Ochoa gives others a break at Stanford
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2008 Stanford International Pro-Am | Preview | 23 Apr 2008
Lorena Ochoa has taken the week off from this week’s LPGA Tour event, the inaugural Stanford International Pro Am, and in doing so has given the rest of the players on the LPGA Tour a chance to feel what it is like to win for a change.
Ochoa, who has won five out of six events in 2008 and her last four in succession, is deserving of a break back in Mexico while in the meantime the rest of her closest rivals in golf take on the inaugural Stanford International Pro Am event in Aventura in South Florida. While the tournament organisers would no doubt have preferred to have Ochoa in the field many of the players will be pleased that the opportunity to win is so much greater without her.
The tournament is being staged over the Miller and Soffer layouts at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort in the north of Miami. The two courses, originally designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr, have been substantially redesigned by Raymond Floyd with both courses being used in the opening days of this Pro-Am format event.
112 amateurs will team with 112 professionals over the opening two days at which time a cut will be made to include the leading 70 players and the leading 20 teams with the fourth and final round the exclusive domain of the professionals who made the cut after round two. It is the first such Pro Am event on the LPGA Tour since the 2001 Office Depot event at the nearby Doral Spa and Resort.
Ochoa aside the tournament includes the leading players in the game starting with the world number two Annika Sorenstam whose form has been somewhat of a mixture already in 2008. She finished only 44th last week at the Ginn Open but there had been the victory in Hawaii earlier on and being the class player she is she needs to be respected. Without Ochoa in the field however this event is wide open for a potential winner.
Suzann Pettersen springs to mind as the most likely given the fact that she appears to be nearing her peak. The Norwegian who was such a star throughout 2008 on the LPGA Tour has finished second at the Kraft Nabisco and third at the Ginn Open in recent starts. As she indicated in the latter half of last season, once she finds form it seems to stay with her and provided she does not mind the elongated pro am format she has a chance to win her first event of the season.
Yani Tseng just keeps getting better, with success building success in terms of her growing confidence. He runner up finish in two recent events highlights a rookie who will win before too long and once she starts winning on the LPGA Tour she will win many.
Karrie Webb, Paul Creamer and Cristie Kerr provide even greater strength to a field missing only Ochoa ii respect of the leading LPGA Tour players but the myriad of Koreans in the field may well provide a winner from those just outside the leading contenders on paper.
Jeong Jang is nearing her best after a solid starts to the season and Hee won Han has had a very similar season to Jang and is closing in on her first victory since the Honda Classic in Thailand in late 2006 and her first since the arrival of her first child in mid 2007.
The Australians are headed in terms of world ranking by Webb but Lindsey Wright has been the best performed in 2008 and is currently 14th on the ADT Money List. She has yet to win on the LPGA Tour but it will happen before long especially if she keeps putting herself into a position to do so.
Rachel Hetherington, Wendy Dolan, Katherine Hull and Jan Stephenson are also in the field while Sarah Kemp looks for a start form the reserve bench.
