The PGA Tour's weekly news release included an interesting ShotLink figure: J.B. Holmes leads the tour in driver carry - 302.3 yards of carry. Corey Pavin is last in driver carry - 233.3 yards of carry. Pavin carries his driver a full 69 yards shorter than Holmes.

Yet it's Pavin who has the better adjusted scoring average (scoring average weighted to take into account the difficulty of courses played), leading Holmes 70.00 to 70.65.

In total driving distance - carry plus roll - Holmes is No. 2 and Pavin is still last (No. 200), although the gap isn't quite as large because Pavin gets more roll. Holmes' average is 309.2 compared to Pavin's 261.4.

No. 1 in total driving distance is Bubba Watson at 313.6, and Pavin outscores him, too. Watson's adjusted scoring average is 70.84.

Here's a comparison of the scoring averages of the top 10 and bottom 10 players in driving distance:

Scott and Kim skew the results in favor of the long hitters, and the short hitters group suffers from having several older guys who are well past their primes. But on the whole, not a ton of difference.

Everything else being equal, long hitters have the advantage over short hitters. But having huge distance guarantees nothing; the long hitters have to be good at other parts of the game, too. And having comparitively no distance doesn't guarantee that you won't be successful - but you better be excellent in other parts of the game, as Pavin is, if you want to score well.

If you're as good or better than Pavin in other parts of the game and you hit it 50  yards farther, well, then you're Phil Mickelson or Vijay Singh.

It was noted during the U.S. Women's Open that 18-year-old UCLA sophomore-to-be Maria Jose Uribe will not be defending her 2007 U.S. Women's Amateur title at this year's Women's Am. What I kept missing was the explanation.

Here's the explanation: She's playing the Women's British Open instead. The Women's Brit ends Aug. 3, the U.S. Women's Am begins Aug. 4. Uribe has made her choice, and that choice is the Women's British Open.

"It's a tough decision," Uribe said. "Hopefully it's the right one."

It all comes down to experience, said Uribe, who has never been to Europe. She wants to get the feeling of playing the British under her belt before she turns pro so she isn't surprised when the money is on the line.

"Hopefully when I'm a pro I'll already have a couple of British Opens and I will know how to play those," she said. "So it's basically just for experience and to grow as a player."

I say: You go girl. You go to the Women's British Open instead of defending at the U.S. Women's Am if that's what you want to do. You'll be pushed and pulled by agents, advisors, coaches, consultants, PR flacks and hangers-on soon enough, when you turn pro. Now, make yourself happy. Don't let anyone - including the USGA - make you feel bad about this decision:

While I wasn't in Minnesota last week, my understanding is a few USGA officials voiced to the Colombia native their disappointment about Uribe's pending schedule. (TV commentator Dottie Pepper also was critical of the choice of tournaments during last week's telecast.)

That blurb was from Golf World's Campus Insider blogger who writes that Uribe "will become the first female amateur to compete in all four women's professional majors in a single year." Not so - Michelle Wie did it in 2005.

I wonder if Uribe missed the cut in the Women's British whether she'd be able to get back to the States and into the Women's Am field? Of course, she'll be hoping that scenario doesn't develop - and the way she played at the U.S. Women's Open, she's just as likely to content for the championship at the Women's British as to miss the cut.

... and Open Thread ...

PGA Tour
AT&T National
Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Md.
Thursday-Friday, Golf Channel; Saturday-Sunday, CBS

European Tour
European Open
The London Golf Club, Ash, Kent, England

Champions Tour
Dick's Sporting Goods Open
En-Joie Golf Course, Endicott, N.Y.
Friday-Sunday, Golf Channel

LPGA Tour
P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship
Pinnacle Country Club, Rogers, Ark.
Saturday-Sunday, CBS

Ladies European Tour
Oxfordshire Ladies English Open
The Oxfordshire Golf Club, Thame, Oxfordshire, England

Tiger Woods is the host of the AT&T National this week. But he won't be there. Flying, he said during a teleconference Monday, causes his rebuilt left knee to swell too much.

Woods was cautious in his comments about when he might be able to start playing golf again following reconstructive knee surgery. Recovery times are different, he pointed out: could be six months, could be nine months, could be a year. Wait and see.

He did make a few comments about what specifically was done during the surgery to repair a ruptured ACL:

Woods underwent an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction of his left knee.

“They did take a graft, basically a tendon out of my right hamstring, and implemented it into my left knee and made it my new ACL and they fixed a little bit of cartilage damage I had in there, and that was about it,” he said.

He also talked about his attempt to rest and rehabilitate at the end of last year after rupturing the ACL following the British Open, and what happened throughout this season that finally required the drastic surgery:

“The reason why I took the long layoff is to develop my hamstring and my glute and my calf…to basically give my leg more stability,” said Woods, who tore his knee ligament after the 2007 British Open while running and took 10 weeks off at the end of the season.

“People have played without ACLs and have been very successful. Downhill skiers ski without ACL’s, but they’ve got extreme sized glutes and hamstrings, and that’s their checking mechanism. And I tried to do the same thing.

“I went through the rehab process and tried to get it ready for this year. It held up great,” said Woods, who won his first three events in 2008 and was Masters runner-up before claiming his 14th major at the U.S. Open.

“Unfortunately, as I kept playing on it, it became more unstable,” he said. “The natural rotation of the golf swing without the ACL made it a little bit unstable, and it caused some cartilage damage because of that. I had that rectified after the Masters.”

I closed April's ranking of the Best of the LPGA with this comment on Lorena Ochoa's dominance: "No one can stay in the zone forever...." After the loss of her uncle and grandfather, I'm sorry to see her sublime play come to an end. But the 2nd half of the season becomes even more interesting, doesn't it, when anyone can win any given week?

Who has the best chance to make up the most ground on Ochoa this summer? Let's find out by combining the most recent results from the Rolex Rankings, the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, the LPGA Official Money List, and Hound Dog's Top 30.  (For #21-35, head on over to Mostly Harmless!)

Despite her recent struggles, there's no question who's #1:

1. Lorena Ochoa: #1 money ($2.03M), #1 RR (19.46), #1 GSPI (68.00), #1 HD. She still leads in almost every single significant statistical category the LPGA keeps track of, but the gap between her and her closest competitors is closing. More important, her run of utter dominance is over. The LPGA's Young Guns are gaining in confidence; with each win by one of their peers, it makes the rest of them wonder why they haven't yet done it. Rookies Louise Friberg and Ya Ni Tseng and Junior Mint Seon Hwa Lee woke up Super Sophs Eun-Hee Ji and Inbee Park. Who will be next? With Ochoa not returning to competition for a few weeks, the possibilities are endless....

While it's clear who Ochoa's top competition on tour is and that this chase pack has been gaining on her, it's just as clear that they've been dealing with problems of their own, as symbolized by Suzann Pettersen's and Paula Creamer's inability to close the deal the past 2 weeks (and Jeong Jang's multiple near-misses this season), along with Annika Sorenstam's inability to build on her own dominating win back in mid-May. The only 1 moving up is a rookie--and Tseng's been playing hurt, just like Jang.

2. Annika Sorenstam: #2 money ($1.46M), #2 RR (11.39), #3 GSPI (69.24), #2 HD. If she was putting 1/10th as well as she was striking the ball, she'd have made up some serious ground on Ochoa. As it is, she's missed the top 10 in 4 of 5 tournaments since she ran away with the Michelob Ultra.

3. Paula Creamer: #3 money ($1.06M), #4 RR (8.08), #4 GSPI (69.41), #3 HD. With her final round blow-up at the U.S. Women's Open, she missed her chance to pass Sorenstam and get tha "best player without a major" label off her back at the ripe old age of 21. But she did get her 3rd straight top 10.

4. Ya Ni Tseng: #5 money ($876.8K), #6 RR (6.16), #5 GSPI (69.86), #5 HD. This is not a typo. I'm ranking Tseng ahead of Pettersen. Winning a major will do that for you. With tricep tendonitis, though, she's better think long and hard about getting some rest before the European swing.

5. Suzann Pettersen: #8 money ($729.5K), #3 RR (8.93), #2 GSPI (69.52), #4 HD. After blowing up in the first round of the Open, she outplayed just about everyone over her final 3 rounds. But that's been the story of her season--she's probably playing better than she was last year, but one big round has dashed her hopes for contention. And when she has been in the hunt, she hasn't closed the deal: 3 top 3s but 0 wins will not put her back in the top 4.

6. Jeong Jang: #6 money ($826.0K), #8 RR (5.10), #8 GSPI (70.17), #7 HD. With 5 top 3s this season and missed chances for multiple wins, Jang knows just how Pettersen is feeling. And with a bad wrist, she ought to be considering a short break before the European swing just as Tseng should be.

Surprisingly, there's only 1 player in the top 10 in 3 of the 4 systems:

7. Karrie Webb: #10 money ($524.6K), #5 RR (6.34), #12 GSPI (70.61), #8 HD. She has 3 top 3s but no other top 10s this season. I call it veteran-itis. Don't expect her to remain in the top 10 next ranking. There are too many hungry young guns behind her playing better and more consistent golf than she has been the past 2 years.

The rest of the lead pack has fallen back a bit and can be found in the top 10 in only 2 of the 4 systems (and/or in the top 20 in all):

8. Seon Hwa Lee: #7 money ($738.8K), #14 RR (4.47), #16 GSPI (70.72), #6 HD. Seemed to be coming out of a bad stretch in May but hasn't followed up on her amazing come-from-behind win in the Ginn Tribute.

9. Cristie Kerr: #20 money ($395.4K), #7 RR (5.32), #7 GSPI (70.08), #14 HD. Big disappointment over the weekend at the Open, but she does have 5 straight top 20s, so seems to be overcoming her early-spring inconsistency.

10. Maria Hjorth: #13 money ($457.0K), #10 RR (4.84), #13 GSPI (70.61), #10 HD. Lost to Tseng in a playoff at the LPGA Championship right after missing the cut at the Ginn Tribute. What more can I say to illustrate her inconsistency?

11. Jee Young Lee: #15 money ($436.6K), #13 RR (4.55), #15 GSPI (70.64), #9 HD. Inconsistency has been her demon this season, as well. She's either following up top 10s with a finish in the 50s or sandwiching a missed cut among top 20s. Like Pettersen, made a good comeback after a bad start to the Open, so maybe she's due for better things....

But there's a large group of golfers with a top 10 in 1 system or top 20s in 3 of the 4.

12. Inbee Park: #4 money ($1.01M), #12 RR (4.55), #33 GSPI (71.44), #26 HD. Ever since I proclaimed that she had been passed by a couple of classmates who have much fewer events under their belts, she's been playing great in 2008. And now she's the youngest winner of the U.S. Women's Open! I love it when a plan comes together....

13. Na Yeon Choi: #11 money ($508.1K), #39 RR (2.86), #9 GSPI (70.28), #11 HD. Her worst finish on the LPGA (T32) is still her 1st event of the year and she did well to get a top 20 at the Open after competing in Korea the week before. With Tseng's injury and Ueda's lost opportunity on Open Sunday, she may be the favorite for the rookie of the year, even though she's still 97 points behind.

14. Hee-Won Han: #21 money ($395.1K), #29 RR (3.22), #10 GSPI (70.54), #20 HD. The top new mom on tour hasn't played at all well since the Michelob Ultra, but despite her uncharacteristic inconsistency, she still has 2 top 10s in that stretch. Look for her to shake off her terrible Open quickly.

15. Song-Hee Kim: #9 money ($553.4K), #56 RR (2.00), #40 GSPI (71.74), #12 HD. Was one of the hottest players on tour in the spring, but has shown signs of her early-season shakiness since her 3rd-place finish at the Ginn Tribute.

16. Mi Hyun Kim: #30 money ($338.5K), #16 RR (4.18), #11 GSPI (70.60), #16 HD. Her T6 at the Open was the 3rd straight top 10 in a major for the player with my vote for the "best w/o a major" title. Unfortunately, she has a bad history at the British Open....

17. Christina Kim: #17 money ($421.7K), #35 RR (2.92), #14 GSPI (70.63), #15 HD. She's #3 in the Solheim Cup standings and #4 in top 10s this season, so why is she ranked so low? Say it with me: inconsistency!

18. Stacy Prammanasudh: #31 money ($330.0K), #19 RR (3.86), #19 GSPI (70.95), #17 HD. She was the 12th player to finish under par at the Open, but missed out on a top 10 last weekend. Still has a good chance to salvage a season that opened with such promise (a 5th-place finish at the HSBC Women's Champions) but has resulted in only 2 other top 10s.

There are only a few golfers with top 20s in 2 of the 4 systems.

19. Eun-Hee Ji: #12 money ($486.7K), #18 RR (3.94), #22 GSPI (70.98), n.r. HD. One hot weekend in Rochester does not a season make, but beating the LPGA's #5 golfer shows just how much potential this Super Soph has!

20. Sophie Gustafson: #27 money ($360.9K), #28 RR (3.28), #17 GSPI (70.84), #19 HD. Like Pettersen and Hjorth, suffering an all-too-common European disease of being unable to finish off tournaments, but look for her to shake off her Open MC quickly.

21. Momoko Ueda: #39 money ($280.9K), #11 RR (4.57), #18 GSPI (70.84), n.r. HD. Her recent win on the JLPGA and near-miss of a top 10 at the Open may be signs of better things to come for Japan's top golfer. But she's had chances to go on a tear earlier this season and failed to sustain the momentum of twice playing in the final pairing on a Sunday. Here's hoping she heats up as the summer does.

Final qualifying for the Open Championship is taking place today in England and in Michigan. The English qualifier - at Sunningdale - produced the following qualifiers for the British Open, which begins July 17:

Simon Wakefield, 133
Ariel Canete, 133
Johan Edfors, 134
Jean-Baptiste Gonnet, 134
Ross Fisher, 134
Gregory Bourdy, 134
Paul Waring, 135
Thomas Aiken, 135
Alexander Noren, 135
Pelle Edberg, 135
Anthony Wall, 135
Jose-Filipe Lima, 135
David Horsey, 135
Martin Wiegele, 135
Phillip Archer, 135
Steve Webster, 135
Peter Baker, 136
Simon Dyson, 136
Full Scores

The final two - Baker and Dyson - made it through a 6-man playoff. Jose Maria Olazabal was in that playoff and did not make it through. Others failing to qualify included Rory McIlroy, Charl Schwartzel, Jeev Milkha Singh, Peter Hedblom, Paul McGinley, Per-Ulrik Johansson, David Frost, Phillip Price, Mikko Ilonen, Jarmo Sandelin and Darren Clarke.

Updates later with the American qualifier results ...

Update: More results. There were two qualifiers in Michigan, one at TPC Michigan and one at Dearborn Country Club.

Dearborn Qualifiers
Paul Goydos, 131
Michael Letzig, 133
Doug Labelle, 134
Rich Beem, 135
Craig Barlow, 135
Kevin Stadler, 135
Davis Love III, 135
Full Scores

TPC Michigan Qualifiers
Jeff Overton, 130
John Rollins, 136
Tim Petrovic, 137
Matt Kuchar, 137
Alex Cejka, 137
Scott McCarron, 138
Thomas Gillis, 139
Full Scores

... and Open Thread ...

Kenny Perry moved from 27th to 19th in the world rankings; Inbee Park from 42nd to 12th.

PGA Tour Money
1. Tiger Woods, $5,775,000
2. Phil Mickelson, $3,959,500
3. Stewart Cink, $3,718,671
4. Kenny Perry, $3,575,350
5. Justin Leonard, $2,945,007
6. Geoff Ogilvy, $2,745,454
7. Vijay Singh, $2,582,531
8. Ryuji Imada, $2,423,877
9. Sergio Garcia, $2,397,170
10. Boo Weekley, $2,177,282

FedEx Cup Points
1. Tiger Woods, 22,695
2. Phil Mickelson, 15,940
3. Kenny Perry, 15,933
4. Stewart Cink, 15,039
5. Justin Leonard, 11,959
6. Ryuji Imada, 10,854
7. Geoff Ogilvy, 10,660
8. Vijay Singh, 10,309
9. Boo Weekley, 9,280
10. Anthony Kim, 9,080

European Tour Money
1. Miguel Angel Jimenez, €1,491,563
2. Lee Westwood, €1,377,149
3. Robert Karlsson, €1,358,427
4. Oliver Wilson, €1,064,832
5. Henrik Stenson, €1,048,694
6. Trevor Immelman, €1,003,456
7. Martin Kaymer, €995,993
8. Pablo Larrazabal, €779,917
9. Jeev Milkha Singh, €775,693
10. Retief Goosen, €770,866

Men's World Rankings
1. Tiger Woods, 20.73
2. Phil Mickelson, 9.94
3. Geoff Ogilvy, 5.66
4. Adam Scott, 5.64
5. Ernie Els, 5.53
6. Stewart Cink, 5.45
7. Steve Stricker, 5.142
8. Sergio Garcia, 5.109
9. Justin Rose, 5.09
10. K.J. Choi, 4.97

LPGA Tour Money
1. Lorena Ochoa, $2,030,993
2. Annika Sorenstam, $1,459,176
3. Paula Creamer, $1,057,144
4. Inbee Park, $1,008,023
5. Yani Tseng, $876,759
6. Jeong Jang, $825,985
7. Seon Hwa Lee, $738,823
8. Suzann Pettersen, $729,528
9. Song-Hee Kim, $553,417
10. Karrie Webb, $524,557

Futures Tour Money
1. Vicky Hurst, $51,701
2. Mindy Kim, $45,522
3. M. J. Hur, $35,192
4. Leah Wigger, $31,593
5. Sarah-Jane Kenyon, $29,872
6. Jessica Shepley, $27,289
7. Jin Young Pak, $21,825
8. Song Yi Choi, $21,633
9. Stephanie Otteson, $20,361
10. Kristina Tucker, $20,039

Women's World Rankings
1. Lorena Ochoa, 19.46
2. Annika Sorenstam, 11.39
3. Suzann Pettersen, 8.93
4. Paula Creamer, 8.08
5. Karrie Webb, 6.34
6. Yani Tseng, 6.17
7. Cristie Kerr, 5.32
8. Jeong Jang, 5.10
9. Ji-Yai Shin, 4.95
10. Maria Hjorth, 4.84

A couple notes from Sunday that got lost in the U.S. Women's Open fervor:

• Kenny Perry won for the second time this year. I suppose his place on the Ryder Cup team that he so desperately wants to make (because it's played at Valhalla in Perry's old Kentucky home) is secure.

  Perry has won 11 times now in his PGA Tour career. That's good stuff. If one of those had been a major - or if he somehow manages to win a major at the age of 48 or older - he might someday even gain Hall of Fame consideration. Think about it. Justin Leonard and David Toms will get some Hall consideration. Jim Furyk certainly will. No, Perry's not as good as Furyk and is probably a notch below Leonard and Toms. Which explains the use of the word "if" a couple sentences ago.

• And Vicky Hurst did it again, coming from behind on the last day to win on the Futures Tour. If my memory is correct, in both cases she shot 5-under in her final round while most others were struggling to get to par. It's certainly a sign that Hurst can turn it on and charge when the pressure is on. She's going to be a star once she gets established on the LPGA.

  There are a lot of young golfers these days about whom we can say (and I have said), "She's going to be a star." They won't all turn out to be stars, of course. Some will wind up hitting, some will wind up missing. But as noted yesterday, it's a good time to be a fan of women's golf.

Speaking of which, it's a great time to be a fan of women golfers named Park, what with Inbee winning yesterday. So, which Park has the greatest future on the LPGA Tour?

That would be Inbee Park, the tournament would be the U.S. Women's Open, and the walk would be the one she gets to take into the Winner's Circle. Inbee Park's first victory on the LPGA Tour, obviously her first major championship. At age 19, she is the youngest-ever U.S. Women's Open champion. She turns 20 in two weeks, so she's not the youngest-ever major champion, but still just the third teenager ever to win an LPGA major (but the second this year!).

This was no fluke. But with so many great young players coming into women's golf - and more on the way - it's getting hard to decide which ones will wind up being the best. It could be we are entering an era of Lorena Ochoa winning five to eight times a year, and all these hotshot youngsters fighting it out without any of them being able to get firmly ahead of the rest of the pack. Or maybe not. My predictions haven't been so great lately. But whatever, it's a great time to be a fan of women's golf.

Final Leaderboard
Inbee Park, 72-69-71-71--283
Helen Alfredsson, 70-71-71-75--287
Angela Park, 73-67-75-73--288
In-Kyung Kim, 71-73-69-75--288
Stacy Lewis, 73-70-67-78--288
Giulia Sergas, 73-74-72-70--289
Nicole Castrale, 74-70-74-71--289
Mi Hyun Kim, 72-72-70-75--289
Paula Creamer, 70-72-69-78--289
Teresa Lu, 71-72-73-74--290
a-Maria Jose Uribe, 69-74-72-75--290
Stacy Prammanasudh, 75-72-71-73--291
Full Scores

The final group is through the first hole. Off to a quick start? Inbee Park with birdies on the first two holes. Helen Alfredsson has an early birdie, and I.K. Kim one, as well.

Use this thread to discuss play throughout the final round.

Update: The final pairing - Lewis and Creamer - both players double-bogied the par-5 second. Ouch. Inbee Park still 2-under through four. Suzann Pettersen making a nice run, 5-under through 14 to get to 3-under overall. Too little, too late. Unless she finishes at 65 today and the top three at the beginning of the day all back up several strokes.

And 15-year-old amateur Jessica Korda shot 69 today to move up. She's the daughter of former tennis player Petr Korda. Petr rarely beat Ivan Lendl on the courts, but his daughter just kicked Lendl's daughters butts!

Update: Checking once more before NBC comes on the air ... looks like Creamer and Lewis have settled down. Pars since the double for Lewis; Creamer has had a birdie. They're at 7-under. Inbee Park has dropped a stroke but still leads at 8-under. Pettersen's great run is over, she's fallen back and is out of it. Of the eight players at 3-under or better as I write this, only the park girls are under par today. Inbee and Angela (5-under overall) are both 1-under on the day so far.

Update: The Constructivist said in a comment yesterday that he thought the overnight leaders would all crumble and 5-under would win up winning. Lewis and Creamer are both 3-over through 8, and both are in terrible spots behind the No. 9 green. Inbee Park is even on the day and leads at 7-under. She's through 9.

2:45 p.m. CT: The leaderboard with the final group through nine:

Inbee Park, -7
Stacy Lewis, -5
Teresa Lue, -4
Angela Park, -4
Helen Alfredsson, -4
Nicole Castrale, -3
Paula Creamer, -3
Mi Hyun Kim, -3
In-Kyung Kim, -3

Teresa Lu (-1) and Nicole Castrale (-2) are the only ones in that group under par. Inbee is even; Lewis is 4-over and Creamer 5-over.

3:30 p.m. CT: Inbee Park birdies No. 13, opens 4-stroke lead. Meanwhile, Creamer's collapse is starting to resemble those of Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters and Michelle Wie at the 2005 Women's Open ...

Inbee Park, -9
Angela Park, -5
Helen Alfredsson, -5
Teresa Lu, -4
Mi Hyun Kim, -4
In-Kyung Kim, -4
Stacy Lewis, -4

 4 p.m. CT: Inbee still ahead by four:

Inbee Park, -9
Helen Alfredsson, -5
Stacy Lewis, -5

Park and Alfredsson are through 15, Lewis is through 14.

Annika Sorenstam hasn't completely shut the door on playing more tournaments here and there in the future, but if I were her, I think I'd make a vow not to play any more U.S. Women's Opens. And let that hole-out from the fairway for a 72nd hole eagle stand for all-time as my exit from this championship.

4:15 p.m. CT: Lewis and Alfredsson each just bogied to drop to 4-under. In-Kyung Kim birdied to get to 5-under. Inbee Park is rolling along at 9-under with two holes to play. Unless something crazy happens - like Inbee being attacked by bees - Inbee is the winner.