The LPGA Tour Championship was the second win of the year for Nordqvist. Nordqvist, who was a rookie at the beginning of the year, won the LPGA Championship in June. Both of Nordqvist’s wins were impressive against stellar fields. She looks to have a very bright future on the tour.

The biggest news today, more than who won the tournament, was the determination of who would be LPGA Player of the Year for 2009. For most of the summer, Jiyai had the lead and looked posed to win POY and Rookie of the Year honors. Something only Nancy Lopez has done previously. However 2006-08 POY Lorena Ochoa after slumping through much of the summer, got hot once more starting about late to Mid-September. Coming into this week’s tournament, Shin had a 8 point lead over Ochoa.

That meant the only sure way Ochoa could be player of the year was with a win this weekend. She could also get the honor with a 2nd or 3rd place finish but she would need help from Shin.

Going into today’s final round, Shin looked to be in perfect position to be POY. She was in solo second place, one shot behind leader Kristy McPherson. Ochoa was tied for 3rd. Shin hasn’t been real sharp for the last two months, but still a top 5 looked inevitable for her.

Ochoa finished 2nd today. She did so in spite of a poor tee shot on 17(a par 3) that left her with a horrendous lie in the sand trap. A lie that caused her to not even get her 2nd shot on the green. Ochoa’s 3rd ran over ten feet past the hole but she drained the putt for bogey. Ochoa then birdied 18 which all but guaranteed her a 2nd place finish.

Shin never got it rolling today. She played the front nine in one over par and didn’t make a birdie till the 11th hole. Then Shin made five more straight pars. As she prepared to tee off on the 17th hole, Shin was in a 4-way tie for 5th. All 3 of the players Shin was tied with, were through for the day. That meant Shin needed to par the last two holes. Should she take even one bogey, Shin would fall to a tie for 8th. That would leave her with one less point than Ochoa in the POY race.

Shin, like Ochoa, hit her tee shot at 17 into a sand trap. The good news, Shin didn’t have a bad lie like Ochoa. The bad news- She had a very awkward stance. Like Ochoa, Shin didn’t get her sand shot on the green. Her 3rd shot didn’t go in the hole, but Shin didn’t have to make a lengthy bogey putt like Ochoa. Still she had bogied the hole and had fallen to a tie for 8th. A birdie at 18 would now be needed if Shin was to be POY.

It wasn’t to be. After a solid drive, Shin’s 2nd shot came up short. Shin did make par, but the tournament and POY race were over. A disappointing finish for certain, but at this point in time, I’d have to pick Shin as my favorite for 2010 POY. Ochoa is getting married next month, and she has stated in the past, that she would not have a lengthy golf career. The signs are already apparent that Ochoa is making LPGA Golf a secondary part of her life.

It was a great 2009 LPGA campaign even if it was a roller coaster at times. Now the Tour’s fans have to wait 3 months for the 2010 season opener in Thailand. Boy am I going to be suffering from withdrawal by then.

Update- Also blogging on the LPGA Tour Championship and the POY race are Ryan at Waggle Room, Sal at Golf Observer, The Constructivist, Hound Dog, and Jamie.

The LPGA, in yet another sideways bit of marketing savvy, elected to stage Evans’ press conference on Wednesday at the Sugar Land City Hall, off-campus from the site of its season finale. Maybe they hoped players wouldn’t notice the details of the schedule if they handed it out elsewhere.

Unless you’re dumb or a non-jealous LPGA fan living in a cave, you would know already that the LPGA schedule was given to players at a meeting on Tuesday night. That’s why it was reported by the likes of Ron Sirak, Beth Ann Baldry, and Associated Press on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Some LPGA players leaked the new schedule out to certain members of the media.

It sounds to me as if Elling wasn’t one of them and that’s why he wrote what he did.

I got a couple of other problems with what Elling wrote.

Setting aside the bombast and bluster, the LPGA season next year will likely consist of 24 tournaments, the fewest since 21 were staged in both 1970 and ‘71, a rollback spanning nearly four decades as the tour prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary next year.

More alarmingly, only 13 of the tournaments will be staged in the United States, the smallest number ever. If it wasn’t the LPGA, with that kind of minimalist American presence, they’d be calling it a mini-tour. A mini-tour with major underpinning issues.

*****

Out of sight, out of mind? Playing abroad means even less media attention in the States and mostly tape-delayed TV coverage as the Golf Channel becomes the tour’s primary broadcaster in 2010.

Before a golf writer complains about the tape delay coverage of the LPGA or its foreign based schedule, they out have something drummed into their heads. Firstly GC’s contract with the PGA Tour which includes Nationwide events. They get first placement on the broadcast schedule over the LPGA.

Secondly, and more pertinently to Elling’s remarks, of the 11 foreign LPGA tournaments four of them are still played in North American time zones. Yes Virginia, Canada and Mexico are on the same clock as the United States of America.

As for the other 7, the Women’s British Open is broadcast by ABC who puts it on tape delayed. Which I have repeatedly complained about in the past.What’s your solution Steve? Play the British Open in Newport RI or Portsmouth NH?

Of the last six events, if they aren’t on tape delay, look at the hours they would be broadcast. Three, Four a.m. in the morning. How many golf fans are going to rise for that? The 2003 Solheim Cup went on the air at 4 a.m. in the morning but since it was without Michelle Wie almost nobody in the golf media noticed.

The tour instead created a season-ending LPGA Championship, signed Stanford Financial as the title sponsor, made it a full-field event and moved it to Houston, where it will be played for the first time this week. Now the radioactive part.

Allen Stanford, who wanted the tournament played in Houston, where his company has a large corporate presence, was tossed in jail. No replacement has been found to foot the title sponsorship bill, the format of the tournament has been criticized, and the event is running opposite the European Tour’s big-money Race to Dubai finale. Nice timing.

The ADT has been played the same weekend in November going back to 2003.(At least. I didn’t check 2001 and 2002 because I’m in a hurry.) Which is the same weekend the 2009 Tour Championship is played. When do you suggest they play the tournament? Next weekend is Thanksgiving.

One last bit of Elling derangement.

Twelve months ago, Bivens announced that the popular ADT event outside Miami,

Steve, you’re from Florida. The City of West Palm Beach where the ADT was played is not considered outside of Miami. When you were working at the Orlando Sentinel, were your offices outside Daytona Beach or Ocala? Those are Florida cities closer to Orlando than West Palm Beach is to Miami.

The Jeld-Wen Tradition is being played in Bend, Oregon.

Just up the road (or 186 miles away according to Mapquest), the Safeway Classic is being played in North Plains, Oregon.

Two tournaments in the same state that close together? Anyone think was a scheduling foul up? One problem I see right off the top of my head is finding pro-am partners sufficient for both tournaments.

A commenter at Waggleroom notes this isn’t the first time for such a scheduling conflict. Three years ago, The LPGA, Champions, and Nationwide Tours were all playing events in Georgia on the same weekend.

Feb. 18-21 — Honda LPGA Championship (Thailand)

Feb. 25-28 — HSBC Women’s Champions (Singapore)

March 25-28 — J Golf Classic (La Costa, Calif.)

April 1-4 — Kraft Nabisco Championship

April 29-May 3 — Corona Championship (Mexico)

May 10-16 — Bell Micro LPGA Classic (Alabama)

June 10-13 — State Farrm Classic (Illinois)

June 17-20 — ShopRite Classic (Atlantic City)

June 24-27 — Wegman’s LPGA Championship

July 1-4 — Jamie Farr Owens Corning (Toledo)

July 8-11 — U.S. Women’s Open (Oakmont)

July 22-25 — Evian Masters (France)

July 29-Aug. 1 — Ricoh Women’s British Open (Royal Birkdale)

Aug. 20-22 — Safeway Classic (Pumpkin Ridge, Ore)

Aug. 26-29 — CN Canadian Women’s Open

Sept. 10-12 — P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship

Sept. 30-Oct. 3 — Acapulco LPGA Classic (Mexico)

Oct. 7-10 — Navistar LPGA Classic (Alabama)

Oct. 14-17 — CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge (California)

Oct. 28-31 — China

Nov. 4-7 — Japan

Nov. 11-14 — Lorena Ochoa Invitational (Mexico)

Nov. 18-21 — LPGA Tour Championship

South Korea TBD

Some quick comments-

China is back

South Korea takes place Oct 21-25 or it flips places with China

Wegman’s(In Rochester NY) is now the LPGA Championship. No chance it will be played at Oak Hill? We can dream, can’t we.

Tour Championship has no determined home for next year. Could we see it come back to Florida?

No Florida tournament for the second straight year

Phoenix isn’t on the schedule. Could a sponsor step forward at the last minute like happened a year ago?

That new tournament that may have sprung up in South Carolina must be dead or still on the drawing board.

The ShopRite LPGA Classic is back in business.

Tournament organizers, ShopRite and the LPGA announced Monday that the longtime Atlantic City-area fixture will return to the women’s schedule in June after a three-year absence.

The $1.5 million event will be held June 14-20 at the Seaview Resort in Galloway Township outside Atlantic City, coinciding with the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Tournament executive director Tim Erensen said the parties signed a series of five one-year contracts that include opt-outs for all signees after each year.

This is without question good news for the LPGA and it would have never happened if Carolyn Bivens was still Commissioner. It was her decision to give Shoprite’s dates on the LPGA schedule to a new sponsor and tournament(Since departed Ginn Tribute) that caused the tournament to fold up its tent. At the time it happened I sharply criticized Bivens’ actions and said the course she was taking was potentially disastrous for the LPGA. I proved to be right, but few people other than myself was willing to say the truth about Bivens till 2008. She’s gone now and it is already looking like the LPGA is better off without her and can make a recovery from the mess she created.

Hat tip- Waggleroom

Wie birdied two of the first three holes and was never out of the lead. At some point during the final round, both Creamer and Kerr tied Wie for the lead but fell back. Creamer’s bogey at 17 was particularly critical.

Wie closed out her win with a birdie on 18.

Jiyai Shin after entering the weekend with a 3-shot lead, finished 74-71 and ended the tournament in a 3-way tie for 3rd with Kerr and Morgan Pressel.

Lorena Ochoa finished sixth. While Shin widened her lead for POY it is still a very much open race. Ochoa can still take the title and doesn’t necessarily need a win. Kerr can do it with a win if Ochoa and Shin both finish out of the top 10 in next week’s tour championship.

I won’t mention what Wie’s victory ended. The golf media has only been hammering it over our heads for the last few months. Then some members of the media and the American public look at Wie or Asians as lesser Americans. I won’t get into that stupid subject unless one of those culprits then make hay of Wie’s win as a American triumph.

The next few days are sure to see a deluge of articles about how big the win was for both Wie and the LPGA. Wie’s critics can’t separate the fact that the LPGA’s future success or even survival may be riding on this woman’s back. What other female golfer excites fans and brings them to tournaments? It ain’t Ochoa, Shin, or even Kerr and Creamer.

South Korea’s Bo Bae Song won the Mizuno Classic for her first LPGA Tour title, closing with a 4-under 68 on Sunday for a three-stroke victory over Lorena Ochoa, Brittany Lang and Hee Young Park.

Song finished with a 15-under 201 total at Kintetsu Kashikojima and earned $210,000 in the event co-sanctioned by the Japan LPGA.

The top-ranked Ochoa shot a 64, and Lang and Park had 68s.

Jiyai Shin, the 2008 winner who is trying to hold off Ochoa in the player of the year points race, closed with a 69 to tie for fifth with Yani Tseng (67), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69) and Inbee Park (69) at 11 under.

Song had six birdies and a bogey — on the par-4 14th — in the final round.

Song is a member of the JLPGA Tour. Her victory gives her the ability to play the LPGA now. Will she? With the LPGA losing tournaments, the JLPGA or KLPGA look like a much safer bet right now. So much so, some LPGA golfers are going to JLPGA qualifying school.

Lorena Ochoa’s second place finish puts her just four points(147-143) behind Ji Yai Shin in the Player of the Year race. The next closest golfers are Cristie Kerr at 118, Ai Miyazato at 111, and Yani Tseng and Suzann Pettersen who are tied with 110. Barring a late miracle, I think Ochoa or Shin will come out on top.

Shin’s lead on the money list is much more secure. She has $240,000 more dollars than Ai Miyazato. Unless Shin doesn’t make the cut the final two events of the year, or the same golfer wins both, she will be both leading money winner and Rookie of the Year.

Also blogging about the Mizuno Classic- The Constructivist at Mostly Harmless. TC makes not of Ochoa having the lowest scoring average this year and with that the ability to win 2 of the 3 major year ending LPGA awards.

Doug Barron became the first PGA Tour player to be suspended for violating its performance-enhancing drug policy.

Barron, 40, a veteran who played just four times this year on the developmental Nationwide Tour and once on the PGA Tour and failed to make a cut, will begin his suspension immediately — although his status was in limbo because he was playing the Nationwide Tour this year on a medical exemption.

“I would like to apologize for any negative perception of the tour or its players resulting from my suspension,” Barron said in a statement released by the PGA Tour. “I want my fellow tour members and the fans to know that I did not intend to gain an unfair competitive advantage or enhance my performance while on tour.”

It is unclear what substance Barron took or what he did to produce a positive drug test. The tour said it would have no further comment on the matter.

Barron has never finished better than 3rd at the 2005 EDS Byron Nelson Championship. More recently he has struggled on the Nationwide tour. In 2008 he only made 5 cuts in 17 tries. The drug use certainly didn’t help Barron’s play.

Jason Sobel at ESPN writes-

That said, let’s hold off on the witch hunt for the time being. In a twisted way, it’s actually a good thing that Barron got caught, as it proves the PGA Tour’s ongoing efforts toward wiping out any potential PED use weren’t fruitless nor a waste of time and money. It also discredits the theory that Tim Finchem and the folks at the Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., headquarters would cover up any positive tests to keep suspicions to a minimum.

I’m not naive enough to believe no PGA pro would ever use PEDs. I will be surprised if one of the sport’s better known players get caught. A former winner who has fallen on hard times but not to the extent of Barron has is the type of player who may get caught.

And in another development round one co-leader NOCERA, GWLADYS was penalised two strokes for reporting two minutes late to the starting tee on Friday’s opening round. Naturally, Nocera was fuming mad and did not even speak to her flight-mates CHUTICHAI, PORANI of Thailand and China’s YE, LI YING, while playing the second round today.

Nocera’s negative attitude raised eyebrows from her flight-mates and officials, when she even refused to talk to the Press and officials after completing her round. Nocera even questioned her round one marker Chutichai and asked her if it was she who complained to the officials about her late appearance to the tee box to start the first round.

“We never spoke at all after I had told her that I did not make the complaint when she questioned me. All I know is that she was late but I never made a complaint thinking that the officials there would have handled it,” said Thailand’s Chutichai Porani.

However, it was the other professional in the group ? China’s Ye Liying, who told Nocera that it was she who made the complaint.

“We play to competition rules. This is a tournament and all players should abide by the rules,” Ye said.- Ladies Asian Golf Tour

Pro golfers are supposed to know the rules and if they violate one, are supposed to take the appropriate action which can include penalizing themselves. It is also the duty of the players in a group to make sure everyone is following the rules.

For example- Three years ago Karrie Webb called out Annika Sorenstam at the 2006 LPGA for improperly repairing a divot. Go here if you would like to see video.

Note how Nocera wanted to know who reported her. I’d also point out that Annika was less than pleased with her being called out by another player in 2006.

“The Committee made a mistake by not imposing the penalty in round one but they can still correct the mistake before the start of round two. It would not result in disqualification because the player was unaware of the mistake and she was not informed at any time that she was late on the tee therefore we have corrected the score for round one and the Nocera’s 4-under 68 score becomes 2-under 70.”- Ladies Asian Golf Tour

Nocera should have been disqualified. I’m not saying this because of her reported rotten afterwards but because players are supposed to know the rules. Also there is more than ample precedent for players being disqualifed a day or two later, not just assessed a two-stroke penalty.

Craig Stadler at 1987 San Diego Open was ruled to have improperly built a stance when playing a shot during Saturday’s 3rd round. He wasn’t disqualified till 4th round play was complete and Stadler finished 2nd that particular week.

In 2005, Esteban Toledo and Brandel Chamblee were both disqualified for not penalizing themselves for taking improper drops and then signing their cards incorrectly by not showing the penalty strokes. This was a bit controversial because in both instances, the same PGA Tour player ratted them out told officials about the improper drops sometime after play was finished and all scorecards were signed.

There’s plenty of other cases I can cite as proof the officials in China didn’t rule correctly. Nocera didn’t put the penalty on her scorecard, therefore she signed a wrong scorecard and should have been disqualified as soon as this was discovered.

Hat tip- Waggleroom

Joey Sindelar remained hospitalized Sunday after having a pulmonary embolism during the third round of the Charles Schwab Cup Championships.

The Champions Tour said Sindelar’s condition had improved but doctors at Sonoma Valley Hospital wanted to keep the 51-year-old for further observation.

Sindelar withdrew Saturday and was taken to the hospital for dizziness and shortness of breath after playing the 204-yard, par-3 fourth hole. Sindelar rested in between holes and tried to play the fifth before withdrawing.

Sindelar was a two-time winner of my all-time favorite PGA Tour tournament, the now defunct B.C. Open. I wish him a speedy recovery.

In 2005 I almost died from a PE. In my case, I was struck by a saddle emboli which has a high mortality rate. By some miracle I pulled through, but only after spending 10 days in the hospital.

South Korea’s Choi Na-Yeon fired a final round 67 to win the USLPGA Hana Bank Kolon Championship on Sunday by a stroke from Taiwan’s Yani Tseng and Sweden’s Maria Hjorth.

Choi, runner-up to Tseng as Rookie of the Year in 2008, closed it out to take the 255,000 US dollars winners’ cheque, sinking five birdies for her first win on the LPGA Tour since joining.

Fellow Korean Ran HongThe was four shots back in third while Kim Song-Hee was fourth and Shin Jiyai fifth.

Tseng and Choi finished respectively 1-2 in the 2008 LPGA Rookie of the Year race. Tseng won twice on tour before Choi got her first victory. Which was the Samsung Championship in September. Now Choi and Tseng are even victory wise.

Choi’s win was the tenth by a South Korean golfer this year on the LPGA.

The article doesn’t mention Choi having to birdie 18 to win by one shot. Tseng also birdied 18 but Hjorth could only make a par 5 on the finishing hole.

With her fifth place finish, Ji Yai Shin solidified her lead for both Player of the Year and leading money winner for 2009. She holds a 10 point lead in the first and an almost $200,000 lead in the later. Shin is the defending champion of next week’s LPGA Mizuno Classic.

Sorry for the hurried post. I have plans for today that will keep away from the computer almost all day.

The Constructivist is also blogging about Na Yeon Choi’s victory.

PGA Tour officials canceled the weather-stricken Viking Classic on Saturday because of unplayable course conditions.

There will be no makeup date and players will move on to the final event of the season, the Nov. 12-15 Children’s Miracle Network Classic in Orlando, Fla.

Annandale Golf Club received 1.75 inches of rain overnight Friday and Saturday, completely soaking an already marginal course that had areas of standing water and large tracts of mud.

Madison has received more than 20 inches of rain in the past six weeks.

“I told them this was closer to a FEMA disaster site than a golf course,” tournament director Randy Watkins said. “Somebody asked if you could play somewhere else. I don’t think you could play golf within 150 miles of here.”

Officials postponed, then canceled play Thursday and Friday mornings after nearly constant rain. There had been hope officials might shorten the tournament to 54 holes and play next week or weekend, but groundskeepers didn’t believe the course would dry that quickly.

Slugger White, PGA Tour vice president for rules and competition, said commissioner Tim Finchem had asked the board for permission to play a 36-hole tournament as early as Monday but was unsuccessful.

“We just couldn’t get there,” White said.

This is the first time a tournament has been scrapped outright because of weather since the 1996 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which was canceled due to unplayable conditions. The last rainout came in Houston in 1991, though that tournament was rescheduled.

The Viking Classic was important to players who wanted exempt status in 2010. Now it will come down to the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in Orlando for about a dozen players. Honestly I think 125 is a way too high number for exempt players. There are players who have entered hundreds of tournaments and not been able to win. Even in a weak Fall Classic field. I think there should be a bigger turnover of players every year to avoid just that. Bring back the Top 60 days? Maybe not, but 80 or 90 has a better feel.

The LPGA Tour has picked Michael Whan to be its new commissioner, turning to a former marketing executive in golf and hockey equipment to rebuild the tour’s relationships with sponsors.

Whan previously worked for TaylorMade and Wilson golf companies and most recently was president of Mission-Itech Hockey.

“I was that crazy high school kid cutting greens at 5:30 in the morning so he could play free golf in the afternoon and caddying on Sundays,” Whan said Wednesday, during an introductory news conference at Madison Square Garden.

He was selected following a three-month search to replace Carolyn Bivens, whom the players forced out in July as the LPGA Tour kept losing sponsors.

Whan will start in his new job next January. In the meantime, acting Commissioner Marta Evans will continue to run the LPGA.

Sal Johnson at Golf Observer notes how the LPGA’s PR department dropped the ball on the announcement of their new Commissioner and maybe attributing this to their recent letting go of VP Connie Wilson. Sal, whose views I have come into disagreement with in the past, may be right. Connie did a mostly thankless job at LPGA HQ for a long time. I had some interaction with her on the phone and via email, and for the most part it was good. She would always answer my inquiries promptly. If Connie was still around in Daytona, the announcement about Whan would most likely have been handled better.

That said, I’m going to cut the LPGA and its new Commissioner some slack at this time. The Bivens era was a disaster, and I was very critical almost from the beginning. Ladies professional golf right now is facing its worst ever crisis. I want the LPGA to succeed and prosper. Whan has a very difficult road ahead of him to accomplish that. At this point I don’t know if he’ll be successful, but I do wish him good luck.

Also blogging on the hiring of Michael Whan- Ryan at Waggleroom and Stephanie Wei.

Troy Matteson had never shot a 61 until this week. Now he’s done it twice in a row to set a PGA Tour record.

His second straight 9-under round at the Frys.com Open on Saturday gave him a three-shot lead at 16-under 194 heading into the final round.

Matteson’s 122 score in consecutive rounds broke the tour record of 123 set this year by Steve Stricker in the third and fourth rounds of the Bob Hope Classic.

Ron Streck shot 124 at the Texas Open in 1978. I don’t recall if anyone else equaled that mark before Stricker broke it.

Streck won in Texas but Stricker failed to bring home the Hope. Matteson, who won the Frys in 2006, I predict to win tomorrow.

Nicholas Thompson gained five shots in quick fashion with a double eagle and a hole in one to storm into contention at the Frys.com Open.

Thompson, using a 3-wood, sank his shot from 261 yards on the par-5, 562-yard 11th hole on the Raptor Course at the Grayhawk Golf Club.

After a par on No. 12, Thompson’s tee shot with a 7-iron went in on the par-3, 199-yard 13th. In three holes, he moved from 6 under to 11-under par.

It was the fourth double eagle on the PGA Tour this year.

I think four may be a record for one year. Double eagles were seldom seen in tournaments when par 5’s were only reachable with a driver and a wood. Club technology has made many unreachable holes now only a driver and mid-iron away.

BTW Thompson stands -11 after 3 rounds and four shots behind the leader, Troy Matteson.