Walmart NW Arkansas Championship - Epilogue

And the beat goes on...  Yani Tseng's fifth victory of 2011 was the tenth of her career.  She now has 16 Hall of Fame points, tying her with Cristie Kerr for second on the active unqualified list to Laura Davies' 25.  Arkansas was her second successful title defense in six weeks, having done the same at the Women's British Open in July.

Tseng began Sunday tied for the lead with Amy Yang at -9.  Amy jumped out early with birdies at 2 and 3.  Yani birdied 5 but gave it back at 6 to remain two behind.  Both players birdied 7 then Tseng birdied 9 from 25 feet to close the gap to one.  Three groups ahead, Paula Creamer had gone out in 31 to join Yani at -11 but she ran out of birdies - a 38 on the back nine relegated Paula to a T8 finish.  Rookie Belen Mozo got within two shots after birdies at 10 and 11 but an ill-advised attempt to go for the par-5 14^th in two (I'll elaborate shortly) turned into double bogey so Belen settled for T5.  At 11, Cristie Kerr curled a birdie putt in from the left edge and she made a great chip to set up birdie at 14, bringing her to within one at -11.  Cristie faltered at 17, missing the green and chipping poorly to leave a 15-footer for par that failed to drop.  Ai Miyazato made a fine late charge, holing a bunker shot at 14 for eagle and rolling in a 25-footer for birdie at 15 to reach -11.  But Ai too faltered at 17, missing a par putt from about eight feet.

So it wound up as Yang vs. Tseng.  Yani missed an eight-footer for birdie at 10, then both players barely missed from about 15 at 11.  Tseng two-putted from long range at 12 while Yang missed from just over 20.  At 13, Yani missed the green long, pitched 12 feet past and missed her par putt.  Amy's attempt at a two-shot swing failed when she couldn't connect from ten feet but she led by two with five holes to play.  At 14, both players reached the back fringe with their seconds and both played their thirds woefully short.  Tseng rolled her 15-footer true while Yang missed from 12 and the lead was quickly back down to one.  After pars at 15, Amy scrambled to save par at 16 from 12 feet but Yani had eight feet for birdie which she dropped to tie for the lead.  Neither had a good birdie chance at 17 and Yang needed the entire cup to get her par putt down.

18 was an adventure.  Tseng drove way left and was forced to lay up.  Yang went for the green and pulled it left between the scoreboard and grandstand.  Yani's third was brilliant - nearly flew it in and spun back to five feet.  After getting a line-of-sight free drop (blocked by the grandstand), Amy lobbed to the green but the slope carried her ball to the opposite side of the green nearly 75 feet away.  She lagged to about four feet.  Putting to win, Tseng missed left.  Yang saved par to force a playoff.  Replaying 18, both played their seconds safely - Yang to the back edge, Tseng just off the back fringe.  Both players came up about five feet short on their eagle putts.  Amy missed her birdie try left while Yani (from about the same spot she had missed from 20 minutes earlier) canned hers for the victory.

Several players worked wonders for themselves in the various money list races.  Mozo's Top 5 finish was the best of her career (T17 at Sybase but T45 at State Farm her previous stroke-play best).  She's now 69^th on the list and a Lock for Category 1.  Kris Tamulis finished T10 and is now 73^rd and also a Lock.  Ilhee Lee finished T16 to move up to #92 - she's a Lock for Category 11 but needs another great finish at Navistar to threaten Cat-1.  Reilley Rankin finished T18 and climbed to #76 - she's in really good shape now for Cat-1.  Taylor Leon made the first Sunday final group of her career but faded to T22.  Not exactly what she was hoping for but she's now #96 and nearly certain of making Cat-11.  I hope to have a fully updated Quest rundown posted before they tee off in Prattville.

Rather than award a Big Disappointment this week, I'm going to merely point out that both of the U.S. Solheim Cup Captain's picks (which I agreed with when they were announced) missed the cut badly.  Only five players posted worse two-round scores than Ryann O'Toole.  Vicky Hurst followed up her T70 in Canada with an even lesser effort.  Oh yeah - Michelle Wie, Juli Inkster and Christina Kim missed the cut too.  Captain Rosie cannot be feeling good about the upcoming trip to Ireland.

Belen Mozo snags this week's Big Surprise Award and while I don't want to diminish her great performance, I feel compelled to address her decision to go for the green on 14 yesterday.  She was tied for second two shots behind at that moment.  When I saw her with a big club in hand, visions of thousands of dollars flying into a pond went through my head.  She didn't find the water but she almost did worse - she pulled it left and long next to a tree.  The awkward stance plus steep downhill lie made her third roll across the green and down the hill into the hazard but (almost worse) not into the water.  Shoeless, she played her fourth back over the green.  She chipped her fifth ten feet short of the hole and two putts later, she had double bogey.  I give her credit though - she did not let that adversity cause her to collapse.  She parred the next three holes and birdied 18 to secure the Top 5 and Cat-1 status.  When a player in Belen's position gets into contention, the natural inclination is to say "she's got nothing to lose by going for it here".  Well, she had a hell of a lot to lose and she almost did.  I have no idea what happened to Haru Nomura on this same hole - she went to 14 at -9, in virtually the same position to make the same gain in status as Mozo.  Haru also doubled 14 but she did collapse, playing the last five holes in +6 to blow a Top 10 and finish T25.  Instead of securing Cat-1, Nomura is now #95 and only reasonably sure of Cat-11.  Improvement yes, but it could have been so much more.  Staying aggressive as a golfer can walk a thin line between bravery and foolhardiness.  Mozo took a bullet here but managed to get out alive.  I had her "Back Against The Wall" for making the Top 100 five days ago and she risked pissing away a sure Cat-1 standing for next year all because "she had nothing to lose".  I can only hope that wasn't Nomura's thought process at 14 as well.