Big Surprise – Big Disappointment

I took a look back at my awards for Big Surprise and Big Disappointment, mostly for grins but also because I was wondering if I had been “fair and balanced” in my decisions. The Big Surprise goes to a high finisher at a tournament who hasn’t registered a Top 10 in awhile, if ever. The Big Disappointment goes to the Top 30 player who underperforms the most, relative to my expectations.

I was pleased to see that I have spread out the wealth on the Big Surprise Award. Only three players have gotten it twice – Laura Davies, Angela Park and Birdie Kim. Oddly enough, the first two awards I ever gave were both to Davies. She was having an atrocious 2006 season and played well at the Farr and Evian, the first two events I ever blogged about. Both of Park’s awards were early in her rookie season and Kim’s were for her two Top 10 finishes last year. The best players I’ve given a BS (there’s a great acronym!) award to are Mi Hyun Kim (she finished second at Samsung despite back problems) and Suzann Pettersen (early in 2007).

Big Disappointments are concentrated among fewer players because I only consider Top 30 players eligible to get it (there have been a couple of exceptions to that rule) but they are still well distributed. Also, I only started giving BD awards at the beginning of 2007. Three players have disappointed me three times apiece – Jeong Jang, Se Ri Pak and Morgan Pressel. Six players – Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Mi Hyun Kim, Jee Young Lee, Ai Miyazato and Karrie Webb – have won it twice. Usually the player misses the cut to collect this “honor” but the only time I gave it to Annika Sorenstam, she finished T31 at the Kraft Nabisco. I can be a bastard occasionally. Lorena Ochoa has escaped my wrath so far, but I have time on my side. Other players without a BD award include Seon Hwa Lee, Stacy Prammanasudh, Natalie Gulbis (there’s a big surprise!) and Angela Stanford.