The rumored tournament is now official.

Today the LPGA announced that the inaugural Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia will be played October 22-24, 2010 at the prestigious Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (KLGCC). The announcement was made in Malaysia by Zayra Calderon, LPGA Executive Vice President, Tournament Development & Worldwide Sales, along with officials from Sime Darby Group and IMG, the tournament organizer.

The new LPGA tournament, to be held at least through 2012 per the three-year agreement, will feature the top 50 LPGA members from the Official Money List, along with 10 sponsor's exemptions. The 54-hole stroke play event with no cut will ensure that fans – many of whom will be viewing an LPGA event live for the first time – can catch all of their favorite stars in action throughout the weekend.

The tournament will be shown on Golf Channel. Another week on 2010 calendar is filled. Coud the LPGA be back to playing 30 plus tournaments a year in 2011? At present the signs are hopeful.

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I'm going to write a preview tomorrow at OTB Sports.

1 Shin*

2 Choi*

3 Wie*

4 Tseng

5 Nordqvist

6 A Miyazato

7 Creamer*

8 IK Kim

9 Ochoa

10 Pettersen

11 Yoo

12 SH Kim

13 Kerr

14 Jang

15 V Hurst

16 Webb

17 Stanford

18 Harigae**

19 McPherson

20 EH Ji

21 JY Oh

22 SH Lee

23 Lincicome

24 MH Kim

25 Han

26 Pressel

27 Wright

28 HY Park

29 Blumenhurst

30 Lang

*- 2010 Major Champions

**- Rookie of the Year

<!--Session data-->

Unfortunately Golf World isn't linking it at their website. So I have to type this from the magazine

1 JY Shin

2 Ochoa

3 Kerr

4 Pettersen

5 Creamer

6 Tseng

7 Wie

8 Choi

9 SH Kim

10 A Miyazato

11 Stanford

12 Lang

13 Hurst

14 IK Kim

15 Nordqvist

16 Webb

17 Gustafson

18 McPherson

19 Wright

20 Lincicome

21 Pressel

22 SH Lee

23 Matthew

24 EH Ji

25 SR Pak

26 Lewis

27 Ueda

28 A Park

29 IB Park

30 Gulbis

Some random comments

Sirak has a larger contingent of Asia golfers in his top 10 than two years ago when he had just one. But do note, with the exception of Shin he has them from 6-10. The 11-20s are thin however. One or 1.5 depending how you count Vicki Hurst.  If you count it, he has 4 South Koreans and 8 Americans in the top 20.

I really think he has Nordqvist, IK Kim, and Choi way too low.(Miyazato could also be in this group) Any of  these players could be fighting for player of they year.   Vicki Hurst over Kim and Nordqvist? I like Vicki but that's really expecting alot. I do like that Sirak selected SH Kim who because of her winless status will fly under alot of prognosticator's radar.

 A Park and IB Park in the top 30. I wouldn't stick out my neck for those two players right now. Particularly Angela. The selections of Gustafson, Pak, Ueda, and Lewis are all gamble selections. Oh well at least Sirak didn't put Juli INkster in his top 30.

I will be coming out with my top 30 before the Honda Thailand begins.

Another financial time bomb for the LPGA thanks to its former Commissioner. From Jon Show-

The LPGA and IMG filed a counterclaim this month in a civil action with Seoul Broadcasting System over the company’s refusal to make a payment in its final year as the tour’s Korean television rights holder.

The counterclaim follows a lawsuit filed last August by SBS, the LPGA’s exclusive Korean rights holder from 1995 to 2009, against the LPGA and IMG after they awarded the Korean rights to J Golf beginning in 2010. IMG brokers the tour’s international television rights.

At the root of the lawsuit is a claim by SBS that it had verbal assurance from the LPGA that it could match any final offer for the rights. In its motion to dismiss, the LPGA and IMG deny there was any such agreement.

*****

According to court papers, SBS says the LPGA asked for $4.5 million under terms of a five-year extension that would have begun in 2010. SBS, which paid $2.25 million a year for the rights, was informed by LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens that its $3 million counteroffer was below what she considered market value.

On Jan. 30, 2009, three days before a scheduled meeting between Bivens and SBS President Sang Chun to discuss an extension, the tour informed SBS that it had reached a tentative agreement with J Golf, according to court papers. SBS countered by offering to pay 5 percent on top of the offer from J Golf.

 

Us LPGA officianados know what happened last February. The LPGA announced its new deal with J Golf right when the SBS Open was being played.  SBS President Sang Y. Chun was livid and now that LPGA tournament is history.

Would Carolyn Bivens ever make promises to a tournament sponsor and later renege or treat poorly a sponsor? Let me think.

They have signed a three-year deal with the tour.

The LPGA today announces that Hana Financial Group will title sponsor an LPGA tournament for the next three years, starting this October. The LPGA Hana Bank Championship, a 54-hole official money event, will be held October 29-31, 2010 in the greater Seoul, South Korea area and feature a purse of $1.8 million.

Another tournament, limited field or not, is good news for the LPGA. Only one odd thing- The LPGA is now scheduled to play two tournaments the weekend of Oct 29-Oct 31.  Does this mean China be moved to the otherwise open weekend of Oct.22-24?

Update- John Show of Sports Business Journal writes-

The confirmed event in South Korea gives the LPGA three consecutive weeks in Asia, assuming a title sponsor can be found for the IMG-run event in China scheduled for Oct. 22-24. The Mizuno Classic in Japan is scheduled for the week following the Hana Bank event.

The way I read the above is that the China stop is still up in the air. Just like it was in 2009, and it ended up being canceled. The good news now over then is that Michael Whan is Commissioner not Carolyn Bivens.

Frankenstats are stats calculated from multiple existing LPGA stats. Frankenstat Rankings - Version 1.0 was meant to be a proof of concept ranking system. The basis concept was that it was possible to use the existing LPGA statistics and calculate Frankenstats and the combination of LPGA stats and Frankenstats would allow a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the LPGA players golfing skills compared to each other. The system should rate the players from best to worst for a series of skills and for overall ranking. The LPGA website has data from 2004 to 2009 (six years) upon which the system must be built. Most people believe that the longer hitters have an advantage over shorter hitters. Therefore, another purpose was to show how that advantage manifests, and what shorter hitters can do to minimize that advantage. I will use individual players to illustrate the points I wish to make. However, the individual players represent the different types and Tiers of players.  Annika Sorenstam (pre injury) and Lorena Ochoa have been the only dominate players in the time span for which data is available. Discussion of either will be about what it takes to be a dominate player, which I define here as more than 5 victories in more than one season, Tier 1 players. One step down the pyramid of players is those with 3 to 5 victories in a season, Tier 2 players (Paula Creamer, Christie Kerr, Meg Mallon, Suzann Petterson, JiYai Shin, Karrie Webb)  Tier 3 players are those with 2 victories in a season or multiple seasons with a victory (too many to name all of them). Tier 4 players are those with a single victory. Tier 5 players are those who have not won. Both Tier 1 players are long hitters, over 260 yards average distance. Tier 2 players are a combination of long hitters (Pettersen with Kerr and Webb over or just under 260 dependant on the year) and those in the mid range in length of just under 250 yards (Creamer and Shin). Tier 3, Tier 4 and Tier 5 players go from long hitters to short hitters and everything in between. 

The first Frankenstat I use, I borrowed (stole) from Hound Dog. Driving Efficiency is Driving Distance * Driving Accuracy  added to Driving Distance, then divided by 1.8. The calculation gives added weight to distance, but allows the mid range hitters to score well if they hit a very high percentage of fairways. Longer hitters have an advantage because they have shorter irons into the greens which should make it easier to hit a higher Percentage of  Greens In Regulation. However, it is easier to hit the GIR from the fairway than the rough. So I believe the calculation to be a good compromise between distance and accuracy.

The first LPGA stat I use is Percent Greens In Regulation. I think that it is a good proxy for how well a players hits their irons. The better Iron players will hit a higher %GIR than a lessor iron player. Those players who score well year after year on %GIR must be the better iron players.

The second Frankenstat I use is the Stokes Tee to Green. I calculate the Scoring Average for tournaments that the LPGA keeps putting stats. The Strokes Tee to Green is then the Scoring Average minus the Average Putts Per Round. There are three things in play with respect to Stokes Tee to Green. %GIR is a big factor, then a players ability to get up and down from the sand or from around the green, and finally how many times a player is able to reach a Par 5 in two.

The second LPGA stat used is the Putts Per Green In Regulation, which is the best pure putting statistic available.

The third Frankenstat used the the Adjusted Total Putting. Using the Percent Greens In Regulation and the Putts Per Green In Regulation and Average Putts Per Round, I calculate the Adjusted Total Putting. The Adjusted Total Putting calculates the number of putts per round as if each player hit 12 greens in regulation and missed 6 greens. That calculation removes the % GIR from the putting stat to give a better comparison of total putting using an intermediate calculation of Putts Per Greens Missed. 

The Frankenstat Ranking Version 1.0 ranks the players from 1 to however many players are included in the stats for each year (146 to 169 dependant on the year). Then using the place on the list for each stat, calculates an average place on the list to give an average rating. Ordering the average from lowest to highest then ranks the players from best to worst. To be honest, that is a terrible way to determine on overall ranking. A number of players may have very close to the same value but be fairly far apart on the list. Also, there is no way to compare a ranking from one year to another. I am now working on Frankenstat  Ranking Version 2.0. The idea is to calculate a value for each of the five stats versus a set standard and weight each stat at 20% of the total and calculate a numeric value for each player. Then it is possible to compare an individual player rating from year to year as well as compare any player to another for any year (is Sorenstam's 8 win year better or worse than Ochoa's 8 win year?).

Observations below the fold.

Continue reading this post »

A new tournament in 2010. From Randall Mell at the Shag Bag-

The LPGA announced Tuesday the debut of the Sybase Match Play Championship. The tournament will be held at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Galdstone, N.J., May 20-23.

Sixty-four of the top players from around the world will compete for a $1.5 million purse, with the winner earning $375,000.

Hamilton Farm was the site of the 2005 and 2006 HSBC Women's World Match Play event. This will be the first official match-play tournament contested since its demise after the 2007 season.

Seon Hwa Lee defeated Ai Miyazato in the finals of the last edition. The LPGA continues to get healthier under its new Commissioner, Michael Whan.

I have calculated Frankenstat Rankings for 2007 and 2008 and will send those spreadsheets to Hound Dog to attach to this post. So those who enjoy looking at the stats or just want to look at individual players can have fun.   The table below has the top 20 rankings for 2007, 2008, and 2009. The numbers in parentheses are the number of victories and the other numbers are the average ranking for the 5 stats used.  Five players are in the top 20 all three years: Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr and Angela Stanford. If I include those in the Top 30, Maria Hjorth, Karrie Webb and Seon Hwa Lee will add to the list. Yani Tseng and Na Yeon Choi are in the Top 20 both years they have been members of the LPGA. Jiyai Shin, Anna Nordqvist and Michelle Wie all made the list in their rookie years. Song-Hee Kim, Brittany Lang, and Sun Young Yoo were in the Top 40 in 2007 and in the Top 20 in 2008 and 2009, and were the top three players on The Constructivist's list for those most likely to break thru with a victory in 2010.

If you add Ai Miyazato and In-Kyung Kim to the players listed above, you have a very good start (60 %) to a prediction of the Top 30 players for 2010. The biggest problem is to get them in the right order. My crystal ball is always cloudy so I don't do predictions, but I really enjoy doing the calculations on results. On a cautionary note, illness, injury, pregnancy, or surgery can have a big effect on those who score well on this list (Jeong Jang and Mi Hyun Kim) being prime examples.

2008 Frankenstats rankings

2007 Frankenstats rankings

                 2007                                          2008                                          2009

 1. Lorena Ochoa (8)         1.6     1. Lorena Ochoa (7)           1.8    1. Lorena Ochoa (3)           5.8

 2. Paula Creamer (2)       7.4     2. Suzann Pettersen (0)     5.8    2. Cristie Kerr (1)                6.6

 3. Suzann Pettersen (5)   7.6     3. Paula Creamer (4)       10.0    3. Paula Creamer (0)        8.4

 4. Jee Young Lee (0)      13.0     3. Yani Tseng (1)              10.0    4. Ai Miyazato (1)                 8.8

 5. Mi Hyun Kim (1)           20.0     5. Annika Sorenstam (3) 12.2    4. Jiyai Shin (3)                   8.8

 6. Jeong Jang (0)            21.6     5. Cristie Kerr (1)               12.2    6. Suzann Pettersen (1) 11.6

 7. Angela Stanford (0)    23.8      7. Song-Hee Kim (0)        17.6    7. Angela Stanford (1)     12.8

 8. Morgan Pressel (1)    24.0      8. Na Yeon Choi (0)          21.4    8. Na Yeon Choi (2)         16.6

 9. Angela Park (0)           24.8      9. Karrie Webb (0)             21.6    9. Song-Hee Kim (0)       16.8

10. Karrie Webb (0)         25.8    10. Angela Stanford (2)      23.2   10. In-Kyung Kim (1)         17.4

11. Nicole Castrale (1)   26.4    10. Jeong Jang (0)              23.2   11. Yani Tseng (1)             22.2

12. Christina Kim (0)      26.8     12. Jee Young Lee (0)       27.6   11. Kristy McPherson (0)  22.2

13. Seon Hwa Lee (1)    28.4     13. Hee Won Han (0)         30.8   13. Brittany Lang (0)          22.6

14. Brittany Lincicome (1) 29.0  13. Karen Stupples (0)      30.8   14. Helen Alfredsson (0)  23.2

15. Shi Hyun Ahn (0)        30.0    15. Sun Young Yoo (0)      31.2   15. Sun Young Yoo (0)      23.4

16. Julie Inkster (0)          31.0     16. Brittany Lang (0)          35.2   16. Anna Nordqvist (2)      25.6

17. Cristie Kerr (1)           32.4     17. Sandra Gal (0)             35.8    17. Michelle Wie (1)          27.4

18. Maria Hjorth (1)          35.2     18. Giulia Sergas (0)        36.8    18. Maria Hjorth (0)           27.6

19. Se Ri Pak (1)              35.6     19. Eun-Hee Ji (1)             37.2    19. Natalie Gulbis (0)       30.4

20. Pat Hurst (0)               39.2     20. Christina Kim (0)        40.6     20. Seon Hwa Lee (0)     31.4

My next post on this subject will be what this type of analysis suggest about the strengths and weaknesses of a players game. The intent is to look at some players individually and some general observations that apply to players in general. For example take Lorena Ochoa, in 2007 and 2008, she was the dominate player on the tour with 8 and 7 wins in 2007 and 2008 and nothing worse than a fourth place finish in any of the stats. The lower rating in the %GIR and Tee to Green Strokes, indicates she did not hit her irons as well in 2009 as she did in 2007 and 2008.  For the adjusted Total Putting value to be significantly higher than the Putts per GIR value suggest a player did not get up and down from around the green as well as her competition did. 

Lorena Ochoa           2007           2008       2009

Driving Efficiency         1                   1              1

Percent GIR                1                   1              8

TtG Strokes                1                   2              9

Putts per GIR              2                   4              1

Adj Total Putting          3                   1             10

Average                      1.6               1.8            5.8

Wins                           8                  7               3

As with my other pre-season wins-based rankings, the following tiered and ranked list of the best on the LPGA without a major is ordered partly by how well the golfers on it were playing in the 2nd half of the 2009 season and partly on their annual and career achievements. It's 33% expectations, 33% speculations, and 33% hunches, of course, but hopefully it's better-informed than the now-classic Paula Watch and soon-to-be-classic Wie Watch. The numbers in parentheses are for LPGA wins and international wins (only from the JLPGA, KLPGA, and LET).  Oh, and for my #16-#25, head on over to Mostly Harmless.

Most Likely to Break Through in 2010

1. Ai Miyazato (1/15): 2009, her 1st full healthy season since she was a rookie in 2006, was much more of a return to her normal game than a hot streak. Even in the face of her injuries and their aftermath from mid-2007 to mid-2008, she's still finished in the top 10 in a major each of the 4 seasons she's been an LPGA member--and both years she was healthy she got 2. With Player of the Year firmly in her sights for 2010, she's bought a house in the U.S. and started training in Phoenix. Like Jason Sobel, I expect great things from her this coming season, particularly in the majors. More on that later!
2. Na Yeon Choi (2/4): Barring last season's wind-swept Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she ballooned to T40, her worst finish in a major as an LPGA member has been T21 and she's made the top 10 in half her starts, including her last 3 in a row. And she accomplished all that before she broke through for her 1st and 2nd wins of her short LPGA career in the last third of last season. Watch out for her in 2010!
3. Paula Creamer (8/2): Her LPGA bio page fails to note her 2 JLPGA wins in 2005, which is odd, because they got featured on LPGA.com that year. I mention this to belabor the obvious: as most players in the Double Digits Club in worldwide wins have won at least 1 major, she's just the slightest bit due for her 1st. Since becoming an LPGA member in 2005, her only finish in a major outside the top 25 was in the 2006 LPGA Championship and she's finished inside the top 10 in 40% of her starts, including her last 2 in a row. Given that record, the only reason she's not #1 on this list is the uncertain status of her health in 2010.
4. In-Kyung Kim (2/1): In her last 6 majors, her worst finish has been T28 in the winds at the 2009 KNC; everything else has been a top 20 or better, including 2 T3s at consecutive U.S. Women's Opens. Her season-ending win in Dubai shows she's capable of beating major-quality fields. And that came at the end of a run after her win at the State Farm where she uncharacteristically mixed 4 missed cuts in with many strong tournaments. Imagine what she's capable of when she's rested and prepared for a new season!
5. Michelle Wie (1/0): As much as her rookie season exceeded my expectations, her performance in last year's majors was nowhere near her 7 close calls from 2003-2006, including 6 top 5s. Look for her to rectify that in 2010, although it's still an open question how early her season will start and how rusty she'll be when her winter term (carrying 20 credits at Stanford) ends.
6. Angela Stanford (4/0): Her best chance to win a major to date came in the 2003 U.S. Women's Open, but Hilary Lunke answered Stanford's 27-foot birdie with her own walkoff birdie to win the 18-hole playoff instead. Since then, she's had 10 top-25 finishes in majors, including 2 top 5s at the LPGA Championship. She may have cooled off a bit from her hot streak at the end of 2008 and start of 2009, but she's definitely got the game to win a major in 2010.

The Contenders

7. Song-Hee Kim (0/0): With top 25s in 5 of her last 6 majors, she's got the talent and the game to make her 1st LPGA win a major. I'm talking Cristie Kerr-style talent and game. Let's see if she can catch her in 2010 in total majors won.
8. Seon Hwa Lee (4/3): One of the main reasons she finished so low on the money list in 2009, barely hanging onto the top 30 after being a top 5 threat the previous 2 seasons, was her uncharacteristically bad performances in last year's majors, including a WD at the U.S. Women's Open and an MC at the Women's British Open. Whereas her worst performance in 2008 was a T27 at the U.S. Women's Open, her best in 2009 was a T30 at the wind-blown KNC. Still, last season's overall performance stats were near her career norms and she's going to be able to stay sharp this one by filling out her schedule on the JLPGA. She's shown she can handle big-time pressure, beating Ai Miyazato in the last Women's World Match Play Championship and running up one of the best head-to-head records in international team play ever. I'd love to see the Stone Buddha in the hunt on more than 1 major Sunday this season. As she followed up her 2 top 20s in the 1st 2 majors of 2006 with 2 top 10s in them in 2008, the numbers are in her favor in 2010 (not to mention the Chinese zodiac).
9. Brittany Lang (0/0): She's finished inside the top 40 in 8 of her last 9 majors (the only blemish being a missed cut at the 2008 WBO). She still hasn't improved on her T2 finish (with fellow then-amateur Morgan Pressel) in the 2005 U.S. Women's Open that Birdie Kim won with a walkoff slam dunk from the sand, much less her 1st professional major, a T8 at the KNC. But she's long and straight enough to contend in any major and just needs to have a good putting week to make her 1st LPGA win a major.
10. Sophie Gustafson (5/18): Even though she's played about the same high-quality golf (if rather inconsistently so) over the past 4 seasons and change, the last 2 haven't been as kind to her when it comes to the majors. Compared to 4 top 10s in a 7-major run from the end of 2005 to the middle of 2007, her best recent finish has been a T16 at the 2009 LPGA Championship. But coming off yet another LET money title, she's coming into 2010 with a lot of confidence and gearing up for an early-season charge.
11. Jee Young Lee (1*/2): She's struggled the last 3 majors, after establishing 1 of the best records in them among LPGA's Young Guns, with 3 top 10s capped by a T2 in the WBO in 2007 and no finish worse than T22 between the 2006 LPGA Championship and the 2009 KNC. Her falloff last season, though, was much more severe than Seon Hwa Lee's and she'll need a big comeback in 2010 to put herself back in most conversations about this season's contenders for majors.
12. Momoko Ueda (1*/8): She's been working harder on her game than almost anyone on the LPGA since she joined it in 2008, but unfortunately the results didn't really start to show last season until after she had taken a big step backwards in the majors from her rookie season. Still, she's made 9 straight cuts in majors and is certainly ready to win outside Japan.
13. Katherine Hull (1/0): 2 top 20s last season, including a T8 in the wind at the KNC, show what she's capable of. I've heard on the grapevine that Dean Herden, Ji-Yai Shin's caddy, thinks Hull is on track for a win in 2010, so I emailed him for a quote. I'll insert it here when he gets back to me.
14. Hee-Won Han (6/2): Back when she was among the very best players in the world from 2003-2006, she had 10 top 25s in the majors. But 3 of her best 4 career finishes in them have actually come since her son Dale was born, including a T6 at the windy 2009 KNC (the 2nd in her last 4 starts there) and a T9/T3 combo in the last 2 Women's British Open. Count her out at your own risk!
15. Maria Hjorth (3/5): Don't be fooled by that dip in her majors output in late 2008 or her late start to the 2009 season--both were strictly a pregnancy effect. Now that she's put her maternity leave behind her by getting stronger with each start in 2009, she's ready to be the kind of player again who averaged 2 top 10s a year in 2007 and 2008--although I doubt she'll improve on that T2, 4th, 2nd run from the '07 WBO to the '08 U.S. Women's Open. Her T11 in last season's WBO shows what she's capable of, though.

I'm curious as to which players from my previous wins-based rankings can join the best of the LPGA's best on this list, and how quickly. Will anyone have the kind of wins explosion this coming season that Annika and the #1 player here became famous for? Or will it be more of the steady climb that's characterized the #2 and #3 players here? After the Hall of Famers, there are very few active players who've made it to double digits in career victories left on the LPGA--and very few of them who are still viable threats to add to their totals in 2010. Who will be the next to join the Double Digits Club? Stay tuned!

Most Likely to Win in 2010

1. Lorena Ochoa (27/2): If 2009 was a down season for the world #1, she's 1 of the 5 best players in LPGA history. Not only did she win her 4th-straight Player of the Year award and Vare Trophy, 2009 was her 5th multiple-win season in her 7-year career on the LPGA and her 6th-straight season in the Million Dollar Club. The only pertinent question for 2010 is how much longer she can remain Queen of the LPGA Hill, now that she's married and has to be thinking about when to add to her new family. To augment her standing in LPGA history, though, she will need to win more majors and have more multi-million dollar seasons with 4 wins or more. After 2010, she needs 2 more full seasons to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame. Will she hold off on having a child of her own until after 2012? Or will she try to add to her legend before then by becoming one of the few moms on tour to keep winning regularly?
2. Paula Creamer (8/0): Even though she didn't win in 2009, she made it her 5th-straight season in the Million Dollar Club and, according to tatkins at Hound Dog LPGA, she had the 3rd-best season on tour (behind only Ochoa and Cristie Kerr) when you consider performance stats alone. So if she's healthy in 2010, I see her having a multiple-win season, particularly if she putts like she's capable of.
3. Cristie Kerr (12/1): Let's see how she bounces back from letting a couple of majors, the Player of the Year award, the Vare Trophy, and the money-list title slip through her fingers in 2009. I see a little bit of a letdown in the 1st half of 2010 for her. But I'd be shocked if she failed to join the Million Dollar Club for the 7th-straight season and failed to win in 2010. If she's going to qualify for the Hall of Fame, though, she'd better pick up the pace!

The Contenders

4. Karrie Webb (36/7): During her 1st 11 seasons on the LPGA, she was a consistent threat for the money-list title (which she took 3 times), Player of the Year award (twice), and Vare Trophy (3 times, the lowest scoring average of the 3 coming in 1999, at 69.43). In her 14-year LPGA career, she's never finished outside the top 30 on the money list, never had a scoring average above 72, only twice failed to make the top 20 on the money list (these were the only times her scoring average rose above 71.50), and only 3 times failed to enter the winner's circle (each of those seasons, her best finish was 2nd). The thing is, all 3 of those seasons came in the last 5 years, which raises some nagging doubts about 2010. A key for her this coming season will be continuing to improve her driving accuracy, as she did in 2009. Giving herself better looks at the green will translate into more and better birdie opportunities and could reignite her putter, which has been her Achilles heel since the 2007 season.
5. Se Ri Pak (24/5): From 1998-2004, she was one of the 3 best players in the world of women's golf, racking up 22 golds, 14 silvers, 6 bronzes, and 83 top 10s in all. She won the Vare Trophy in 2003 with a 70.03 scoring average, but not in 2002 with a 69.85 one or in 2001 with a 69.69 (thanks, Annika!). She was a 4-time silver medalist on the money list and 2-time bronze medalist during this stretch. She hasn't been quite that dominant since then, but she won her 5th major in dramatic fashion at the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship and became a 5-time winner of the Farr in 2007, the year she was inducted into the Hall of Fame. With her driver getting back on track in 2009, all she needs in 2010 is for more putts to drop to show the cohort of "Dragon Ladies" inspired by her 1998 U.S. Women's Open victory a thing or 2 about winning on the LPGA.
6. Helen Alfredsson (7/1): Her scoring average in 2009 was her 4th-lowest ever, even better than some from 1992-1995, when she was a fixture on the top 20. As long as she stays healthy, I don't see any reason why she shouldn't notch her 3rd-straight top 40 season in 2010, which would be the 2nd-longest streak of such consistently strong play in her 18-year career on the LPGA.

For the other 7, head on over to Mostly Harmless!