What is it with the top players skipping the first two tournaments of the year? Tiger Woods did so on the PGA Tour and Lorena Ochoa is bypassing this week's LPGA Tour opener, the SBS Open, and next week's Fields Open, both in Hawaii.
With Ochoa having decided to wait until the third event, the
Some think she already has, just by signing up.
"She's not a quitter and I know that she's going to give it her all these next couple of years," said Paula Creamer, when asked about Sorenstam's presence at the SBS. After all, she is making her debut in a tournament that has served as the opener since 2005, and the Swede is committed to next week's stop, too. "I'm sure she'll make a big push to get back to where she was."
Which would be No. 1 in the world rankings, a spot that was hers for a hundred years, or at least it seemed that way. Though official rankings for the women didn't debut until February 2006, it's hard to debate that Sorenstam hadn't been the clear queen of the hill dating to spring 2002, when she won her second straight Kraft Nabisco Championship to help ignite an 11-win season. What followed in 2003-05 were a whopping 24 wins, including five majors, so when the Rolex point standings came out for the first time, Sorenstam's lead over No. 2 Creamer (8.82) was wider than what Ochoa currently enjoys over Norway's Suzann Pettersen (8.34).
Ochoa is the dynamic 26-year-old from Mexico with the infectious personality, though her ascension to the top spot in the rankings is owed to a brilliant game and cool on-course demeanor. When the rankings were first released, Ochoa was No. 7, with 12.37 points separating her and Sorenstam. Six wins in 2006 got her close, then a fast start to 2007 pushed her to No. 1, some 60 weeks after she debuted at seven. The change in the penthouse was helped appreciably by the fact that Sorenstam in 2007 recorded her first winless season since 1994, her rookie year.
At 37, Sorenstam seems intent on proving that was an aberration, that she still has what it takes to win. Her '07 season was interrupted by a back injury, which is why she played in just 13 events, the fewest of her career. Though she has expanded her off-course business interests and expressed a desire to start a family with her fiance, Mike McGee, Sorenstam has indicated a commitment to play a full schedule, perhaps 18-20 tournaments, which was the norm in her best years, 2003-06.
"I am as excited as I have been entering a season since I can't remember," Sorenstam told Golf World.
Can she overtake Ochoa? Doubtful. After all, Sorenstam sits fourth in the current rankings (Pettersen is second, Karrie Webb third), a healthy 8.77 points behind. Even if she were to win a few times - and there's no reason to doubt she can - Sorenstam is chasing a young star who has been remarkably consistent (41 top-10s in 50 starts) the last two seasons.
But could Sorenstam make it interesting? Could the Swede add even more excitement to an LPGA Tour landscape that with Pettersen, Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr, Brittany Lincicome, and Natalie Gulbis is already overflowing with great competition? Yes and yes.
Saturday cut?
In what could amount to a compromise over the PGA Tour's divisive cut policy, players have recommended the policy be changed to allow for a 54-hole cut when the field gets too big. A Tour official said yesterday that the 16-man Players Advisory Council wants to return to the traditional 36-hole cut of the top 70 and ties. If that results in more than 78 players, another cut on Saturday to the top 70 and ties would help reduce the field for the final round. The board will vote Feb. 25. The field has been cut to top 70 and ties since 1969. That was changed this year because of a dozen cases each year when as many as 92 players made the cut.Open to new ideas
Throughout the world of sports it hardly caused a ripple, but in golf's small circle it was stunning when the US Golf Association announced the 2015 US Open would be staged at Chambers Bay in Washington state. Not only will it be just the third municipal course to host the national championship, but Chambers Bay was opened just last June. Normally, it takes a private course that is more than 100 years old to host the US Open. Cheers to the folks in the blue blazers for making such a choice, then naming Erin Hills in Wisconsin, another public facility, to host the 2011 US Amateur. It was only a matter of time before the USGA would act accordingly, because the stately venues are getting less excited about hosting the US Open, which has become a huge production. Recently, there were published reports about the membership at Winged Foot turning down an opportunity to host the 2015 US Open, even though it has been held there on four previous occasions. Chambers Bay solves that 2015 dilemma, and in line with the USGA's new routine of requesting that US Open courses also take a US Amateur, that championship will be held on lower Puget Sound in 2010. Thus, don't be stunned if Erin Hills, which opened in 2006 and is 30 miles north of Milwaukee, is awarded a US Open.His heart is in Buffalo
Dudley Hart made a spirited run at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am before he settled for a share of third to earn $312,000, his best finish since 2004. The two-time PGA Tour winner talked of a decision that pro golfers rarely make - moving from South Florida to Buffalo. "I always felt like Buffalo was home," said Hart, who grew up there, though his family moved to Florida when he was in high school. Since then he's lived in Florida, but he and his wife, Suzanne - with whom he has 6-year-old triplets - decided in 2006 that they had had enough of a lifestyle that didn't suit his personality. "I was tired of the rat race down there. It just wasn't for me. I can't knock it, [because] the weather is great. But the people in Buffalo are what I would call 'more real.' It's not superficial. It's not, 'What kind of car do you drive? How big is your house?' It's not a contest like South Florida." Hart then appeared to realize the PGA Tour in two weeks will be in South Florida for the Honda Classic, an event he won in 2000. So, he laughed. "Now I'll probably have to withdraw from the Honda." . . . In a Monday qualifier for theReal winners
There was the PGA Tour playoff atmosphere on Labor Day at TPC Boston in Norton, but months later,Not feeling at home
Andres Romero, the flashy Argentine who made splashes at each of the last two British Opens, hasn't brought that same flair to American soil. He has missed the cut in each of his two PGA Tour starts this year, the FBR Open and AT&T, and in five tournaments in the US Romero has made the cut only at the no-cut Bridgestone Invitational. In the process, he has shot 29 over par in 13 rounds . . . Through four events on the Gateway Tour winter series, Jamie Neher of Weston is eighth on the money list ($10,568), Justin Peters of Pembroke 12th ($7,756). Peters is also active on the Minor League Golf Tour, a circuit that in many cases holds one-day tournaments around the bigger minitours. Fifth last year on that money list, Peters has won five MLGT events since August. Michael Carbone of Brewster, Steven Alminas of East Longmeadow, Frank Dully of Kernwood Country Club, and David Schuster of Turner Hill have also appeared recently on the MLGT.Family fun
When Paul and Brett Quigley earned low-net honors in the pro division of a prestigious father-son tournament in Atlantis, Fla., recently, it afforded Dana Quigley plenty of ammunition to poke fun at them. "That's what it's come to, the net division, I guess," said Dana Quigley. His brother Paul plays to a low single-digit handicap and Brett, of course, is a veteran PGA Tour member, "so I'm not sure how they got in the net division, but I'm not cutting them any slack," said Dana. The occasion was the 54th annual Leon Sikes Father-Son Team Championship at Atlantis CC and the format was alternate-shot. Paul and Brett shot 67-71 -138. Dana and his son, Devon, shot 71-74 -145 to take third gross in the pro division, just behind 2006 Deutsche Bank Championship winner Olin Browne and his son, Olin Jr. Andy Neher of Weston and his son, Jamie, shot 142 to finish second net in the pro division, while Bob and David Currey of Boston (78-72 -150) were second gross in the amateur division . . . Steve Napoli has been named director of golf at the Carnegie Abbey Club in Portsmouth, R.I. A former president of the NEPGA, Napoli moves over from Wannamoisett CC in Rumford, R.I. . . . Troy Pare of Wannamoisett CC and Scott Spence of the Carnegie Abbey Club combined to shoot 3-under 69 and share first place with Jim Sheerin of Abenaqui and Bill Cassell of Rochester in a NEPGA pro-pro tournament at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Ed Kirby of Alpine CC and David Baluik of Gloucester CC shot 70 to take third . . . Susan Choi of Natick, a former standout player at Wellesley College, will compete in the ninth installment of The Golf Channel's popular "Big Break" series. Filmed at Kaanapali resort on Maui, it will reward the winner with berths in some LPGA Tour events. It will be aired on TGC beginning April 15. Choi is the only amateur in the field . . . Sarah Garlick of Springfield has become the first Massachusetts youngster to be awarded a First Tee scholarship.Material from the Associated Press was used in this report; Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.
