Who was the best player of 2010? Larry Bohannon, a golf writer I’ve enjoyed reading for years, says that it’s none of the usual suspects.

There was another player out there who received virtually no talk about being the world player of the year. Perhaps it’s because this player toils not on the world’s various men’s tours, but on the LPGA. But there can be a pretty good argument made for Yani Tseng as the world player of the year.

Let’s start with winning. Tseng won three times on the LPGA Tour this year. That’s not as many wins as the five Ai Miyazato compiled this year, but there was a big difference. Tseng managed to win two majors.

She won the first major of the year at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, then later in the summer she won the Ricoh Women’s British Open title.

Both of Tseng’s major wins followed a similar pattern. She built up big leads in the final round, then held off charges by other players. At the Kraft Nabisco at Mission Hills Country Club, Tseng had to survive a eagle chip attempt on the final hole by Suzann Pettersen. At the British Open, Tseng held off Katherine Hull for the victory.

Chauvinists among us might argue that the ladies don’t represent the best players out there, and so no female player can be the player of the year. But in Tseng’s defense, she is playing against the best her gender has to offer. The LPGA is not a minor league tour.

The question brings up a larger issue about women’s sports in general. Do women’s sports represent an inferior brand to the men’s, or do they occupy a separate but equal sphere? I tend toward the separate but equal argument. I have no problem recognizing that what the ladies of the LPGA or WNBA do are examples of incredible athleticism. But I also know that I’m not going to see 300 yard drives or high flying slam dunks. They’re really different games.

Where the LPGA suffers for me is in the courses and coverage. If they were to get off the minor-league tracks and find a television partner that knows something about production values I think the ladies would have more people willing to watch.

Seventeen year old Jessica Korda finished second in last week’s LPGA Qualifying Tournament and gained a waiver from the LPGA permitting her to play before she turns 18. The catch: any money she makes before she turns 18 won’t count as “official” money. That shouldn’t make much of a difference, though. Korda turns 18 on Feb. 27—right about the same time that the LPGA kicks off its season.

The final word on the 2011 LPGA schedule won’t come until January.

While Korda got her waiver, another young gun, 15-year-old Alexis Thompson didn’t challenge the age rule. Instead, she asked for and received additional chances at sponsor exemptions. My guess is that she’s hoping to win one of those tournaments and avoid Q School altogether. If she does, I wonder how the LPGA would deny her.

I don’t think any good can come from encouraging child stars. While the young golf pros likely are better grounded than, say, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and River Phoenix, they’re still kids, lacking any meaningful maturity. As a high school teacher, I can tell you that even the most mature high school senior really doesn’t have a clue.

Unless there’s some sort of family hardship, they should go play in the NCAA. They’ll get scholarships, have a few more years of relatively care-free adolescence, get an education and whet their competitive skills. And they’ll gain perspective.

Shasta Averyhardt, a Flint, Michigan native has become the first African American to make it through the LPGA’s Q-School—albeit as a provisional member.

Averyhardt was in eighth place heading into the final round, but fell to 22nd after she bogeyed three of the four par 5s and also doubled the par-3 third.

Her finish makes her 28th on the exempt list for Q School.

She played on the Futures Tour last year. While she is the first to make it through Q-School, three other African American women have held cards in the LPGA. They are LaRee Sugg, Renee Powell and Althea Gibson. Gibson, also a tennis great, played in 171 tournaments between 1963 and 1971. Renee Powell played from 1967 - 1980. LaRee Sugg played in 1995-1996; and 2000-2001.

Ron Sirak in GolfWorld is reporting that the LPGA wants out of its Golf Channel deal:

Sources tell Golf World the LPGA is looking for a way out of the 10-year contract that made Golf Channel the exclusive cable partner for the women’s tour beginning this year. The deal, negotiated by LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens (who was ousted in 2009) puts the LPGA at the end of a long line of live programming available to GC, including the PGA, European, Champions and Nationwide Tours. As a result, of the 94 official LPGA rounds this year, 38 were on delayed tape and 11 had no TV coverage at all—meaning more than half the tour’s rounds were not seen live. It’s hard to build a fan base that way.

The article also suggests that the LPGA might help its case by moving the finishing rounds to Monday, giving TGC another day of live programming.

I’ve suggested in the past that the LPGA should schedule its season opposite the PGA Tour. They should start their season in August, just after the PGA Championship, and then wind up with a season ending event the weekend before the Masters. It would take some tricky scheduling to avoid the cold weather, but it could be done. And done correctly, it would open some incredible marketing possibilities. That the Women’s Open Championship and the Women’s US Open are held in the summer months would be a bit tricky ...

Paula Creamer has won her first major—the US Women’s Open—by four shots at one of the most difficult golf courses in the world. Congratulations.

I took this photo of Paula at the 2009 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic in Toledo, Ohio.

The Jamie Farr is the only professional golf tournament anywhere near GolfBlogger World Headquarters. I missed it this year, thanks to Boy Scout camp and other obligations. And it wasn’t on television. But here’s the local Toledo coverage of the final round:

I’m missing the LPGA’s Jamie Farr tournament in Toledo this week because I’m stuck in scout camp hell—bad food, miles of hiking, unsanitary latrines, etc. (I do, however, have the barest minimum bar on my BlackBerry, which is how I’m posting this). Then, when reading a Toledo paper that somehow found its way into camp, I discover that there won’t be one next year, either.

The tournament apparently is taking a hiatus because the Senior US Open will be held next year at Inverness, and the powers that be didn’t think that Toledo could support two major tournaments in the same year—much less a month apart.

The good news is that the Owens Corning - Jamie Farr will return in 2012 with a multi year contract.

I’m very sorry to miss it. It was a lot of fun.

You can see photos of my trip last year here in my Flickr account.