Lot's at stake as the LPGA wraps their 2010 season, do you care ??

5 Canucks tee it up on Thursday at the Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando Florida at the LPGA's season ending Tour Championship

They are evergreen Lorie Kane, Lisa Meldrum, Samantha Richdale, Alena Sharp, and Adrienne White, but none of them are in contention, they are all hopeful to retain their tour status..

Here is the report from LPGAtour.com on this week
The money race is down to two players, Choi and Jiyai Shin. Choi leads that race by $34,790. As close as that seems, the scoring race is nearly a dead- heat. Choi's average of 69.77 is a mere 0.09 strokes better than Cristie Kerr. The winner will take home the Vare Trophy.


Finally, the race for the No. 1 spot in the world remains tight with the top- six players separated by 1.00 average points. Shin tops the rankings, while Suzann Pettersen is second by 0.36 average points. Pettersen has yet to reach the top spot.

The races will be settled at Grand Cypress Resort, Orlando Florida this week.

The top-six players from the Rolex Rankings will tee it up at the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship, it was announced today. Jiyai Shin (South Korea), Suzann Pettersen (Norway), Cristie Kerr (United States), Yani Tseng (Taiwan), Na Yeon Choi (South Korea) and Ai Miyazato (Japan) will fight for the most coveted awards of the year at the LPGA Tour Championship at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Florida, December 2-5, 2010. The battle for Rolex Rankings No. 1, Rolex Player of the Year, Vare Trophy and the LPGA money title will culminate at the $1.5 million season-ending event

Other top players expected to be on-hand include Rolex Rankings No. 7 and Lorena Ochoa Invitational winner In-Kyung Kim, Rolex Rankings No. 9, Song-Hee Kim, the top-ranked player without a victory; Rolex Rankings No. 10 and reigning U.S. Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer, defending LPGA Tour Championship winner Anna Nordqvist, Natalie Gulbis and many more.


With one event remaining on the LPGA Tour schedule, Shin, Pettersen, Kerr, Tseng, Choi and Miyazato remain tightly wound in the fight for the No. 1 position in the Rolex Rankings. Shin holds a .49 margin over No. 2 Pettersen who jumped up three spots in the Rankings after claiming her sixth runner-up finish in 2010 at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Kerr, who has made three separate trips to the top spot this year, is No. 3, Tseng is No. 4. Relative newcomer to the mix Choi is No. 5, while the world’s former No. 1 for 11 weeks this season Miyazato is No. 6. The battle for No. 1 has changed hands nine times between three players (Shin, Kerr and Miyazato) since May.


Five of the six players (Tseng, Miyazato, Choi, Kerr and Shin) in the Rolex Rankings No. 1 race also have a chance to still claim the Rolex Player of the Year award. Since winning her second major championship of the year at the RICOH Women’s British Open, Tseng has been the race’s front-runner. Tseng, who did not earn points this week in Mexico, yielded some ground to Miyazato, Kerr and Choi. Kerr made the biggest gain earning seven points for finishing tied for fourth. Miyazato picked up five points for sixth, while Choi secured four points for her tie for seventh-place showing. Rolex Player of the Year points are only awarded to players finishing in the top 10. A win carries a point value of 30.


Choi holds the lead in the remaining two year-ending LPGA contests – Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average and the LPGA official money list. Choi is averaging 69.77 strokes per round, a mere .09 lower than Kerr, making the Vare Trophy contest nearly a dead heat. Two other players own scoring averages below 70.00 – Pettersen (69.92) and Shin (69.95), while seven additional players are averaging less than 71.00 strokes per round. The last time more than one LPGA player finished the season with a scoring average below 70.00 was in 2006, when Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam finished one, two in the race.


The battle for the LPGA official money list title has come down to a two-player race between Choi and Shin. Choi holds a slim $34,790 lead over Shin who is attempting to win back-to-back money titles. Shin was both the LPGA money leader and Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 2009.

So best to you if you follow all of that and to be honest I do watch the women every week, but I find myself lost in the constant parade of players, mainly from the far east who are undoubtedly impressive but do little to rile my interest.  I,like most Canadians, am very liberal and  Shin, Choi, Miyazato, Tseng, Song-Hee Kim, In-Kyung Kim etal are all great success stories both on the LPGA tour and particulary in South Korea and Japan, but let me ask you. If the PGA or EUROPEAN tours were dominated players from the far east of this world without the star power of  Westwood, Tiger, Phil, Rory, Kaymer, McDowell, Poulter, Stricker, Kim, would you care ?

I keep coming back to Michelle Wie, but it seems after all the promise she showed and attention she garnered as a 14 and 15 year old, she is just going to be a solid American pro on the LPGA tour, not their salvation. I must say however, her performance in Winnipeg was the LPGA highlight of the year for me.

Now,of course if ever we had a Canuck to compete with these gals on a weekly basis, with a chance to win our CN Women's Canadian Open.... now you're talkin' !!  now I'd really care !!


Bryan Angus