New event in Acapulco announced today by the LPGA.  Yes, it's in Mexico but it's a new event and the purse is $1.3 million - one that Ms. Bivens would have snubbed in a heartbeat.  Great news.

Here is your Hot 20 for the Evian Masters.  Only one of the 20 is not in the field.

Three years ago today, I submitted my first post at the original Hound Dog's LPGA Blog - a final round recap of the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic which was rather Gulbis-centric, considering that Natalie didn't win.

No, I didn't think then that I would still be doing this three years later.  Surely somebody would have run me off before that much time passed.  Fortunately the exact opposite has occurred - all of you who take the time to visit the site, comment and send the occasional e-mail have made it clear that this venture IS worthwhile.  I still enjoy writing it just as much as I did when I started and the feedback is a wonderful bonus.

Thanks for reading and if you're so inclined, hoist one in honor of the HDLPGA tonight.  I certainly will, probably around 5pm.

Ken

Did you think I wasn't ever going to mention this year's Solheim Cup?  We are just over a month away from the three-day international competition in Sugar Grove, Illinois and there are just a handful of events remaining for players to earn points to make the teams outright.

Players earn points by finishing in the Top 20 at LPGA and LET events.  Evian and the British Open will award points toward both teams.  This .pdf shows the points breakdown for the American and European teams:

Solheim points distribution
Note that the U.S. point allocation is doubled for the British Open while the European allocation is the same for these two events. 

Let's start with the Americans.  The top ten players in points automatically make the team.  The maximum points that an American player can earn over the two events is 180 (60 for winning Evian, 120 for winning the British).  Since Natalie Gulbis is currently in 10^th place with 201 points, this makes it theoretically possible for these Americans to still make the Solheim team:

All of the players behind Lindley are not at Evian so they cannot catch Gulbis.  The three players in bold are also not in the Evian field so the maximum points they can earn is 120, but only if they are in the British field.  That field has not been released yet as far as I can find.  Assuming they are all in the field at Lytham, these 13 players are the only ones with a chance to automatically make the team.

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I promised Tatkins and The Constructivist that I would tally up the latest Total Driving and Total Putting numbers after the U.S. Open, so here they are along with the latest GIR - all in one handy-dandy spreadsheet!  I'll list the Top
20 for those of you who get headaches from looking at too many numbers: 

Total Driving, GIR, Total Putting spreadsheet - 07-15-09

Comments on the lists - The players who are in the Top 20 in all three categories are Jiyai Shin, Cristie Kerr and....Helen Alfredsson?  I'm more surprised than you are.  Suzann Pettersen is 21^st in putting while Angela Stanford is 29^th, both just missing the Top 20 in all three.  Other surprises - Seon Hwa Lee is 10^th in TD (she was 20^th in her rookie year of '06 but nowhere near the Top 10 since) and Shiho Oyama is 15^th in GIR.

What sparked my promise to do the stat update was a Fanpost by Tatkins two weeks ago where he unveiled his Adjusted Putting Average.  He also asked me to do a Stat Relevance comparison of all the putting stats - his APA, my Total Putting, and the two LPGA-produced PPGIR and Putting Average.  I used the 2008 numbers to calculate how many of my final 2008 Top 30 players ranked in the Top 30 of each stat and how many of my Top 20 ranked in the Top 20 of each stat, reasoning that higher numbers would mean that stat is more useful in determining a good player.  Only 29 players could be used for this study because #3 Jiyai Shin was not included in the 2008 LPGA stats (being a non-member).  Her omission should not affect the final results.

I had already calculated the number of players for TP, PPGIR and PA in 2008 and once I tallied up the numbers for Adjusted Putting Average, here is the comparison:

For 2008, APA beats Total Putting and challenges PPGIR as the putting number most relevant to a good player.  I have seen the Relevance change from year to year (it IS a rather small data set) but I wouldn't expect any huge swings over time.  I was very impressed that APA nailed 15 of the possible 19 players in its Top 20.  That's pretty darned relevant in anybody's book!

It's been five events since I last posted my rankings (two of them major championships) so I'm way overdue.  2009 performance now counts for 75% of the ranking.  Rookies are in bold and the player's previous ranking is in parenthesis.  Comments after the jump.

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The LPGA announced this afternoon that Carolyn Bivens had resigned and that Board of Directors member Marsha Evans would become Interim Commissioner, both effective immediately.

Evans has been a Board member since the beginning of this year and was a member of the Commissioner's Advisory Council for two years prior to that.  She is a retired Admiral in the U.S. Navy, having spent 30 years in the service.  Evans made it clear at today's press conference that she is not interested in taking the position full-time, and a four-member panel (which includes Juli Inkster and Helen Alfredsson) has been appointed to conduct the search for that full-time replacement.

Two things about today's announcement give me slight concern for the interim future.  First, Evans being on the Advisory Council since early 2007.  That means she was presumably involved in making many of the decisions that Bivens took heat for.  Hopefully she was a dissenter in some of those decisions.  Secondly, the only member of the Board in attendance at today's press conference other than Chairman Dawn Hudson was Christina Kim, who was quoted last week as supporting Bivens and not understanding why other players were unsatisfied with the Commissioner.  It is surprising to me that none of the dissenting players (or Directors) were in the room.  These two items may mean nothing but since they jumped out at me, I felt them worth mentioning.

I wish the Executive Search Committee good luck in their work.  The LPGA needs a strong but flexible personality to guide it through the tough road ahead and I'm not sure many worthy candidates will be interested.  One thing is for sure - that person won't have much difficulty surpassing the legacy of his predecessor.

Eun Hee Ji had been playing fairly well this year with four Top 10s in 13 starts but she had missed the cut twice in her last five.  She was ranked in my Top 20 going into the Open and will likely be in the Top 10 when I release the latest rankings in the next day or so.  This was her second career victory (last year's Wegmans was her first) and of course, her first major championship.

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Eun Hee Ji made a 20-footer for birdie at the 72^nd hole to win the 64^th U.S. Women's Open Championship.  Candie Kung finished in second place, one shot back at +1.  Cristie Kerr and In-Kyung Kim tied for third at +2 while Brittany Lincicome finished fifth at +3.

Kerr started the day with a two-shot lead but gave one back immediately, bogeying the par-5 1^st hole for the second time this week.  She rebounded at 3 with a birdie which, coupled with Ji's bogey at 2, gave Cristie a three-shot cushion.  Kung was five shots down at the start but got off great with birdies at the first two holes.  A bogey at 7 left her at +2.  Kerr's cushion was short-lived, as she took bogeys at 5 and 6 to fall to even par.  Ji had bogeyed 4 to drop to +2 but her birdie at 6 drew her back within a shot.  When Candie birdied 8, she was tied for second with Ji and also down by one.  Meanwhile, Inky birdied both 8 and 9 to reach +2 and enter the fray.

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4:05pm - As we pick up the action, Kerr and Kung are tied for the lead at even par, Lincicome and Inky are +2 and Ji is +3.  All with at least five holes to play.  Lincicome two-putted from 45 feet to make par at 14.  Creamer just finished with a 69 at +4.

4:10pm - Kung's approach at 13 stopped about 10 feet from the hole.  At 15 (drivable par-4 today, 239 to the front), Lincicome yanked her tee shot way left.

4:15pm - Kung putting to take the lead at 13, came up a foot short.  At the par-5 12th, Kerr had 230 to the hole for her second pulled it left into a bunker.  Lincicome chipped to about 20 feet at 15.  Brittany left her birdie try at least five feet short.  Jennifer Song finished +7, low amateur. 

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