Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 11/27/2009
I'm beginning to think Golf Fanhouse has it in for the LPGA. After getting rid of Shane Bacon , who at least caddies for Erica Blasberg every once in a while, they've come up with a new winner in Mick Elliott, who won't let an opportunity to diss the LPGA go by without taking another cheap shot. The latest case in point? His piece promoting the Legends Tour (and in turn being promoted on Golf.com's...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
Poking around LPGA.com's stats pages , I noticed that Lorena Ochoa notched several huge achievements in the final week of the 2009 season. Winning her 4th-straight Player of the Year award and Vare Trophy is huge, as it gives her a chance to match Annika Sorenstam's record for consecutive POYs and Mickey Wright's for consecutive Vares in 2010. But she also rose to the top of the heap in putts per green...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Lorena Ochoa opened up a 4-shot lead on Player of the Year race leader Ji-Yai Shin in the 1st round of the LPGA Tour Championship today. Both players started on the back in the morning pairings, but they finished quite differently. Ochoa fired a tournament-leading 66, making 3 of her 8 birdies on the day in her last 4 holes, while Shin was busy bogeying 2 of her last 4 holes and finishing +2 over her...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
With Song-Hee Kim making birdies on every par 5 at Guadalajara Country Club on her way to a bogey-free 65 in the 1st round of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational , I have a new question to be added to yesterday's list : will we see yet another 1st-time winner this week? After all, new pro Mariajo Uribe is bouncing back from a disappointing week at Futures Tour Q-School in a big way: she's only 2 behind Kim...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
LPGA Player of the Year rivals Ji-Yai Shin (5-birdie 69 with bogeys on 9 and 18), Ai Miyazato (bogey-free 69), and Lorena Ochoa (2-birdie 71) didn't hurt themselves in the 1st round of the Mizuno Classic , but they didn't light it up like the leaders. Brittany Lang lead the way with a 66 that was sparked by an eagle on the par-5 7th, but hot on her heels were former KLPGAer Hee Young Park (who started...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
35 of the JLPGA's finest tee it up tomorrow in the Mizuno Classic , looking to follow in Momoko Ueda's footsteps and get LPGA membership without going through Q-School. Yuko Mitsuka , currently 5th on the JLPGA money list , still has a chance to break into the 100 Million Yen Club in season winnings; a win this week would save her a trip to Florida in December. Miki Saiki , who failed miserably at...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
Wow, I step away from LPGA blogging for a day or so and miss the biggest news from off the course since the early exit of Carolyn Bivens as LPGA commissioner. Fortunately, the internet never sleeps . Welcome to Michael Whan and good luck! OK, back to the golf--finally! With the Hana Bank/KOLON Championship and Mizuno Classic making up the slimmed-down Asian Swing this season, let's take a look at the...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 10/24/2009
Akiko Fukushima can be one of the most exciting golfers in the world. Like Karrie Webb, Sophie Gustafson, Helen Alfredsson, and Hee Young Park she's not afraid to go super-low and she can make birdies in bunches, but she's also wildly inconsistent. If you like roller coasters, these are the players to follow in women's golf. For a long time this season on the JLPGA, Fukushima hadn't been worth following,...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 10/13/2009
Now that Team USA has beaten up on the Internationals in the President's Cup as badly as they did the Europeans in the Ryder Cup, it's time to revisit a back-and-forth between Vince Spence (the 1 and only One-Eyed Golfer ) and I last month over my claim that the "globalization of men's golf is about a decade behind the world of women's golf." Vince pointed to the concentration of the world's...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
Among the few reports I've seen in the golfy media that deal with the LPGA, most of them focus on the brewing showdown between the 2 3-time winners on tour this season, world #1 Lorena Ochoa and rising star and Rookie of the Year lock Ji-Yai Shin. All well and good, but consider this. The top 5 players on tour this season all hail from different countries. And 4 of them will have home-country advantage...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 09/25/2009
After an 8-birdie 65, Sophie Gustafson leads the CVS LPGA Challenge by 2 shots over Angela Stanford and 2 players fighting for their 2010 cards, Sophia Sheridan and Na Ri Kim. Only 3 shots off the pace are Lorena Ochoa and Karrie Webb, while Suzann Pettersen and Ya Ni Tseng are 4 back. I'm not too happy with the starts my favorite players in the field this week got off to: Seon Hwa Lee, Mika Miyazato,...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 09/24/2009
The CVS LPGA Challenge may have a new name and a reduced purse , but it returns to Blackhawk Country Club for the 4th straight year. Despite the absence of Ai Miyazato (at home prepping for the Japan Women's Open next week), Cristie Kerr (on a vision quest to find the game that's abandoned her since she reached the peak of the money list a few weeks ago), and Na Yeon Choi (recovering from last week's...
Fox News (Free subscription) | 09/07/2009
Suzann Pettersen closed with a 1-under 70 for a five-shot victory at the Canadian Women's Open, her first LPGA Tour win in nearly two years. The Norwegian star vowed not to play conservatively with a five-shot lead heading into the final round Sunday. She made good, keeping that margin over Momoko Ueda (65), Morgan Pressel (66), Ai Miyazato (67), Karrie Webb (69) and Angela Stanford (70). "To...
Fox News (Free subscription) | 09/06/2009
Suzann Pettersen moved into position to end her 43-tournament winless streak, shooting a 5-under 66 on Saturday to take a five-stroke lead into the final round of the LPGA Canadian Women's Open. The tall Norwegian had a 14-under 199 total after opening with rounds of 65 and 68. She won all five of her LPGA Tour titles in 2007, and has six runner-up finishes since, including a playoff loss last week...
Mostly Harmless (Free subscription) | 09/06/2009
Only 1 player made a big move in the right direction today at the Canadian Women's Open : Suzann Pettersen . Her 6-birdie 66 lifted her to -14 for the tournament, giving her a 5-shot lead on Angela Stanford , whose walkoff eagle gave her a 69 on the day. Relatively few other players actually went under par today at Priddis Greens compared to the previous 2 rounds and nobody even matched Pettersen's...
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