In this week's Stats and Stuff, Ward Clayton brings some interesting facts about the LPGA Tour.
Next event after Solheim Cup
The success of Solheim Cup team members in the next individual stroke-play event after the Solheim Cup competition is quite good, as eight out of 11 team members have won the next LPGA Tour tournament. This includes multiple wins by Betsy King and Annika Sorenstam.
A look at the next stroke-play events after the Solheim Cup competition.
Year……LPGA event……….Winner……….Team
1990……Itoman LPGA World Match Play Championship…..Betsy King…U.S.
1992……Mazda Japan Classic……Betsy King…..U.S.
1994……Toray Japan Queens Cup….*Woo-Soon Ko…---
1996……Fieldcrest Cannon Classic…..Trish Johnson….Europe
1998……First Union Betsy King Classic….*Rachel Hetherington……---
2000……Samsung World Championship…..Juli Inkster….U.S.
2002……Samsung World Championship…..Annika Sorenstam….Europe
2003…..Safeway Classic…..Annika Sorenstam….Europe
2005…..John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic….Annika Sorenstam….Europe
2007…..Navistar LPGA Classic….Maria Hjorth…..Europe (pictured right)
2009….Safeway Classic….*M.J. Hur……..---
*-Not American or European, therefore ineligible for Solheim Cup.
Hana Bank’s home-grown success
The LPGA HanaBank Championship will be played for the 10th time next week in South Korea, with the home-country golfers winning all but two of the tournaments thus far. Norway’s Suzann Pettersen in 2007 and Taiwan native Candie Kung in 2008 are the only non-Korean winners. Na Yeon Choi of South Korea is the two-time defending champion.
A look at the past winners of the tournament:
2002….Se Ri Pak
2003….Shi Hyun Ahn
2004….Grace Park
2005….Jee Young Lee
2006….Jin Joo Hong
2007…Suzann Pettersen
2008….Candie Kung
2009…Na Yeon Choi
2010…Na Yeon Choi
Aces going double
In the last two LPGA Tour stroke-play events, the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship and the Navistar LPGA Classic, there have been four aces. Two occurred in Arkansas – Pernilla Lindberg in the first round and Jaclyn Sweeney in the second round – and two in Alabama – Juli Inkster in the third round and Na Yeon Choi in the final round.
With their aces, Inkster and Choi have made aces in consecutive seasons on the LPGA Tour. Their shots also bring the season total to 10 aces, below the totals of the past five years – 14 in 2010, 22 in 2009, 18 in 2008, 21 in 2007 and 18 in 2006.
It has also been two years since an individual player made multiple aces in a season. Alena Sharp holed out twice in 2009 and there were players with multiple aces in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
Yani Tseng has had quite a dominant year so far on the LPGA Tour. She leads in the following statistical categories:
Earnings ($2,126,830)
Wins (5)
Scoring Average (69.71)
Greens in Regulation (.760)
Birdies (270)
Driving Distance (268.6)
Rounds in the 60s (30)
Rounds Under Par (40)
Top-10 finishes (10, tied with Cristie Kerr and Stacy Lewis)
Additionally, she is third in Eagles and fourth in Putting per Greens in Regulation.
Tseng ranks 18th in Career Earnings on the LPGA, which is $91,863 behind No. 17 Dottie Pepper.
Etc.
The Colorado Golf Club, the site of the 2013 Solheim Cup, was the site of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, won by Tom Lehman….There were two unbeaten and untied players at last week’s Solheim Cup – Morgan Pressel (4-0-0) for the United States and Sophie Gustafson (4-0-0) for Europe…The 2011 LPGA Tour season has six events remaining – in South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and FloridaTopics: Stats and Stuff
