The Rolex Player of the Year Award is one of the most prestigious awards that can be won by the woman golfers playing in the LPGA Tour. This year’s contenders for the Rolex Player of the Year Award are Jiyai Shin, Lorena Ochoa and Cristie Kerr. The award is based on a points system. Each year players are judged on the basis of how they finished in each of the official LPGA events. The points are doubled for specific championships like Kraft Nabisco Championship, McDonald’s LPGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola, U.S. Women’s Open and RICOH Women’s British Open. Points are awarded to the top ten finishes. The golfer who finishes first gets 30 points, the second place finish gets 12 points, third place finish gets 9 points, fourth place finish gets 7 points, fifth place gets 6 points, sixth place gets 5 points, seventh place gets 4, eighth place gets 3, ninth place gets 2 and tenth place gets one point.

As of 16th November, 2009 Lorena Ochoa is leading the Rolex Rankings with an average of 12.10 points for 43 events. Jiyai Shin has carded an average of 9.42 points in 64 events. Cristie Kerr is not far behind with a 7.79 average in 50 events. The Rolex Rankings are updated each week and are based upon the ranking system followed by the ranking system for men. Rolex supports sports competitions with the aim of promoting human excellence. Rolex has lent its esteemed association to sports like sailing, sports car racing and eventing besides golf and junior golf. Rolex has created benchmarks in the watch-making industry and rewards individuals who make similar benchmarks in the field of sports.

Lorena Ochoa who has won Rolex Player of the Year Award three years in a row since 2006 and with her brilliant point average is still the strongest contender for the award this year as well. This Mexican started playing golf at the age of five and won the first state event at the age of six. The 28 year old won her first national event at the age of seven. Lorena Ochoa began her 2009 season with a victory at the Honda LPGA in Thailand. In April she won the Corona Championship and then went on to win the Navistar LPGA Classic at Alabama. The next event to watch out for her performance in is the LPGA Tour Championship at Texas.

The next contender for the prestigious award is Cristie Kerr who began her rendezvous with golf at the impressionable age of eight. Her amateur career includes winning the Junior Orange Bowl International Golf Championship in 1994 as well as the American Junior Golf Association Junior Player of the Year in 1995. She has carded a total of 12 wins already in her LPGA Tour career. Besides golf, Cristie Kerr is also actively involved in raising funds for breast cancer research. Jiyai Shin is also making impressive progress towards winning the Rolex Player of the Year Award. She has already broken all the existing records in the LPGA of Korea Tour by winning 10 events in 19 starts in 2007. She continued her brilliant performance in 2008 by winning three events including the Women’s British Open and the ADT Championship as a non-member. With the season close to an end, it shall be quite interesting to see which one of these talented ladies shall win the coveted award.

Tags: Cristie Kerr, Jiyai Shin, Lorena Ochoa, Rolex, Rolex Player Of The Year Award

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