Chapman recovers, ready to pitch in
Key Black Sox pitcher Daniel Chapman has declared himself capable of hurling at ‘‘100%’’ at the World Cup after a full recovery from back surgery.
Many observers see Chapman as critical to New Zealand’s hopes of breaking back into the medals bracket at the 12-team tournament.
Josh Pettett – a world champion in 2017 – is the senior man on the mound, but Chapman made a strong impression at his first world tournament in Prague three years ago and is seen as a rising star.
The 25-year-old Aucklander had a spinal operation last April and has been on a limited pitching workload since.
Chapman said it had been a testing time ‘‘obviously coming out of injury’’, but he felt he was ‘‘in a good place at the moment’’.
‘‘I’ve been pretty lucky to have some well-known chiropractors and surgeons looking after me and our physio keeping me in shape. I’ve been seeing him a couple of times a day.
‘‘I’m pretty happy with where I’m at. I’ve just got to trust the process and hopefully go well.’’
Chapman had only pitched 12 innings leading up to last weekend’s pre-World Cup tournament in Palmerston North, but he was encouraged by his progress there.
‘‘I wouldn’t say I’ve had as much [pitching] as I’d like, but definitely down in Palmy, I let loose.
‘‘I was pitching about 100% and I’m pretty happy with how I’m feeling.’’
The Black Sox had two wins and three losses, with Chapman getting two important opportunities to test his fitness.
‘‘Obviously I didn’t go too well in that Canada game, eight walks, but we were pretty lucky to escape with only three hits in that whole seven innings. Take away that second inning, we win that game 2-1.
‘‘I felt like I found a better rhythm in that Australian game. I started off a bit shaky in that first inning, but once I found my rhythm for the second, third and fourth and I felt pretty good out there.’’
At full cry, Chapman can fire it down around 130kph and has a devastating drop ball, but it would be unrealistic to expect him to go the full distance too often in Auckland.
How head coach Mark Sorenson and battery coach Patrick Shannon – both catchers in their playing pomp – handle their hurlers could go a long way to defining the Black Sox’s title chances.
Pita Rona – a World Cup first-timer who can also slug and play across the infield – will be the back-up for Chapman and Pettett, but all three could be needed in almost every game.
A second straight Vare Trophy, awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average over the course of the year, says it all – Ko was superb in 2022.
In fact, she was even better this year than last year, despite playing 85 rounds in the year, eight more than in 2021, and 15 clear of the minimal amount required to be eligible for the Vare Trophy.
Ko’s scoring average this year was 68.98, an improvement from last year’s 69.32, and 2015 (69.44) and 2016 (69.60), two hugely successful years for the Kiwi, who spent 85 weeks ranked first in the world between October 2015 and June 2017.
Amongst other Vare Trophy eligible players, Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul was second with a 69.458 average through 96 rounds.
Little changed in this category from last year, with Ko’s 72.9% rate a slight drop from her 73.1% rate a year ago.
However, her 26th ranking this year was up eight spots from last year.
As was the case in 2021, Ko was again near her best with putter in hand this year, finishing first in putts per greens in regulation (1.72) and second in putts per round (28.61).
Only South Korea’s Yaeeun Hong (28.46) topped Ko in the putts per round category, although she played only 54 rounds.
Her mark per greens in regulation was on par with last year, while her 28.61 average putts per round mark was a slight improvement from her 28.79 last year.
Having switched to a Scotty Cameron GSS putter this year, Ko wasn’t far off her tour-leading mark of 28.31 in 2016.
It’s arrived for the LPGA Tour – the statistics category to measure player performances relative to the rest of the field.
Used on the PGA Tour for more than a decade, fans of the premier women’s tour can now see who gained the most strokes from tee to green, off the tee, approaching
Ko continues to prove hitting a huge ball off the tee simply isn’t essential, at least not if your short game is as tidy as hers.
After her five-year deal with PXG ended earlier this year, driver was the first club Ko switched out, following numerous other players, including Nelly and Jessica Korda, on tour and opting for Titleist, starting with the TSi3, before switching to the latest TSR3 model.
She averaged 255.34 yards off the tee this year, 93rd amongst players on tour, and slightly shorter than the career-high 259.2 yards (64th) she averaged a year ago.
Mexican Maria Fassi (279.25 yards) topped the list, while world No 1 Nelly Korda (272.28) ranked 10th.
Improving her accuracy off the tee was something Ko made clear was a focus heading into 2022 after she hit the fairway at a 65.52% (129th) rate last year.
She did so, just. However, having hit 778 out of 1171 fairways, her 66.6% strike rate resulted in a lower ranking (145th) than a year ago.
Those numbers might surprise anyone who only tuned in to watch Ko’s two-stroke win over Leona Maguire in the final event of the year. After all, she hit 53 of 56 fairways in Naples, including 13 of 14 during the all-important final round.
American Dana Finkelstein led the charge in 2022, landing her ball on the fairway 650 times from 745 attempts – that’s an impressive 87.2% rate.