|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
An easy year to call
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- My first thought for a year-in-review column was to just rerun last season's edition. Except that, well, Karrie Webb dominated the LPGA Tour with seven victories -- which is one more than the she had in 1999. Probably a good reason for a rewrite.
I said that Webb would win the Player of the Year award and the Vare Trophy. I also said she would earn enough points to qualify for the Hall of Fame, which she did. I joked that she would only win five times and people would called her washed up. By winning four of the first five tournaments she played, including the Nabisco Championship, she was easily going to pass to the mark I had set. Another easy call was Annika Sorenstam as "comeback" player of the year. I know, predicting a move from No. 4 to No. 2 on the money list -- which is exactly what she did -- doesn't seem like much of an improvement, but for Sorenstam, who had had trouble closing out victories for a few seasons, this was a comeback. With five wins she gave Webb a run for her money. Sorenstam was actually in shouting distance the week before the U.S. Women's Open, but then Webb went out and captured her second major of the season. At the beginning of the year, I said that Juli Inkster would be winding down her career; she ended up playing in seven fewer tournaments. But by winning the McDonald's LPGA Championship for the second straight year, she showed no signs of slowing down. I also correctly predicted that Korea's Se Ri Pak would get off to a slow start, which she did. But I had no idea that it would last all season. The 1998 Rookie of the Year was winless this season for the first time in her career. Someone who got off the snide, which once again I predicted, was Lorie Kane. After years of being a perennial bridesmaid, Kane won the Michelob Light Classic in August. One W was all she needed to get over the hump; she would collect two more by year's end and is now ready to challenge Webb and Sorenstam as the tour's top golfer. In the biggest story of the year, the Europeans defeated the Americans in the Solheim Cup in Scotland. I know it's hard to believe I called this one since I did have a 50-50 shot of being right. What no one could have predicted was how the Europeans got off to such a fast start, leaving the Americans behind the eight-ball after the first day. Years from now this will go down as one of the greatest women's golf stories of all time. The underdog Euros won and controversy swirled when Sorenstam was forced to rechip a shot on the final day (everyone who doesn't live under a rock knows what I'm talking about here). As much as I did see coming, a few things caught me by surprise. First there was the resurgence of Meg Mallon. If Webb hadn't edged her at two majors, Mallon might have been Player of the Year. She would win the final du Maurier Championship, as Canadians mourned the loss of the tournament. Then there was the battle for Rookie of the Year. For sometime it looked like Grace Park would prove me right, but a rib injury and some strong play by Dorothy Delasin changed that. The 20-year-old won the Giant Eagle Classic the last weekend of July and rode that momentum for the rest of the year, becoming the youngest Rookie of the Year in two decades. And maybe the biggest surprise of the year was the performance of a couple of players who will not even be on the tour for years. Aree and Naree Wongluekiet, the Thai twin sensations, won the hearts of the golf world with their stellar play in LPGA events. At age 13, Aree played in the final group at the Nabisco and finished in the top 10. Later in the year, after she turned 14, she tied for the lead after two rounds of the Safeway Classic. Not to be outdone, Naree made the cut at the U.S. Open and finished tied for 31st to earn the low-amateur honors. Though it unspooled so close to form, this was another successful year for the LPGA. And I'll bet tour officials would love this review to be valid for another 50 years. Come back next week for my season-ending awards.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
