2002 Player Ratings

Note - This post was modified on April 19, 2007 to reflect updates to positions 22-30.

The primary constant throughout this player rankings series has been Annika Sorenstam’s domination. I bring it up here specifically because 2002 was the only season from 2001 through 2005 that Annika did NOT score exactly 99 in my system – she “only” scored 97 in 2002. Her scoring lines for the other four years are exactly the same as she was first in money, scored lower than 69.5 per round, missed no cuts, finished Top 10 between 75-85% of the time (she needed to be at 90% to max out that category), and maxed out the win chart with multiple victories and major championships. So what happened in 2002? She missed one cut.

Annika’s major victory in ’02 was the Nabisco. Se Ri Pak won the LPGA Championship, Juli Inkster took the US Open and Karrie Webb won the British Open. Four different players won the majors, and they just happen to rank 1-4 that year – I get the impression that’s pretty rare. Here are the Top 30 Players Of 2002:

1. Annika Sorenstam
2. Se Ri Pak
3. Karrie Webb
4. Juli Inkster
5. Mi Hyun Kim
6. Grace Park
7. Laura Diaz
8. Carin Koch
9. Michele Redman
10. Rosie Jones
11. Rachel Teske (Heatherington)
12. Lorie Kane
13. Meg Mallon
14. Cristie Kerr
15. Catriona Matthew
16. Beth Daniel
17. Hee-Won Han
18. Kelly Robbins
19. Beth Bauer
20. Mhairi McKay
21. Laura Davies
22. Akiko Fukushima
23. Kelli Kuehne
24. Danielle Ammaccapane
25. Janice Moodie
26. Shani Waugh
27. Dawn Coe-Jones
28. Vicki Goetze-Ackerman
29. Candie Kung
30. Michelle Ellis

Retro Hound Dog Awards:
Player Of The Year – Annika Sorenstam
Rookie Of The Year – Beth Bauer
Fluke Victory Of The Year – none

No fluke award this time. Gloria Park and Patricia Meunier-Lebouc were the only 2002 winners rated outside the Top 30 (#32 & #34) but they have both had Top 20 seasons. Have you noticed that every ROY Award I’ve given so far has matched the actual winner?