The good news is that the LPGA is on network television this weekend (CBS, Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 3 p.m. EDT). The bad news is that it's airing the Mojo 6, which was played two weeks ago, rather than the Tres Marias Championship.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't qualify as a negative. The LPGA needs coverage whenever it can get it. And the Mojo 6 and its raceway format is an intriguing concept. But the Tres Marias Championship is Lorena Ochoa's farewell to full-time golf and she's in contention to boot. Moreover, Michelle Wie also is in contention, as is Japan's Ai Miyazota, already a two-time winner this year and a contender for the No. 1 ranking in Ochoa's absence.
The Tres Marias would be a more attractive offering on television. Instead, it's another example of a tour that can't catch a break.
-- John Strege
Results for April 2010
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Ochoa starts farewell tourney with an eagle
You might call it determination to go out with a bang. Or, if you're a pessimist, a sad reminder that we're losing one of the most dominant players in the history of women's golf. Either way, Lorena Ochoa's opening eagle (on no. 10 of Tres Marias Residential Golf Club in Morelia, Mexico -- her first hole) in this week's Tres Marias Championship sends a clear message: she's still the best, even though she's retiring from professional golf at the end of the week.
Is it too late to try to convince her to reconsider...?
--Stina Sternberg
Wie's new gig
It's always refreshing to see Michelle Wie let loose, whether she's on or off the course.
In Wie's first (and heavily anticipated) McDonald's commercial, she writes, "Meet at our place, MW" on three golf balls and hits them to various friends. Her "place," as it turns out, is McDonald's.
The entire 20 seconds are convincingly real (she's a wonderful actress!). And she's broken even more ground on the LPGA Tour by signing an endorsement contract with a non-golf entity of this caliber.
-Ashley Mayo
"Idol's" Kara Dioguardi tees off with Lincicome
It's an off week for the LPGA Tour, and player Brittany Lincicome didn't have any golf planned for this weekend. Until she got an offer she couldn't refuse from American Idol judge Kara Dioguardi.
"My agent called me and asked if I'd come play in this event Kara was hosting and I agreed," Lincicome said. "She seems like an amazing woman and is somebody I've always wanted to meet. So it seemed like a win-win, to be able to meet her and donate my time for her charity."
Dioguardi, a Grammy award-winning songwriter and record producer who's in the middle of her second season as a judge on Idol, has partnered with the Phoenix House substance-abuse organization to build music-recording studios for teens and women in recovery from drugs and alcohol addiction. "Basically I have this idea that when you're going through something like addiction, and you're trying to figure out what you're feeling and battle those emotions, music is a great vehicle for letting them come to the surface," said Dioguardi. "I have seen the impact on kids who've had trouble divulging things in normal clinical therapy. When they go into the studio instead, it's the kind of safe haven that allows them to talk about things that they wouldn't otherwise talk about. It's very helpful to their recovery." So far, she has built recording studios in Phoenix House facilities in Los Angeles, Yorktown, N.Y. and Austin, Texas, and is planning on opening one at the organization's facility in Citra, Fla. To help raise funds for her latest endeavor, she hosted a fundraising golf event/gala Saturday at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club in Ocala, and a few LPGA players (including Lincicome and Meredith Duncan) were there to help.
(Photo by Kim Berard)
"I'm not a good golfer," Dioguardi admitted to Golf Digest Woman before the event, "but if I have to make an ass of myself and hit a few balls today, I will. I can actually hit the ball pretty far, but as far as getting that ball in the hole, not so much. I'm more one of those people who likes to go to the range, hit some balls and get my aggression out. But I don't rule out becoming a real golfer one day. I'm hoping one of the LPGA players will give me a lesson. I'm so glad they came -- girl power and all that. I want some pointers. And I just put on these new golf clothes today, and I was, like, 'hmm... maybe I could be a serious golfer.' I've actually never seen myself in an aqua-colored pique shirt before. It's kind of cute."
Dioguardi sees a therapeutic side to the game as well. "What I like about golf is, it's a good kind of few hours to just reflect. When I'd walk from hole to hole, I kind of would just say 'where am I at right now, what am I thinking about..' you can almost meditate a little bit, think about your next move and think about life. It's a lot like music in that way."
Saturday's golf scramble was followed by a gala dinner, at which Dioguardi sang a few songs she's co-written about abuse, and two VIP tickets to the finale of American Idol's season 9 were auctioned off. Lincicome, for one, was really looking forward to that part. "The awards thing tonight is a really fancy, dressy event," she said Saturday morning. "We have our fancy dresses in the trunk and I brought my blanket and bear for the ride home. It's going to be a fun, late night." Asked if she was going to bid on the grand prize, Lincicome said "Maybe we [the LPGA players] will go in on it together and then fight it out for who gets to go."
--Stina Sternberg
Ochoa retirement another blow for LPGA
Lorena Ochoa of Mexico will announce her retirement in Mexico City on Friday, another blow for the beleaguered LPGA in its attempts to regain its equilibrium in a difficult economy.
No details have yet to emerge as to the reasons, when the retirement will go into effect, or whether she intends the retirement to be permanent. Ochoa, who married Andres Conesa, the CEO of Aeromexico, in December, has said in the past that she would retire once she was ready to start a family.
Whatever her reasons, it comes at a difficult time for the LPGA, less than two years after her predecessor as the game's leading light, Annika Sorenstam, announced her own retirement.
Moreover, the LPGA has been hit hard by the recession, and losing the player generally regarded as the tour's best won't help on the sponsor front. Ochoa, 28, has won the LPGA's player of the year award four times (she was second last year to Korea's Jiyai Shin). She has won 27 tournaments, including two major championship. In 2010, she has an indifferent start (by her standards), finishing in the top 10 only once (fourth at the Kraft Nabisco Championship).
-- John Strege
No details have yet to emerge as to the reasons, when the retirement will go into effect, or whether she intends the retirement to be permanent. Ochoa, who married Andres Conesa, the CEO of Aeromexico, in December, has said in the past that she would retire once she was ready to start a family.
Whatever her reasons, it comes at a difficult time for the LPGA, less than two years after her predecessor as the game's leading light, Annika Sorenstam, announced her own retirement.
Moreover, the LPGA has been hit hard by the recession, and losing the player generally regarded as the tour's best won't help on the sponsor front. Ochoa, 28, has won the LPGA's player of the year award four times (she was second last year to Korea's Jiyai Shin). She has won 27 tournaments, including two major championship. In 2010, she has an indifferent start (by her standards), finishing in the top 10 only once (fourth at the Kraft Nabisco Championship).
-- John Strege
In Myrtle, moms play for free on Mother's Day
It's not a new concept -- since the dawn of public golf, random courses across the U.S. have offered free golf for mothers on Mother's Day. But this year, Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday is launching a major program to entice moms from across America to come to South Carolina and take advantage of freebie golf at more than 30 Grand Strand courses, including award-winning layouts at Myrtle Beach National, River's Edge, Barefoot Resort and Tradition Club. The offer stands for any and all mothers not residing in the Horry and Georgetown Counties in South Carolina and Brunswick County in North Carolina (no word on whether you need to bring family photos to verify your mom status).
Willbrook Plantation, ranked no. 31 on Golf Digest's list of America's top 50 Courses for Women, is one of the courses participating in Myrtle Beach's Mother's Day special. (Photo courtesy of mbn.com)
"This is a way for the Myrtle Beach golf community to thank mothers for all their sacrifices, hard work and dedication to their families," said Bill Golden, president of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday. "Mother's Day is a day for family and golf is the ultimate family game."
So if you're not too busy brunching with your family on Mother's Day (which, in case you haven't already marked it in your calendar, falls on May 9th this year), log on to MothersDayGolf.com for a list of participating courses and package providers.
--Stina Sternberg
Women golfers invade Pinehurst Resort
If ever I needed evidence that women's golf is alive and thriving, my visit this week to the Executive Women's Golf Association's annual conference at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina did the trick. Over 400 members from 125 EWGA chapters in the U.S. and Canada gathered at the famed resort for five days of golf tournaments, clinics and speaking engagements by a cast of characters ranging from renowned body-language expert Jan Hargrave to LPGA Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam. I was there to answer questions about women's equipment and on-course gender dilemmas, but I walked away feeling like the ladies in attendance had given me more answers than I gave them.
LPGA Teaching & Club Professionals President Dana Rader gives a short-game clinic at the EWGA's Golfapalooza at Pinehurst Resort.
(Photo by Robin Aurelius)
The EWGA provides its 20,000 businesswomen members with a community that encourages and enhances their knowledge and enjoyment of golf. It's part networking organization, part change-making force. As was plain to see at the annual meeting (or "Golfapalooza," as it's officially named), the enthusiasm and passion these women have for the game -- and for their organization -- is nothing short of astounding. In a clinic held by LPGA star Suzann Pettersen (fresh off her second-place finish in the Kraft Nabisco Championship last week) on Thursday, there were many more questions about swing techniques and course management than autograph and photo-op requests. After Hargrave did an hour on portraying positive body language to clients and how to spot a liar just from how they touch their nose, the line of women wanting to buy her books stretched out the door. And the insatiable quest for golf-related answers I was met by in my sessions left me exhausted, but very clear on one thing: While the past two years' economic recession has taken a big toll on the game, it's only made women golfers bolder, stronger and more unified.
Gone are the days when women were content to be told what to buy, when to play and how to behave on the golf course. They know this industry needs them, and they're ready to be a force.
--Stina Sternberg
Final Nabisco images
Overnight leader Karen Stupples is comforted by her three-year-old son Logan after her final-round six-over 78 dropped her into a tie for fifth place.
A Tseng family friend goes fishing for Yani Tseng's caddie's sunglasses, which were lost in the victory bath in Poppy's Pond.
Christina Kim may have missed the cut on Friday, but she stuck around for the weekend to help cheer on her friends and take pictures with babies in the gallery.
Mama Tseng got wet, too. Luckily her daughter had a new robe to lend her.
Nothing like an earthquake to clear the bleachers of post-round stragglers.
--Stina Sternberg
Earthquake hits Kraft Nabisco Championship
RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF.- In a scary moment, the California desert was rocked by a 30-second earthquake roughly 40 minutes after the Kraft Nabisco Championship ended. As winner Yani Tseng was giving her post-round interview in the media center, the ground began to move and mild panic spread among the press corps.
The quake, which we just found out measured 7.2 on the Richter scale at its epicenter 90 miles from here in Mexicala, Mexico, was severe -- or so I'm told. For me, it was a lifetime first; I was too busy looking for the nearest exit to contemplate the magnitude of the rumblings.
Yani Tseng, a veteran of earthquakes back in her home country of Taiwan, had her priorities straight -- as the quake began, she reached over from her chair on the podium in the interview room and grabbed her trophy to make sure it didn't fall on the floor. When the ground stopped moving, she resumed her press conference with a bemused giggle. That's the kind of calm under pressure of that helps you win major championships.
--Stina Sternberg
Yani Tseng wins the Kraft Nabisco Championship
RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF.- Suzann Pettersen tried her darnest until the very end, but she wasn't able to catch her friend Yani Tseng. The Norwegian couldn't buy a putt on the back nine; she missed great birdie opportunities on 13, 14 and 15 until she managed to roll one in on 16 to get within two, but her ensuing hopes were short-lived. She missed the green on the par-3 17th and had to scramble hard to save par. On 18, she had a chip for eagle that would have tied her with Tseng, but it came up a few inches short.
In the end, Tseng outplayed the entire field, shot a four-under-par 68 for a total 13-under 275 and was a worthy champion.
Tseng and family take the ceremonial jump into the 18th-green pond at Mission Hill Country Club's Dinah Shore Championship Course.
(Photo by Stephen Dunn, Getty Images)
"Yani got off to a flying start," Pettersen said after the round. "She played great today, and she deserved to win." As for her own struggle on the greens, Pettersen didn't want to blame her putter. "I gave myself a lot of good chances, and it wasn't really that I hit a lot of bad putts. The one on 15 we probably misread a little bit, but the other ones were as close as you can possibly get them, and then it finally dropped on 16."
Pettersen knows that people will look at this as "yet another" second-place finish at Mission Hills for the long-hitting blonde. "I'll just collect them up. It's starting to feel like [this place] owes me one very soon. I think this is my third second in four years or something, and I had a fifth last year." But she vows to learn from the experience. "It's hard to describe, but it feels like I'm maturing every time I play, and every time I'm coming down the stretch, I feel more comfortable. I think that's what I'm going to take from this. I hit a lot of great tee balls. I'm feeling pretty good, and for me just to come back from last week where I didn't feel great at all and hadn't really played much, that shows that what we did this winter was very solid."
--Stina Sternberg
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