An additional 14 players have reached the 10 tournament minimum for my rating system. Five of those players (Sandra Gal, Chella Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, Gwladys Nocera, and Mariajo Uribe) do not have the minimum 100 tournaments to be rated. In-Kyung Kim has gone over the 100 tournament mark and and shows to be rated in the Top 100 at #93. Jee Young Lee has not played well this year and has now dropped out of the Top 100 and will have to play much better the rest of the year to get back in the Top 100. Brittany Lincicome is now in the #100 spot but already had the minimum 10 tournaments.

Suzann Pettersen reached the 10 tournament minimum and has gone over the 150 tournament mark so her rating no longer has the built-in penalty for too few tournaments. Pettersen has moved from #41 into the #38 spot. Pat Hurst and Catriona Matthew now have 17 rated years. Pat Hurst is #53 and Matthew has moved from #68 up to #58. Lindsay Wright now has 7 years and is not in the Top100. Katie Futcher now has 6 years but is not in the Top 100. Meena Lee now has 7 years and is at the #106 spot in the list. If she continues to play well she could move into the Top 100 by the end of the Year, but I would not bet on it.

Ai Miyazato won in her tenth tournament of the year and has moved from #81 to #73 in the Top 100. Morgan Pressel is ranked at #72, just ahead of Miyazato. Ai Miyazato has won 7 times without a major and Pressel has won 2 times with 1 major. There are two reasons why Pressel is currently ranked above Ai Miyazato. The biggest reason is that Pressel has played 133 tournament and Ai has played just 122 tournaments. The penalty for too few tournaments is greater for Ai than for Pressel. The second reason has to do with consistancy of play. Pressel has made 89.5 percent of the cuts in her tournaments and Ai has only made 84.4 percent of the cuts in her tournaments. If Ai had made the cut in 2 more tournaments she would currently rate above Pressel. With my cloudy crystal ball I don't do predictions. However, if I extrapolate the data to when both players reach the 150 tournaments played mark late next year, Ai Miyazato will be in the Top 50 and Morgan Pressel will not be. Bottom line is that Ai Miyazato is playing at a higher level than Morgan Pressel, but has not played as often.  

An additional 13 players reached the 10 tournament mark for the year at the U.S. Women's Open. 8 of those players have not yet reached the 100 tournament threshold to be rated - Na-Yeon Choi, Haeji Kang, Mika Miyazato, Anna Nordqvist, Hee Young Park, Hee Kyung Seo, Michelle Wie, and Ji-Yai Shin. Ji-Yai Shin presents the horns of a dilemma. Based on my data, Shin is the only non-member to ever play in 10 tournaments in a year. If I rate her only as an LPGA member then I have to ignore a year that she won 3 times with a major. But my rating system up till now has always considered only play as an LPGA member. Currently I am running the calculations with and without the 2008 year. Either way, if Shin continues to perform as she has, she will make the Top 50 LPGA Players List.

Alena Sharp has reached the 10 tournament mark and is over the 100 tournament threshold but is not in the Top 100. Candie Kung has now reached the 10 year mark and is #75 in the Top 100. Sophie Gustafson is up to 13 years and is rated #81. Maria Hjorth is now up to 14 years and is rated #91. Hjorth at the end of last year before the final tournament was outside the Top 100. When Hjorth won the last tournament of the year she made the Top 100 at #97. It will be interesting to see how high she goes by the end of this year as she won earlier this year.

Se Ri Pak is the other player that reached the 10 tournament mark. There have been a lot of stories about Yani Tseng and her 4 majors and 8 victories in this her 4th year. Se Ri Pak had 4 majors and 18 victories in her first five years. So Yani Tseng has a year and a half to get 10 more victories to get the same hot start that Se Ri Pak had. Se Ri is currently rated at #24. After 7 years Se Ri Pak would have been rated #19 and projected to be in the Top 5 players if she continued her yearly average rating. Then she was injured and had a mental burnout. That is why my crystal ball is always cloudy (injury, illness, surgery, mental burnout are always possible hurdles for a players career).

There are 31 players who have played 10 tournaments so far this year. As it takes at least 10 tournaments to be a year for my rating system I can now calculate an updated ranking for those players. Nine of those players have not reached the 100 tournament threshold to be ranked - Yani Tseng, Stacy Lewis, Amy Yang, Shanshan Feng, Beatrice Recari, M.J. Hur, Vicky Hurst, Amanda Blumenherst, and Azahara Munoz. However, I decided to see how Yani Tseng would rank based on my equations as she now has 8 wins with 4 majors in only 82 tournaments. With heavy penalties for a short career and less than 150 tournaments Yani still ranks as the 69th best player in my list of Top 100 LPGA Players Of All Time. By the time Yani reaches 100 tournaments, which should happen sometime next year she should be in the Top 50 LPGA Players Of All Time.

Song-Hee Kim and Kristy McPherson have both reached the 100 tournament threshold but neither player is in the Top 100 Players. Sun Young Yoo, Brittany Lang, Katherine Hull, Jimin Kang, and Keong Bae all have over 100 tournaments but less than 150 tournaments any none of them are in the Top 100 Players. Amy Hung reached the 150 tournament threshold to get rid of the penalty for too few tournaments, but is not in the Top 100. Karen Stupples is not in the Top 100 and now has 12 years.

Karrie Webb, Julie Inkster and Wendy Ward all have established minimum career ratings with 15+ years and their rankings will not change based on performance year to date. Webb is #6, Inkster is #15, and Ward is #92.

Angela Stanford, Natalie Gulbis, Stacy Prammanasudh, Christinia Kim, Seon Hwa Lee, and Morgan Pressel are all in the Top 100 but not the Top 50. All will move within the Top 100 based on their performance. The biggest move based on year to date would be Morgan Pressel from 86th place to 72nd place. Hee Won Han will drop out of the Top 50 based on performance so far this year or she must play better the rest of the year to stay in the Top 50.  Brittany Lincicome has moved from #132 to #102 and will move into the Top 100 by the end of the year if she continues to play well. Hee Won Han and Natalie Gulbis now have 10 years with 10 or more tournaments.

Paula Creamer and Cristi Kerr are the other two players with 10 tournaments played year to date. Adding in their performance year to date Cristi Kerr started at #33 on my list and is currently still at #33, while Paula Creamer has gone from #35 to #29. Kerr has 14 wins with 2 majors and Creamer has 9 wins with 1 major. Kerr has won $12,909,436 and Creamer has won $8,328,780. So why do my equations say Creamer's career to date is better than Kerr's career. Kerr has more points for victories and more points for money won. Creamer won $2,607,943 in her first 2 years and Kerr won $2,601,837 in her first 7 years. When I account for the increased purse sizes the $1,905740 that Kerr won in her first 6 years is about equivalent to what Creamer won in her first 2 years. In her first 2 years Creamer won 2 tournaments, was second 5 times, third 4 times, and had 25 top 10's. In those 6 years Kerr won 1 tournament, was second 3 times and third 6 times, and had 25 Top 10's. Creamer did so in 52 tournaments and Kerr took 149 tournaments to post very similar numbers. Creamer missed 1 cut and Kerr missed 40 cuts. So when you look at the percentage of the tournaments that Creamer was in contention (top 3 finish) and the percentage of tournaments that Creamer was playing very well (top10 finish), the percentage of cuts made in tournaments, and the yearly stroke averages versus those for Kerr, my equations say that Creamer's career is better than Kerr's.  

At the end of the year, Kerr's 15th year, she will establish a minimum career rating. Since my rating is based on the 15 prime years in a players career, Kerr should be able to improve her career rating next year as her rating would drop her first year and add her 16th year into the calculation. Kerr's first year was in a word - bad. In 27 tournaments she missed the cut 14 times, had no Top 3 finishes and no Top 10 finishes and a stroke average of 73.44 and won $49,058. Dropping that one year would make Creamer's and Kerr's careers rate close to the same.

Getting ready to drive down to the Wegmans LPGA which starts in just a couple of days. The 8 hour drive to see a major is well worth it but would love to see the ladies have a tour stop in New England before I die (note to Mike Whan) Looks like a little rain shower here and there for the weekend but I'll be dressed for it. This major should be wide open as most of the stars of the top 10 are all playing pretty well. Must be a very anxious time  for the girls to be getting ready for one of the most extraordinary stretches of big money purses and big point tournaments so close together. Lets face it if someone gets hot for the the next month and a half it could not only make their year it could pretty much make one of their careers!  Almost 12 million in purses and who knows how many Solheim and Rolex points will be passed around.  If you haven't made it to a LPGA event yet you should drop your clubs and head to one. The ladies are very approachable ( think how Nascar drivers USED  to be 10 years ago before they became jet setting millionaire's thats how nice these girls are 24/7) Also its a trip to see the best in the world at any sport  and this ain't no watered down version, you are seeing 48-50 of the best in the world every single time they tee it up.
So hope to see you all there. MAINE FAN

What do Rodney Dangerfield and Sandra Gal have in common?  Looks?  Golf swing? (See Caddyshack.) Or is it that each "gets no respect?"

Should we be surprised that she's leading the Avnet after two rounds?  Before the tournament started, oddsmakers were listing her between 40-1 and 50-1. Longer odds than SH Kim and Anna Nordqvist, and roughly the same odds as Sun Young Yoo, Maria Hjorth, and Amy Yang. 

The larger question is when does one know that someone has risen to a new level and is not just a flash in the pan? I wish I could quantify how many excellent results are needed to become an indicator of future excellent performance. A single tournament can produce a fluke winner (Hilary Lunke and Birdie Kim), but at some point several top finishes in tournaments should indicate a consistent high-quality player.

In 2010, Gal was 67th on the money list, sandwiched between Sarah Jane Smith and Laura Diaz. What would she have to do to be lumped into the group of players that are no longer worried about maintaining their tour card, expected to make the cut every week, and regularly be on the first two pages of the leaderboard? I propose Morgan Pressel and Angela Stanford as typical members of this group--players ranked roughly from #10-#25, who get odds quoted around 25-1. (This group is a notch below the superstars: JY Shin, Yani Tseng, the 2011 Karrie Webb, etc.) 

The Fabulous Fraulein finished 2010 with a tie for 11th at the Tour Championship. She then started 2011 with two antipodean LET tournaments, finishing 6th and 36th. Now four LPGA finishes: 26T, 10T, the Kia Classic win, and 15T at the KNC major. These results are now spread out over a 6 month period: in 7 events, 1 win, 2 other Top Tens, an 11th, a 15th, and no missed cuts. My only reservation is that most of Gal's improvement is with her short game, especially her flat stick. And putters can go wrong in a hurry. Gal's GIR is still in the low 60%, both in 2010 and 2011. Intuitively, this feels like a real, lasting step forward to me. If I were a bookmaker, I'd be offering her at 25-1, not 50-1.

In another sign that Sandra Gal is earning respect, it now looks like she should make the European Solheim Cup team after all.  As reported by BangkokBobby, after Gal won the Kia Classic, European team captain Alison Nicholas was able to offer Gal LET membership. She only has to climb over Catriona Matthew to become the 4th highest ranking European on the Rolex Rankings, which would give her an automatic spot on the team. 

Since Hound Dog has put up his Top 70 players with a combination of last years plus this years ratings and Tony Jesselli at "Mostly Harmless" has posted his Top 61 ranking for this years tournaments, I will  post my Top 100 based only on this years tournaments. My ranking is based on my full rating system with a small modification. I give full value to wins and money, but only partial value for the other factors in my system. For partial years the other factors gain 10% for each tournament played until a players has played 10 tournaments. The full points are awarded after 10 tournaments. The current number is 162 players rated and includes professionals from other tours that have played in LPGA events. The amateurs are not rated.

1) Karrie Webb - 2) Yani Tseng - 3) Stacy Lewis - 4) Sandra Gal - 5) In-Kyung Kim - 6) Morgan Pressel - 7) Paula Creamer - 8) Michelle Wie - 9) Cristi Kerr - 10) Angela Stanford

11) Ji-Yai Shin - 12) Sun Young Yoo - 13) Brittany Lincicome - 14) Julie Inkster - 15) Amy Yang - 16) Na Yeon Choi - 17) Suzann Pettersen - 18) Mika Miyazato - 19) Chie Arimura - 20) Anna Nordqvist

21) Katie Futcher - 22) Maria Hjorth - 23) Stacy Prammanasudh - 24) Shanshan Feng - 25) Song-Hee Kim - 26) Mindy Kim - 27) Jimin Kang - 28) Sophie Gustafson - 29) Catriona Matthew - 30) Kyeong Bae

31) M.J. Hur - 32) Ai Miyazato - 33) Pornanong Phatlum - 34) Seon Hwa Lee - 35) Inbee Park - 36) Momoko Ueda  - 37) Beatriz Recari - 38) Karine Icher - 39) Candie Kung - 40) Kristy McPherson

41) Vicki Hurst - 42) Meaghan Francella - 43) Natalie Gulbis - 44) Sarah Jane Smith - 45) Amy Hung - 46) Amanda Blumenherst - 47) Se Ri Pak - 48) Katherine Hull - 49) Hee Young Park - 50) Wendy Ward

51) Azahara Munoz - 52) Paige Mackenzie - 53) Christina Kim - 54) Leta Lindley - 55) Jane Park - 56) Brittany Lang - 57) Becky Morgan - 58) Hee Kyung Seo - 59) Eun-Hee Ji - 60) Marcy Hart

61) Pat Hurst - 62) Lee-Anne Pace - 63) Lindsey Wright - 64) Stephanie Louden - 65) Karen Stupples - 66) Alena Sharp - 67) Dana Ford Bordner - 68) Aree Song - 69) Lorie Kane - 70) Christel Boeljon

71) Chella Choi - 72) Mina Harigae  - 73) Sarah Lee - 74) Pernilla Lindberg - 75) Reilley Rankin - 76) Nicole Castrale - 77) Stephanie Sherlock - 78) Jean Reynolds - 79) Jennifer Song - 80) Mi Hyun Kim

81) Laura Davies - 82) Amelia Lewis - 83) Jenny Suh - 84) Heather Bowie Young - 85) Jennifer Johnson - 86) Julieta Granada  - 87) Melissa Reid - 88) Jessica Shepley - 89) So Yeon Ryu - 90) Nannett Hill

91) Meena Lee - 92) Marijo Uribe - 93) Slvia Cavalleri - 94) Shi Hyun Ahn - 95) Gwladys Nocera - 96) Samantha Richdale - 97) Yukari Baba - 98) Mollie Fankhauser - 99) Jenny Shin -100) Gerina Piller

The Women's U.S. Open has been contested from 1946 through 2010, 65 times to date. The LPGA Championship has been contested from 1955 though 2010, 56 times. The Kraft Nabisco Championship has been contested 38 times as a major tournament from 1983 though 2011. The Women's British Open has been contested 10 times as a major championship from 2001 through 2010. The duMaurier Classic was contested as a major tournament from 1979 through 2000, 22 times and was replaced as a major tournament by the Women's British Open. The Western Open was contested from 1930 through 1967, 38 times. The Titleholders Championship was contested from 1937 through 1942 and then fron 1946 through 1966 and in 1972, a total of 28 times. A total of 248 championships with 3 more later this year. Since the LPGA was founded there have been 214 of the 248 total. After the LPGA was formed in 1950, there were only 2 majors for a period of ten years from 1968 through 1978 except for 1972. For 11 years total there were 3 major championships, 1950 through 1954, 1967, 1972 and 1979 through 1982. Counting this year that leaves 42 years when there were 4 major chamionships from 1955 through 1966 and 1983 through 2011.

Many people seem to think that the majors are the way to determine the all time greatest players. At one time there was a blog that attempted to rank the top 54 players based on their performance in the major tournaments. Betsy King won 6 majors and was not in the list. Needless to say, I was not impressed by that effort. However, as the numbers above show the LPGA has had less than 4 majors for one third of it history. In addition, in previous post I have pointed out the fact that in the early years of the LPGA there were only about 25 professional players playing a full schedule and the number has grown to around 150 players per year playing a full schedule since 1984. The lack of depth of the competition allowed the best early professionals to win a high number of major titles. On average the LPGA has played 30 tournaments per year. At 4 majors per year that is about 13.3% of the tournaments. Trying to rate the best players in a sport by ignoring about 87% of the tournaments played and the depth of the competition is totally without logic or merit. The idea that a player must win the Women's U.S. Open to be considered among the all time greatest is even more illogical and has less merit (1 tournament out of 30 - 3.33%).  The LPGA awards 2 points toward the LPGA Hall Of Fame for winning a major tournament versus 1 point for a regular tournament win. So winning a major tournament is more important than winning a regular tournament and is treated as such. My rating system awards double value for winning a major. The Women's U.S. Open has the most value in my rating system as it pays the most for winning and part of my rating is based on money won versus the average purse size per year.

There were 34 championship determined before 1950 when the LPGA was formed by the 13 Founders. Fourteen women won those 34 championships, 4 (Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Babe Zaharias, and Betty Jameson)  were LPGA Founders and later won more championship as LPGA members. Additionally, 3 more Founders (Helen Hicks, Opal Hill and Helen Dettweiler) won before the LPGA was formed, but they never won more championships or even a regular LPGA tournament. Beatrice Barrett, Marissa McDougall, Jane Weiller, and Mrs Lee Mida all won the Western Open as amateurs. LPGA Founder Helen Dettweiler also won the Western Open as an amateur. Peggy Kirk Bell (as Peggy Kirk)  won the Titleholders Championship as an amateur and was later a part time player on the LPGA. Dorothy Kirby won the Titleholder Championship twice as an amateur. June Beebe won the Western Open twice as an amateur. Founder Opal Hill twice won the Western Open as an amateur but never won as an LPGA player. Founder Helen Hicks won the Titleholders Championship and the Western Open but also never won as an LPGA player. LPGA Founder Betty Jameson won the Western Open as an amateur and later as an LPGA player and also won the Women's U.S. Open as a professional before the LPGA was formed. Babe Zaharias Won 3 Western Opens and 1 Titleholders Championship as an amateur and the Women's U.S. Open as a professional before the LPGA was started. Zaharias then won 2 Women's U.S. Opens, 2 Titleholders Championships and 1 Western Open as an LPGA member (10 total major tournament wins). Louise Suggs won 2 Western Open and 1 Titleholders Championship as an amateur and 1 Western Open and 1 Women's U.S. Open as a professional before the start of the LPGA. Suggs then won 1 Women's U.S. Open, 1 LPGA Championship, 1 Western Open and 3 Titleholders Championships as an LPGA member (11 total major tournament wins). Patty Berg won 3 Titleholders Championships as an amateur and 1 Titleholder Championship, 3 Western Opens, and 1 Women's U.S. Open as a professional before the LPGA was formed. Perg then won 3 Titleholders Championships and 4 Western Opens as an LPGA member (15 total major tournament wins).

Since the founding of the LPGA, 2 amateurs have won major championships. In 1951 Pat O'Sullivan won the Titleholders Championship and in 1967 Catherine LaCoste won the Women's U.S. Open.

LPGA Founder Patty Berg has the most major championship at 15, but I would say that the 13 won by Mickey Wright in a time when the depth of competition was increasing is a better record, and that the 10 won by Annika Sorenstam with the most competition is just a little better. Louise Suggs won 11 and Babe Zaharias won 10, both were LPGA Founders. No other players have 10 or more wins in the majors.

After the LPGA was founded, to date there have been 214 tournaments won by 91 players, 2.35 wins per winning player. Of the players who have won a major, they have an average of 6.46 wins per major win. Currently there have been 10 players (11% of major winners) whose only win was a major. Hilary Lunke is rated at 353 of 449 players rated by my system. The lowest rating by a winner of a major tournament. Of the money Lunke has won, over 63% was won by winning the 2003 Women's U.S.Open. Birde Kim is the second lowest rated major winner at 334 of 449, and won about 47% of her total money by winning the 2005 Women's U.S.Open. Just as not winning a particular major tournament does not disqualify a player from being among the greatest of all time, winning a major including the most important major does not make the winner a good professional player.

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Since the LPGA had no tournaments scheduled for three weeks this is a good time for other LPGA related things. Hound Dog has a link on the home page to "2009 Rookie Class - The Greatest?" So this post is a look at how those rookie classes rank over a full career. It must be noted that the ranking for the 1995 to 2009 classes are very much in play and some will be changing throughout this year. For this comparison I decided to look at the number of tournament wins as the ranking measurement. The tie breaker is the number of majors won. The second tie breaker is the number of players that actually won at least one tournament. So highest to lowest total wins, then highest to lowest major tournament wins, and then highest to lowest tournament winners. Hound Dog started with 1962 through 2009 and this ranking looks at the same years. HOF indicated the named player is in the LPGA and World Golf Halls Of Fame. WHOF indicates only the World Golf Hall Of Fame. HDRR# is the Hound Dog Rookie Class Ranking and based only on rookie year and shows the Top 20 rookie classes. As a way to indicate the currently active rookie classes and their possibilities for upward movement the number of players with Priority 1 playing privileges and number of players with Priorities 1 thru 18 and 20 are shown. Retired players are not included and there are several with playing privileges.

Rank #1 - At the top of the mountain is the 1978 rookie class - 99 wins with 12 majors and 14 players that won -Nancy Lopez HOF has 48 wins with 3 majors - Betsy King HOF has 34 wins with 6 majors - HDRR#4.

Rank #2 - 1994 rookie class - 75 wins with 10 majors and 4 players with wins - Annika Sorenstam HOF has 75 wins with 10 majors - HDRR# not in top 20 - Priority 1 = 0 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 1.

Rank #3 - 1984 rookie class - 64 wins with 11 majors and 14 players with wins - Juli Inkster HOF has 31 wins with 7 majors and Priority 1 status - Jane Geddes has 11 wins and 2 majors - HDRR# 6.

Rank #4 - 1988 rookie class - 64 wins with 7 majors and 11 players with wins - Laura Davies has 20 wins with 4 majors and Priority 1 status - Dottie Pepper has 17 wins with 2 majors - Liselotte Neumann has 13 wins with 1 major - HDRR#5.

Rank #5 - 1981 rookie class - 64 wins with 7 majors and 6 players with wins - Patty Sheehan HOF has 35 wins with 6 majors - Ayako Okamoto WHOF has 17 wins with 0 majors - Christa Johnson has 9 wins with 1 major - HDRR#12.

Rank #6 - 1975 rookie class - 55 wins with 9 majors and 8 players with wins - Amy Alcott HOF has 29 wins with 5 majors - Hollis Stacy has 18 wins with 4 majors -  HDRR#18.

Rank #7 - 1996 rookie class - 49 wins with 7 majors and 5 players with wins - Karrie Webb HOF has 37 wins with 7 majors and Priority 1 status - HDRR#13 - Priority 1 = 2 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 4.

Rank #8 - 1979 rookie class - 49 wins with 2 majors and 8 players with wins - Beth Daniel HOF has 31 wins with 1 major - Alice Miller has 8 wins with 1 major - HDRR#19.

Rank #9 - 1974 rookie class - 48 wins with 9 majors and 3 players with wins - Pat Bradley HOF has 31 wins with 6 majors - Jan Stephenson has 16 wins with 3 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #10 - 1970 rookie class - 47 wins with 2 majors and 2 players with wins - JoAnne Carner HOF has 43 wins with 2 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #11 - 2003 rookie class - 41 wins with 3 majors and 7 players with wins - Lorena Ochoa Hall Of Fame points but not 10 years has 27 wins with 2 majors - Susann Petersen has 6 wins with 1 major - HDRR#14 - Priority 1 = 6 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 7.

Rank #12 - 1998 rookie class - 39 wins with 5 majors and 6 players with wins - Se Ri Pak HOF has 25 wins with 5 majors - HDRR#10 - Priority 1 = 3 and Priority 1 thru 20 = 4.

Rank #13 - 1969 rookie class - 39 wins with 1 major and 5 players with wins - Jane Blalock has 27 wins with 0 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #14 - 1962 rookie class - 35 wins with 3 majors and 2 players with wins - Judy Rankin HOF has 26 wins with 0 majors - Mary Mills has 9 wins with 3 majors - HDRR# not in top 20.

Rank #15 - 1964 rookie class - 30 wins with 6 majors and 2 players with wins - Sandra Palmer has 19 wins with 2 majors - Susie Maxwell Berning has 11 wins with 4 majors - HDRR# not in top 20. 

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this is regarding the greatest of all times list.

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Could the tournament that has been in existence since 1976 be in danger of folding. From AP-

Organizers of the annual LPGA Tour stop in Springfield, Ill., say State Farm is dropping its sponsorship after this year.

Kate Peters, executive director of the LPGA State Farm Classic, said Friday that she was disappointed by the decision. She said the tournament will try to find a new sponsor.

State Farm has sponsored the tournament for the past 19 years.

When I first read this news, I wondered if the English policy controversy of three years ago might be at fault. State Farm had strongly voiced their displeasure over it at the time.  The idiot LPGA Commissioner responsible for that fiasco is long gone but sometimes companies or corporations will carry a grudge. I haven't been able to find confirmation for it, but I read in a comments section that State Farm is pulling out of another sports sponsorship they have.

One way or another, LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan is facing another challenge. I really hope this works out better than it did with the Corning Classic.

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