But it wasn't a fair fight. Shin has been laid up the past two weeks after undergoing an emergency appendectomy prior to the LPGA State Farm Classic.
But Shin is in the field for this week's LPGA Championship, the tour's second major of the season, and according to the LPGA she's expected to play. How well she'll play is another matter. Swinging a golf club two weeks after surgeons removed your appendix doesn't sound all that comfortable to me.
That means Miyazato is a strong favorite to win her first major this week. She's coming off a win, she's won four of nine LPGA events she's played in 2010, she's clearly the best player on tour so far this year.
Another player coming back from injury is Paula Creamer, who reaggravated a thumb injury in the first round the LPGA played this year. Last week at the ShopRite, Creamer returned and finished in seventh place. She's searching for her first major championship title, too.
Michelle Wie? I don't want to say that Wie has no chance at the LPGA Championship, so instead I'll say she has almost no chance. Unless there's a dramatic, near-miraculous improvement in her putting.
Wie's putting stats have been atrocious starting at the Bell Micro Classic a month ago. There, Wie needed 37, 33 and 34 putts in Rounds 1 through 3, respectively. In her most recent round, Sunday at the ShopRite, she took 33 putts. As far as I can tell, Wie has had only one round in the last month with fewer than 30 putts.
I continue to be mystified by Wie's decision to stop working with Dave Stockton and start working with Dave Pelz. Pelz is a great short game teacher, of course, but Wie's putting improved a great deal with Stockton in the second half of last year.
Her putting will eventually get better with Pelz; the problem now is she is in the process of adopting Pelz' methods, and whatever magic Pelz possesses has yet to take hold of Wie's putter. It could happen this week - I hope it does - but that appears very unlikely.
Comments
I believe that the decision to change putting methods, from Stockton to Pelz, was the result of an incorrect evaluation of her game, I personally witnessed, at the KIA and Nabisco tournaments, that her putting stroke was excellent, however she was hitting her short irons too far from the pins, generally long and left indicating that she is hooking her shots and forced to aim right. Instead of addressing this issue Team Wie concluded, after the Mexico tournament, that putting was the culprit… and switched to advice from Pelz, this does not bode well for the rest of the year and it would not surprise me if she missed the cut at the next three majors.
So far this year Michelle has been having way to many bogeys (averaging 10 per tournament) and of course her putting has been terrible. Of course, her putting has been terrible since she was 13 years old. Her game is simply too inconsistent for her to win any tournaments in 2010. She is the perfect example of “you drive for show and you putt for dough”. I think she is finding out that being a “part time” golfer on the LPGA is not as easy and she thought, even for Michelle Wie.
She was one of the best putters in the world last year, 2009, finishing 4th in putting GIR, and hence 2nd in birdies per 18 holes, resulting in her terrific year. She was especially coming on in the 2nd half, finishing 2nd, 1st and 2nd. The interruption of play due to school, and this change to Pelz has been lethal, and the result is horrific putting and poor scoring. Unless she quickly goes back to Stockton or at least her approach to putting pre-Stockton, 2010 will continue to be a huge and unnecessary disappointment.