Lorena Ochoa will not win this week's Kraft Nabisco: She's more Norman than Tiger under major pressure
The LPGA’s first major of the season begins in a matter of hours. Not that you’re likely be aware of this, considering it’s gotten all the buzz of the return of How I Meet Your Mother. Where’s that Sports Illustrated special preview issue on the Kraft Nabisco? Yeah, your mailman must have stole it.
Still even if the LPGA’s first big tournament of the year finds itself going up against the Final Four (oops! - schedule makers), there are plenty of compelling stories in one of the Palm Springs’ region’s biggest party weeks. Only the little coverage the Kraft Nabisco has received has almost all centered on the idea of Lorena Ochoa as a dominant force everyone else in the field must fear.
As I wrote in a WorldGolf.com newsletter a few weeks, Ochoa’s done her best to try and cast herself as the female Tiger Woods, knowing that the LPGA Tour desperately needs that type of hook.
It’s simply not true though. Sure, Ochoa won her first tournament of the year by 11 strokes and she won again last week outside of Phoenix by seven shots. But those are not majors and Ochoa feels the pressure in majors as surely as Greg Norman did.
Even in her overwhelming dominant 2007 season, Ochoa only went 1-for-4 in the majors. And that’s the only major win she has at the age of 26. If Tiger had won only one major with his 27th birthday approaching, he really would have retired from golf.
The truth is that Annika Sorenstam even as an old shadow of her former self has a better shot of winning this week than Ochoa. Neither probably will though. Instead it will be another good story that the media might recognize a few months after the fact.
Of course, it will take even longer than that for the truth that Ochoa is not a big-tournament golfer to be accepted.
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15 comments
But since she has clearly demonstrated Norman tendencies at the ripe old age of 26, retirement seems appropriate.
This is a VERY debatable point!!!
The beat down wasn't that surprising — Ochoa has been the best player in the women's game for a while — but when that performance brought up the inevitable Tiger Woods comparisons, the humble, soft-spoken star was anything but demure.
"When (Tiger) won the (Buick Invitational) by 10 (he won be eight), I had that in mind," Ochoa said. "You know, it can be done, and why not go and win my first tournament by 10."
Wow! And was this win a message to the rest of the LPGA? she was asked.
"Yes. I think yes," she said.
I'd say that is Ochoa comparing herself to Woods, BTuck. Try to remember that this isn't a RonMon blog. If I state something that's not just a silly point, it's based on researched fact. Ochoa compared herself to Woods in Sports Illustrated.
As for the Smudge comment: "I do say she may do more for women's golf than Tiger has done for men's."
That's not very debatable. It's completely ludicrous and laughable.
And yes, Smudge. I am a closet Wie Warrior. You completely pegged me.
The late major-winning Annika is the best point that's been made in these comments - by far. Sorenstam pulled off what almost never happens - she went from being a choker to a closer. And there's no doubt she did gag early in her career. In big tournaments and small. I once witnessed her break down in a parking lot in Lansing, Michigan after blowing a big lead early in her career.
It's a testament to Sorenstam that she was able to make this transformation. But it's a very, very rare one in any level of golf. I don't see Ochoa repeating it.
Michelle, was that okay, did I say the right things?
The reason I think their influence could be debatable is because the LPGA has so much more upside and she seems determined to spread the game everywhere she can. The PGA wasn't exactly struggling when Woods came onto the scene. He just took a franchise and supersized it. I'd be curious to see what LPGA purses will be like a decade from now. The women's game has tons of potential they just haven't tapped it the right way yet.
As far as the SI article. I wouldn't call her quote a comparison to Tiger but more of an aspiration. I think the writer is reading between the lines a little. I check out SI for the pretty pictures not necessarily the sports writing.
Who won the Kraft Nabisco today by 5 shots?
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