The battle continues

The Hana Bank KOLON Championship was played in South Korea last week and it seemed like a very interesting tournament since Lorena Ochoa and Jiyai Shin were listed in the field and one of them would have the chance to grab a stronger lead in the Player of the Year race with a win.
Nevertheless, both contenders saw their chances slip when Na Yeon Choi lifted the trophy, which put her as the third player to win multiple times in 2009, along with Ochoa and Shin, who have 3 victories this season.

In 2009, Choi became a Rolex First Time Winner when she claimed the
Samsung World Championship.

The tournament was specially tough for Ochoa, who had difficulties on the green from start to finish. During the 54 hole event she scored three birdies, five bogeys and two double bogeys, which led her to a tie for 44, 16 strokes behind the winner.

This week world number 1 didn’t gain points in the POY category.

On the other hand, Jiyai Shin played two of the three rounds under par; the first one with 67 strokes and the third one with 70. The second round was complicated for her and scored 4 over.

Nevertheless, Shin went straight to the top 10 and finished 6th, securing the Rookie of the Year Award and adding five more points to her lead in the POY race. As of November 1st. Shin is 10 units ahead of Ochoa.

Even with last week’s results, the battle is still on and maybe at the Mizuno Classic Shin will become the POY, which will put her next to Nancy Lopez as the only players to make the double. Still, if Ochoa gives a good fight in Japan, she could extend the fight until the Ochoa Invitational, which will give her home advantage.

¿25 events?

This week it was announced that the Michelob Ultra Open won't comeback next year. Zayra Calderon, , assured that there's no place neither for panic nor for exageration; she's confident that next year's schedule will be better than everyone expected and it may include 25 events.

Never the less, the feat seems kind of complicated, not to say impossible, and if by any means Calderon and other LPGA executives manage to have a 20+ schedule it might be one of the most incredible strategic and business moves for the tour.

Losing the "fifth major" of the season wasn't a pleasant news to anybody , and even when there are rumors which assure that the LPGA Championship already has a sponsor for 2010, the name won't be released just yet.

The only good news is that a new event has already committed to debut in next year's schedule, and there's a 75% chance that another one does the same, but as you might imagine, there are no further details.

The view is better now, even when the tour has only secured 18 tournaments for 2010, there are 6 more that are still in negotiation, plus one that is practically in. Some of the tournaments that are barely hanging:

• HSBC Women's Champions.
  
• Samsung World Championship.
  
• Evian Masters.

The only sure thing is that crisis is harsh and is impacting golf even more than it was expected.