Player Profiles - Part 4

The numbers in parentheses are the player's final 2009 ranking, her preseason ranking and her highest ranking during 2010.

16.  Jee Young Lee  (35-NR-16)

If you pressed me for a Comeback Player of the Year selection, I would have to say it belongs to Inbee Park.  Two of the players in this post merit some consideration, however.  Jelly was the #10 player in my 2007 final rankings.  She slipped to #22 in 2008 and continued on down to #35 for 2009.  Lee got rolling early in 2010 with five Top 10s in her first eight events, the best being a tie for third at the Kia Classic.  Midsummer brought some woes but she rebounded with six straight Top 20 finishes to end the year, three of them Top 10s and a tie for second at the Canadian Open.

The reason for the turnaround is easy to find - 75^th in GIR in 2009, eighth in 2010.  Some of that came from better driving (up 22 spots to #33) and she putted somewhat better this year but simply put, Jelly's iron play got a whole lot better.

17.  Karrie Webb  (14-20-11)

While still an outstanding player who can contend for the win any given week, Webb is no longer Player of the Year material.  She has only one victory over the last four seasons after collecting 35 over her first twelve.  Since 2006, here are Karrie's final HD rankings along with her totals of Top 10 finishes:

Webb's best finish this year was T5, at both the Kraft Nabisco and the LPGA Championship.  What's been holding her back?  It sure ain't her ball-striking - she's been in the Top 11 of GIR each of the last four years and only once in that stretch did she finish worse than #28 in Total Driving.  Karrie ranked #34 in Total Putting in 2008 - other than that, she hasn't cracked the Top 40.  This year, she came in at #52.  A few years ago, Eric at Seoulsisters.com wondered aloud if the real Karrie Webb was the 2005 or 2006 version.  I believe we now know the answer.

18.  Angela Stanford  (9-12-9)

There can be a very fine line between Player of the Year candidates and those ranked in the teens.  As we saw with Karrie Webb, an iffy putter can be the difference.  For Angela Stanford in 2010, it was her approaches to the green.  After ranking in the Top 12 of GIR for four straight years, she fell to #36.  Even with that number, you would think a player ninth in Total Driving and 16^th in Total Putting might rank in the Top 10.

Of Angela's seven Top 10s, only one (the Sybase Match Play) was a Top 5.  She also endured some surprisingly bad weeks, like the WD at Tres Marias after opening with an 85, the T70 at Arkansas and a T50 at the British Open.  None of her Top 10s came at a major (T15 at KNC, T19 at the U.S. Open).

19.  Jimin Kang  (NR-NR-19)

Probably my second-best Comeback candidate, Jimin won the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia for her second career victory.  That was one of only three Top 10s on the year for Kang and only four total Top 20s.  She really only missed two cuts despite her Performance Chart showing three - she made the third round at the Tour Championship but didn't qualify for the final round.  The gap between Stanford at #18 and Kang at #19 is a large one with the next several players grouped close together due to each having one statistical shortcoming or another in their records.

The week before Jimin won in Malaysia she was #41 in my rankings, so she was already having a fine season by her previous standards.  She hit the greens a little better this year, probably due to her rise from #46 to #24 in Total Driving.  Where she made her biggest improvement was with the putter, climbing from triple-digits to #60.  She'll need some more improvement there to stay anywhere near this position in 2011.

20.  Mika Miyazato  (52-NR-20)

You're probably as sick of me talking about the commentators' insistence on pointing out that Mika is not related to Ai as I am of them saying it.  What I don't understand - why don't they ever tell us that Song-Hee, In-Kyung, Christina, etc. are not related?  Or Pat and Vicky Hurst?  I'm only being somewhat facetious - at least I didn't mention the Lees or Smiths.

Miyazato The Younger finished in the Top 25 in each of her final eight 2010 events while finishing in the Top 10 in four and Top 5 in three.  Prior to that stretch she had only one Top 10, three total Top 20s and four missed cuts.  She was 33^rd in GIR but ranked 18^th in both Total Driving and Putting.  A little better iron play in 2011 might make a few casual fans wonder if Ai is related to Mika.