Michelle Wie & Q-School

[JonnyGolf]

She's now 1 under through 7. I've gotta give it up for the girl, she turned it around.

[Awsi Dooger]

I noticed that they paired and separated the field by score today. The players who were leading going in today are all playing Legends, while the players at the bottom of the standings are all on the Champions course. When you scroll from either top or bottom it takes quite a while to break the barrier and find someone on the opposite course, but one woman is making a huge move on Champions, Sarah Kemp, -7 after 12 holes, after shooting 77 yesterday.

Kim Welch can't afford to drift out of contention today. She tends to make several bogeys per round, regardless of the course, which could jeopardize her chances of shooting low enough both tomorrow and Sunday, when she'll be on Champions both days and likely need two subpar rounds.

The players who survive tomorrow's cut will be playing Champions on Sunday. Since all the top players will be on Champions tomorrow and Sunday, the cutoff number for the top 20 figures to move substantially lower than the current -3. Kim is now -1, + 2 for the day, after 10 holes.

[Q.Q.Quillume]

  JonnyGolf said:

She's now 1 under through 7. I've gotta give it up for the girl, she turned it around.

After 11 holes (Fri.) Michelle Wie is in 1st - one stroke ahead of Shiho Oyama and two strokes ahead of Stacy Lewis & Mollie Frankhauser.

[SubPar]

She just has to mature a little and she will blow the rest of them out of the water. Wie drives 40 yards past the others and holes shots from everywhere. She has a solid short game and putts with the best of the girls. When she settles down emotionally, look out world!

SubPar

[Awsi Dooger]

On the bottom of the scoreboard, it's another example how quickly fortunes can sink in this game. Violeta Retamoza shot -1 today, a score many players would have paid dearly for.

One minor problem: Violeta was in last place heading into today at +15, and her 71 was only good enough to move her to a tie for third to last. She had LPGA exempt status this season after finishing 4th on the Duramed money list in her rookie year of 2007, but had a horrid year on the LPGA in 2008, making only one cut, the Longs Drugs Challenge in late September, then plummeting to last place in that event with two very poor rounds on the weekend. Retamoza tried Duramed Q School for 2009 last month but opened with an 81 and missed the 54 hole cut by 4 shots.

The Duramed website did a feature on Violeta's struggles this week, including the following segment:

http://www.duramedfuturestour.com/Ne.../FS120108a.ssi

DFT: Has it been a challenge to keep your spirits up?

RETAMOZA: Yes, it’s been hard to keep my chin up, but things happen for a reason. Sometimes, I wanted to stay in my hotel room and just say, “Screw it, I’m not going back out there to get hurt again.” And it’s been really hard for me to say “Hi” back to fans with a smile on my face when inside, I just wanted to go have a cry.

[SubPar]

EOD Friday standings at the top...

Mollie Fankhauser 204
Shiho Oyama 205
Michelle Wie 206
Stacy Lewis 206
Charlotte Mayorkas 208
Amy Yang 208

[Q.Q.Quillume]

With one round to go Stacy Lewis leads at -15 and Michelle Wie is in 2nd at -14.

Amy Yang, Shiho Oyama, Mollie Frankhauser, Charlotte Mayorkas, Sophie Giquel, Beth Bader, Big Breaker Jeanne Cho-Hunicke & Lisa Strom round out the Top Ten.

Any of these women will have to figuratively shoot herself in the foot not to finish in the Top 20 for a Category 11 exemption.

Big Breakers Sarah Lynn Sargent and Ashley Prange made the cut right on the number and face major challenges to get to the Top 40 to get their Tour Card.

Apologies if I overlooked any other Big Breakers who made the cut.

[Awsi Dooger]

  Q.Q.Quillume said:

Apologies if I overlooked any other Big Breakers who made the cut.

Kim Welch made the cut but is T50 at even par and unlikely to improve her Category 17 status based on the Top 10 finish on the Duramed money list. She would need to reach Top 30 this week, which would be a slight bump to Category 16.

Kim shot 73 today, following yesterday's 74. That 147 is tied for the highest score of anyone who made the cut. She faired very well with a combined -2 on her two rounds on the more difficult Legends course, but really lost ground to the field with a pair of 73s on the Champions course, including today. Tomorrow she probably needs a 65 or 66 on Champions for any chance at top 20, and maybe one shot worse for opportunity at top 30. But there are strange developments when everything is decided, so it's never precise to peg a number a day ahead of time. Dana Bates had a shot at making the cut today but needed a round of 71. She was hanging around even par all day then fell to +2 for her round late. At that point she probably realized she was out of it and deflated, ending up with a 76. Great effort by Jeanne Cho-Hunicke, particularly when you consider she attempted Duramed Q School a month ago and missed the 54 hole cut by two shots, with no round better than 75. This week she has 4 consecutive subpar rounds and probably needs no better than 73 or 74 tomorrow, although Hugo Leon unfortunately proved at second stage of Q School it's never a cinch until the final round is completed. BTW, there was plenty of uncertainty on the cut line. Exactly 70 players made the cut, the minimum number, at +2. It looked likely to be +2 all afternoon but then several players stumbled home and briefly the number was +3, which would have allowed 8 more players in, including major winner Patricia Meunier-Lebouc. The final player who decided the cut line was amateur Paola Moreno. She was on the course with one hole to play and struggling on her round at +3. A bogey would have changed the cut line to +3 but Moreno made a par.

[PEZGolf]

It is a real showdown between Michelle (68 today) and Stacy (67)---great contest!! Both are living up to their expectations!

[worst_shot_ever]

This has been an interesting Q school. Being limited to watching TGC's "Wie wrap-ups" and the (lousy) leaderboard is a shame. With all the financial and ratings trouble the LPGA deals with I guess the decision not to televise is objectively reasonable, but I wish theree were a way to make it pay; I know would have watched every minute.

[Awsi Dooger]

  worst_shot_ever said:

This has been an interesting Q school. Being limited to watching TGC's "Wie wrap-ups" and the (lousy) leaderboard is a shame. With all the financial and ratings trouble the LPGA deals with I guess the decision not to televise is objectively reasonable, but I wish theree were a way to make it pay; I know would have watched every minute.

Agreed on all accounts. Yesterday afternoon during college football I tried to sample the PGA Q School but frankly it was remarkably boring with all the target golf with 9 irons and wedges in utter calm. Birdie necessity turns me off unlike any other type of tournament golf. Luckily I stumbled upon the late night replay without knowing Harrison Frazar shot 59, so that was compelling to watch unfold, but otherwise it was the epitome of a snoozer.

On the other hand, the LPGA version would have been fascinating to witness, although certainly it would have been Wie-heavy to extreme. Today the scoring early in the final round seems to be quite a bit worse than I expected, most of the players slightly over par on the Champions course. I'm not sure if it's weather, course set up, or nerves. Most likely the cliche combination of all of the above. Overall I like it, since it opens up the permutations and the uncertainty.

[BlingoQueen]

I went out to watch today and it was 50 degrees and probably 15mph winds.... quite the opposite to the last 4 days.. Oh yea, plus the pressure to get your card ;)

[worst_shot_ever]

I'll look for you in the gallery shots when TGC does its thing about Lewis and Wie tonight.

[Q.Q.Quillume]

  Q.Q.Quillume said:

09.06.08 issue of Golfweek - "FORECADDIE - Revelations & Speculations From The Man Out Front" says, and I quote:

Mission accomplished - Well done, Michelle!

[PEZGolf]

  worst_shot_ever said:

This has been an interesting Q school. Being limited to watching TGC's "Wie wrap-ups" and the (lousy) leaderboard is a shame. With all the financial and ratings trouble the LPGA deals with I guess the decision not to televise is objectively reasonable, but I wish theree were a way to make it pay; I know would have watched every minute.

I agree. I would have watched it as well. Stacy Lewis is the "real deal" as she won by 3 shots. Congratulations to her and all who earned their Tour cards.

[Ben]

Yay for Michelle. Whether she rocks the LPGA with awesome play next year or not. I am happy to see she's officially in there. I'll be watching with high hopes.

[Awsi Dooger]

Can someone explain why there was a 4-way playoff for the final 2 full-status cards? When I checked the leaderboard after everyone had apparently concluded play today, there were exactly 20 players at -5 or better. It still says that. That seemed to indicate a playoff would not be necessary.

But a half hour ago I read the summary on the LPGA website and out of nowhere comes a description of a wild 3-hole 4-way playoff, with incredible golf. Chella Choi birdied the first hole then all 4 players birdied the second playoff hole, a par 4, with Choi making a downhill 40 foot bender while Leah Wigger chipped in for birdie. Choi clinched the first full card, -2 for 3 holes, then the other three went to another playoff hole before Wigger won the final spot with a breaking 10 footer for birdie.

That would have been fantastic to witness and I'm glad Choi and Wigger prevailed since I'm familiar with them via Duramed results, but I still can't figure out why it was necessary. Those 4 players were at -4, tied for 21st. Obviously 2 players inside the top 20 didn't count toward the 20 available cards if they allowed the 4 players at -4 to compete for 2 spots, but I haven't seen an explanation.

Meanwhile, it's weird how a handful of rounds can trump an entire Duramed season. Jeehae Lee has never finished in the top 10 in 25 Duramed events over the past two seasons, and wound up 78th on the money list this year with $5682 in 16 events and a scoring average of 74.98. The only reason I'm familiar with her at all is I remember looking at her Duramed bio months ago and the photo impressed me, along with the Ivy League background:
http://www.duramedfuturestour.com/Pl...LeeJeehae.html

Lee put it all together this week, rounds that didn't resemble her Duramed efforts at all -- 68-73-69-72-70 (-8) -- to easily qualify for full Category 11 status.

Another example is Haeji Kang, who was the unlucky #11 on the Duramed money list, barely missing a card. But this week she opened with a 75 then managed 4 rounds of par or better for T29 to secure Category 16 status and vault ahead of the Duramed 6-10 money list players, who are Category 17 other than Leah Wigger who impoved her status this week, as mentioned earlier.

[jambalaya]

I'm glad to see Michelle make it to be sure. Now the question is whether she has what it takes to win a tournament. Her showing in the final round was a little disappointing. Winning a tournament where you clearly are favored to do so will be a lot different for her. Before she was the phenom who only had to compete at a high level without winning and get heaps of praise for doing so and a certain amount of satisfaction. There is not nearly as much pressure in that. The longer it takes her to win the greater the pressure. I hope she can get over that hump early.

How about Anna Rawson? She had 4 or 5 71's. Talk about consistent. It's good to have more babeage on the tour.