My 2014 LPGA Year End Awards
Player Of The Year: Inbee Park
- Stacy Lewis won the official award, but I honestly can't get behind that. It's not that Lewis didn't have a good season; in fact, she had a great season. She did not, however, win a major, and Inbee did, along with two other tournaments, which tied Lewis for most wins on the season. The only thing Lewis had going for her compared to Inbee is that Lewis had one more top 10 (18) than Inbee did (17). Inbee's performance in the first two majors might be the only knock against her, as she ended up with as many top 10's in majors as Lewis did, both with three. I will take major victories over consistency any day. Ask Stacy Lewis if she would trade her Player Of The Year Award for a major, I'm sure she would do it in a heart beat.
Rookie Of The Year: Mirim Lee
- I am disqualifying Lydia Ko from this category on the basis that she was already competing on the LPGA Tour pretty regularly prior to this season. It was her first year as a touring professional, true, and you will not see me say a negative word about the year Ko had. I just have a tough time calling someone a "rookie" when they already won twice on the LPGA Tour. Ko is absolutely deserving of the official award, but for me, it would be a shame if Mirim Lee did not get some recognition on the season she had. Relatively unknown entering the season, playing in the rookie class that included Future World Number One Lydia Ko, Mirim got off to a sluggish start, but ended up with two wins and a total of four top 10's for year that banked her close to a million dollars. She actually came close to Ko at one point, until Ko rattled off four top 10's including a victory in her final four starts. This rookie class gave us a glimpse into the greatness of Lydia Ko, but is also introduced us to a pretty darn good player in Mirim Lee.
Comeback Player Of The Year: Michelle Wie
- There were quite a few options in this category, as you could make the case for Paula Creamer, Mo Martin, Mi Jung Hur, and Christina Kim. In the end, though, it has to be Wie, who came onto the Tour as the next greatest golfer of all time, and over the past couple of years, she had been reduced to a punchline. Not only did she win her first tournament in four years, but she also won the Women's US Open for her first major title, notched a career high 13 top 10's, and finished 6th in the Rolex Rankings. All of this took place in a season where she missed considerable time with a thumb injury and played poorly for a stretch while that finger was injured.
Biggest Disappointment: Japan
- I was almost going to give this award to the entire continent of Europe, who had a lousy 2014 season, but Suzann Pettersen is still in the top 5, Anna Nordqvist won twice, and Spain won the International Crown. They're off the hook for now. Instead, the disappointment of the year has to be every player from Japan. Ai Miyazato, once the number one player in the world, failed to notch a single top 10 and fell all the way to 98 in the Rolex Rankings. Mika Miyazato, who at one point had 6 top 10's in 8 majors, also did not have a top 10 this season and fell to 77 in the Rolex Rankings. Chie Arimura's LPGA career may be over, as she missed 8 cuts this season and fell all the way to 200 in the rankings. Currently, the top 8 Japanese players in the Rolex Rankings all play on the JLPGA Tour. The Japanese player with the most top 10's this season was non-member Sakura Yokomine, who finished T7 at the US Women's Open and T4 at the Mizuno Classic. Perhaps the silver lining from this disaster season for the Japanese women is the fact that Yokomine is scheduled to compete in the LPGA Q-school. If she qualifies, Yokomine will be the top ranked Japanese player on the LPGA Tour and will bring years of international experience with her.
Tournament Of The Year: Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship
- The LPGA was not short of great tournaments this year. In fact, every week it seemed like the event was coming down to the final hole with a stacked leaderboard. In the end, however, Inbee Park holding off a charging Stacy Lewis with the number one ranking in the world on the line had to be my tournament of the year. Inbee's win set up an incredibly exciting finish to the LPGA season.
Sorry Anthony have to disagree on Mirim Lee. She has been a touring professional since 2009 played on the hardest tour outside the LPGA? the KLPGA since 2010 won three events on that tour one being a major the Korean Women's Open. I think Lee as 23/24y old with many more years experience would be far more deserving of being disqualified as a rookie than most. She is very inconsistent and not even in the same ballpark as 17y old Ko as a player. She's only relatively unknown in the US because this is her first year there as a pro.
ReplyDeleteShe has no previous experience on the LPGA Tour, which made her more of an LPGA rookie than Lydia. It may have been Lydia's first year as a professional, but she had far more experience on the LPGA Tour than Mirim had. My decision had nothing to do with who I thought was the better player, but rather the fact that I thought Mirim, who had never played in the US before, was more of a traditional rookie than Lydia, who played in seven majors alone prior to this year.
DeleteI know of at least two LPGA events prior to being a 2014 rookie she was T39 in the 2012 LPGA KEB-HannaBank and T40 in the 2011 LPGA KEB-HannaBank and may have played as an invite in more LPGA tournaments since turning pro in 2009 I just don't have the time to look them all up. Yes Lydia earned more invites to play LPGA and did so but also played other tours as an amateur.
DeleteShould I also include the 2012 LPGA Evian Championship where Mirim Lee was T24 and Ko's two wins prior to being a rookie were both in Canada not the US.
DeleteThe event in Canada is still played on the US based tour, and the difference between playing in Canada as opposed to the US is very minor. You said it yourself after Baek won the HanaBank - it's one thing to win on courses you've played on numerous times than it is to win elsewhere. The only thing Ko really had to adjust to is the professional lifestyle - she has seen and played those courses with those professionals before. This was Mirim's first time playing with these pros on these courses.
DeleteOk I do concede that Lydia as a rookie had probably played/earned more LPGA tournaments than any of the other rookies this year but my point was Mirim as a pro since 2009 had also played several tournaments against all the best pro's as far back as 2011 but yes not on US courses as far as I know. I was sure Mirim was going to be right up there this year my biggest disappointment was Jaye Marie Green I just hope she can come back and prove she is a far better player than her results showed this year.... Do you think Jordan Spieth is the real deal now or is he just having a freak run? Looking unbeatable at the moment.
DeleteI do think Spieth is the real deal. Since he won as a rookie, a lot of people were expecting Spieth to explode last year and start bringing in a bunch of majors. The fact is, it is really tough to win on the PGA Tour. I don't know how much stock I take in the Hero World Challenge - probably very little, to be honest - but there is something to be said for someone who has been playing incredibly well all over the world the last month.
DeleteI agree with you on Jaye Marie Green. After her dominating performance at the Q-School, she should have put together a better year than she did. I'm interested in seeing who among this incoming crop of rookies is going to disappoint me.