Friday, June 22, 2007

Wegman’s – 1st Round

Cristie Kerr leads the way at the Wegman’s LPGA after a round of 66. Alena Sharp is second one shot behind with Suzann Pettersen alone in third, two strokes back. Lorena Ochoa, Mi Hyun Kim and Brittany Lincicome are tied for fourth after opening with rounds of 69.

They must have played “into the gloamin’”, as they used to say, because all of the players completed 18 holes last night – the final groups finished near 9pm according to lpga.com. Fortunately Thursday was the longest day of the year (for daylight, anyway – all days are 24 hours long, duh!). Severe thunderstorms caused the two-hour delay.

Other notable scores include:
70 Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer, Angela Stanford, Young Kim
71 Seon Hwa Lee, Jeong Jang, Jee Young Lee
72 Karrie Webb
73 Se Ri Pak, Ai Miyazato, Sarah Lee
74 Pat Hurst, Nicole Castrale, Sherri Steinhauer
76 Juli Inkster, Grace Park, Angela Park
77 Julieta Granada
78 Natalie Gulbis

Stacy Prammanasudh and Young Jo both withdrew before the event started due to injury.

Wegman’s is providing
webcast coverage from 10a-4p EDT every day of this event. Segments begin at the top of each hour. Not the greatest of productions but they’ve been interviewing players and showing segments that are/will be independent of ESPN’s coverage. Check it out.

7 comments:

The Constructivist said...

So has Cristie passed Stacy or Morgan or Juli yet in your latest formula update? I'm claiming she's the top U.S. female golfer, despite her slow start this season (although if I was being fair I'd give Paula Creamer credit for really elevating her game this year)....

Hound Dog said...

Not nearly. At the moment I have the US players ranked as 1) Creamer, 2) Pressel, 3) Prammanasudh, 4) Inkster, 5) Castrale, 6) Lincicome, 7) Kerr. 65% of their ratings are based on 2007 performance.

All of the players I rank ahead of Kerr except Inkster have won this year, and Juli has outplayed Cristie so far - more money, more Top 10s, and three fewer missed cuts.

If you give '06 and '07 equal weight Kerr might have a case, but I think Creamer is the best US player.

Hound Dog said...

By the way, I see why you might think Kerr would have jumped past Inkster, Pressel and Stacy P - she was 9th going into the LPGA Championship while the others were 6-7-8. Comparing relative finishes in that event, you would assume that Cristie might jump a bit.

But those rankings were PRIOR to the LPGA when '07 stats counted 60% of the rating. Now they count 65%, and Cristie's low rating (relative to all three of those ladies) for '07 gets magnified a bit more. That's how Castrale and Lincicome jumped her, too. Next week that factor will go to 70% and the slope gets steeper.

Kerr may have righted the ship but she needs to keep making cuts (and money and Top 10s and maybe win once or twice) to boost her '07 stats because by mid-August, what she did in '06 won't mean nothin' in my rankings.

sophie said...

Is it just me or doesn't Se Ri Pak's caddies face look like a vagina?

Hound Dog said...

I see. Only one response to that I can think of, Sophie.

"Nuts" to you.

sophie said...

Sorey to offend you Houndog but her caddie looks like a busted up pussy.

The Constructivist said...

Kerr's still #2 and poised to pass Creamer on the Solheim Cup points list, for what that's worth, but I agree she can't coast on last year any more. In some ways, her 2007 has been as disappointing as Lang's and Gulbis's. Her 75 today didn't help her cause, but a lot of others' stumbles kept her in the hunt. So I think you're right now, but I'll be right by November. We'll see!