Talk about a majestic way to end a slump!

Brittany Lincicome’s victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship may not be the most surprising Major championship win of recent memory – this, after all, is a talented young player with two prior LPGA titles on her résumé – but it did pretty well come out of nowhere. For despite having amassed an uncommon degree of experience in her 23 years (including leading after the first round of the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open as an 18-year-old amateur), Lincicome has hardly been a world beater of late. Consider that her early 2009 performances (MC, T65, T39) actually represent an improvement over 2008, when she failed to log a single top-10 finish, missed five of her last seven cuts and plummeted to 92nd in official LPGA earnings.

Such a slump might eventually have led to talk of failing to live up to lofty expectations, but such expectations – be they fair or not – can also offer some advantages. Specifically, having been a hugely dominant junior player, Lincicome has a whole lot of experience actually winning golf tournaments (attenion Michelle Wie...) and thus was able to summon forth her best golf in the crucial moments, curling a Hall-of-Fame-caliber hybrid approach to within three feet at the par-5 72nd hole to set up an eagle and a one-stroke victory. Lincicome herself admitted to nearly wilting under the pressure of the occasion, noting of her closing putt that “my hands were shaking so bad, I was almost crying.” But knowing how to win (and the positive expectations such knowledge creates) can be an invaluable thing. Of course, possessing the sort of length that allows one to reach the final green with a hybrid club doesn’t hurt either.

Which reminds me: Am I the only one who sees a significant stylistic resemblances between Lincicome and a young JoAnne Carner?

And one more LPGA thought of a (somewhat) interesting nature...

A week ago, I listed Lorena Ochoa, Jiyai Shin, Suzann Pettersen, Yani Tseng and Angela Stanford as favorites in Rancho Mirage – hardly a bold prediction as all are ranked among the top six players in the world. But as things played out only Pettersen was heard from in the end, and then only after a closing 66 (tied for low round of the day) lifted her into a late tie for 5th, four shots in arrears. Otherwise the top of the board included only one past Major champion (2007 U.S. Open winner Cristie Kerr) as well as relative upstarts like Lincicome, Meaghan Francella and the irrepressible Christina Kim, and genuine upstarts Kristy McPherson and Australia’s Lindsey Wright. For the record, Ochoa and Stanford tied for 12th, Tseng tied for 17th and Shin never broke 70 in finishing tied for 21st, all of which raises the question:

On a tour which, throughout its history, has traditionally been dominated by a small handful of elite stars, are we perhaps beginning to see signs of parity?