The Priority Shuffle - 2011 Edition, Volume One

The Sybase Match Play Championship was the seventh event of 2011, which means that it's time for the first re-ordering of the LPGA's Priority list.  The new official list was posted at LPGA.com on Monday:

May 2011 Priority List

Any players from Category-9 on down who are in the money list Top 40 get moved up to Cat-8, and any of the players in Categories 14 through 21 who have earned official money to this point get moved up ahead of those who haven't.  Three players have earned their way into Category-8:

These improvements might make a difference in limited field events later in the season but don't mean much as far as full-field events are concerned.  All three players were locks for any full-field tournament already.

19 players in Categories 14 through 21 have improved their positions and will now line up this way beginning with Position #128 (after adjusting for medical extensions and retirements higher up the line, this position is effectively #132):

Hart has earned over $52,000 in five starts this year (most of that from finishing T7 at the Kia Classic) and stands 47^th on the money list.  Marcy doesn't climb much higher here (she was already near the top of Cat-15) but as I've said many times before, every position at this level can make the difference between getting in an event or being turned away.  The jumps by Suh, Reynolds, O'Toole, Lewis, Nomura, Johnson, Joh and Shepley will probably give them an extra start in one of the three full-field events before the next reshuffle (after event 13, the British Open) and another start or two in the four full-fielders this fall.  The big losers in this reshuffle are D'Alessio, Ammaccapane and those at the top of Cat-15 who haven't earned any money this year, such as Michelle Ellis, Allison Hanna, Alison Walshe and Paola Moreno.  With 144 spots usually constituting a full field, a player who falls to around position 145 or lower is entering the danger zone.

While the basics of this process have become rather routine, the Tour still seems to have problems with some of its specifics.  The prior version of the list (released in February) contained the usual statements about the cut-off times for each reshuffle and the events where the new list would go into effect (usually skipping one event before activation).  The newest list omits the second bit of information so I don't know if this new list kicks in at ShopRite next week or as it normally does the following week at State Farm.  I guess I'll figure it out when I see the field listings.