Friday, January 11, 2008

1990 Player Rankings

I docked Beth Daniel one Player of the Year award in 1994, but there’s no overturning this one. Leading money winner, Vare Trophy, seven wins, 18 Top 10s and the LPGA Championship (her only career major, by the way) make her the solid choice. Patty Sheehan and Betsy King both had seasons which could have won POY in several other years (five wins by Sheehan, King won the Nabisco and US Open).

The Top 30 Players of 1990 are:

1. Beth Daniel
2. Patty Sheehan
3. Betsy King
4. Pat Bradley
5. Cathy Gerring
6. Rosie Jones
7. Ayako Okamoto
8. Nancy Lopez
9. Danielle Ammaccapane
10. Cindy Rarick
11. Dottie Pepper
12. Colleen Walker
13. Deb Richard
14. Dawn Coe-Jones
15. Jane Geddes
16. Cindy Figg-Currier
17. Barb Mucha
18. Christa Johnson
19. Debbie Massey
20. Tammie Green
21. Elaine Crosby
22. Patti Rizzo
23. Nancy Scranton
24. Sherri Turner
25. Cathy Johnston-Forbes
26. Penny Hammel
27. Dale Eggeling
28. Donna White
29. Caroline Keggi
30. Amy Benz

Player of the Year – Beth Daniel
Rookie of the Year – Donna Andrews
Fluke Victory of the Year – Tina Purtzer (Tombs)

The du Maurier champion was Cathy Johnston-Forbes. CJF, who is a good friend of caddy Larry Smich (per the
Kitty Hawk links here), narrowly missed out on the Fluke Victory of the Year. Cathy’s career record isn’t too good but it looks pretty solid next to Purtzer (Tombs).

It wasn’t a very good year for rookies, although both Donna Andrews and Hiromi Kobayashi (the Rolex winner) did go on to have fine careers. Kobayashi won the award because she started nine more events and won about $18,000 more than Andrews. Donna scored better, had the only Top 5 finish between the two of them, and beat Hiromi in Top 10s 3-2 despite the fewer starts. Neither one really deserved it, but Kobayashi deserved it less.

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