Are the Americans Underachievers on the LPGA Tour?

I have just returned home after spending nine days in Kohler, Wisconsin. I will elaborate on that in a future post. Congratulations goes out to Na Yeon Choi for her remarkable performance in winning the 2012 United States Open.


It seems that whenever the subject of the LPGA comes up, the conversation always drifts to the fact that the American players are being dominated on their own tour by the Asian players. Is this actually a fact, or is this just a lot of talk by the casual American fan who wants to turn on their television set and see three hours of Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer?


Let us look at some key statistics:


No American has won a Major Championship since Stacy Lewis won the Kraft Nabisco Championship last year. The six winners since then have come from the following countries:


South Korea (3) -  So Yeon Ryu, Sun Young Yoo, Na Yeon Choi.
Taiwan (2) -  Yani Tseng (2).
China (1) -  Shanshan Feng
Score: Asia 6, U.S.A 0


You say that is too small a period of time? let us look at the major championships since the beginning of the 2010 season.


Taiwan (4) -  Yani Tseng (4)
South Korea (3) - So Yeon Ryu, Sun Young Yoo, Na Yeon Choi.
U.S.A. (3) - Kerr, Creamer, Lewis.
China (1) -  Shanshan Feng
Score: Asia 8, U.S.A. 3


That doesn't look much better for the Americans, winning only 27.2 %.


Is this just a fluke? Are the Americans doing better if we count all the tournaments, and not just the majors?
Let us find out. Here are the 2012 results:


U.S.A (5) -  Jessica Korda, Angela Stanford, Stacy Lewis (2), Brittany Lang.
Taiwan (3) - Yani Tseng (3).
Japan (2) - Ai Miyazato (2).
South Korea (2) - Yoo, Na Yeon Choi.
China (1) -  Shanshan Feng.
Spain (1) - Azahara Munoz.
Score: Asia 8, U.S.A 5, Europe 1


You say that is much better? I say not that much. Where it is true that the U.S.A. has more victories than any single country, winning just five of fourteen tournaments is nothing to brag about. That is a 35.7 winning percentage.


Still not convinced?  You say this is too small a period to make any definite conclusions? Let us go back to the beginning of 2010 for this also.


South Korea (14) - Hee Kyung Seo, Se Ri Pak, Yoo (2), Choi (4), Jiyai Shin (2), Jimin Kang, Ryu, Hee Young Park, I.K. Kim.
Taiwan (13) - Yani Tseng (13).
U.S.A. (13) - Kerr (2), Creamer, Wie, Lewis (3), Lincicome (2), Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda, Stanford, Brittany Lang.
Japan (9) - Ai Miyazato (8), Momoko Ueda.
Australia (3) - Karrie Webb (2), Katherine Hull.
Sweden (2) - Maria Hjorth (2).
Spain (2) - Beatriz Recari, Munoz.
Norway (2) - Suzann Pettersen (2).
China (1) -  Shanshan Feng.
Germany (1) -  Sandra Gal.
Scotland (1) - Catriona Matthew.
Score: Asia 37, U.S.A 13,  Europe 8, Australia (3)


The picture is not getting any brighter here for the Americans, winning a dismal 21.3 percent of the time.


Not that I think you need any more convincing at this point, but I will now point out the following from this weeks Rolex Rankings:


American Players in the top 100 = 16
South Korean Players in the top 100 = 34
Japanese players ranked in the top 100 = 20


Here are some opinions on why the Asians are playing better than the Americans:


Course Owner, Herbert Kohler Jr., essentially called out the American Woman, saying their lack of success is because of their work ethic. "These Asians have done so well because they know the meaning of work," Kohler told the Associated Press. "They work and they work. And that is starting to have an impact on the Americans. "The Americans have now seen what the Asians can do, and they are starting to work harder."


It has become quite obvious that the Asian players, namely the Koreans, have gained the reputation of being the first to the range and the last to leave. " Maybe I should spend a week with one of them and kind of figure out what they do," said American Brittany Lincicome on Sunday. "Obviously they practice unbelievably hard. They're not fishing on their weeks off like I am"


South Korea's last 10 major titles have been won by 10 different players. Same with the U.S.A., the last 10 American major champions have all been different players.


The Korean's have certainly had the edge of late, but with such talented  young players as Stacy Lewis, Paula Creamer, Lexi Thompson, Michelle Wie and a number of others, the tide could turn quickly. But until that happens, they will have to keep answering the question of why they have been underachieving.

For more LPGA news:

http://mlyhlss.blogspot.com/2012/07/are-americans-underachieving-on-lpga.html

I think the women from Asia see golf as the focal point of their career, where as many American women see golf as a segue to something else whether it be modeling or acting.

It would be fair to call them underachievers.  Right now the Korean women are simply outworking the Americans and thats why they are winning.  The Americans simply dont have the will to put in the work that its going to take to be the best and until that work ethic changes, the Koreans will continue to dominate.

Isn't that what they said about Tiger and Vijay?  They are the hardest working PGA pros and have won a lot of tournaments.  Especially Vijay in 2009 (?) or there abouts.

Bottom line: You can't substitute hard work.  Natural talent will only get you so far.  To paraphrase Thomas Edison: success (in any field) is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

I will start by saying that I understand your post and wish the American Ladies would do better.  But, you have grouped different Countries into "Asia."  That is not quite fair.  Breaking it down by Country would be a better representation in my opinion.  The winning numbers would not change but, the USA would be only one win behind (S Korea) and tied with Taiwan, as seen in your last example (since 2010 wins).

At least in South Korea, the success of their women golfers is cultural. Check this out from the linked article:

"Most of the South Koreans, like Ryu, are chosen at a young age to be golfers. They spend countless hours on the practice range, perfecting their swings under the watch of a strict parent or coach.

When players graduate to the L.P.G.A. or the developmental Symetra Tour, they are almost always accompanied by a parent, usually their father, who serves as a caddie and guardian. Ostensibly, the parent is there to help the player adjust to the rigors of travel and a foreign culture, but they also are there to make sure the player does not cut corners on the practice range.

The doggedness of some of the parents may be acceptable in Korean culture, but it has raised questions in the United States. At the Open this week, the American golfer Juli Inkster discussed the differences between the approaches in the two countries.

“When I was raising my kids, I had them in ballet, dance, music, sports — they were in everything,” she said. “Over there, if you play golf, you play golf. That’s what you do. And you do it all day."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/sports/golf/south-korean-players-are-dominating-the-lpga-tour.html

Of course values always play a role. I think the great ones don't need much pushing. It will be interesting to see how long the careers of golfers groomed this way are. Burnout and injuries could lead to a lot of successful but short careers. FWIW I think over involved parenting and coaching leaves golfers developed this way ill prepared for the hurdles life throws at you.

I wonder if the reduction in tournaments and prize money in LPGA is partially to blame for the lack of success and reduced participation from U.S. women.

Or it could be the other way around, that the reduced participation of U.S. women is causing prize money to dip. The pressure on teenage girl golfers to get scholarships is still huge.

I think it comes down to personal aspirations. Sorry, but not all professional golfers aspire to be the best that ever played the game. Americans in general, have a good work ethic regardless of their profession, however, we also see a whole lot more to LIFE than our profession. Most of us are at work right now wishing the clock would hurry up to start our weekends. Kids raised in the strict regimented ways that previous quotes describe, aren't allowed to have a life outside of what is being dictated to them. You may call it working harder. I call it missing out on the best part of your life. Sounds like Paula is enjoying hers!

I don't completely disagree with you. But face it, she can retire today just fine. Not everyone feels the deep desire to substantiate their existance with a trophy room. I'm a big Boo Weekly fan. I know you will call him an underachiever, many people say he acts like he doesn't care. Exactly my point and your as well. If he worked harder he could possibly win more. But who's goal is that? Yours or his? (I don't mean yours personally). He doesn't seem too unhappy with his situation to me. Tiger on the other hand is the other extreme, he'll throw away his wife and child but don't get in the way of his golf!

I think the desire in the US for our LPGA members to win makes us blind to the amount of work the South Korean players put into the game from a very early age. As far as I can tell they have no life other than golf when young. Do you want the American LPGA players to be the same and have no real life? I personally don't think it's worth it. It kind of reminds me of the the teenage gymnasts we see in the Olympic Games. They are so dedicated to the sport that  they even sacrifice their bodies and screw up their hormones for the sport. It's no wonder they are over the hill in their early 20's.