It is her 3rd win in 2009. From AP-
Lorena Ochoa successfully defended her Navistar LPGA Classic title, overcoming early troubles to shoot a 2-under 70 on Sunday for a four-stroke victory over Michelle Wie and Brittany Lang.
Ochoa finished at 18-under 270 on The Senator course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s Capitol Hill complex to snap an 11-start winless streak dating to the Corona Championship in late April. The top-ranked Mexican star has three victories this year and 27 overall on the LPGA Tour.
Ochoa wiped out her three-stroke lead coming into the day with a bogey and double bogey in the first five holes. She erased any drama with a birdie on No. 17.
Wie overcame a gimpy left ankle to close with a 66, while Lang had a 70.
After winning 8 times in 2008, most members of the golf media have labeled Ochoa as being in a slump this year. True she didn’t win for 11 tournaments this year, but has anyone looked how competitive the LPGA is right now? There hasn’t been this wide open a money and player of the year race in a decade at least. Ochoa is unlikely to win the former but still has a shot at the later. Why is it bad for ladies professional golf when you have exciting races rather than one player dominating?
Michelle Wie finished in a tie for 2nd. She probably won’t get a victory in 2009 but I’ll be surprised if she don’t get her first professional triumph in 2010.
The number one woman player in the world didn’t take long to win a LPGA tournament in 2009. From AP-
A few minutes after finishing off her 25th LPGA Tour victory, Lorena Ochoa was asked if she thinks she’s mentally tougher than her rivals.
“Yes,” Ochoa said.
She’s simply better than everybody else, too.
That was obvious again Sunday when she rallied to win the Honda LPGA Thailand.
Three strokes behind playing partner Paula Creamer at the start of the round, Ochoa shot a 6-under 66 for a three-stroke victory.
*****
Ochoa finished at 14-under 274 — shooting 71-69-68 the first three days — on the Siam Country Club’s Plantation Course, and earned $217,500 for her second straight season-opening victory. Last year, she opened with a victory in Singapore in the HSBC Women’s Champions and went on to win five of her first six events.
*****
South Korea’s Hee Young Park shot a 65 to finish a career-high second. The third-ranked Creamer had a 73, leaving her four strokes back at 10 under.
I was surprised by Creamer’s poor Sunday finish. She opened the final round with a three-shot lead.
Two LPGA events this year, and both have seen a golfer of Korean heritage finish second.(Michelle Wie was second in Hawaii) If they start winning, will the Asians are ruining the tour talk return?
Thai-American Stacy Prammanasudh’s strong finish will help her efforts to qualify for the 2009 US Solheim team.
Lorena Ochoa won her first LPGA event of 2009. How many tournaments will she end up winning this year?
Hound Dog and The Constructivist are also blogging on Ochoa’s win.
The US Women’s professional golf circuit tees it up for the first time at the SBS Open in Hawaii. The 2008 event was won by Annika Sorenstam who has since stepped away from the game. Also not in the field is World #1 ranked player Lorena Ochoa. The SBS field is strong however with Paula Creamer, Suzann Pettersen, and Ji-Yai Shin. Shin who won the final LPGA event of 2008, the ADT Championship, looks to begin where she left off.
So another LPGA season is about to underway. A slimmer one than the 2008 schedule, with the loss of quite a few tournaments. The 2010 schedule is looking rough already, with the SBS Open already down as history.
Some off the course news, the LPGA signed a 10-year deal with the Golf Channel. This is great news for the tour.
As much that news sounds interesting, I prefer talking about what goes on during tournaments than all off the course distractions. Here are my predictions for 2009
Player of the Year- Ji Yai Shin. Shin is ranked #5 in the world and has 26 professional wins at age 20. Last year she won 3 LPGA titles, including a major championship. She has a unflappable personality on course, and I personally think she’ll top Ochoa this year. Golf blogger Mulligan Stu is on board the Shin Express also.
Ochoa won’t lose the money title by much and will retain #1 ranking in the world.
Rookie of the Year- Shin. The 2009 LPGA rookie class is incredible with Shin, Vicki Hurst, Michelle Wie, Stacy Lewis, and a few more could have immediate impact. Shin however is going to win the ROY title in a runaway.
Comeback of the Year- Brittany Lincicome. If she is healthy, I see her returning to her 2007 form.
The come out of nowhere award- Amy Yang. She shouldn’t really be a contender for this, but even my LPGA golf buddies Hound Dog, The Contstructivist, and Ryan are not paying any attention to this golfer’s chances in 2009, so why would the golf media. Yang won twice on the LET last year and I’ll go out on a limb by putting her in the top 5 players for 2009. More on that later.
1st time winners for 2009- Wie, V Hurst, Yang, Angela Park
How many times will naturalized US citizen Angela Park be mislabeled as South Korean by the golf media in 2009- At least two times
The 2009 Solheim Cup matches- US wins 16-12
The 2009 US Solheim Cup qualifiers- Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Angela Stanford, Wie, Hurst, Christina Kim, Morgan Pressel, Nicole Castrale, Brittany Lang, and Stacy Prammanasudh
Beth Daniel’s Captain’s selections- Two potted plants Juli Inkster and Natalie Gulbis. Any Asian American golfer if they want to play in the matches, should only plan on making it via the points list. As I pointed out two years ago, the team’s Captains have done great gymnastic work in order to avoid selecting Asian golfers for the team, even if the criteria they used is in conflict with what they or past Captains have said or done.
So Wie, Hurst, Kim, Prammanasudh, Jane Park will have to make the team by performance. Daniel will pick potted plants for the US squad before choosing any of those talented ladies.
How many tournaments will the South Koreans win in 2009- Ten. Five by Shin. Plus at least two more from Wie, C Kim, and half Korean V Hurst.
How many members of the media will bemoan the Asian invasion- Three.
How many times will I say Carolyn Bivens should be fired before she gets fired the 2009 season ends- Three
How many LPGA writing related Knucklehead awards will I give out in 2009- Five, starting with this guy.
How many times I will be a credentialed member of the LPGA media in 2009- Zero
How many times will I apply- Zero because the LPGA has left the building so far as Florida goes.
2009 Major Champions- I hate picking way in advance, but I’ll go out on a limb. Shin(US), Ochoa(Kraft Nabisco), Creamer(LPGA), and someone else. Ok, that’s 3 out of 4. My crystal ball is not working too well at the moment. Put me down for Hee Won Han at the British Open.
Miscellaneous predictions-
Katherine Hull will take over as Australia’s #1 golfer from Karrie Webb
Se Ri Pak will win the Jamie Farr Classic for a record breaking sixth time
The Korean LPGA tour stop curse aka No winner of the tournament since 2003 has won a LPGA event afterwards, will finally be broken with Suzann Pettersen taking home a LPGA win in 2009
Now for my my top 30, I’ll put it beneath the fold
1 Shin JY
2 Ochoa
3 Yang
4 Creamer
5 SH Lee
6 Hull
7 Tseng
8 V Hurst
9 Pettersen
10 Wie
11 Han
12 Jang
13 Kerr
14 A Park
15 Stanford
16 Webb
17 JY Lee
18 EH Ji
19 Feng
20 Castrale
21 Lewis
22 IK Kim
23 Prammanasudh
24 Pak
25 Pressel
26 C Kim
27 MH Kim
28 Stupples
29 NY Choi
30 Lincicome
We’ll come back at the end of the year and see how I did.
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The news out of the LPGA event in West Palm Beach isn’t who made the 36 hole cut or Annika Sorenstam having to take a drug test after play ended or led at the end of the second day(IT don’t matter, all scores reset before play begins again tomorrow) but who missed the cut. Here’s a sampling-
#1 Lorena Ochoa
#2 Yani Tseng
3-time ADT Championship winner Annika Sorenstam
2007 Major Champions and South Floridians- Morgan Pressel and Cristie Kerr
I picked Kerr, and Ochoa to be around on Sunday. So they missing the cut comes as a complete surprise.
So who’s left- Katherine Hull, Angela Stanford, Christina Kim, Paula Creamer, In Kyung Kim, Jeong Jang, Angela Park, Seon Hwa Lee, Ji Yai Shin, Helen Alfredsson, Eun hee Ji, Jee Young Lee, Suzann Pettersen, Sun Young Yoo, Karen Stupples, Karrie Webb.
Unlike in earlier years, no playoff was needed to narrow the field down to 16.
That’s 7 South Koreans(IK Kim, Jang, Lee, Shin, Ji, Lee, and Yoo) plus two Korean-Americans(Park and C Kim). If we go by the South of the Border factor, this week’s winner will be Angela Park. The 2006 ADT champ was Julieta Granada born in Paraguay, In 2007 it was Lorena Ochoa born in Mexico. Angela Park was born in Brazil. If Natalie Gulbis was around and got paired with Angela on Sunday, her winning the one million dollar grand prize would be all but certain. Gulbis played with Granada and Ochoa on Sunday when they won.
The only thing keeping the golf media from being dismayed over those players not around on the weekend, is probably the presence of media darling Paula Creamer, and part-time Florida resident Karrie Webb. Creamer would pass Ochoa for #1 on the money list with a win on Sunday, but I’m sticking with my original pick. Ji Yai Shin.
Others blogging on today’s play- Ryan, Hound Dog, and The Constructivist
Play begins today at 9:30 when Cristie Kerr tees off. Kerr will be playing by herself because Inbee Park withdrew after 14 holes yesterday. Inbee must be either sick or injured, for she was 13 over par for the round.
Katherine Hull has the first round lead after a first round 68. She leads Ji Yai Shin and In Kyung Kim by one shot. Was I ever on target with my pre-tournament predictions for Shin, Hull, and Inbee(Though I was far off with Kerr but so was Greg Stoda at the Palm Beach Post)
Here are all the first round scores-
Star-divide
68 Katherine Hull
69 Ji-Yai Shin, In-Kyung Kim
70 Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, Ji Young Oh
71 Paula Creamer, Christina Kim, Karen Stupples
72 Yani Tseng, Suzann Pettersen, Seon Hwa Lee, Maria Hjorth Jee Young Lee, Candie Kung, Morgan Pressel
73 Angela Stanford, Jeong Jang, Helen Alfredsson Karrie Webb, Nicole Castrale, Angela Park
74 Annika Sorenstam, Hee-Won Han, Sun Young Yoo
75 Lorena Ochoa, Song-Hee Kim, Laura Diaz
78 Cristie Kerr, Shanshan Feng, Meena Lee
WD Inbee Park
Oh no 5 of the top 6 are South Korean and only one white American in the top nine and two in the top 16. Someone must be done to fix this inequity, maybe a foreign player quota but only for non-blondes.(Rolling my eyes)
Since scores reset after both Friday’s and Saturday’s play, the goal is to survive the cut after 36 and 54 holes. The big news yesterday is how Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam, struggled. Ochoa and Sorenstam are in no way out of the picture for the weekend but they will have to play very good golf today.
The two best LPGA bloggers around, Hound Dog and The Constructivist, are also commenting on yesterday’s play.
In West Palm Beach Florida. The 32 player field will start competing at Trump International when Ji-Yai Shin and Shanshan Feng go off the tee at 9:30.
That’s a interesting first pairing for a tournament, even for a limited field event. Shin is the defending British Open champion, ranked #6 in the world, and just 11 days off winning the LPGA Tour stop in Japan. Shin has to be considered one of the favorites this week. The probable reason for this early pairing is Shin not being a LPGA Tour member yet.
The ADT has a interesting playoff format. 32 players begin the tournament, but 16 are eliminated after Friday’s play ends. If there are any ties, a playoff takes place to eliminate any excess players. Then scores reset for Saturday play. At the end of Saturday, the top 8 only qualify for Sunday’s final round where the winner takes home a million dollar check. Julieta Granada won the ADT in 2006 and Lorena Ochoa won in 2007. Their good luck charm final round playing partner, Natalie Gulbis, is not in this year’s field.
How do I handicap the field. First I’ll give the Palm Beach Post’s picks for the final 8. As you can imagine, I got a bone to pick with the newspaper.
The Post in order of finish- Ochoa, Yani Tseng, Christina Kim, Paula Creamer, Inbee Park, Cristie Kerr, Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb
My picks- Shin, Ochoa, Kerr, Feng, Helen Alfredsson, Sun Young Yoo, Katherine Hull, Creamer
Post picks to make it 54 holes- Jeong Jang, In Kyung Kim, Candie Kung, Song-Hee Kim, Angela Park, Suzann Pettersen, Morgan Pressel, Yoo
My picks- Pressel, IK Kim, Kung, Webb, Pettersen, Tseng, C Kim, Ji Young Oh
My main gripes with the Post selections
1- Only South Korean player chosen.(Christina Kim) Two made it in 2006, two made it in 2007. The player who made it both years, Mi Hyun Kim, is not in this year’s field.
Inbee Park has played terrible since winning the US Open. Out of the 13 South Koreans in the field, she may well be my last choice this week. One surprise Korean player has made the final round both previous year. Last year it was Sarah Lee. I think we’ll have one this weekend too. Sun Young Yoo has been quietly been playing excellent golf for about two months.
Angela Park also was selected to make play on Saturday and she has been playing almost as poorly as In bee. The Post picked the wrong Korean major champion to be around Sunday, I’d bet Greg Stoda ten dollars its Shin over Inbee.
2- The selection of Karrie Webb. Webb made the final 8 both times, but she has been erratic at best in 2008 and isn’t playing the best golf of any Australian right now. That designation goes to Katherine Hull, who I picked to make the final 8.
We’ll have to wait till Sunday to see who is right.
Some other notes
*- Much has been made about Annika Sorenstam’s ‘retirement‘. While Annika won’t play the tour in 2009, I bet she comes back to compete 10-15 times in a year before 2013 comes and this won’t be her last ever Tour Championship. We’ll see who is right in 5 years.
*- Randall Mell of the Sun-Sentinel writes that ADT company didn’t want to end its sponsorship but the renewal price the LPGA was asking for was too high.
Also up with previews of the ADT Championship- Hound Dog and The Constructivist
For a golf writer to talk about a Lorena slump. From AP-
PRATTVILLE, Ala. – Lorena Ochoa takes another streak into the LPGA’s Navistar Classic. For a change, she’s trying to end this one.
Ochoa, set to begin play Thursday on Capitol Hill’s Senator Course, is making her first start since the Safeway Classic on Aug. 24 and is winless in seven events.
“It’s been challenging in the last months, that I didn’t get any wins,” Ochoa said. “So it would be nice to start that roll again.”
She spent much of the past month at home in Mexico trying to regain the form that helped her win six of her first nine starts this year, including four straight.
Lorena’s last win was Sybase in May. After her win at the Ginn Open, at least two golf writers talked of Ochoa winning all the rest of the tournaments she entered in 2008, and or completing the Grand Slam. The usual silly talk heard from lazy people covering pro golf, except this time it was Lorena Ochoa instead of Tiger Woods. Ryan made note of it at the time.
Yesterday in a comment at Hounddog’s blog, I made mention of the lack of Lorena slump talk. This article had come out the day before. Bad me for not noticing.
Then I’m not Andrea Adelson who wrote Lorena would win a Grand Slam before Tiger. Andrea, how many times has Woods completed the Grand Slam and how many times has Lorena? Time for some Final Jeopardy music…….
Tiger 3, Lorena 0. It was 2-0 before Adelson wrote her dumbass column. I wonder what she would be writing now?
By the way I’m not criticizing Lorena, just the media coverage. There are probably at least 50 LPGA golfers who would take Lorena’s results since Sybase for their own.
Talking about media coverage, is it coincidental or not that the talk about too many Asian winners died off at the same time that three blondes took LPGA events in a row. The blondes are now ruining the LPGA tour!
She defeated Yani Tseng by three shots.
REUNION, Fla. – Lorena Ochoa became the first LPGA Tour player in 45 years to win four tournaments in consecutive weeks.
Ochoa shot a 3-under 69 in the final round of the Ginn Open on Sunday and beat rookie Yani Tseng by three strokes for her fifth victory in six starts this year.
Ochoa trailed early in the final round, but went ahead for good with three straight birdies beginning at No. 8. She finished 19 under and became the second player to win four times in as many weeks.
Mickey Wright did it in 1962 and 1963. Kathy Whitworth (1969) and Annika Sorenstam (2001) also won four consecutive events, but both took a week off during their runs.
Sorenstam (2004-05) and Nancy Lopez (1978) hold the tour record with five straight victories in events entered, but neither of those came in consecutive weeks.
Lorena has an incredible streak going. She also won the HSBC in Singapore this year. Yani Tseng held up better versus Lorena than some of Super Mex’s other recent pursuers. When the golf came on the air this afternoon, Lorena was only up by one. A combination of missed makable putts and shots hung out to the right ended Yani Tseng’s challenge.
I predict Lorena will not win the Stanford Intl. You can take it to the bank, because Lorena is taking the week off. The streak will have to wait to May before Lorena either continues it or someone snaps it for her.
What looked like a rout, suddenly became a close tournament. Then a magnifiicent approach shot capped off a magnificent season for the World’s #1 female golfer.
Only days after her 26th birthday, Lorena Ochoa got a million dollar birthday present. Taking the ADT Championship with a final round 68 to win by two shots . Natalie Gulbis finished a solo second with a round of 70. Paula Creamer finished third after shooting an even par round of 70.
Out of her million dollar winnings, Lorena will give $100,000 for flood relief in the State of Tabasco.
Lorena will make other donations.
“I don’t have a number, but whatever we(her foundation) need. Sí, just we’ll see. I want to make sure—we have plans to buy land and to start construction at the high school, so I want to find good things to do with the money.”
Lorena got things going early on Sunday morning. On the second hole, Super Mex hit a 50 degree wedge from 85 yards to fifteen feet. Lorena made the putt to go one under for the day.
A wedge to ten feet on the third, and a 7-wood to six feet on the fifth also resulted in birdies. After another birdie on six, Lorena was four under par for the tournament and four shots up.
Noone would get closer than three before hole 17. The seventh hole jumping up and grabbing several of Lorena’s closest pursuers. The par 3 hole playing an average of 4.75 strokes for the day.
Lorena seemed to be on cruise control till the 17th hole. Her 8-iron tee shot of 155 yards going over the green but without finding water. It took four more shots for Lorena to find the bottom of the hole.
By the time she walked off the 17th green, Lorena’s lead was down to one. Natalie Gulbis, playing in the same group as Lorena, had made birdie after hitting her tee shot to fifteen feet on 17.
Lorena admitted to being mad when she got to the 18th tee box. Then her tee shot cut it dangerously close to the water on the right side, landing in the rough. Natalie after a good drive, hitting her 3 rescue second shot to some fifteen feet from the hole.
Considering Lorena still faced a tough shot to a difficult hole, some may have thought Gulbis was thinking of a win but Natalie wasn’t.
“Playoff did. Lorena can make par from anywhere. But I thought I just wanted a chance to be able to make that putt to push it to a playoff. That’s what I was hoping for. I didn’t even consider that I would be able to win it outright.”
Lorena then smoothly hit her 6-iron approach shot to two feet from the cup. Effectively sealing her eigth win of the year.
Eight wins, almost five million and earnings, a major championship and player of the year. What did Lorena have to say afterwards when asked what’s next.
“No, there is always room to improve. I want to get much better in my short game, especially 100 yards, 110, 100, 90, 80. I hit them just okay, maybe 10 feet. But at the same time with a 9 iron, 8 iron, 7 iron, I need to improve on my short distances.”
An improved Lorena Ochoa is a scary proposition. A deserving winner for a wonderful tournament. Now we have to wait three months till the LPGA 2008 begins. I can hardly wait.
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Wizbang Sports linked with LPGA Tour year end awards...
The ADT tees it up this morning. Here is how I break down the 32 player field.
Top tier favorites- Suzann Pettersen, Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Cristie Kerr, Karrie Webb
On past performance here and who is playing well this year, these are the five most likely
The Koreans or why they just don’t seem to play well at Trump International- Over the last five ADTs, Soo Yun Kang came the closest to winning the event in 2005 finishing second. Il Mi Chung did have a piece of the lead on the back nine last year but wilted.
There are 8 South Koreans in the field, plus two other players of Korean heritage(Angela Park and Christina Kim). I have a hard time seeing one of them winning, though based on their records this year, I can’t avoid making some of them second tier choices.
Second tier favorites- Se Ri Pak, Paula Creamer, Jeong Jang, Morgan Pressel, Laura Davies
Dark horses- These are the people I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they won Sunday even though they’ll hardly get a mention from others
Brittany Lincicome
Seon Hwa Lee
Angela Stanford
Jee Young Lee
Angela since the Jamie Farr has had only two non top 15 finishes. A missed cut and a T39th.
Jee Young is coming off a T6, T18 and a T9 in her last three outings. She has played well all year.
The in betweeners- Catorina Matthew, Natalie Gulbis, Mi Hyun Kim, Juli Inkster, Angela Stanford, Jee Young Lee, Stacy Prammanasudh, Angela Park, Maria Hjorth, Seon Hwa Lee
The Julieta Granada pick for 2007- Inbee Park. A rookie who didn’t win Rookie of Year, or win a tournament before the ADT. The only 2007 ADT entrant fitting Granada’s description before last year’s tournament is Inbee.
Then the rest- Reilley Rankin, Meaghan Francella, Sophie Gustafson, Shi Hyun Ahn, Laura Diaz, Sarah Lee, Nicole Castrale, Sherri Steinhauer,
People I’d be most surprised if they won this week- Christina Kim and Ai Miyazato. I like both these players but right now they don’t look to be on form.
My picks for the final eight- Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Jee Young Lee, Seon Hwa Lee, Angela Stanford, Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lincicome, and Christie Kerr.
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