Arkansas Epilogue

Yani Tseng's fifth career victory was only her second in a non-major and gives her eight Hall of Fame points.  That total ties her with Jiyai Shin (among others) for sixth place on the active list among those who haven't yet qualified.  The win moves her into the lead for the Rolex Player of the Year Award, two points ahead of Ai Miyazato and 28 in front of Cristie Kerr.  Shin is currently in fourth place, 48 points behind.

I didn't mention her in my recap yesterday but Mika Miyazato shot Sunday's Round of the Day, a 64, to finish third.  When she reached the clubhouse at -10, she was only one shot off the lead but Tseng and Wie's good finishing holes left Mika three back at the end.  For that performance (plus the lack of other more qualified candidates), Mikan is this week's Big Surprise Award winner.  Inbee Park also made some hay during the final round, shooting 65 to move into solo fourth after starting the day T22.  In-Kyung Kim and Jiyai Shin were both "Final Round Queens", shooting 65 and 66 respectively to finish T5.  I did mention Juli Inkster's struggles and she was matched by Na Yeon Choi, who shot 72 and like Juli fell to T9.

In front of the home folks, Stacy Lewis finished in the group at T9. While walking to the 17^th green, she was treated to the Hog Callin' cheer befitting an Arkansas Razorback alum.  Apparently Charlie Rymer isn't a college football fan - somebody off-mike had to explain to him what that cheer was all about.

Karrie Webb missed the cut by four shots to become this week's Big Disappointment.  While it was her first missed cut of 2010, Karrie has really been fighting it lately with no finishes inside the Top 40 in her last five starts.  This poor stretch is pretty surprising given that before the European swing, she was knocking on the door of my Top 10.

Time to drag out those "LPGA schedule sucks" articles again.  Our next event is in Acapulco beginning September 30, which means the next two weekends are bare.  NOTE:  The Acapulco event is no longer on the schedule.  More on this later.  Even worse, there's no TV coverage of that event so our next scheduled on-air tournament is Navistar the following week.  Compared to the other possibilities, this isn't the worst time to have this break.  The start of the football season always drains golfy ratings (even for the men - hence the creation of the Fed Ex Playoffs) and speaking strictly for myself, the wall-to-wall college games on Saturday take most of my attention from the LPGA.  When the Tour's schedule starts to fill out again (and it will within the next couple of years), I would much rather they fill up the spring dates than the ones in the fall.

I noticed Friday night that only 132 players were in the field and reader Dave Andre responded in the comments that twelve amateurs from the First Tee program were playing on Friday and Saturday.  First Tee is one of the best youth-oriented programs in existence and I urge everyone and every golf-related entity to support it to the fullest.  But sacrificing twelve positions in one of the Tour's few full-field events (there are only twelve in 2010) is ludicrous.  The LPGA's rank-and-file don't get enough opportunity to play as it is.  I'm sure there are many other ways the Tour or tournament organizers could have supported First Tee this week.  For one, why not let them play in one or both of the pro-ams with a Tour regular? They could also double as volunteers Friday-Sunday.  Volunteering at a tournament is a great way to learn the lessons of golf that the First Tee teaches.  It was a tremendous gesture, yes, but somebody really let their heart get in the way of their head in Rogers this week.