LPGA 2016 Season Thoughts/Wrap up

[preiter20]

Couple of thoughts or questions regarding the 2016 LPGA season.

 

1. Lydia needs to get away from Leadbetter sooner rather than later.

2. Michelle Wie showed some signs of progress the last couple of tournaments but I still think she needs to jettison the parents.

3. What happened to Paula Creamer this year? Same for Natalie Gulbis (holy injury/length of recovery batman).

4. Who will be the big breakout star of 2017?

5. ???

[legitimategolf]

With all due respect your list is a tiny bit outdated. The Where's Paula question could've been asked as far back as a year and half ago. Natalie, I thought had already ridden off into the sunset, and is a tiny little dot in the distance by now. I actually saw her a couple nights ago on a YES (Yankees) Network show called "18 Holes with Jimmy Hanlin" which is a travelogue type show. She is the co-host of the moment. I think she works the mic for Fox Sports too now that they do golf.

 

As I see it the stories of 2017 were Ariya, Brooke and In Gee. Sung Hyun Park was also an interesting story, and those who are in the know are most interested to see how she fares in 2017. By "those who are in the know" I mean myself of course.

[Argonne69]

Interesting that Lydia and Michelle are both returning to their old swings, with some success. Of course, Lydia had a lot of success early this season with the new swing, but it failed to bring the desired distance off the tee, and her accuracy suffered along the way. I'm liking both moves.

 

Ariya gets an A+ for the season, even with the stumble at the ANA. She's talked about adding a driver to her bag next year, and if she gets the right one, look out.

 

Even though Lydia didn't win the trophies at the end of the season, it still ranks an A, or maybe A-.

 

Fantastic year by Brooke. Now that she's played pretty much all the courses, hopefully she's learned a lesson, and will dial it back some next year. I think 26 or 27 events would be fine. She definitely looked like she ran out of gas late in the season.

 

In Gee seemed to fly under the radar this year. With only 19 events played due to injury, she got off to a quiet start. However, the Vare was certainly validation of her solid game. She needs to work on getting out of the gate quicker on Thursday and Friday. Lydia seems to have the same conservative strategy, and it often means the difference between a win and a top 10.

 

Solid season by So Yeon, even without the win. The new swing and confidence on the greens is really starting to pay off. A win or two next season is definitely in the cards.

 

Lexi had a strange year, starting with the fact that she only played in 19 events. 'Not sure if she'll ever get the putter really working, but if she does she'll be tough.

 

For the other Americans, it was quite a down year, other than Brittany's U.S. Open win.

 

Nice seasons by Ha Na, Sei Young, Shanshan, and Minjee. Expect to see a lot of them next year.

 

Jenny Shin and Danielle Kang continue to improve. Danielle needs to expel the demons of one bad round per event to become a fixture in the top ten.

 

It will be interesting to see if Inbee returns to form. Based on her gold in Rio, I don't see why not.

 

Sung Hyun will certainly be the story of the year, just as In Gee was this year.

 

Several new events in the U.S. next year, along with the New Zealand tournament. I hope the weather cooperates in NZ. It could be a British Open type event if the weather turns nasty.

[PZero]

Some thoughts

 

7 first time LPGA winners

 

3 first time Major winners (Brooke, Ariya, and Lang)

 

As Argonne already said, Ariya gets an A+ for the year.

 

I'm disappointed that Gerina didn't get her first win. She came close, hopefully next year.

 

The luggage incident and how Ha Na was treated because of it was the ridiculous thing I've ever seen in sports.

 

In the end both Ha Na and Ingee had solid years

 

Anna Nordqvist quietly had the best year of her career and was #1 in Greens in Regulation for the year. Not much discussion on her though.

 

Very happy to see Brooke win a major and Sahalee Country Club was visually spectacular

 

Brittany Lang being called Bethany multiple times will forever be hilarious

[Argonne69]

Some thoughts

 

Anna Nordqvist quietly had the best year of her career and was #1 in Greens in Regulation for the year. Not much discussion on her though.

 

Brittany Lang being called Bethany multiple times will forever be hilarious

 

Anna is 137th in putting. That's why. Of course, more GIRs usually means more putts, but Ha Na was 3rd in GIRs, and was 45 spots higher.

 

Lol. The "Bethany" incident was the 2nd craziest thing in sports this year. Cheers!

[Argonne69]

How on Earth did Mi Hyang Lee wind up with as many eagles as Lexi, 13? That's quite an achievement right there.

 

Ariya had 469 birdies on the year. Brooke was a close 2nd at 455. That's a lot of fowl,

 

Mo Martin hit 86% of her fairways. Is Mo a cyborg?

 

Joanna Klatten took the driving average crown with an average drive of 281.37 yards. That puts her ahead of Ben Crane, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Kevin Na, and 25 other PGA pros.

 

In Gee had almost 3 times as many points in the Rookie of the Year race as the 2nd place finisher, Megan Khang. In only 19 events she was able to finish 4th in POY points, and 4th in the money race.

 

I really wish the LPGA had ShotLink. We'd be in a much better position to discuss relative strengths and weaknesses. In lieu of that, Total Driving, Ballstrking, and Scrambling rankings would be useful. If I recall correctly, Stacy Lewis was the leader in total driving earlier in the year when I calculated it manually.

[legitimategolf]

Joanna Klatten took the driving average crown with an average drive of 281.37 yards. That puts her ahead of Ben Crane, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Kevin Na, and 25 other PGA pros.

I was surprised by that as well. Don't know I've ever seen Joanna Klatten swing because I am impressed by that stat. So I went to her Twitter link from LPGA.com and her account is suspended. Then I went to her instagram and it's private. I am trying hard to be a fan here. How the heck am I supposed to see how it's different out there when you act like that?! :angry22:

[4rheel]

No love for the gallery favorite Shen Shen Feng? Lol. Finished strong at the end of the season.

[Argonne69]

No love for the gallery favorite Shen Shen Feng? Lol. Finished strong at the end of the season.

 

As I posted in the CME thread, Shanshan is ahead of Lydia in a few important categories. Putting is the key difference. Shanshan's putter got hot since Rio, so it's no surprise she finished strong.

 

If you look at all the top players, they're not overly long off the tee. Driving accuract, leading to GIRs, leading to makeable birdie chances gets the job done. Ultimately, the putter is the key differentiator. Ask Ariya and Lydia.

[Red Special]

Joanna Klatten took the driving average crown with an average drive of 281.37 yards. That puts her ahead of Ben Crane, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Kevin Na, and 25 other PGA pros.

I was surprised by that as well. Don't know I've ever seen Joanna Klatten swing because I am impressed by that stat. So I went to her Twitter link from LPGA.com and her account is suspended. Then I went to her instagram and it's private. I am trying hard to be a fan here. How the heck am I supposed to see how it's different out there when you act like that?! :angry22:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=joanna+klatten+golf+swing

[Leftagain]

No love for the gallery favorite Shen Shen Feng? Lol. Finished strong at the end of the season.

 

As I posted in the CME thread, Shanshan is ahead of Lydia in a few important categories. Putting is the key difference. Shanshan's putter got hot since Rio, so it's no surprise she finished strong.

 

If you look at all the top players, they're not overly long off the tee. Driving accuract, leading to GIRs, leading to makeable birdie chances gets the job done. Ultimately, the putter is the key differentiator. Ask Ariya and Lydia.

 

Couldn't agree more, I don't care how far you hit it, if you can't putt you wont win..

 

Interestingly Lydia's year end Putts per GIR number is the lowest number in the stats history, better even than Inbee in 2012. Wouldn't have guessed that one, she didn't appear to be draining it from everywhere as Inbee was that year....

[Leftagain]

Best feel good performance of the year - Ariya winning Thailand's first LPGA event/Major/POY. Was awesome to see..

 

Best Rookie performance - Su Oh, Megan Khang and Gaby Lopez comfortably earning their way onto the fall Asian swing, nice work to get into the top 60 odd on the money list in your first year out there. (Chun doesn't qualify for the award as she is a Rookie by pure definition only :lol:)

 

Best Major of the Year - KPMG. Sahalee was by far the best Major venue they played and as much as the finish was gut wrenching for me to watch it was as dramatic as the course.

 

Worst Major of the year - The Ricoh BWO. It's supposed to be a links course folks, that's what makes it the BWO, not some watered down parkland track.. Sigh..

 

Biggest travesty of the year - The chain of events following Anna Nordqvist's infamous grain of sand, that was poor.

 

Biggest tragedy of the year - The treatment of Ha Na Jang by Chun's fans after the 'luggagegate' incident. Anonymous people are far to cruel, it's a sad part of today's world.

 

Biggest gift of the year - Chun's Vare Trophy. From Evian forward Lydia played 5 of the remaining 6 events a combined 57 strokes worse than she played the same events last year and she lost the Vare by a stroke. Even if she'd played half as bad as she did it would have been no contest. That said, Chun put herself in position to accept the gift and that's all you have to do so fair play to her.

 

2nd Biggest gift of the year - Lydia's ANA win but again, Lydia put herself in the position to take it so fair play there also..

 

Best shot of the year - Lydia's wedge on the 72nd hole at the ANA, a gem.

 

Iron Woman of the year - Brooke by one event at 31, interestingly 5 other players played 30. No surprise Chella Choi was one of them :)

 

Most surprising performance - Haru Nomura, 2 wins and 6 top 10's was an impressive haul given she'd only had 3 top 10's in 5 years prior. Nice job.

 

Most impressive performance - It wasn't the LPGA but Inbee's Gold at the Olympics was pure class..

 

Strangest performance - Sei Young Kim, 2 wins and 9 top 10's punctuated by 4 missed cuts and a raft of mediocre outings. Weird year for her, Hyo Joo fits in there as well.

 

edit:

 

Hardest to watch - Na Yeon Choi, broke my heart to see her miss 6 cuts in a row and shoot 80+ no less than 5 times late in the season.. :(

[Tailgater]

Couple of thoughts or questions regarding the 2016 LPGA season.

 

1. Lydia needs to get away from Leadbetter sooner rather than later.

2. Michelle Wie showed some signs of progress the last couple of tournaments but I still think she needs to jettison the parents.

3. What happened to Paula Creamer this year? Same for Natalie Gulbis (holy injury/length of recovery batman).

4. Who will be the big breakout star of 2017?

5. ???

1. I grow tired of the media's over coverage of LK. We get it. She's great and she's young and she's precocious. We get it. She is not afraid of making changes though. Fired her caddie and leaving Callaway for PXG.

2. I would love to see Wie come back strong in 2017. Will she play Taylormade clubs in 2017?

3. Creamer is still playing okay golf but just can't challenge for trophies. Gulbis is now the queen bee of the golf-models (Holly Sonders, Blair O'Neal, Paige Spiranic, Lauren O'Laya, Elise Lobb) on social media.

4. My hope is it is Cheyenne Woods and Alison Lee. I'm not confident either will join the ranks of Ko, Ariya, Brooke, Lexi, or Charley Hull though.

5. LPGA seems to be in a really good place; American women are not.

[Leftagain]

Ariya had 469 birdies on the year. Brooke was a close 2nd at 455. That's a lot of fowl,

 

 

 

Not only was it a lot of fowl it was a record lot of fowl.. :)

 

Both Ariya and Brooke broke the previous record for birds in a season held by Stacy who had 451 in 2014..

[fredogolfer]

1.) Let me preface my comment by saying I'm sure a lot more goes on in the background than we see but although the LPGA will have a similar number of events next year it seems there is a high title sponsor turnover, especially the last couple of years. At one point wasn't it determined the average LPGA sponsor stuck around for 20 years? It may be harder and harder to get the Cornings, Rochester's of previous times.

 

 

[Argonne69]

1.) Let me preface my comment by saying I'm sure a lot more goes on in the background than we see but although the LPGA will have a similar number of events next year it seems there is a high title sponsor turnover, especially the last couple of years. At one point wasn't it determined the average LPGA sponsor stuck around for 20 years? It may be harder and harder to get the Cornings, Rochester's of previous times.

 

They're adding four events. Are they losing four? Since Whan took over, they've increased their event count and purse considerably. I agree that there turnover, but my hunch is that a few of the sponsors were not going to be long term, e.g. Coates.

[Argonne69]

 

Most impressive performance - It wasn't the LPGA but Inbee's Gold at the Olympics was pure class..

 

 

'Probably the #1 golf story of the year. Fighting injury, and having missed the cut in several events, she was being pressured by the folks back home to bow out, and let Ha Na take her place. Instead she shows up and wins by 5 strokes. Pretty remarkable given that nobody knew where her game was at.

[Warrick]

An amazing season that has further captured my joy for the Women's game.

 

My 2 favorites (Brooke and In Gee), both won a Major. Inbee's gold was gold, Ariya's season was unreal after the start, Lydia is Lydia, super excited for SH Park to be on tour next season. So Yeon is about to break in to the winner's circle again.

 

My 5 favorites on the LPGA for 2017

 

In Gee

Brooke

Sung Hyun

So Yeon

Lydia

 

How about 1 Major for each in 2017.

[fredogolfer]

1.) Let me preface my comment by saying I'm sure a lot more goes on in the background than we see but although the LPGA will have a similar number of events next year it seems there is a high title sponsor turnover, especially the last couple of years. At one point wasn't it determined the average LPGA sponsor stuck around for 20 years? It may be harder and harder to get the Cornings, Rochester's of previous times.

 

They're adding four events. Are they losing four? Since Whan took over, they've increased their event count and purse considerably. I agree that there turnover, but my hunch is that a few of the sponsors were not going to be long term, e.g. Coates.

 

Alabama, San Francisco, and Ocala are pretty much confirmed not to be returning. A couple of others are walking on eggshells. Again, the number of events will stay 32-34 but my question was to the retention of sponsors not of events. Isn't is easier to keep a sponsor/location than to lose an event and do everything all over again?

[Argonne69]

1.) Let me preface my comment by saying I'm sure a lot more goes on in the background than we see but although the LPGA will have a similar number of events next year it seems there is a high title sponsor turnover, especially the last couple of years. At one point wasn't it determined the average LPGA sponsor stuck around for 20 years? It may be harder and harder to get the Cornings, Rochester's of previous times.

 

They're adding four events. Are they losing four? Since Whan took over, they've increased their event count and purse considerably. I agree that there turnover, but my hunch is that a few of the sponsors were not going to be long term, e.g. Coates.

 

Alabama, San Francisco, and Ocala are pretty much confirmed not to be returning. A couple of others are walking on eggshells. Again, the number of events will stay 32-34 but my question was to the retention of sponsors not of events. Isn't is easier to keep a sponsor/location than to lose an event and do everything all over again?

 

Women's golf is a niche product. Limited crowds, and limited TV time. If I'm a small to medium sized firm looking to dip my toes into the sponsorship arena, I have to be fairly conservative and not commit long term until I see the payoff, or lack of it.

 

Whan has his work cut out for him attracting the bigger sponsors, especially the U.S. based companies. I think that's the bigger story here. Many of the tournaments played on U.S. soil have foreign sponsorship. I'm sure the companies would prefer to have the tournaments played on their home soil, but they're accepting of the TV package.

 

Basically, the tour is in a much better position than it was when Whan took over, but it certainly has room for improvement and growth.

[Argonne69]

 

Best shot of the year - Lydia's wedge on the 72nd hole at the ANA, a gem.

 

 

Hmmm, I don't know. I'd have to give the edge to Brooke's approach on the final playoff hole at the PGA Championship. She's head to head with the World's #1 who's going for her 3rd straight major, and she sticks it to win her first major.

[4waymiss]

 

Most impressive performance - It wasn't the LPGA but Inbee's Gold at the Olympics was pure class..

 

 

'Probably the #1 golf story of the year. Fighting injury, and having missed the cut in several events, she was being pressured by the folks back home to bow out, and let Ha Na take her place. Instead she shows up and wins by 5 strokes. Pretty remarkable given that nobody knew where her game was at.

 

Agree, the most improbable win since Paula at Oakmont.

 

Paula beat a better field but Queen Bee was under way more pressure.

[4waymiss]

 

 

Best shot of the year - Lydia's wedge on the 72nd hole at the ANA, a gem.

 

 

How about Ariya tee shot on the 72 hole at the Women's British Open , that she put it in play ? :D

 

On three other such occasions this year she snap hooked herself out of a chance at title.

 

[Argonne69]

I think we can agree that Michelle's season was pretty much a disaster. After a ho-hum 2015, the wheels came off in 2016. After earning over $1.9 million in 2014, a year that included 2 wins, she eked out $76K this year in 25 starts. She missed 12 cuts, and finished lower than 50th in 6 events.

 

If there's a light at the end of the tunnel, it's that she appeared to return to her shortened 2014 swing, and posted a number of OK finishes at the end of the season.

[tbowles411]

Wow, there's not much more to add...

[Argonne69]

Best shot of the year - Lydia's wedge on the 72nd hole at the ANA, a gem.

 

 

How about Ariya tee shot on the 72 hole at the Women's British Open , that she put it in play ? :D

 

On three other such occasions this year she snap hooked herself out of a chance at title.

 

Ha Na's and Minjee's holes-in-one on the short par 4's were pretty nice. Of course, any hole in one has a good deal of luck involved, but one must still get the ball to the hole.

[Argonne69]

End of an Era Award goes to Se Ri Pak. The LPGA just wouldn't be the same today without her massive influence on the next generation of Asian golfers. The first wave were the Koreans, but I believe their success paved the way for the Thai and upcoming Chinese golfers. Fast forward 20 years, and it'll be interesting to see if Ariya and Shanshan are held in the same regard by the younger Thai and Chinese players.

[tbowles411]

End of an Era Award goes to Se Ri Pak. The LPGA just wouldn't be the same today without her massive influence on the next generation of Asian golfers. The first wave were the Koreans, but I believe their success paved the way for the Thai and upcoming Chinese golfers. Fast forward 20 years, and it'll be interesting to see if Ariya and Shanshan are held in the same regard by the younger Thai and Chinese players.

I guess I could have added that. :)

[fredogolfer]

I thought it was a pretty ho-hum season overall. Historic in some aspects but nothing too exciting, sure lots of first time winners, lots of multiple winners, no dominant force. I do think the number of millionaires in one season is probably the largest its been ever, that was impressive.

[Leftagain]

Best shot of the year - Lydia's wedge on the 72nd hole at the ANA, a gem.

 

 

Hmmm, I don't know. I'd have to give the edge to Brooke's approach on the final playoff hole at the PGA Championship. She's head to head with the World's #1 who's going for her 3rd straight major, and she sticks it to win her first major.

 

I have expunged that particular shot from my memory.. :lol: