South Koreans beginning to squeeze

Americans out of top money

in LPGA Tour finishes

Move over Lorena Ochoa! How long until South Korea can claim most of the leading players on the LPGA Tour.
Home-grown Americans are slowly but surely being squeezed out of the top money on their own tour.
In the Northwest Arkansas Championship which ended on Sunday, the winner and joint runner-up both come from South Korea and there were 12 South Koreans within the leading 20 or so finishers.
The name of the winner, Seon Hwa Lee, will mean nothing on this side of the Atlantic but it was her second LPGA win of the season and the first prize of $255,000 pushed her career earnings up to $3million.
England's Karen Stupples did manage to come joint fourth, for which she earned $65,508, and Catriona Matthew from North Berwick finished joint 22nd. The Scot's take-home pay was $16,233.

LPGA Tour Scoreboard
NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP
Pinnacle CC, Rogers, Arkansas
FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3 x 72)
201 Hwa seon Lee (SKor) 64 69 68
202 Meena Lee (SKor) 67 65 70, Jane Park 71 69 62
203 Ai Miyazato (Jpn) 67 68 68, Karen Stupples (Eng) 68 69 66, Angela Park 71 62 70, Kristy McPherson 64 69 70
204 Na Yeon Choi (SKor) 71 65 68, Eun Hee Ji (SKor) 67 65 72
205 In-Bee Park (SKor) 70 65 70
206 Cristie Kerr 72 65 69, Hee-Won Han (SKor) 72 66 68, Katherine Hull (Aus) 70 70 66, Jeong Jang (SKor) 66 69 71
207 Giulia Sergas (Ita) 69 69 69, Soo-Yun Kang (SKor) 68 70 69
208 Jee Young Lee (SKor) 66 69 73, Morgan Pressel 69 69 70, Reilley Rankin 74 66 68, Christina Kim 71 68 69, Hye Jung Choi (SKor) 66 69 73
209 Michelle Ellis 71 67 71, Gloria Park (SKor) 70 70 69, Louise Friberg (Swe) 70 66 73, Catriona Matthew (Sco) 72 68 69, Paige Mackenzie 70 69 70, Song-Hee Kim (SKor) 73 68 68, Katie Futcher 73 69 67
210 Kelli Kuehne 68 72 70, Brittany Lincicome 72 68 70, Lindsey Wright (Aus) 75 66 69, Dina Ammaccapane 71 70 69, Karine Icher (Fra) 70 70 70, Helen Alfredsson (Swe) 65 72 73
211 Jill McGill 72 67 72, Nancy Scranton 71 69 71, Michelle McGann 70 68 73, Vicki Goetze-Ackerman 70 71 70, Meaghan Francella 71 68 72, Moira Dunn 73 69 69, Danielle Downey 70 70 71, Hee Young Park (SKor) 70 72 69
212 Minea Blomqvist (Fin) 72 71 69, Wendy Doolan (Aus) 72 68 72, Stacy Prammanasudh 70 70 72, Rachel Hetherington (Aus) 70 69 73, Momoko Ueda (Jpn) 73 69 70, Na Ri Kim (SKor) 68 69 75
213 Heather Young 70 67 76, Sun Young Yoo (Kor) 72 70 71, Seo-Jae Lee 71 71 71, Marisa Baena 73 69 71, Stephanie Louden 71 71 71, Natalie Gulbis 72 69 72, Mikaela Parmlid (Swe) 70 73 70, Eunjung Yi (SKor) 74 66 73, Stacy Lewis 69 69 75
214 Jimin Kang (SKor) 70 73 71, Il Mi Chung (SKor) 69 68 77, Meg Mallon 71 72 71, Kris Tamulis 76 67 71, Shanshan Feng (Chn) 69 71 74
215 Paula Creamer 73 68 74, Johanna Head (Eng) 71 68 76, Laura Davies (Eng) 71 71 73, Nicole Castrale 72 70 73, Sandra Gal (Ger) 71 69 75
216 Jamie Hullett 70 72 74, Kyeong Eun Bae (SKor) 72 69 75, Charlotte Mayorkas 70 73 73, Lee Ann Walker-Cooper 70 70 76, Meredith Duncan 71 70 75
217 Jennifer Rosales (Phi) 72 71 74, In Kyung Kim (SKor) 72 71 74, Sarah Jane Kenyon 75 68 74
221 Dorothy Delasin 73 70 78