SB Nation User Blog: The Constructivist

The Best of the Young Guns: Top Super Sophs, June 2008

The Constructivist — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:27:20 -0000

It's definitely an interesting time to be ranking the Super Sophs in particular and the Young Guns in general. Before the start of the season, I went out on a limb and predicted that we'll start seeing the best of them play a major role in the Player of the Year race, and I was duly impressed by Inbee Park when I watched her play the last few holes with Ai Miyazato at the Wegmans a couple of Saturdays ago, but even I have to admit to being blown away by Park's and Eun-Hee Ji's back-to-back wins. The Super Sophs have now tied the Class of 2008 in victories this season and overall majors, but both still trail the Junior Mints by 2 total wins. I wonder who will be next in the Young Gun victory parade? Here are the top Super Soph prospects.

Simply the Best

1. Inbee Park: From #5 to #1 in 3 months--that's what getting hot will do for you in this class. That and becoming the youngest winner in U.S. Women's Open history! She's been riding her putter thus far this season; if her ballstriking doesn't improve, she's vulnerable to runs from her peers.

2. Eun-Hee Ji: Her win at the Wegmans shouldn't have been all that surprising, given her 4 victories on the KLPGA and her gaining exempt status in only a handful of starts as a rookie. If she can putt like she did at Locust Hill the rest of the season, she'll be the #1 in her class by season's end. But she needs to make more birdies more consistently just to hold steady.

3. Angela Park: The former #1 has given her peers a lot of help the past few months, but hopefully her T3 at the Open means her putter is coming back online for her. She needs something to go right for her--she's dropped all the way from #9 to #26 in my Best of the LPGA ranking system in the past 6 months.

The Contenders

4. In-Kyung Kim: Like Angela Park, this former #2 in her class had a great Open, but what a long drought between her top 10 at the HSBC Women's Champions and her feats at Interlachen. I've heard injuries had something to do with it, so let's hope she's healthy for the rest of the season.

5. Song-Hee Kim: The second-highest-ranked Super Soph in my Best of the LPGA system, she would be at the top of her class if she hadn't let that 1 bad round back into her most recent tournaments.

6. Jane Park: Still not making as many birdies or cuts as a player of her obvious talents ought to be, but her accomplishments in her 1st full season on tour show how much potential the current leader in the "best career-to-be among the LPGA's Parks" Waggle Room poll has.

Quantum Leap Candidates

7. Na On Min: Struggling by the standards she set for herself last season when she won her card as a non-exempt player, but a lock to win her card again.

8. Ji Young Oh: On of the nice surprises of her class this season. She's shown she can go low and put herself in contention, but she still has a tendency to blow up on Sundays.

9. Jin Joo Hong: This 2-time KLPGA winner (including, like Junior Mint Jee Young Lee, a surprise win at the Asian Swing's joint KLPGA-LPGA event) definitely has the potential to excel on the LPGA, but she needs to make more birdies if she plans to keep her card.

10. Kristy McPherson: Now that this non-exempt player has locked up her card for 2009, she can focus on improving her putting and getting more birdies.

11. Irene Cho: Another non-exempt player who locked up her card for 2009, she's been less consistent than McPherson but got a top 10 at the LPGA Championship. Now she can get to work on her ballstriking.

12. Charlotte Mayorkas: Slumping badly lately, but can still keep her card if her ballstriking and putting both come around....

As always, I show my work at Mostly Harmless--and rank the rest of the class.

The Best of the LPGA: June 2008 Edition

The Constructivist — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:57:44 -0000

I closed April's ranking of the Best of the LPGA with this comment on Lorena Ochoa's dominance: "No one can stay in the zone forever...." After the loss of her uncle and grandfather, I'm sorry to see her sublime play come to an end. But the 2nd half of the season becomes even more interesting, doesn't it, when anyone can win any given week?

Who has the best chance to make up the most ground on Ochoa this summer? Let's find out by combining the most recent results from the Rolex Rankings, the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, the LPGA Official Money List, and Hound Dog's Top 30. (For #21-35, head on over to Mostly Harmless!)

Despite her recent struggles, there's no question who's #1:

1. Lorena Ochoa: #1 money ($2.03M), #1 RR (19.46), #1 GSPI (68.00), #1 HD. She still leads in almost every single significant statistical category the LPGA keeps track of, but the gap between her and her closest competitors is closing. More important, her run of utter dominance is over. The LPGA's Young Guns are gaining in confidence; with each win by one of their peers, it makes the rest of them wonder why they haven't yet done it. Rookies Louise Friberg and Ya Ni Tseng and Junior Mint Seon Hwa Lee woke up Super Sophs Eun-Hee Ji and Inbee Park. Who will be next? With Ochoa not returning to competition for a few weeks, the possibilities are endless....

While it's clear who Ochoa's top competition on tour is and that this chase pack has been gaining on her, it's just as clear that they've been dealing with problems of their own, as symbolized by Suzann Pettersen's and Paula Creamer's inability to close the deal the past 2 weeks (and Jeong Jang's multiple near-misses this season), along with Annika Sorenstam's inability to build on her own dominating win back in mid-May. The only 1 moving up is a rookie--and Tseng's been playing hurt, just like Jang.

2. Annika Sorenstam: #2 money ($1.46M), #2 RR (11.39), #3 GSPI (69.24), #2 HD. If she was putting 1/10th as well as she was striking the ball, she'd have made up some serious ground on Ochoa. As it is, she's missed the top 10 in 4 of 5 tournaments since she ran away with the Michelob Ultra.

3. Paula Creamer: #3 money ($1.06M), #4 RR (8.08), #4 GSPI (69.41), #3 HD. With her final round blow-up at the U.S. Women's Open, she missed her chance to pass Sorenstam and get tha "best player without a major" label off her back at the ripe old age of 21. But she did get her 3rd straight top 10.

4. Ya Ni Tseng: #5 money ($876.8K), #6 RR (6.16), #5 GSPI (69.86), #5 HD. This is not a typo. I'm ranking Tseng ahead of Pettersen. Winning a major will do that for you. With tricep tendonitis, though, she's better think long and hard about getting some rest before the European swing.

5. Suzann Pettersen: #8 money ($729.5K), #3 RR (8.93), #2 GSPI (69.52), #4 HD. After blowing up in the first round of the Open, she outplayed just about everyone over her final 3 rounds. But that's been the story of her season--she's probably playing better than she was last year, but one big round has dashed her hopes for contention. And when she has been in the hunt, she hasn't closed the deal: 3 top 3s but 0 wins will not put her back in the top 4.

6. Jeong Jang: #6 money ($826.0K), #8 RR (5.10), #8 GSPI (70.17), #7 HD. With 5 top 3s this season and missed chances for multiple wins, Jang knows just how Pettersen is feeling. And with a bad wrist, she ought to be considering a short break before the European swing just as Tseng should be.

Surprisingly, there's only 1 player in the top 10 in 3 of the 4 systems:

7. Karrie Webb: #10 money ($524.6K), #5 RR (6.34), #12 GSPI (70.61), #8 HD. She has 3 top 3s but no other top 10s this season. I call it veteran-itis. Don't expect her to remain in the top 10 next ranking. There are too many hungry young guns behind her playing better and more consistent golf than she has been the past 2 years.

The rest of the lead pack has fallen back a bit and can be found in the top 10 in only 2 of the 4 systems (and/or in the top 20 in all):

8. Seon Hwa Lee: #7 money ($738.8K), #14 RR (4.47), #16 GSPI (70.72), #6 HD. Seemed to be coming out of a bad stretch in May but hasn't followed up on her amazing come-from-behind win in the Ginn Tribute.

9. Cristie Kerr: #20 money ($395.4K), #7 RR (5.32), #7 GSPI (70.08), #14 HD. Big disappointment over the weekend at the Open, but she does have 5 straight top 20s, so seems to be overcoming her early-spring inconsistency.

10. Maria Hjorth: #13 money ($457.0K), #10 RR (4.84), #13 GSPI (70.61), #10 HD. Lost to Tseng in a playoff at the LPGA Championship right after missing the cut at the Ginn Tribute. What more can I say to illustrate her inconsistency?

11. Jee Young Lee: #15 money ($436.6K), #13 RR (4.55), #15 GSPI (70.64), #9 HD. Inconsistency has been her demon this season, as well. She's either following up top 10s with a finish in the 50s or sandwiching a missed cut among top 20s. Like Pettersen, made a good comeback after a bad start to the Open, so maybe she's due for better things....

But there's a large group of golfers with a top 10 in 1 system or top 20s in 3 of the 4.

12. Inbee Park: #4 money ($1.01M), #12 RR (4.55), #33 GSPI (71.44), #26 HD. Ever since I proclaimed that she had been passed by a couple of classmates who have much fewer events under their belts, she's been playing great in 2008. And now she's the youngest winner of the U.S. Women's Open! I love it when a plan comes together....

13. Na Yeon Choi: #11 money ($508.1K), #39 RR (2.86), #9 GSPI (70.28), #11 HD. Her worst finish on the LPGA (T32) is still her 1st event of the year and she did well to get a top 20 at the Open after competing in Korea the week before. With Tseng's injury and Ueda's lost opportunity on Open Sunday, she may be the favorite for the rookie of the year, even though she's still 97 points behind.

14. Hee-Won Han: #21 money ($395.1K), #29 RR (3.22), #10 GSPI (70.54), #20 HD. The top new mom on tour hasn't played at all well since the Michelob Ultra, but despite her uncharacteristic inconsistency, she still has 2 top 10s in that stretch. Look for her to shake off her terrible Open quickly.

15. Song-Hee Kim: #9 money ($553.4K), #56 RR (2.00), #40 GSPI (71.74), #12 HD. Was one of the hottest players on tour in the spring, but has shown signs of her early-season shakiness since her 3rd-place finish at the Ginn Tribute.

16. Mi Hyun Kim: #30 money ($338.5K), #16 RR (4.18), #11 GSPI (70.60), #16 HD. Her T6 at the Open was the 3rd straight top 10 in a major for the player with my vote for the "best w/o a major" title. Unfortunately, she has a bad history at the British Open....

17. Christina Kim: #17 money ($421.7K), #35 RR (2.92), #14 GSPI (70.63), #15 HD. She's #3 in the Solheim Cup standings and #4 in top 10s this season, so why is she ranked so low? Say it with me: inconsistency!

18. Stacy Prammanasudh: #31 money ($330.0K), #19 RR (3.86), #19 GSPI (70.95), #17 HD. She was the 12th player to finish under par at the Open, but missed out on a top 10 last weekend. Still has a good chance to salvage a season that opened with such promise (a 5th-place finish at the HSBC Women's Champions) but has resulted in only 2 other top 10s.

There are only a few golfers with top 20s in 2 of the 4 systems.

19. Eun-Hee Ji: #12 money ($486.7K), #18 RR (3.94), #22 GSPI (70.98), n.r. HD. One hot weekend in Rochester does not a season make, but beating the LPGA's #5 golfer shows just how much potential this Super Soph has!

20. Sophie Gustafson: #27 money ($360.9K), #28 RR (3.28), #17 GSPI (70.84), #19 HD. Like Pettersen and Hjorth, suffering an all-too-common European disease of being unable to finish off tournaments, but look for her to shake off her Open MC quickly.

21. Momoko Ueda: #39 money ($280.9K), #11 RR (4.57), #18 GSPI (70.84), n.r. HD. Her recent win on the JLPGA and near-miss of a top 10 at the Open may be signs of better things to come for Japan's top golfer. But she's had chances to go on a tear earlier this season and failed to sustain the momentum of twice playing in the final pairing on a Sunday. Here's hoping she heats up as the summer does.

CBS and Golfweek Show T-Joh Some Love

The Constructivist — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:28:15 -0000

CBS and Golfweek Show T-Joh Some Love

She's the headliner in CBS's Public Links AP story...and Beth Ann Baldry's at Golfweek, too:

http://www.golfweek.com/story/wapl-rd4-061908

Meanwhile, in Asia...

The Constructivist — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:05:11 -0000

...the JLPGA's Suntory Ladies Open features a possible showdown this weekend between last year's #1 player Momoko Ueda and Sakura Yokomine, who's taken over the top spot this season. Ueda is in third place in the LPGA's rookie of the year race and could join Ai Miyazato in inspiring other 20-something and teenage Japanese stars to cross the Pacific over the next few years. But she trails Yokomine by 4 shots after the first round.

...and the KLPGA's BC Card Classic features a possible showdown between LPGA Hall Famer Se Ri Pak, the #2 LPGA rookie Na Yeon Choi, and the KLPGA's top golfer over the past 2 seasons, Ji-Yai Shin, who's LPGA-bound in 2009 and gearing up for the U.S Women's Open at the end of the month, not to mention the JLPGA's #2 player, Miho Koga.

You may now return to your regularly-scheduled Berman-bashing....

Jane Park in the Hunt for the ADT Championship

The Constructivist — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:17:48 -0000

Now that the cut has been made at the LPGA Championship, let's check in on the players on the bubble for qualifying for the ADT Championship--winner-takes-$1M end-of-season 32-player shootout--for the first half of the season. If Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, or Seon Hwa Lee wins, everyone up to and including #12 is in; if not, it's the winner plus the top 11. I'm excluding from the following list everyone already over $400K in season earnings--there's no way they're not in. So what about everyone else?

8 Karen Stupples 373466 (T31)
9 Inbee Park 361219 (T52)
10 Christina Kim 356421 (CUT) [in trouble]
11 Jee Young Lee 353766 (T11)
12 Sophie Gustafson 348466 (CUT) [in huge trouble]
13 Angela Stanford 334491 (T52)
14 Jane Park 333672 (T27)
15 Leta Lindley 332814 (T62)
16 Teresa Lu 330769 (CUT) [OUT]
17 Brittany Lang 328595 (T4)
18 Sun Young Yoo 317568 (T62)

Looks like it's Brittany Lang and Jane Park with the best chance to knock out Sophie Gustafson and Christina Kim. But with the first 4 or so spots bringing you 6 digits, Lindsey Wright (269859) at 2nd, Laura Diaz (285843) and Maria Hjorth (242266) at T11, Hee-Won Han (260285) at T18, Cristie Kerr (219518) at T27, and Candie Kung (253302) at T31, among several others, have legitimate shots to end the first half of the season near the $400K mark in winnings. So the situation is still quite volatile. Go, Jane!

Akane Iijima Drops a 62 on the Field

The Constructivist — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:27:33 -0000

Akane Iijima Drops a 62 on the Field

10 birdies, 8 pars, 31-31. That's better than Miho Koga's 63 in early March and as good as Angela Stanford's 62 at the end of that month. Must be something in the air or the water around the world this week: Nina Reis (64), Karrie Webb (65), and In-Kyung Kim (65) also went low Thursday....

More Curtis Cup Shots

The Constructivist — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:58:51 -0000

More Curtis Cup Shots

Photos, that is. Maybe some commentary coming in coming days, too.

New LPGA TV Deal?

The Constructivist — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:42:15 -0000

New LPGA TV Deal?

Jon Snow reports on the possibilities....

(Editor's note: Bumped up to the front page because the article spells out some very ingriguing possibilities for the LPGA. Carolyn Bivens was slammed hard and according to some accounts nearly the victim of rebellion in her first year. But it seems to me she's been doing a whole lot of things right since that rocky start as LPGA commissioner. Getting a network TV deal on which the LPGA actually makes money would be a major coup.)

Top Junior Mints, May 2008

The Constructivist — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:46:41 -0000

There's been a lot of movement among the regulars from the Class of 2006, one of the strongest rookie classes in LPGA history, so far this season. Unfortunately, their top 3 players have yet to hit their strides, but we've seen the return to great play of one of their 3 slumping stars along with the emergence of some new potential contenders. So how do their careers stack up?

Simply the Best

1. Seon Hwa Lee: It's definitely problems with her putting that account for her so-so start to the season--she's ranked in the mid-70s in both short-grass stats, about 50 spots worse than any of the key stats I track below, and a far cry from her rookie season when she was one of the best on the tour. So she could turn it around any week now.

2. Morgan Pressel: Just when I was ready to keep her below Jee Young Lee in the rankings, she interrupts a missed cut streak by coming this close to getting her 2nd career win. The pair are so neck-and-neck in career stats that it comes down to Morgan's major vs. Jelly's made-cut rate. I know both major ranking systems as well as Hound Dog's and my own (which combines them) have it the other way around, but I'm moving Pressel back to #2.

3. Jee Young Lee: If she weren't having such an inconsistent season, she would have stayed ahead of Pressel, major or not. I mean, what can you do when she breaks her top-10 streak at 2 with a T55 at the Sybase 2 weeks ago? Hope she worked on her putting in her week off, as she's clearly missing too many par saves and probably 3-putting too many greens she hits in regulation. Her percentage of rounds under par is way down from her previous 2 seasons and her putting stats are the obvious culprit--it's not like her driving accuracy is that different from her average in her first 2 years on tour (although if she ever were to improve in that area, watch out!).

The Contenders

4. Ai Miyazato: It's been one-step-forward-two-steps-back for Ai-chan this season: miss 2 cuts, get a top 20 at the start of the season; then, after a long dry spell, follow up another top 20 with a MC. There always seems to be 1 high round per tournament that pulls her down. On the bright side, she's hitting more greens and lowering her scoring average, but she needs the birdies to start dropping to return to the LPGA's elite.

5. Brittany Lang: She's making the most money and hitting the most greens of anyone in her very talented class, so it's no surprise that she's been racking up top 20s and top 10s this season. Her runner-up finish at the Sybase was no fluke. And she's poised to pass Ai-chan by the end of July.

6. Julieta Granada: Followed up her first top 20 in what feels like forever (but really was about 5 months) with 2 straight missed cuts. If she keeps that kind of pattern up, she'll get passed by Jee Young Lee on the career money list by season's end, despite that $1M paycheck for her sole victory.

Quantum Leap Candidates

7. Teresa Lu: Seems to have been inspired by the great play of fellow Taiwanese stars Ya Ni Tseng and Candie Kung. Whatever it is, she's my new top candidate for getting that breakthrough win that most of her classmates are still waiting for!

8. Meaghan Francella: Injuries and illnesses have taken their toll on her game for almost the past year, so I'm demoting her from the contenders list, even though she already has a win. While she's still on a better pace than Bae in her career stats, she is in danger of getting passed, as her Rolex Rankings lead is shrinking and Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index deficit is growing.

9. Kyeong Bae: Would already have passed Francella if she weren't struggling this season. She's finally started having decent results--and making more birdies--the past few events, so I have high hopes for her despite demoting her from the contenders category this ranking.

10. Sun Young Yoo: Has the lowest scoring average and highest birdie rate in her class this season. Would have moved even further up these rankings if she had gotten her first win last weekend--she came that close to it!

11. Minea Blomqvist: Starting to harness her talent and take advantage of her hot weeks, but still incredibly inconsistent. She has a Jee Young Lee-like game, though, so there's no reason she shouldn't remain the top Euro in her class and move up the rankings the rest of the season.

12. Linda Wessberg: Her transition to full-time play on the LPGA has been a learning process, but she'll be the better player and tougher competitor for her current struggles. Once she settles down, she'll go back to giving Blomqvist some real competition for top Euro in class.

13. Allison Fouch: Too soon to tell whether this Futures Tour graduate has the staying power to build upon her great start to the season, but the signs are promising.

14. H.J. Choi: Let's hope her top 10 at the Sybase (which would have been yet another missed cut if the tournament organizers hadn't erased Friday's waterlogged scores!) is a sign of things to come for a player who not that long ago was my top candidate for that breakthrough win.

15. Karin Sjodin: What has happened to her this season? If she keeps this up, Katie Futcher has a chance to pass her! She'd better decide fast if she wants her LPGA career to be judged against Blomqvist and Wessberg's or Reis and Stahle's....

So there you have it. As always, I cover the entire class and show my work over at Mostly Harmless.

The Best off the LPGA: JLPGA, May 2008

The Constructivist — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:57:14 -0000

Time to update my March ranking of the top JLPGA players. With nobody winning more than once this season and some highly-ranked players in the world rankings off to terrible starts, there's a lot of drama week in and week out on the JLPGA.

You can go to Mostly Harmless for the explanation of my system, my reasons for leaving Momoko Ueda and Ji-Yai Shin off the list, and #s 18-26, but here are the names you need to know. Why? Because I'll betcha a few of them will try the LPGA Q-School in December--and do very well.

(In what follows, RR stands for Rolex Rankings, GSPI for the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, and HD for Hound Dog's JLPGA ranking).

Meet the JLPGA's Big 4....

1. Sakura Yokomine: #4 2008 money (￥34.54M), #17 RR (3.76), #23 GSPI (71.13), #2 HD, #2 2007 money (￥114.9M). Even though she has yet to win in 2008, she has made more money than anyone else on the JLPGA over the past 2 seasons, has made the top 10 in 8 of her 9 starts, remains the only regular player on tour with a scoring average below 71, and is so due to break out with multiple wins. With Ueda's and Miyazato's struggles on the LPGA, she could well be the top-ranked Japanese golfer in the world by July in both major international ranking systems. How could I not put her at the top of this one? And how could she not go for the LPGA in 2009?

2. Miho Koga: #2 2008 money (￥38.93M), #37 RR (2.75), #39 GSPI (71.79), #1 HD, #4 2007 money (￥94.3M). Her playoff loss this past weekend is the only thing keeping her behind Yokomine in the rankings. Once her world rankings catch up with the quality of her play, it'll be even harder to keep her out of the #1 spot. She moves up from #6, thanks to a win, 5 top 5s, 7 top 10s, and no worse than a T17 in 10 starts.

3. Akiko Fukushima: #1 2008 money (￥44.58M), #35 RR (2.85), #48 GSPI (71.96), n.r. HD, #11 2007 money (￥51.6M). She has Ji-Hee Lee to thank for her remaining at the top of the money list this season, despite taking a well-deserved week off after leaping into the second spot on the JLPGA career money list. She's eliminated that one bad round per tournament that was holding her back earlier in the season over her past 3 events, and there's no reason to believe she can't keep contending like she has been. I've moved her up from #10 in March.

4. Miki Saiki: #9 2008 money (￥28.97M), #27 RR (3.15), #30 GSPI (71.44), #6 HD, #9 2007 money (￥62.6M). Off to a slow start by her standards in 2008, yet still in the top 3 among JLPGA regulars in scoring average and as a result has 5 top 5s in 10 starts. Perhaps her playoff loss this past weekend is a sign of better things to come for the player I think has the most potential on the JLPGA.

Right behind them is a big group with 2 top 10s in the various ranking systems:

5. Shinobu Moromizato: #12 2008 money (￥15.93M), #46 RR (2.34), #51 GSPI (72.03), #8 HD, #7 2007 money (￥85.3M). With 4 top 10s in 10 starts, it's not like she's playing badly, but she moves up from #8 mostly because a few notables ahead of her in the last ranking have nose-dived. As the only player in this group without a win in 2008, she must be hearing some very loud footsteps behind her, though.

6. Bo-Bae Song: #7 2008 money (￥31.46M), #53 RR (1.98), #68 GSPI (72.39), #3 HD, #16 2007 money (￥44.4M). With a win in the first event of the year and 5 other top 10s this season, including 4 of her last 5, many would argue that she deserves to move up farther from #9 than this, but big numbers in big tournaments have kept her out of contention the past few weeks and her 2007 was nowhere near as impressive as Moromizato's. But if she can keep her scoring average a half-stroke better than Moromizato's through June and July, she'll definitely have passed her by my next ranking.

7. Ji-Hee Lee: #3 2008 money (￥37.70M), #57 RR (1.78), #85 GSPI (72.93), #10 HD, #38 2007 money (￥23.4M). With her playoff win this past weekend, she makes one of the biggest moves in the rankings, from #21. That's what top 5s in 2/3 of your events will do for you! With a scoring average right behind Song's, she's one of the hottest players on the JLPGA in 2008.

8. Yukari Baba: #5 2008 money (￥33.53M), #71 RR (1.53), #76 GSPI (72.84), #5 HD, #28 2007 money (￥27.9M). If she hadn't missed a cut 2 events after her win this season, she could have had 5 straight top 10s to follow it up. But she's also missed chances to stay or get into contention in that stretch, so I'm keeping her 1 spot behind Lee, just like in March.

9. Ayako Uehara: #8 2008 money (￥29.93M), #83 RR (1.29), #129 GSPI (73.46), #4 HD, #25 2007 money (￥32.9M). The biggest mover on the list, up from #29 in March, she should be no surprise, given her strong performance in last season's Lexus Cup. She only has 4 top 10s in 11 starts and has missed 2 cuts, but she's got a win and a runner-up already this season and has a stroke average below 72, so if she can find a bit more consistency she can move even further up the rankings by the end of July.

10. Hiroko Yamaguchi: #10 2008 money (￥24.95M), #89 RR (1.24), #75 GSPI (72.79), #7 HD, #24 2007 money (￥33.1M). Another big mover, up from #17, thanks to an early-season win preceded by 2 other top 10s; she has come back from a rough patch after the win with 2 straight top 15s, but has been plagued by at least one big number per tournament pretty much all season. It's only the struggles of those in the pack behind her that have enabled her to move quite so far up this list.

Next there's a huge group with 1 top 10, some of them moving up these rankings and some falling fast:

11. Yuri Fudoh: #14 2008 money (￥15.24M), #21 RR (3.52), #25 GSPI (71.29), #11 HD, #6 2007 money (￥87.1M). Who am I to argue with Hound Dog's ranking? Seriously, she has only 3 top 20s in 7 starts besides her 1 win and has been stalled in her quest to become the first billion-yen winner in JLPGA history ever since then. With only 13 million or so yen to go, there's no chance she'll let Fukushima (in the mid-700s) catch her anytime soon and at 32 has many years of greatness ahead of her. But she's in danger of falling much farther than the 9 spots she fell this ranking next time around if she keeps up her lackluster play.

12. Mi-Jeong Jeon: #13 2008 money (￥15.83M), #26 RR (3.15), #55 GSPI (72.08), n.r. HD, #3 2007 money (￥110.9M). 2 top 5s and 5 top 10s in 10 starts don't sound that bad, but she's had her 2 worst finishes of the season the past 2 weeks (T33 and T28) and has never really put herself into serious contention in 2008, so it's no surprise she's fallen 5 spots since March.

13. Hyun-Ju Shin: #11 2008 money (￥21.16M), #51 RR (2.24), #63 GSPI (72.29), #9 HD, #12 2007 money (￥48.5M). "Only" has a win and a runner-up this season, but even that's only been good enough to keep her at roughly the same level as last season. Even though she's moved up 5 spots, her position is precarious if she doesn't pick up her game, which has been dragging a bit lately. It would help if she'd make more than 2.11 birdies per round!

14. Shiho Oyama: #23 2008 money (￥10.91M), #34 RR (2.91), #41 GSPI (71.85), n.r. HD, #8 2007 money (￥71.7M). Enduring a highly disappointing 2008 by her standards, despite making the top 10 in 50% of her starts. She ought to be contending for the top spot on the list instead of falling 9 spots, but she's missed 1 cut and has broken 70 only twice all season. Yikes!

15. Na Zhang: #15 2008 money (￥14.55M), #24 RR (3.20), #67 GSPI (72.33), n.r. HD, #5 2007 money (￥92.1M). Back with a bang from back injuries, she had a chance to win the JLPGA's 1st major and followed it up with a 2nd straight top 5. Her T33 this past week raises questions about the state of her health and her game, but if her back holds up there's no reason she can't get improve upon her March #13 spot by the end of July.

16. Eun-A Lim: #6 2008 money (￥32.28M), #59 RR (1.74), #77 GSPI (72.85), n.r. HD, #86 2007 money (￥5.1M). It may seem unfair to keep someone who got their first win on the JLPGA two weeks ago in the same position as on the March ranking, but she has missed 2 cuts and has a scoring average over 73, so I'm reserving judgment on this KLPGA transplant for now.

17. Akane Iijima: #24 2008 money (￥10.56M), #57 RR (1.68), #72 GSPI (72.79), n.r. HD, #10 2007 money (￥60.3M). 3 top 10s in a row a few weeks ago had begun to salvage a rough start to 2008 for her, but the past 3 weeks have seen the return of her disappointing opening to the season and helped drop her 3 spots from the March ranking.

Back in late June after the LPGA's next 2 majors with an update to my April Best of the LPGA ranking.