Party Time
Lorena Ochoa continues her torrid play and rolls to a five-shot victory at the Kraft Nabisco for her second consecutive major conquest
Making a splash: Ochoa, who has won 17 of her last 49 starts, was joined in the pond by family and friends.
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Unkind comments about Lorena Ochoa are as rare as rain in the desert. But the world of professional sports is a catty place where people whisper words to undercut even the nicest person. And as Ochoa has piled victory upon victory the last two years, there was one cautionary observation from those grasping for ways to make her appear beatable: Ochoa's quirky swing with its distinctive headbob doesn't hold up under pressure.
As Ochoa cruised to a win in the Kraft Nabisco Championship Sunday -- her second straight major title, the 17th victory in her last 49 LPGA starts and 20th of her career -- it was clear the old critique doesn't fit anymore. For someone who understands what learning is all about, failure can be the foundation for success. Ochoa missed the final five fairways in losing the 2007 U.S. Women's Open to Cristie Kerr, but since that disappointment at Pine Needles, Ochoa has won eight of 15 tournaments. Her three victories in four 2008 starts, by a cumulative 23 strokes, are so impressive they raise a different kind of question: Can Ochoa, who is halfway to the Lorena Slam, pull off the Grand Slam?
Twice in two weeks, Ochoa has gone into the final round protecting a precarious lead and blown away the field. At the Safeway International she was one stroke ahead of Jee Young Lee and Angela Stanford and unleashed a 66 to win by seven. Sunday at Mission Hills, Ochoa was one stroke clear of Hee-Won Han and two better that Seon Hwa Lee, Maria Hjorth and Kerr before she laid down a 67 that resulted in a five-stroke victory. Ochoa, who has had problems closing out tournaments, was the only player without a bogey Sunday and her final-round score was the best of the day at both Safeway and Mission Hills.
It seems as if Ochoa has decided the secret to Sunday success is to crush the opposition. Her five-under closing round to finish at 11-under 277, five strokes better than Suzann Pettersen and Annika Sorenstam, gives Ochoa a 2008 final-round scoring average of 67.25. It also gives her a Tiger Woods-like air of invincibility that seems to have slapped away any doubts about her game.
Ochoa ended things Sunday by making birdies on the first two holes and then stringing together three consecutive birdies beginning at No. 8 to build a five-stroke lead she protected with eight straight pars on an extremely challenging back nine. Han stayed close for six holes, making birdies on Nos. 4 and 6 to get to seven under par, one stroke behind Ochoa, but bogeys on the next three holes eliminated her. Kerr, who closed with an 80, hit two balls in the water on the par-3 fifth to end her chase.
Hjorth finished fourth at 283 after a closing 71, and Lee grabbed fifth place with a 72 that put her at 284. Only Pettersen and Sorenstam, who both finished with 68, stayed close to Ochoa. But the 26-year-old Mexican, serenaded by a mariachi band and hundreds of fans from her homeland after holing her final putt, never made the mistake needed to let others back into the tournament.
"That was a very important part of the round," Ochoa said about her three-birdie burst beginning at No. 8. Then, addressing how her game has grown she said: "It took me five years to get to the top, and I am really comfortable with that position. I like the way I feel now in the last round. I like to believe that nothing and nobody [can stop me]."
That certainly appears to be the case. Ochoa tied Laura Davies for 25th place on the LPGA career victory list with 20 and passed Davies as the active player closest to earning enough points to qualify for the Hall of Fame, picking up two at the Kraft Nabisco to get to 26 -- a single point shy of the standard (see Back 9, page 69). In backing up her win at the Ricoh Women's British Open last August, Ochoa has won consecutive majors and has a chance at the McDonald's LPGA Championship in June to become the first LPGA player to win three in a row since Pat Bradley did it when she triumphed at the 1985 du Maurier Classic and the 1986 Kraft Nabisco and LPGA Championship.
