out the awards, I'd like to give Shout-Outs to Brittany Lang and Christina Kim. These two players haven't been performing as well this year as they are used to (I know Christina got into a playoff last week - consider this a two-week Shout-Out in her case) and it was great to see them both in contention at a major. What the heck - let's recognize In-Kyung Kim, who's becoming a regular in the Top 5 at the U.S. Open (three straight years!) and Amy Yang, who is oh-so-close to breaking through in a big way. The Big Surprise Award goes to Lexi Thompson, who collected the first Top 10 of her professional career and brought home a paycheck of over $72,000. Is that enough cash to buy two Lexi for Lexi? Sorry... The Big Disappointment (other than my attempted joke) is Anna Nordqvist, who missed the cut despite being a Top 10 player and being in the Hot 20 coming in.
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Good call on Creamer vs. Kerr
I was rooting for Paula primarily due to the positive impact on women’s golf. Besides, we share one golf characteristic, a damaged left thumb. I’m astonished she played at that level, so soon after surgery. I was terrified to take a divot, considering the pain, and 10 days ago finally submitted to a 4-6 week spica splint.
NBC kept saying wrist injury. It was the darned thumb, and that’s diabolically worse.
Cristie Kerr should interview minus emotion. Otherwise, everything comes across as insincere, from her words to the tone to the facial expressions, particularly under the eyes. That may be unfair. Perhaps everything is genuine. It never looks or sounds that way. Admittedly, I’m influenced by all the online anecdotes, so numerous and with common themes they are believable.
I'm ok if Paula wears the white hat and Cristie the black hat...
…among American women golfers, so long as they both keep on gunslinging! Wins by my favorite players will mean more when more casual fans understand how tough it is to win on the LPGA. “Wow, Ai Miyazato beat Paula Creamer head-to-head down the stretch at the Evian Masters. She must be really good!”
Seriously, what I really want to see is a lot of players playing their best week in and week out—Americans along with everyone else. So glad to see Brittany Lang and Kristy McPherson and Christina Kim finding their touch with their putters recently. But what I most want to see is Jane Park and Tiffany Joh getting their games going again. The LPGA needs their personalities as bad as it needs Paula’s and Morgan’s.
by The Constructivist on Jul 12, 2010 6:25 PM PDT reply actions
I cannot remember ever seeing a more impressive performance in LPGA golf..
… than this US Women’s Open win by Creamer. 1. The US Women’s Open is the biggest title in women’s golf. 2. The tournament was played at Oakmont which is the probably the best (hardest) course on which the tournament has been played. The slopes and the speed of the greens are much more difficult than the courses the LPGA normally plays. 3. Creamer was playing after thumb surgery and the quality of shots she hit were at a very high level and she made the putts that she had to make. She was the only one under par and shot under par for three rounds. She played 29 holes Saturday and 23 holes on Sunday because of the weather delay.
There have been more exciting major tournaments that were won on the last hole with an eagle or in a playoff and tournaments won in a runaway fashion. But none that featured such an impressive performance under such adverse conditions for the winner.
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