Lorena Ochoa: The LPGA's answer to Arnold Palmer

Beloved by the masses in the player’s own country, a gifted ball striker with the ability to go very low, an unsettling penchant for blowing up on the final hole, the final nine, the final whatever! Arnold Palmer or Lorena Ochoa or both?

Ochoa’s senior year in college was an undefeated one (she won every individual portion of every tournament) until the NCAA finals. A few years back, she had the US Women’s Open in her hip pocket until she smother-hooked a ball into the pond on the 18th at Cherry Hill and offered the event to then-amateur Morgan Pressel and rumored pro Birdie Kim. Since then, Lo Re Mi has won a few in ho-hum fashion and lost a few more in spectacular collapses. Last week’s four-putt cost her the Long’s Drug Challenge.

In the first round of the Samsung World Championship, the defender came to 18 at -6, clear of the field, and doubled the hole to drop back into the upper end of the pack. Not a pretty site, not an enviable skill set.

Here’s hoping that the USGA doesn’t bring the Open to Olympic in her lifetime.