Smatterchew 2008

Let’s take a look at some of the players who aren’t performing quite as well as they did a year ago, shall we? If you don’t understand the title of this post, its English translation is “What is the matter with you?” according to Jeff Foxworthy. Since we know of specific injuries to Mi Hyun Kim, Se Ri Pak and Sherri Steinhauer, I’ll focus on “what is the matter” elsewhere.

Cristie Kerr (#8 to #12)
Cristie isn’t really down much, it’s just that her victory in the U.S. Open masked the remainder of her indifferent 2007. So far this year she’s driving the ball and hitting GIR a lot better, plus she’s putting a little better. In fact, I don’t see ANY reason in Kerr’s peripheral stats to explain why she has only one Top 10 in six starts. Therefore, I expect Cristie to play very well in the coming weeks.

Angela Park (#9 to #14)
I should probably take it easy on Angela after Wednesday’s post. While she’s actually driving a little better this year, she is way down in GIR and a little down in PPGIR.

Nicole Castrale (#14 to #24)
Nicole’s problem seems to be with the putter – she was Top 10 in PPGIR a year ago, T50 now. She’s driving a little better (about the same relative to the rest of the Tour) and hitting GIR about the same.

Brittany Lincicome (#17 to #28)
Brittany’s game has always been built around her booming tee shots. Last year she was second to Ochoa in Total Driving – right now she’s 56th because she’s lost 60 points off her accuracy. Putting hasn’t ever been a strong suit but now she’s fallen into the triple-digits (T110). Still hits the green at a great rate because of her length but until she recovers some of her accuracy off the tee, she’s heading south.

Juli Inkster (#20 to #26)
The other day I hinted that Juli’s entire problem is the putter. It’s true she’s fallen back a little more with the flat stick (T75 in PPGIR) but she’s not hitting greens so well either (down to T51). Still driving the ball pretty good.

Laura Davies (#21 to #27)
If you can’t hit half of the fairways, you are going to struggle. Tack on a drop in GIR (T93 from 36) and PPGIR (T50 from T3) and you wonder how Laura has made any cuts, much less collect that Top 10 at Safeway.

Shi Hyun Ahn (#22 to NR)
Ahn isn’t hitting the green (down to T91) or putting well (down to T99). Does anybody have any info on possible physical problems that Shi Hyun has had to deal with in the last couple of years?

Sarah Lee (#24 to NR)
Like Davies, Lee’s entire game is way down. For a mid-distance driver, Sarah was never particularly accurate but she’s only hitting 57% of the fairways in 2008. Her GIR is down to 131 and PPGIR is down to T119 (she was T16 last year).

Sophie Gustafson (#25 to NR)
Putting has been the problem (T75 from T10). Sophie is driving the ball much better and hitting the green more often this year, so there is hope for a quick turnaround.

Catriona Matthew (#26 to NR)
I thought Matthew was going to do what Karen Stupples has done – rack up a string of solid finishes in 2008 and climb the charts. Last year Catriona had the best putting stats around. Now she’s T50 in PPGIR. She’s driving a lot better (12 yards longer with better accuracy) but somehow she’s not any better at hitting GIR relative to the rest of the Tour.

I’ll look at some players moving in a positive direction next week, as soon as I can come up with a snappy title for the post.