Avnet LPGA Classic - Epilogue

Maria Hjorth's victory yesterday was her second in less than five months, the fifth of her career and her third since October 2007.  It was also her second win in the state of Alabama as her '07 victory came at the Navistar Classic near Montgomery.  At #25 coming in, Hjorth should find herself solidly inside my Top 20 the next time I rank them - with the sparse schedule headed our way, that may not be until mid-June.  After playing the first two rounds in even par, Maria shot 67-67 to win.

Hjorth has been an up-and-down player over the years, even when you just look at the recent past since she started winning again.  As usual when a long-handled putter is spied, the commentators focus on that one club and automatically presume that is the singular reason for the inconsistency.  Maria's putting stats have fluctuated wildly over the last few years - Top 30 in Total Putting in 2006 and 2008 but no better than #51 the other three years and #123 last year.  Truth is, her other stats haven't been stable either.  While an outstanding driver in most years, she ranked 135^th in 2006 and 44^th in 2008.  Her GIR rankings since 2006 read 64, 23, 69, 4 and 42.  Hjorth's whole game is a rollercoaster, not just her putter.

While most people were talking about Lexi Thompson's failure to come through on Sunday, we shouldn't forget that Sandra Gal did virtually the same thing on Saturday.  As I mentioned in a comment to WoolsMe's Fanpost, I'm not quite sold on Sandra's becoming an elite player just yet.  As he pointed out, Gal has kind of been riding a hot putter and it takes more than that to make the big leap.  Still, she finished T9 for her third Top 10 in five starts this year so she also hasn't proven that she's NOT among the elite.

While she's hasn't grabbed as much attention as Thompson-Gal, another player who is sneaking up the charts is Mindy Kim.  She shot 68 on Sunday to finish T13, her third Top 20 in four starts this year.  That might not sound like much but her other two good finishes were sixth at the Founders Cup and T7 at the Kia Classic.  Watch out for Mindy in the coming weeks.

The Big Surprise this week might surprise you - it's Karen Stupples.  Karen had gone 364 days without a Top 10 finish (covering 22 starts - T9 at Tres Marias last May) before winding up T9 yesterday.  Honorable Mentions go out to Stephanie Sherlock (T16 for the first Top 30 of her career) and Jennifer Song (also T16 - previous best T29 at Founders Cup).  WTH - I talked about Grace Park all weekend and she hung in nicely for a T23 so she deserves a Big Shout-Out.

Lots of Big Disappointment candidates (Mika, Ai, Wiesy) but ultimately Yani Tseng has to get it.  Still #1 but not quite the Dominant Player at this moment.