Monday, June 23, 2008

Wegmans LPGA Epilogue

Yesterday’s win by Eun-Hee Ji was her third Top 10 of 2008. She finished T4 at the Safeway International and T9 at the Stanford International. Ji has also missed three cuts so if she does make the Top 30 next month, she’ll only be in the 25-30 range.

During the champagne celebration (Jeong Jang and In-Kyung Kim did the honors), it sounded like Ji’s caddy said that the win made “our f---ing year”. The clip I posted contains the offensive language so I apologize. I did have to replay it a couple of times to figure it out so I’m not going to remove the clip. I wonder if Eun-Hee understands that English word yet!

Three straight victories by Asian players. [Facetious Alert!] If they have the nerve to take the U.S. of-A Open, it might be time for another one of those borderline racist columns or player comments to put those invaders in their place!

Besides Ji and Ai Miyazato, the rest of the players in the Top 10 this week are all currently in the Top 30. I haven’t done the research but 9 out of 11 seems like a higher percentage than usual. We usually have three or four interlopers each week. Even though she didn’t finish Top 10, I’m going to award the Big Surprise to Soo-Yun Kang. Kangsy wound up T12 while carding her first career ace at #7 on Thursday. The Big Disappointment gets shared by Jee Young Lee and Karen Stupples, who both missed their first cuts of the year.

According to Andy North, Miyazato is STILL like a rock star in Japan! We always assume that means that she gets lots of media attention but I suppose it could also mean that she likes to tear up hotel rooms, drink heavily and “get busy” with groupies at the end of the round. Let’s retire that worn-out phrase, shall we?


UPDATE: The four-day scoring average at Wegmans was 72.62, a full shot lower than any of the three previous years. This was really weird - of the 142 players who completed the event (that is, did not withdraw), none of them finished at +1. Everybody who missed the cut was +2 or higher and the better scoring conditions over the weekend enabled 51 players to finish even or better while the other 21 were +2 or higher. Find me another tournament with at least a couple dozen players under par where nobody shot +1.

The Florida Masochist points out that Leta Lindley is half Vietnamese, so I'll revise my statement and say the Asian winning streak is now at 3.5.

4 comments:

The Florida Masochist said...

HD,

Four straight weeks with an Asian winner. Leta Lindley is half Vietnamese.

Cheers,

Bill

The Constructivist said...

Imagine the Big 4 stories if Pettersen had won--that would have made 24 out of the last 32 if I counted right from Annika, her, Sorenstam, and Creamer! But now we might start seeing some Young Guns stories--the classes of 2006 to 2008 have nabbed 5 in that stretch.

The Florida Masochist said...

HD,

LOL at 3.5. You're opening yourself to complications though. Just think what you'll have to do if someone with family roots similar to Tiger Woods wins an LPGA event. That will require some serious calculator time.

Sirak writes a well researched for him article previewing the US Open. I thought I caught in an error, saying only 2 Americans were in the top 15 money winners. Christina Kim only inched into the top 15 after her finish yesterday and Sirak's article was dated 6-20.

Cheers,

Bill

Hound Dog said...

Creamer and Diaz were ranked 3rd and 15th respectively going into Wegmans, the only Americans in the Top 15. I hadn't noticed that and unless he was writing about the possible effect on LPGA popularity in the U.S., Sirak shouldn't be concerning himself with that either.