Rookie Class Ratings - Career

Since the LPGA had no tournaments scheduled for three weeks this is a good time for other LPGA related things. Hound Dog has a link on the home page to "2009 Rookie Class - The Greatest?" So this post is a look at how those rookie classes rank over a full career. It must be noted that the ranking for the 1995 to 2009 classes are very much in play and some will be changing throughout this year. For this comparison I decided to look at the number of tournament wins as the ranking measurement. The tie breaker is the number of majors won. The second tie breaker is the number of players that actually won at least one tournament. So highest to lowest total wins, then highest to lowest major tournament wins, and then highest to lowest tournament winners. Hound Dog started with 1962 through 2009 and this ranking looks at the same years. HOF indicated the named player is in the LPGA and World Golf Halls Of Fame. WHOF indicates only the World Golf Hall Of Fame. HDRR# is the Hound Dog Rookie Class Ranking and based only on rookie year and shows the Top 20 rookie classes. As a way to indicate the currently active rookie classes and their possibilities for upward movement the number of players with Priority 1 playing privileges and number of players with Priorities 1 thru 18 and 20 are shown. Retired players are not included and there are several with playing privileges.

Rank #1 - At the top of the mountain is the 1978 rookie class - 99 wins with 12 majors and 14 players that won -Nancy Lopez HOF has 48 wins with 3 majors - Betsy King HOF has 34 wins with 6 majors - HDRR#4.

Rank #2 - 1994 rookie class - 75 wins with 10 majors and 4 players with wins - Annika Sorenstam HOF has 75 wins with 10 majors - HDRR# not in top 20 - Priority 1 = 0 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 1.

Rank #3 - 1984 rookie class - 64 wins with 11 majors and 14 players with wins - Juli Inkster HOF has 31 wins with 7 majors and Priority 1 status - Jane Geddes has 11 wins and 2 majors - HDRR# 6.

Rank #4 - 1988 rookie class - 64 wins with 7 majors and 11 players with wins - Laura Davies has 20 wins with 4 majors and Priority 1 status - Dottie Pepper has 17 wins with 2 majors - Liselotte Neumann has 13 wins with 1 major - HDRR#5.

Rank #5 - 1981 rookie class - 64 wins with 7 majors and 6 players with wins - Patty Sheehan HOF has 35 wins with 6 majors - Ayako Okamoto WHOF has 17 wins with 0 majors - Christa Johnson has 9 wins with 1 major - HDRR#12.

Rank #6 - 1975 rookie class - 55 wins with 9 majors and 8 players with wins - Amy Alcott HOF has 29 wins with 5 majors - Hollis Stacy has 18 wins with 4 majors -  HDRR#18.

Rank #7 - 1996 rookie class - 49 wins with 7 majors and 5 players with wins - Karrie Webb HOF has 37 wins with 7 majors and Priority 1 status - HDRR#13 - Priority 1 = 2 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 4.

Rank #8 - 1979 rookie class - 49 wins with 2 majors and 8 players with wins - Beth Daniel HOF has 31 wins with 1 major - Alice Miller has 8 wins with 1 major - HDRR#19.

Rank #9 - 1974 rookie class - 48 wins with 9 majors and 3 players with wins - Pat Bradley HOF has 31 wins with 6 majors - Jan Stephenson has 16 wins with 3 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #10 - 1970 rookie class - 47 wins with 2 majors and 2 players with wins - JoAnne Carner HOF has 43 wins with 2 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #11 - 2003 rookie class - 41 wins with 3 majors and 7 players with wins - Lorena Ochoa Hall Of Fame points but not 10 years has 27 wins with 2 majors - Susann Petersen has 6 wins with 1 major - HDRR#14 - Priority 1 = 6 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 7.

Rank #12 - 1998 rookie class - 39 wins with 5 majors and 6 players with wins - Se Ri Pak HOF has 25 wins with 5 majors - HDRR#10 - Priority 1 = 3 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 4.

Rank #13 - 1969 rookie class - 39 wins with 1 major and 5 players with wins - Jane Blalock has 27 wins with 0 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #14 - 1962 rookie class - 35 wins with 3 majors and 2 players with wins - Judy Rankin HOF has 26 wins with 0 majors - Mary Mills has 9 wins with 3 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #15 - 1964 rookie class - 30 wins with 6 majors and 2 players with wins - Sandra Palmer has 19 wins with 2 majors - Susie Maxwell Berning has 11 wins with 4 majors - HDRR# not in top 20. 

Rank #16 - 1965 rookie class - 30 wins with 5 majors and 4 players with wins - Donna Caponi HOF has 24 wins with 4 majors - HDRR#8.

Rank #17 - 1987 rookie class - 30 wins with 5 majors and 3 players with wins - Meg Mallon has 18 wins with 4 majors - Tammy Green has 7 wins with 1 major - Barb Mucha has 5 wins no majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #18 - 1986 rookie class - 23 wins with 4 majors and 9 players with wins - Sherri Steinhauer has 8 wins with 2 majors and priority 1 status - Deb Richard has 5 wins and 0 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #19 - 1992 rookie class - 23 wins with 2 majors and 8 players with wins - Kelly Robbins has 9 wins with 1 major - Helen Alfredsson has 7 wins with 1 major - HDRR# not in top 20 - Priority 1 = 2

Rank #20 - 1997 rookie class - 23 wins with 2 majors and 3 players with wins - Cristi Kerr has 14 wins with 2 majors - Rachel Hetherington has 8 wins with 0 majors - HDRR# not in top 20 - Priority 1 = 1

Rank #24 - 1963 rookie class - 19 wins with 1 major and 3 players with wins - Clifford Ann Creed has 11 wins with 0 majors - Sandra Spuzich has 7 wins with 1 major - HDRR#20

Rank #26 - 1999 rookie class - 17 wins with 1 major and 7 players with wins - Mi Hyun Kim has 8 wins with 0 majors - HDRR#9 - Prority 1 = 2 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 5.

Rank #28 - 2005 rookie class - 16 wins with 2 majors and 5 players with wins - Paula Creamer has 9 wins with 1 major - HDRR#7 - Priority 1 = 4 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 8.

Rank #29 - 2006 rookie class - 16 wins with 1 major and 6 players with wins - Ai Miyazato has 6 wins with 0 majors - HDRR#1 - Priority 1 = 12 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 16.

Rank #33 - 2008 rookie class - 14 wins with 3 majors and 6 players with wins - Yani Tseng has 6 wins with 3 majors - HDRR#3 - Priority 1 = 8 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 10.

Rank #34 - 2009 rookie class - 14 wins with 3 majors and 5 players with wins - Jiyai Shin has 8 wins with 1 major - HDRR#2 - Priority 1 = 10 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 11

Rank #39 - 2007 rookie class - 9 wins with 2 majors and 5 players with wins - no players with at least 5 wins - HDRR#11 - Priority 1 = 7 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 13

Rank #41 - 1977 rookie class - 7 wins with 0 majors and 4 players with wins - no players with at least 5 wins - HDRR#15

Rank #42 - 1966 rookie class - 6 wins with 0 majors and 4 players with wins - no players with at least 5 wins - HDRR#16

Rank #43 - 1972 rookie class - 5 wins with 0 majors and 3 players with wins - no players with at least 5 wins - HDRR#17