JIYAI SHIN
Predicting a winner in any golf tournament that didn't feature Annika Sorenstam was always a real crapshot. Throwing darts at a board littered with players' names gave you just as good a chance of picking a winner as sitting around hours studying statistics, past performances and other methods of trying to correctly prognosticate the champion did.
With Sorenstam now long since retired, there is no star atop the women's game. However, there is a pretty consistent group of players finding their way into the top 10 of each tournament. And I see, for the most part, that group of stars dominating the upper part of the leaderboard this week at the Wegmans LPGA Championship.
Cristie Kerr is hoping to defend her title at Locust Hill Country Club in suburban Rochester, N.Y., which would mark the first time since Sorenstam captured three consecutive LPGA Championship crowns between 2003-2005 there would be a repeat champion.
Kerr is arguably the hottest player in the world. Ranked second in the latest Rolex rankings, Kerr has reeled off three straight second-place finishes and has wound up no worse than fourth in five of the last seven events during the 2011 campaign.
Kerr will be in the thick of things come Sunday, much like she was last year as she blew away the field with a closing-round 66 to complete her record-breaking, 12-stroke victory in the major championship. But something has to give with Kerr, who must be frustrated mentally about not being able to put together four great rounds for victory thus far.
That said, I'm throwing my support behind South Korean standout Jiyai Shin and looking for her to bring home her second career major championship. Shin, who won her first major title at the 2008 RICOH Women's British Open, has finished second twice this season and most recently eighth in the LPGA State Farm Classic.
Most importantly, Shin has won this tournament before when she triumphed in the 2009 edition of the event before it became to one of the tour's four major championships. The world's fourth-ranked player has won eight times in her career and seems poised this week to make a major toward another crown.
WEGMANS LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH:
Winner: Jiyai Shin
Runner-up: Suzann Pettersen
Third: Brittany Lincicome
Fourth: Cristie Kerr
Fifth: I.K. Kim
* Photo courtesy of Getty Images
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