Safeway Classic - Epilogue

Suzann Pettersen's comeback from nine strokes down equaled the second-largest comeback on Tour since the beginning of the 2006 season.  Eventual champion Seon Hwa Lee started the final round of the 2008 Ginn Tribute nine strokes behind Sophie Gustafson and Louise Friberg was ten shots back of Ji Young Oh before winning the 2008 MasterCard.  Pettersen's victory was her second of the year and eighth of her LPGA career.  She now has nine Hall of Fame points.  Being 30 years old, her age is starting to work against her HOF chances but I wouldn't count her out just yet.

Pettersen teed off Sunday morning eleven groups ahead of leader Na Yeon Choi and second-place Stacy Lewis.  After birdies at 2 and 4, she parred the rest of the way out to make the turn at -1, seven shots behind Choi.  Suzann eagled the par-5 10^th and birdied 11 to reach -4, then birdied 15 and 17 to finish at -6 with a 64.  Which was good enough to take the lead when Choi bogeyed three times on the front nine.  As TC points out at Mostly Harmless, Hee Young Park also made a great back nine run - four birdies in eight holes - to tie Pettersen at -6 before taking a final-hole bogey.  Choi birdied 10 to return to -6 but bogeyed 13.  Birdies at 15 and 17 put her back in front with one hole to play but like Park she misplayed her second at 18 and took bogey to create a playoff.  Replaying 18, Choi's second found the water but she scrambled to save bogey.  Pettersen missed the green long but got up-and-down to save par for the victory.

Not only did Pettersen add her name to the list of outstanding comeback victories, Choi added hers to the list of "Squandered Leads".  This was the fifteenth lead of three shots or more since the beginning of 2006 which did not result in a victory.  In one of my posts on this subject, Na Yeon rated as the very best on Tour at holding on to win.  Yesterday was the first time in her career that she had started the final round with the solo lead and failed to close the deal.

With all the pre-tourney talk about shortening up #9 into a par-4, you'd think they might have mentioned about how they left the rough longer and the greens firmer.  Despite the lowering of par from 72 to 71, this year's Safeway averaged 74.03 strokes per round - the highest Classic I have on record.  Only nine players finished the event under par.  Shoot, only 23 would have been under par had they left it at 72.  If the U.S. Open is thinking about adding Pumpkin Ridge to the ladies' rota, this course could certainly be molded to fit their masochistic style.

Rosie Jones pleasantly shocked me by picking Ryann O'Toole with one of her Solheim Captain's picks.  O'Toole and Vicky Hurst - both of Jones' picks - finished tied for fifth, three shots behind.  It was Ryann's second Top 10 in seven LPGA starts (the first was at the U.S. Open) so the 24-year-old rookie obviously has game.  While I like the decision, I believe Rosie is taking a rather large risk with a very inexperienced (on the world stage) player.  I would like it much more if the U.S. team was playing at home but Jones didn't have a plethora of good options.  This pick most likely boils down to Kristy McPherson's poor year plus Katie Futcher missing the Safeway cut so badly and missing three cuts in her last four starts as much as what O'Toole has done.  The choice of Hurst surprised me too until I noticed that she finished 11^th in points, nosing out Futcher.  Still - yesterday's T5 was Vicky's first Top 10 since last October (only three Top 20s in that span) so she hasn't exactly outclassed McPherson or Futcher.  Based on this year's results, I might have passed on Hurst and selected Paige Mackenzie but her MC at Safeway probably crossed her off the list.  Given the available choices, I think Rosie did about as well as she could have.

Vicky's first Top 10 of the year would normally have been good enough to collect the Big Surprise Award but she got pushed aside by Alison Walshe.  Alison finished T10 for her first career Top 10, beating her previous career best which was T16 at last year's Safeway Classic.  A lot of players had disappointing scores this week but the Biggest Disappointment was Sun Young Yoo, who shot 82 on Friday and missed the cut by seven shots.  UPDATE:  Wow...a closer look compells me to share the Big Disappointment amongst Yoo, In-Kyung Kim, Amy Yang, Angela Stanford and Morgan Pressel.  A lot of outstanding players had a miserable week.  Also, Gerina Piller finished T10 for her first career Top 10 so she gets a share of the Big Surprise Award.