Southern Pines, N.C. – A movie crew has been following Lorena Ochoa throughout the LPGA season, creating a documentary on the Mexican star’s ascent to the world’s No. 1 ranking in golf.
While there has certainly been plenty of compelling footage – three victories, eight other top-10 finishes and the best scoring average on tour – the chroniclers don’t feel their film will be complete until Ochoa wins a major championship.
That time could be at hand.
When play was halted because of darkness Saturday evening at the U.S. Women’s Open, ending a long day in which the majority of the field played close to two rounds of golf, Ji-Yai Shin, a member of the Korean LPGA tour, held the lead at 5-under-par with eight holes remaining in her third round at Pine Needles Golf Club.
To be sure, there are other players who feel they’re ready for their own close-ups.
Cristie Kerr, a nine-time LPGA winner, was a shot back, as was Angela Park, an 18-year-old of Korean decent born in Brazil and raised in California, who led after the opening two rounds.
Each player is obviously talented, obviously desirous of doing whatever it takes to win the game’s most prestigious championship.
However, the tournament should belong to Ochoa – it almost has to. If they’re lucky, athletes are presented a moment, an opportunity to grab control of their sport.
In women’s golf, Annika Sorenstam has wielded the big stick for the past five years. Now, after gently tugging at it over the past season and a half, Ochoa can emphatically wrest it away this afternoon.
“Yes, for sure, I feel prepared to win a major,” said Ochoa, also a shot behind Shin, with seven holes remaining in her third round. “Tomorrow will be a special day. I don’t want to think too far ahead, but I’m happy to be where I am.”
When she began the day, Ochoa was three shots behind Park. After one hole of the third round, the deficit was five strokes. But Ochoa calmly made some in-round adjustments to her tee shots and steadied her game. The 25- year-old hasn’t made a bogey in her last 22 holes.
And, for someone who has tended to wobble under major championship pressure – such as the quadruple-bogey 8 on the 72nd hole of the 2005 Open at Cherry Hills that cost her a victory – Ochoa will have the benefit of easing her way into today’s final round.
“If I keep playing as solidly as I have, I have a better chance,” she said. “You always have a better chance when you’re playing good and you have more than 18 holes.”
But those seven holes can also serve another purpose. How many times has Sorenstam shaken potential winners off of their game just by showing up?
Before he became a father-to-be, and in the process began giving away major championships like cigars, how many times did Tiger Woods post a number on a rain-delayed day at Augusta or some other major venue and then cruise to yet another victory?
Ochoa has a chance to do that very thing today. Shin has won the past three tournaments she has played in, but against who?
Park will certainly be the LPGA’s rookie of the year, and has the potential to become a star, but this is just her second Open and only the fifth major championship of her career. While women’s golf is beginning to look more and more like the world’s biggest outdoor teenage text- messaging festival, it’s hard to believe that Park would be able to withstand the pressure.
At the end of Saturday, Ochoa said she welcomed the extra holes because a second straight day of extreme golf would turn the Open into a physical challenge, one that a player who scales mountains in her spare time would certainly welcome.
But a short time later, Ochoa, who makes a regular practice of visiting the Hispanic workers at each of her tournament stops, and invariably greets everyone she sees with a cheery “Helll-ooo,” spoke of something else, a consideration that Woods and Sorenstam know carries far more currency inside the ropes.
“It was what I wanted to do, to make sure that on Sunday I’m close to the lead, if not in the lead, with the chance to win the tournament,” she said. “I know my name means something. That’s why I want to make sure I get off to a good start and hopefully put the pressure on the other players.”
