The #1 LPGA player finishes #1 again. Dinah Shore, beloved matriarch of this LPGA major, would be proud of Lorena Ochoa’s steady tournament and excellent final round in capturing the title at the Kraft Nabisco Championship at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, CA. Low-rena does it again with a sparkling five-under 67 and a dominating winning margin of five strokes.
Annika Sorenstam, feeling peppier after an I.V. at the hospital and a good night’s rest for her ailing stomach, carded a 68 for the day and a score of -6 for a second-place tie with Suzann Petterson. Suzann, after hurtling from 62nd place to 9th following yesterday’s round, shot an impressive Sunday 68.
But this Sunday belonged the Lorena, the enchantress of the short grass, who sank every putt in sight today and boomed 300+ drives that left even her errant tee-shots with only a short-iron approach. All of it added up to a celebratory leap with her mother, father, sister, and assorted friends into Poppy’s Pond (named for longtime tournament director Terry "Poppy" Wilcox) beside the 18th green, a tradition begun by Amy Alcott in 1988.
Not that Lorena should be looking behind her, but Annika and Suzann raced aggressively up the leaderboard this Sunday, stoking the fires under an already hot year on the LPGA tour.
Here are the top 10:
1 Lorena Ochoa -11
T2 Annika Sorenstam -6
T2 Suzann Pettersen -6
T4 Maria Hjorth -5
5 Seon Hwa Lee -4
T6 Mi Hyun Kim -3
T6 Na Yeon Choi -3
T6 Hee-Won Han -3
T8 Inbee Park -2
T10 Se Ri Pak -1
Just recently I had read some comments from Lorena Ochoa where she said she always keeps an eye on the leaderboard to look out for Annika and how she is doing. She did not have to worry about anyone else this week. Another commanding performance, another win and this time it’s a Major. People, stop worrying about Tiger Woods, it is Lorena where all the attention must be focused. Quite honestly she seems to have a better chance to put in a phenomenal season than even Tiger Woods. Of course if Tiger Woods comes across this message he might just take his game to the next level(whoa!) but just look at Lorena this season. This Major was a newspaper report put it “a slam dunk victory for her”.
She seems all set to improve upon her great run last year and that is no mean feat. Her only defeat this year has been at home and that probably hurts quite a lot. Now she is just a point shy of being inducted into the Hall of Fame but since she is yet to complete her ten years on tour she cannot be a part of that club till 2012.
Again the leaderboard this week made me wonder how the South Koreans manage to churn out so many top quality women golfers and why the same is not replicated on the men’s tour.
Comment by Andy Brown
— April 7, 2008 @ 9:07 am