Does Lorena Ochoa get to text message Tiger before Masters now after dominating Kraft Nabisco win?
Add commentsSometime between when Lorena Ochoa knocked in her last par and when she jumped into that lake with her parents and a couple of dozen friends, someone slipped her Tiger Woods cell phone number right?
After all, we were fed that shared-sponsor-friendly story for years of how Annika Sorenstam and Tiger text messaged each other major challenges. Sorenstam loved to tell that one about the “10-10″ majors won message.
Of course, now that Tiger’s zoomed past Sorenstam like she’s Arnold Palmer standing off the green in a loud sports coat, now that Sorenstam suddenly doesn’t seem like she’ll be adding much major hardware, you don’t hear anything about their text messaging.
So shouldn’t Ochoa - who still doesn’t have the right sponsor to make her matter to Woods - be given the secret code to hit Tiger before Augusta?
After all, it’s hard to imagine a majors victory more convincingly ho-hum than Ochoa’s five-shot triumph in the Kraft Nabisco. She didn’t play that well all week and still ended up never being challenged. It makes anyone who wondered - and it was a legit wonder Lorena lackeys - if she could consistently perform under majors pressure look like a fool.
It turns out, it doesn’t matter. Because no one on the LPGA Tour’s close enough to Ochoa to make it matter. Ochoa missed a boatload of easy putts at Mission Hills and still breezed. Her game is sometimes hard to appreciate because she doesn’t hit pure wow shots like Tiger. Instead Ochoa kills softly with well-struck, consistent irons.
As I wrote a year ago, Lorena Ochoa deserves more attention (you can question an athlete’s track record under pressure and not be “against” that athlete). Now, she deserves Tiger’s number and some of those silly, staged bits he had with Sorenstam.
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Jason Scott Deegan:
The Accidental Golfer:
Katharine Dyson:
Kiel Christianson:
Still, at least you had the guts to make your call re Lorena - just very glad you were proved wrong. I think that if she had been put under pressure she would have been able to step her game up a notch anyway.
I myself rarely make predictions that don't turn out to be true. My track record speaks for itself.
Writing this post does not make up for your previous post. You should actually personally tell L.O. you are sorry. Also to your readers. I quess having wie no longer a factor is getting to you. You have to take it out on someone else.
"Ochoa won by 11 shots in her first victory of 2008 in Singapore, then triumphed by seven last week in Phoenix. But in the first major of the season, on a 6,700-yard course that allowed just 11 players to finish the championship under par, Ochoa's spectacular final round and four-day total of 11-under 277 demonstrated once again why she's now the most dominant player in the women's game with her eighth victory in her last 13 tournaments."
“She has come out the leader and is staying the leader,” Sorenstam said as Ochoa was finishing her back nine. “That takes a lot of courage, takes a lot of guts, and it takes a good athlete.”