1. Ai Miyazato won. With a final-round 63. Could this be a sign of huge year to come for Miyazato, the breakout season everyone has been waiting for? Some would argue that already happened last year - she finished third on the money list, after all. But with "only" one win, her first LPGA victory that came midseason at the Evian Masters.
Miyazato arrived on the LPGA Tour to great fanfare in 2006, having dominated the Japan LPGA, and then LPGA Q-School. So it took until the middle of her fourth season to get LPGA win No. 1. Now, at the start of her fifth year on the LPGA, she knocks off Suzann Pettersen - who began the day leading by five - with a 63 and notches win No. 2.
2. Paula Creamer withdrew with an injury. Creamer just hasn't had much luck with injuries in her young career. Only 23, it seems she's been plagued since her second season with various maladies and mishaps, aches and pains. There was the stomach ailment that bothered her nearly all of last season. There have been recurring problems with her left thumb, serious enough that she tried making a swing adjustment to lessen the impact on that thumb.
Didn't work. Creamer reinjured the thumb on a swing late in the first round in Thailand and withdrew. She tweeted that she's seeing a hand specialist in Detroit this week. The LPGA needs a healthy Creamer. But there might soon come a time when Creamer has to make a decision about the possibility of season-ending surgery. Let's hope she gets good news this week from her doctors.
Lorena Ochoa, Jiyai Shin and Michelle Wie finished back in the pack in Thailand, Ochoa in 18th and Shin and Wie both 22nd. The LPGA moves on to Singapore this week for the HSBC Women's Champions. Also, the Ladies European Tour opens play this week with the New Zealand Women's Open. Some of the LPGA players whose lower status doesn't get them into the limited-field HSBC will be playing in the LET tourney.
Comments
Get well soon Paula!