Lorena Ochoa wrestles player of the year away from Ji-Yai Shin while Anna Norqvist wins the tournament

Monday, November 23, 2009 9:43 pm (Eastern)

By SAL JOHNSON
Publisher, GOLFOBSERVER
E-mail me at: Golfersal@aol.com

Lots happened on the final day as Ochoa wins Player of the year for a fourth straight year while Anna Norqvist, who didn't turn pro until January wins for the second time this year.

So with the final putt on Monday, the LPGA season and basically all of the golf with the exception of Australia, Japan and Asia has come to a end. In a way this week's LPGA was about as dour as the weather, which not only forced a Monday finish but more importantly reduced the event to 54 holes. Many will say the final round held a lot of excitement, yes it did, but let's look at a couple of things that you won't see on LPGA.Tour.

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Anna Norqvist won for the second time this year.

Lorena Ochoa won the Player-of-the-Year award and did it thanks to a final round 67, finishing in 2nd place. Thanks to a great round it wrestled the POY award away from JiYai Shin, who stumbled to a 73 on Monday. It came down to the final holes, a bogey at 17 after a poor tee shot was the killer blow for Shin. If she could of birdied the last hole she would of nipped Ochoa, who now has been POY four straight years.

Honestly you have to question the season that Ochoa had. In looking at other tours, both Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood had good years. Both of them didn't win a major, but at least both of them were in contention at majors. For Ochoa, she had what many will say is a sub-par year, compared to her last three years. Ochoa did win 3 times in 22 starts, but the winds came in lesser events. In the four majors Ochoa never was in contention, her best major finish was T12th at the Kraft Nabisco. She had 13 top-tens, but again in big events she just didn't fare very well.

In looking at Shin's year, she played in 25 events, won three times, but had seven top-three's and 12 top-tens. In the majors she fared a bit better, compared to Ochoa, finishing 3rd at the McDonald's and T8th, which included a closing round 75, at the British Open. In looking at her ten starts last year in which she won three times, her season last year could of been a tad more impressive than this year. Still we can quarrel, compared to anyone else Shin and Ochoa had great years, too bad that both players couldn't of shared the trophy for this year because honestly I can't say that one was better than the other.

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Lorena Ochoa may of not won the tournament but she did win Player-of-the-Year honors for the fourth straight year.

The big shame is the fact that Anna Nordqvist won the event and has to again take a back seat because of the POY race. Nordqvist shot a 65 on Monday to jump out of the pack and win for the second time. But just like her last victory, she wasn't the main focus. That was because back in June when she won the McDonald's, most of the writers were more interested in the future of the event and were on Carolyn Bivens death watch. So this shortchanged Nordqvist victory. The big shame is that Nordqvist had a great rookie year and because of the technicality of Shin not being a official member last year she won Rookie-of-the-Year this year instead of Nordqvist. In a way I compare Nordqvist to Rory McIlroy, both are young, McIlroy is 20 and Nordqvist is 22, but you have to think they are the future of golf.

It's hard to imagine that at this time last year nobody had ever heard of Nordqvist as she still hadn't turned pro. Nordqvist was born and raised in the town of Eskilstuna, which is a couple hundred miles south of Stockholm and on the River Eskilstunaan which connects Lake Hjalmeren and Lake Malaren. The town was big in the Industrial Revolution era as it was one of the most important industrial cities of Sweden producing firearms, cutlery, scissors, machine tools and precision instruments. Even today it's world renowned as the place that Volvo Wheelloaders are made. The big sports of the town are motorcycle racing on the Smederna Speedway and handball.

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Anna Nordqvist celebrates with Louise Stahle after her two-stroke victory.

With two brothers, Nordqvist played Tennis, soccer and swimming and took up the game at 10. She didn't like it at first and didn't play again until her mother took up the game when Anna was 13 and the two played together. Anna was fortunate enough to break into the Swedish National team as a 17 year old and benefitted a great deal from that experience which help her get a scholarship to attend Arizona State. She played for the team two and a half years and in December decided to try out LPGA Qualifying School. It was a bit of a disappointment as she shot 71 on the final day and missed out qualifying by a shot. Still Nordqvist had conditional status on tour and decided to leave school after she won the Ladies European Tour Q-School and turned pro in January.

With the European Tour happening later, she tried to qualify for events on the LPGA Tour and only played in four tournaments before she won the McDonald's LPGA Championship, thus becoming a regular on the LPGA Tour. In a way Nordqvist season consisted of just three good starts, her two wins and her 7th at the Safeway Classic were she had a disappointing final round 72. But after winning twice you have to think that she could be a player to reckon with in the future.

The LPGA was very unlucky to have such a miserable week of weather on a fine course that did a great job in hosting this weeks event. Still it's a total downer having to play on Monday, it costs Golf Channel for the privilege, it's hard to get volunteers and frankly a Monday finish doesn't have the same feeling as a Sunday finish. This event is on the schedule to end the 2010 season, helpfully it can come back to Houston and maybe have a field of only 60 instead of 115.

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Yi-Yai Shin is probably not very happy with her final round 73 as she lost Player-of-the-Year honors by a single shot.

It's hard to believe that the European Tour season starts in just 16 days and the PGA Tour starts in just 44 days. But for the LPGA it's like a cold, long weather and it is 3 months before the tour starts up in Thailand and another month before the first event at La Costa at the end of March.

I know that it's going to be too late to do anything about it now, but it would be nice if the LPGA's new commissioner Michael Whan couldn't make some kind of deal to try and make the two Ladies European Tour events in Australia the first of February co- sanctioned events. If that is the case some from the LPGA would have a four week trek through Australia, Thailand and Singapore.

While were at it, anyone read the Karen Crouse story in the New York Times on Reilley Rankin? I have to venture to say that there are probably 50 Reilley Rankins on the LPGA Tour and these are the players that will get afflicted more with this limited schedule. Hopefully some folks can think up some nice two day pro-ams to help players like Rankin in the coming months. I know the folks at Corning were thinking of doing this, maybe the folks in Arizona can get something like this together? I also have to think that a guy like Donald Trump would be perfect to get a little mini event on one of his great courses around the country. Again anything to get the competitive juices flowing for these players.

For many, 2009 will not be favorably thought of as a banner year for the LPGA Tour. Still there was some good that came out of the year. The most important item was the LPGA getting rid of Carolyn Bivens. With her things just wasn't going to improve and now the future looks nicer under new management. Also some great new players like Anna Nordqvist became tomorrow's news today on the LPGA. Lorena Ochoa is more loved by fans than every before, Paula Creamer will be back from her mysterious ailment and more importantly Michelle Wie learned how to win in 2009. So things are looking up, just too bad that we have to wait so long before the first LPGA event in February.

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Oliver Chettle --- Nov 23rd, 2009 11:02 pm

The season is over... except in Australia, Japan, and Asia... and Latin America, the Middle East (Dubai Ladies Classic), and Africa, and two of December's events in South Africa are European tour events. In other words, the season isn't over in the 95% of the world that isn't the United States.