With news of Annika’s imminent retirement from professional golf, chances to see her go head to head with Lorena Ochoa are lessening with every tournament. Last weekend at the Michelob Ultra Open, it was looking like a heated battle as the two players were placed first and second going into the weekend. But Sorenstam pulled ahead while Ochoa fell apart, and the final round ended up somewhat less than climactic. But it’s a new day, a new tournament. The second round of the Sybase Classic is underway, and both Annika and Ochoa have spots in the top ten, Annika now tied for ... full post »

Big news in the golf world: Annika Sorenstam announced this afternoon that she’s planning to “step away from competitive golf” after this season. Wow and wow. Sorenstam has achieved pretty much every honor known to pro golf. The Hall of Famer has won 72 tournaments to date, including ten majors and a career Grand Slam. She’s been the LPGA player of the year a record eight times. How appropriate that the former world number one is going out on top, having recovered from the back and neck injuries that plagued her last season. She’s finally back to peak form, having won three ... full post »

Take a look at the leaderboard at the Michelob Ultra Open, and you might think you’re looking at the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. The world’s two best women golfers are currently leading the pack, with Annika at 12 under, Lorena three strokes behind at 9 under. It’s a real live showdown, folks. The pair have finished 1st and 2nd at two other tournaments this season, but Ochoa’s always gotten the best of Annika, by five strokes at the Kraft Nabisco, and by eleven at the HSBC Women’s Champions. Annika’s two victories this season, meanwhile, have both come on weekends when Ochoa ... full post »

Annika Sorenstam edged out Paula Creamer in a one-hole sudden death playoff to pick up her 71st victory today at the Stanford International Pro-Am, her second win of the season. After Thursday’s first round, Sorenstam called the course “silly tough.” I’m sure Creamer is thinking along the same lines today after one missed birdie opportunity after another. The playoff hole (Creamer’s first playoff as a pro) was particularly underwhelming. Both Sorenstam and Creamer laid up on the long par-5, then hit their third shots over water, Sorenstam hitting the green, Creamer landing on the fringe. Both missed their birdie putts, Creamer ... full post »

Lorena Ochoa showed she’s perfectly capable of a come-from-behind win this weekend at the Ginn Open. Entering the weekend a stroke behind rookie Yani Tseng, she went seven under on Saturday, three under on Sunday to make up all the ground she needed and then some, for her fourth consecutive win. The four-peat ties the LPGA record of most consecutive wins currently held by Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, and Annika Sorenstam. One more win will put her in the record books for good. What was most surprising about Ochoa’s win wasn’t the relatively small three-stroke victory margin (she’s been winning by as ... full post »

After winning four of her five tournaments this season, it’s getting to the point where the big news isn’t when Lorena Ochoa is ahead, but when she’s not. “It’s nice to be a few shots behind,” Ochoa said yesterday after her second round at the Ginn Open. Yes, I’m sure it gets old to always be ten or eleven strokes out front. It must be a real drag. Ochoa shot 68, 67–good enough for her current position of T3, three strokes behind the current leader, rookie Yani Tseng. The Taiwanese teenager shot a blistering 64 yesterday to take the lead going into ... full post »

I don’t really need to write the rest of this blog, you got the main dope right there in the headline. That’s right, Lorena Ochoa shot three consecutive 66s and is entering the final round of the Corona Championship with a seven-stroke lead over current runner-up Inbee Park. Think she’s going to win? At the risk of jinxing the woman, I’d say it’s a safe bet. Of the three wins she’s already chalked up this season, the smallest margin she won by was five strokes. Improving her chances is the fact that several of the LPGA’s top performers–Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, ... full post »

Sports writers love a good storyline. And in the world of golf, the storyline this season has been “Will Tiger win the Grand Slam?” Personally, I think we might see not just one Grand Slam this year, but two. That’s right, two Grand Slams. One for the men, and one for the ladies. This weekend we’re treated to the Masters, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’s betting against Tiger. But Lorena Ochoa is already a quarter of the way there with Sunday’s win at the Kraft Nabisco. This has been a season of supremacy for Ochoa. She’s played in four tournaments and ... full post »

The final round of the Kraft Nabisco looks to be a race—we’ve got a top ten that features Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, and Annika Sorenstam, all ready and waiting to take a dip in Champions Lake. Ochoa is holding off the rest of the pack with a one-stroke lead. If she wins this thing, she’ll have a 75% win percentage on the season, having already picked up two wins this year out of three starts. Ochoa’s been taking the rest of the LPGA to school this season with some seriously muy grande victory margins. In February she beat Annika by ... full post »

Hat tip to The Golf Girl for bringing my attention to this farce of a factoid: a recent survey found that women think golf is the “least sexy” sport men could play. One Dr. Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire (the UK version of Dr. Phil, if that tells you anything) surveyed 6,000 adults and explains: “First, golfers don’t have to be fit. Second, they keep their clothes on while playing. And third, they frequently wear plaid and Pringle jumpers.” Far from explaining the rationale, these points have me scratching my head. Nudity has nothing to do with ... full post »

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog posing the question: with Annika back, is everyone else playing for number two? Now it appears that the question has been answered, but not for the reasons I thought–everyone’s playing for number two, all right, but it’s because of Lorena Ochoa. In this first head-to-head matchup of the season between Ochoa and Sorenstam, a no-cut invitation-only tournament featuring winners and top money listers, Ochoa took her game to a new level with near-perfect play. She didn’t just kind of win the HSBC Women’s Champions, she killed it. With a final score of 20-under-par in ... full post »

Holy cow, have you seen the HSBC Women’s Champions leaderboard? Lorena Ochoa, in her debut event of the season, is making a bold statement with two rounds of 66, 65. The statement, of course, is a rather loud “Move over, Annika, there’s a new number one in town.” She is now seven strokes in the lead, at 13-under par. It would appear that the extra time she spent practicing in Mexico is paying off. Tied for second seven strokes back is a threesome that includes Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, and South Korean In-Kyung Kim, who made a bit of a statement ... full post »

Last October the LPGA unveiled their new logo. Personally I’m a fan, mainly because anything had to be better than the old one. The “swinging lady” in the old image looked suspiciously unserious, more like a weekend golfer who gets tips from her boyfriend than a professional athlete. As any pro will tell you, she had some serious swing flaws, like a reverse pivot and an incomplete follow-through. Also, bad hair. The new one, designed by SME, is modernized in every way, from the bold colors representing the LPGA’s “international membership and global business,” to the decidedly futuristic Star Trek lettering. ... full post »

CNN is running a nifty little feature called Ten Guys Women Should Run From. You know, possessive bullies who threaten to beat you up and/or cheat on you–"It may first appear charming, but jealous boyfriends will quickly get irritating!” Wow, really? Personally I think that someone who actually threatens your personal safety is pretty much wearing a neon sign around their neck that flashes the words “Date me at your peril. You have been warned.” But ladies, when it comes to golf, the signs aren’t always so clear. So here are some indications that this is not the guy you ... full post »

At least four people were killed, cars burned, mobs rioted, and death threats were issued following the publication of a religious image deemed offensive… No wait, I’m thinking of the wrong cartoon controversy. Sorry, let me start over. Several people complained after an image of Lorena Ochoa appeared superimposed over the Virgin Mary in a Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine article last week. The image was removed from their Web site and Editor Jon Rizzi immediately issued an apology. “To illustrate our support of her, we selected an iconic image that suggested her transcendent qualities,” said Rizzi. “We never intended to insult anyone.” ... full post »