Shin and Ochoa to Clash for Season No. 1
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
Shin Ji-yai is set to defend her possession of first place in the rankings for the LPGA's best golfer against Lorena Ochoa at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico, Thursday night (KST).
The 21-year-old South Korean has a slight edge over the world No. 1 in the point-based player of the year race ― 147 to 143 ― with two tournaments remaining. American Cristie Kerr is third at 118. The season-ending competition of 2009 is the LPGA Tour Championship in Houston next week.
Shin, who has won three Tour events this season, has already clinched the rookie of the year award by a huge margin, 707 points, over runner-up Michelle Wie of the United States.
Ahead of the Mizuno Classic held in Shima, Japan, last week, Shin, the Tour's money leader, appeared to be on an easy road to becoming the first golfer to sweep both the player of the year and rookie of the year awards in the same season since Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez of the United States did so in 1978.
However, while Shin, the defending champion of the event tied for fifth, Ochoa, who has also been battling with Shin for the most wins this season, finished in a tie for second to narrow the gap to four points.
According to the LPGA Tour point system, a tournament winner gets 30 points, a runner-up 12 and third place nine. And the rest of the top-10 finishers receive from seven to one based on their placing.
If Shin tops Ochoa at her own tournament and the host finishes eighth or lower, Shin will clinch the player of the year title.
Halfway through 2009, Ochoa looked as if she would pose no threat to Shin in the race.
Besides her two victories in February and April, the Mexican golfer, who will turn 28 on Sunday, had struggled, garnering just five top-10 finishes in 11 tournaments.
But Ochoa rebounded with her 27th-career title at the Navistar LPGA Classic last month and she rallied with an 8-under in the final round to climb to second place last week to keep her hopes of winning the award for the fourth straight year alive.
Meanwhile, 12 South Koreans, including Kim In-kyung, Ji Eun-hee and Pak Se-ri, will be looking to make it three straight tournament wins for golfers from the land of the morning calm.
Choi Na-yeon won the Hana Bank-Kolon Championship two weeks ago and Song Bo-bae was victorious at the Mizuno Classic.
If a Korean golfer triumphs in the $1.1 million tournament, it will be the 12th title of the season for Korean golfers, which will surpass their single season record for most wins of 11 in 2006.