To be diplomatic, let's just say the fields for the last two tour stops in Hilton Head and San Antonio have been...well, less than spectacular. Or we can choose to dispense with the diplomacy: The fields have stunk. The PGA Tour has gone from the Bubba show on Broadway to dinner theater in New Haven. All the momentum generated by a uniquely talented and colorful Masters champion is gone. It's akin to the NFL staging exhibition games after the Super Bowl.

There is, however, a remedy for this huge dip in drama. It's called the LPGA Tour, and it's worth a very serious look, both this week, and for the rest of 2012.

Yani Tseng deserves more attention for her accomplishments. (Photo: Getty Images)

For starters, it features the best player in the world, Yani Tseng. She isn't receiving anywhere near the attention that she deserves, and it's because she's from Taiwan. If this were an American woman putting up these kinds of numbers, there'd be no end to the adulation. Tseng, only 23, has a real chance to break all the records.

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And what about all those Americans? Will Michelle Wie finally live up to her potential? Will Paula Creamer get her game back on track? Then, of course, there is the story of the phenom, 17-year-old Lexi Thompson: Will Lexi continue to develop, giving the tour the boost it's needed since the retirements of Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa?

LPGA star Yani Tseng has been included on Time magazine's annual list, The 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Annika Sorenstam, her friend and the woman from whom Tseng bought her house in Lake Nona, outside Orlando, was commissioned to write the capsule. Sorenstam wrote:

"A rare talent with the ability to energize a new generation of LPGA fans, Yani will get even better as she gains experience. Her potential both as a player and as an ambassador for the game is limitless. While there's no way of knowing how many records she'll shatter, Yani's blend of skill, grace and work ethic will be a powerful force on the LPGA tour for years to come."

Tseng, 23, has become the most dominant player in golf, the winner of 15 LPGA events, five of them major championships.

Tseng, who is from Taiwan, was the only golfer to make the list, though Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were included in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

-- John Strege

(Yani Tseng is so money. Photo by Harry How/Getty Images.)

The most dominant golfer in the world currently resides on the LPGA Tour, and Yani Tseng's remarkable run through the early stages of 2012 has the history writers reaching for their erasers seemingly every week. With three wins through five tournaments already (she placed fifth and eighth in the two she didn't win), Tseng is well on her way towards a third straight LPGA Player of the Year title and only four points shy of qualifying for the Hall of Fame -- which she can narrow down to two with a victory at this week's Kraft Nabisco Championship. And at age 23, she has over two years to break Kerri Webb's record as the youngest ever to qualify for the LPGA HoF.

Related: Yani Tseng's incredible season

Considering the way she's playing, it's almost a given Tseng will reach that by summer, so I've decided to put together a list of the five defining moments that have brought her to the brink of an already Hall of Fame career. With all of the talk about who is the best player on the PGA Tour, there's no question who the No. 1 golfer in the world is.

(Thanks to Stina Sternberg for help compiling this list.)

Yani Tseng's Top Five Career-Defining Moments (So Far):

5. Yani Tseng, at age 15, beats Michelle Wie in the final of the 2004 U.S. Women's Pub Links.
Tseng's "coming out" party, the young amateur took down the defending American star on her own turf. The 15-year-old made it clear she meant business, saying afterward, "I'm really not intimidated by Michelle. I look at myself as a long hitter too. My friends who happened to also play in this tournament watched Michelle play and they told me, 'You're going to do fine and you're just as good.' "

Please excuse me for making the obvious reference to Alabama Crimson Tide phenom Brooke Pancake on the national "holiday" that shares her surname. It was either her, or the much vaguer pancake reference to a flop shot. Why spend endless minutes trying to connect a meaningless holiday to golf with six-degrees of separation when only one is needed?

For those of you not in the know, Brooke Pancake hit the national scene during last year's U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, falling to Danielle Kang on the final hole of the semifinal match. She is currently a senior at Alabama coming off a first-team All-American junior season, both on the course and in the classroom. She is a three-time NGCA Scholar Athlete and was awarded the 2011 Edith Cummings Munson Golf Award for the All-American with the highest GPA, winning the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the year for women's golf in 2010 and 2011. With an above-average GPA, Pancake carried a below-par average through the first-half of the 2010-2011 season before finishing in the top-10 with a 72.29 scoring average. She equaled the school 18-hole record 65, not once, but twice, and ranked second in the country in putts and GIR (she led the nation in fewest three-putts). 

She also dominates all Google search results for "golf pancake."

While the list of Brooke Pancake's accomplishments are long, videos of her game are not. This shaky, hopefully-not-shot-by-a-stalker, look of her playing an entire 6th hole (the course is not listed) is the most-watched. It's followed by a GolfWeek preview of the 2011-2012 women's collegiate season and an ESPNU look at the 2010-2011 Alabama squad prior to the 2010 SEC women's golf championship.

Side-note: Though we have no evidence to suggest she is a fan of the food or the holiday, we are fairly certain she's sick of the pancake references. Sorry Brooke.

Fair or not, Natalie Gulbis has always garnered more attention for her looks than her golf game. That isn't going to change anytime soon.

The 29-year-old LPGA star will appear in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue, which will hit newsstands this week. But while she's done provocative shoots before, this one had a twist. You see, that golf-themed bikini she's posing in is actually just a thin layer of body paint.

In the accompanying interview on Golf.com, Gulbis doesn't have to think long before answering which situation creates more pressure: having a five-footer to win an event or being naked and having a bunch of strangers paint your body?

"The most pressure was when they were taking pictures [laughs]. I was so nervous. You're up there, and they're playing club music and everyone is having fun and dancing around," Gulbis said. "They might forget that you're naked, but you don't forget that you're naked. And everybody's watching you."

Related: Sandra Gal wins our hottest golfer contest

So, how will her fellow LPGA players react?

"I think they're going to be excited. I understand why at first you'd think the tour might say, "Why is she doing that?" But I've never gotten that sense," Gulbis said. "In the 10 years I've been on tour, whether it's myself, or other players who have done cross-marketing events or shows, there's always been support. The LPGA gets excited when a magazine like Sports Illustrated wants to include one of our own. It's always good for our tour, and I think our players recognize that. And the Tour has always been supportive of me. I think they'll be very excited."

Surprisingly, Gublis was upset in the first round of GolfDigest.com's recent "Hottest Golfer" contest by Melissa Reid. Perhaps, the voting would have turned out a little differently had readers been able to factor in the sultry pro's latest photo shoot...

You can see a video of Gulbis' photo shoot below.

Of the 20 golfers who earned full LPGA status at last week's Qualifying School, Stephanie Kono is likely the only one disappointed about it.

The UCLA senior simply wanted a Futures Tour card so she could play there after finishing college this spring. Had she been told correctly before the final stage that she had achieved that just by advancing to the five-day final -- instead of after the start of the competition -- Kono said she wouldn't have bothered to come to LPGA International.

Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

But when she and Bruins' coach Carrie Forsyth separately talked to tour officials last month, each was mistakenly informed Kono needed to play in Daytona Beach. So Kono played, and played well, finishing T-9.

Since you can't defer an LPGA card, or use it as an amateur, Kono had to call Forsyth Sunday to tearfully tell her she was cutting her college career short. Forsyth understood (you can't pass on playing in the big leagues) even though it hurts UCLA's chances of repeating as NCAA champs.

Related: Five historic Q School grads

Still, why did the LPGA have to be so rigid with its protocol? Given their role in the mix-up, officials could have made an exception for Kono and let her join the tour after her college season. Kono certainly has a bright future as a pro. Too bad it starts under such bittersweet circumstances.

-- Ryan Herrington
Follow on Twitter: @GWcampusinsider

ORLANDO - There has been a lot of talk about wicked greens this week, not only at vaunted Royal Melbourne, site of the Presidents Cup, but Grand Cypress, home of the CME Group Titleholders.

No one would put Grand Cypress' putting surfaces in the all-artful league that Royal Melbourne occupies, but they are slick and sloping. The women will get their shot at Royal Melbourne soon enough, when the 2012 LPGA season kicks off there with the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open.

Aussie Karrie Webb watched some of the Presidents Cup broadcast Wednesday night. "I'm already a little scared about our tournament there at the start of the year," Webb said. "I'm hoping we don't have green speeds of 14. [But] Melbourne has a whole summer of hot, dry heat just to make those greens even firmer than what they already are."

Grand Cypress' greens aren't quite so frightful, but they will figure prominently in Sunday's final round, which will begin with Sandra Gal and Hee Young Park at seven-under 209 holding a one-stroke lead over Suzann Pettersen with Paula Creamer two back and Yani Tseng and Na Yeon Choi trailing by three.

"This week, just no idea on a lot of these greens," Park said, noting her usual practice-round routine hadn't been of much value this week. "It's more about trusting my feel. If it feels left to right, just trust my feel."

The greens are one reason the world's best women have risen to the top of the leader board after 54 holes. "I think it does bring out the best players," said Pettersen. "When the greens are this tricky and the course this firm, you'll see the best ball-strikers getting close on some of the surfaces. If you take on some of the pins, you can be rewarded, but you can make some bogeys as well."

Creamer erred on the side of caution in shooting a one-under 71 Saturday in pursuit of her first victory of 2011. "You can't be super aggressive with some of these holes," she said. "You're just going to have to make some 20- and 25-footers because of pin placements. I saw some of the 'dots' for tomorrow, and there's a lot of sucker pins. You're just going to have to make some putts early on and not let the leaders get too far away from you."

"It's interesting. I like it," Pettersen said of the firmness of the greens, noting that even wedge approaches were releasing during the third round. "It's hard to get [approaches] close, and you can't be too picky or you're on the wrong side of the hole and you might have a five-footer that you can barely touch. You can hit a great shot and have a six-footer that breaks more than a foot. It brings the feel into it, which I like."

Pettersen has kept the challenge in perspective thanks to some night-time television of her own.

"Having watched the President Cup," she said, "I feel pretty good about these greens."

-- Bill Fields

ORLANDO - Dominance hasn't been rare on the LPGA Tour over the last decade or so. There was Annika Sorenstam and then there was Lorena Ochoa, and now, with those two golfers retired from competition, there is Yani Tseng.

Coming out of the gates of her career faster than even that pair of stars, with 12 victories by age 22, including a quickest-ever five major championships, Tseng has nothing to prove at this week's year-ending CME Group Titleholders.

Whatever happens over 72 holes at Grand Cypress Resort, where 59 players will tee off Thursday in a tournament that has dusted off the Titleholders name - a precious one in women's golf history - will be an encore to a fantastic season for Tseng, the native of Taiwan who now lives in Sorenstam's former home in Orlando.

In 2011 Tseng has seven LPGA victories and 11 overall, wins at the Wegmans LPGA Championship and Ricoh Women's British Open among them. It is reminiscent of seasons that Sorenstam and Ochoa and greats before them enjoyed, the kind of year that dwarfs the competition.

"It's been a very nice year," said Suzann Pettersen, No. 2 to Tseng on the Rolex Rankings, "but when Yani has won seven events, it makes you not feel so great with your two. You can't do anything but applaud what she's done. She's played phenomenal. She kept it [up] all year, which has probably been the most impressive thing."

Even more than her two major titles in 2011, Tseng, who will pick up her second straight Rolex Player of the Year award at a Thursday reception, was buoyed by her appearance - and victory - at the Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship last month in her native country. Spectators turned out in droves, one of them Tseng's 92-year-old grandmother who had never seen her granddaughter play golf in person.

"The happy point I would say was in Taiwan," Tseng said. "That was unbelievable. I was really happy that I won that tournament."

Tseng was relaxed and talkative in a Wednesday press conference, having worked hard to learn English, including taking classes prior to the 2011 season. "I have been working on my English, same as my golf," said Tseng, who thanked a questioner who noted her progress. "I try to speak more. I remember four years ago even sitting here probably saying nothing, but now I can talk more, tell my story, my goals, how I can improve this year. I just feel like I can share more stories, more things to the media, to the fans. It's not just good for me, it's good for everybody."

It certainly is better for Tseng when dealing with her English-speaking coach and caddie. "Now we can fight," Tseng said lightheartedly. "Before when we fought, I always lost, but now with my English, I can fight with them. I can tell what's my side. I can tell them what I'm thinking."

Tseng might go back this off-season for more English tutoring, and while she is trying to enjoy life off the course - "I'm 22, so I start tasting the good wine," Tseng said - she realized how all her preparation set the stage for a great 2011. "All the hard work is paying off, and all the great players on the tour, they give me lots of motivation to become a better player," Tseng said. "We all push each other to get better, get better skills and better mentally because you have to play so good to win a tournament."

In gauging how Tseng's talent stacks up against what Sorenstam and Ochoa were able to achieve, Pettersen believes Tseng is competing against a deeper talent pool than Sorenstam but that the Swede is "by far the best one there's been."

"They're different - their games are different," Pettersen said. "Yani is probably the biggest hitter of the three. Annika was quite long at the time, too, but I look at Yani as a more aggressive player. Annika was a strategic perfectionist. She did everything by the the book. She made a plan and stuck to the plan. Lorena had a lot more feel, and she was relaxed. It never felt like she was tense. It's hard to compare. At the end of the day, you count victories, you count points, look at the numbers themselves and draw conclusions."

One number Tseng would like to get to next season is 10 LPGA wins. Sorenstam twice had double-digit LPGA campaigns, winning 11 times in 2002 and 10 times in 2005. Tseng said she might ask Sorenstam for some advice about having a monster season better than her current one, but she isn't lacking for confidence.

"The last three tournaments, I've been expecting to win like every tournament," Tseng said. "It's great pressure for me, because golf is not easy, and there's so many great players on tour. The only thing you can do is focus on yourself. If you think too much, it's just going to mess with you all the tournament. Just try to enjoy the pressure. That pressure gives me motivation. I want to play better to show all the fans what I can do."

The pressure plus motivation equation worked perfectly in her return to her homeland, where she was a singular focus as much as Arnold Palmer or Tiger Woods ever was. "Before the tournament I was feeling so much pressure," Tseng said, "but on the first day I was teeing off on the first tee and I feel like all the pressure is gone because I just want to enjoy this big crowd all over the fairways."

-- Bill Fields

ORLANDO - Sixteen years, seven months, eight days.

Golf denotes its young and its old, rightly so, when they do something spectacular, and with some time to reflect on it, Lexi Thompson's victory in the Navistar LPGA Classic on Sept. 18 seems no less remarkable.

The Florida teenager shattered by more than two years the record as youngest to win a multiple-round LPGA tournament - a brief lifetime of hard work, gifted athleticism and no small measure of smart golf parenting by her father, Scott, and mother, Judy, combining to tilt a sport's youthful landscape ever more. 

Thompson will be an LPGA member in 2012, having successfully petitioned for a waiver from the minimum age of 18. But before next year there is punctuation to be put on this year, the CME Group Titleholders this week at Grand Cypress Resort. For Thompson, since her historic win, there have been whirlwind publicity visits to New York City, plenty of fan mail and time to savor what she accomplished.

"It has always been my dream to win on the LPGA and play full-time," Thompson said Tuesday in a media room populated not only by reporters but LPGA tournament directors curious what the precocious teen's effect will be on the circuit. "Having my Dad on the bag that week, sharing the experience with me, was everything I could ask for. I worked so hard those few weeks before that tournament - everything just came together."

The aftermath of that magical weekend in Alabama has included some "pretty cool" moments, foremost meeting young actors Taylor Lautner and Jonah Hill when Thompson went to the "Today" show. "It has been a lot of my decisions doing a lot of the media stuff," she said. "I love traveling and doing TV shows and things like that. It has been a lot of fun for me since [the Navistar], throughout this whole journey. It has been a blast."

As Thompson sets off in earnest on her LPGA career, it is worth pausing to consider how joy has been an ingredient in her precocious golf development - an element the family (which also includes tour pro Nick and college player Curtis) touched on Tuesday.

"We made it fun," Judy Thompson said. "It was never a chore, like you have to go hit two pyramids [of range balls], or go chip for four hours. Go do what you want to do. If you want to play 36 holes with the guys, go do it. If you want to hit balls all day, do it. It was up to them, what their practice was for the day. We never said, 'You have to do this or this.' It was always up to them."

Related: Lexi Thompson's swing frame-by-frame