Golf Talk

Michelle Wie and her entourage arrived on campus and according to the AP, she played a round at the university course on Monday. Imagine being a coed and seeing something like this take over your campus,

According to the report, she is living in a dormitory on campus and is reporting for classes this week. But daddy isn’t too far away renting a house nearby.

Somehow, I think Michelle is going to cry to daddy after a week in co-ed rez,

And finally, Michelle has a host of fun coed events to look forward to. For example, college life is nothing if not for the ritual body-painting session on tailgate Saturday,

My picks for the Turning Stone Championship later today…

Michelle Wie, Stanford

Nikki Garrett, the head-turning 19-year-old from Australia, is suing Zoo Weekly for defamation and breach of copyright for an article they published suggesting she was some sort of lewd floozy that has promiscuous sex with anyone and everyone. The exact words were:

“so lustful she likes having sex on a golf course and the type of girl who has sex indiscriminately”.

I’m still wondering how they took the sweet innocent looking Nikki here:

Sweet, classy Nikki

And turned her into some retro version of Pamela Anderson here:

Trashy, nasty Nikki

To be honest, I much prefer the sweet, classy Nikki. The second picture looks like some trashy 80s smut mag photo. Her legs are all oiled up and she’s got the big 80’s hair. And what’s with those socks, they look like the ones from Flashdance.

LPGA Tour, Nikki Garrett

Dottie Pepper was a little too fired up yesterday when she made her now famous ‘Choking freakin’ dogs’ comment that was supposedly off-air, but was actually on-air. I mean, don’t you hate it when that sh*t happens (oops, did I say that out loud?)

But seriously, Dottie shouldn’t have to apologize for anything as some suggest that she do. She wants Team USA to win, and got upset when they started faltering. She thought she was off-air, but some buffoon in the booth didn’t flick the ‘go to commercial’ switch. It’s not like she dropped an f-bomb or made a sexist/racist comment. She simply stated what was happening at the time in it’s simplest of terms, ‘choking freakin’ dogs’.

If fact, that’s my new favorite phrase. Everytime we see Phil or Sergio tank it on a Sunday, we’ll call them as we see them - CFD, ‘choking freakin’ dogs’.

Dottie Pepper, Choking Freakin’ Dogs, LGPA Tour, Solheim Cup

Team USA surged back on the final day to take the singles matches to win the Solheim Cup. All the talk of chocking by Dottie Pepper, comments by Laura Davies didn’t mean a damn thing when the ladies hit the tees.

And what of the controversy over Nicole Castrale getting the final spot over Christina Kim? Nicole sunk the 8-foot putt at the end to clinch the win.

So, it’s been a while since the visiting team won and Team USA defends their title. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t mean a whole lot, since the best players in the world now are from South Korea. They should have a South Korea vs. Team USA Cup, that would really tell us who the best in the world is.

LPGA Tour, Solheim Cup

After the four-ball matches, Team USA still leads 4.5 to 3.5 at the Solheim Cup. These are the results of the four-ball,

Match 1
Team USA Pat Hurst/Brittany Lincicome
4 and 2
Team Euro Catriona Matthew/Iben Tinning

Match 2
Team USA Angela Stanford/Stacy Prammanasudh
Halved
Team Euro Annika Sorenstam/Maria Hjorth

Match 3
Team USA Nicole Castrale/Cristie Kerr
3 and 2
Team Euro Sophie Gustafson/Gwladys Nocera

Match 4
Team USA Paula Creamer/Morgan Pressel
Halved
Team Euro Trish Johnson/Laura Davies

Shot of the day, was Laura Davies par save from the bushes. Other stories include the cold and windy weather (hence the long sleeves and pants, shucks, and here we thought we’d get to see more than just golf). Other buzz include Laura Davies’ comments to the press on Thursday. This is what she had to say about ‘one’ of the Team USA members (wonder which one),

“We’re all good friends now. Except for maybe that one — I consider all of them my friends.”

And who would ‘that one’ be? “I would never tell you,” she said.

Later in the same press conference she had this great quote,

“I’m playing as well now as I’ve ever played, and age is nothing,” Davies said. “Golf — everyone goes on about all this fitness — but golf is walking and swinging a club.”

LPGA Tour, Solheim Cup

Americans lead the Solheim Cup 4.5 to 3.5 in the day one foursomes. These are the results of the matches,

Match 1
Team USA Cristie Kerr/Pat Hurst
Halved
Team Euro Suzann Pettersen/Sophie Gustafson

Match 2
Team USA Sherri Steinhauer/Laura Diaz
4 and 2
Team Euro Annika Sorenstam/Catriona Matthew

Match 3
Team USA Juli Inkster/Paula Creamer
2 and 1
Team Euro Laura Davies/Becky Brewerton

Match 4
Team Euro Gwladys Nocera/Maria Hjorth
3 and 2
Team USA Natalie Gulbis/Morgan Pressel

Big surprise of the day was the Natalie and Morgan dropping their match to the unknowns (Maria Hjorth isn’t an unknown but Nat and Morgan should’ve won). Another slight upset in cagy vets Laura Diaz and Sherri Steinhauer downing Annika Sorenstam and Catriona Matthew. Annika hasn’t been on her game all year long, but still, Laura and Sherri haven’t either.

It’s looking good for Team USA so far, but anything can happen in a couple of rounds. We’ll see how they turn out.

LPGA Tour, Solheim Cup

You know what’s next, babies, and more babies. Annika and her fiance announced today they will be getting married. Could this be the end of the Annika dynasty?? Very few women have come back from motherhood to really play at the level they were prior to motherhood. Case in point, Lindsay Davenport in tennis, recently retired as she said her body has changed following pregnancy. I’m not saying that should Annika become a mother that it would be impossible for her to regain her previous form, but it would be tough. Juli Inkster is probably the rare example of where a mother can compete at the highest level. Plus Annika has publicly said she wants to focus on her golf school soon.

Annika Sorenstam engaged.

Can anyone stop her?? Doesn’t appear to be. Lorena Ochoa is so hot right now, she’d could play one-handed with her eyes closed and still win. I think its safe to say she’s replaced Annika as the most dominant player in women’s golf.

After winning her first major at the British Open, she came back to N. America and won the Canadian Open and now winning the Safeway Classic.

She’s taking a month off though so we won’t be seeing a fourth in a row.

LPGA Tour, Safeway Classic, Lorena Ochoa

A selection of quotes from last week’s Wyndham Championship and Women’s Canadian Open.

(more…)

Lorena Ochoa is simply on fire right now. After winning the British Open a few weeks ago, she looks like a woman possessed, possessed to win. She is killing right now. I’d have to say she is unstoppable at the moment. Now, we’re still waiting to see how she reacts when put under pressure, but she’s steamrolling the field right now.

Paula Creamer was the only player making any kind of charge, but it wasn’t even close. Lorena wins with 3-shots to clear.

Is Lorena the next Tiger Woods of the LPGA? Quite possibly, she’s certainly taken over from Annika Sorenstam who looks closer and closer to retirement as the months go by. She’s only 26, and while there are some talented players on tour, nobody has her ability to play well week after week, Lorena has staying power.

LPGA Tour, Canadian Open, Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer

As the Women’s Canadian Open gets underway in Edmonton (AB), Canada, some are asking where are the pro Canadian women on tour??

The article doesn’t really go into any depth on the issue (no surprise, where has investigative journalism gone??), with Dawn Coe-Jones dishing out the usual excuses.

As I wrote earlier in the year, when the British were asking the same question about their girls, the crux of the problem is the increased global competition and not the Canadian girls themselves.

You see the explosion of women’s golf in places like Korea and Sweden and of course the US and it’s easy for a country like England to get dwarfed. Lets not forget the impact of players like Se Ri Pak and Annika Sorenstam to their respective countries.

I know in Canada, competitive women’s golf is extremely lacking. We had Lorie Kane, but she was good for such a short time. You really need a great player that can really carry their country and show the little ones that they can be just like them.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Wait, that was myself. Whatever, you get the point…

Women’s Canadian Open, Dawn Coe-Jones

I’ll keep this one brief, congrats go out to Lorena Ochoa for her first career major win. She didn’t play great, but good enough to win. Considering she had a six shot lead, she was content with playing conservative and making pars. Would she have reacted the same if for example Annika Sorenstam made a charge? Maybe, but the fact is nobody did and Lorena played good enough.

LPGA Tour, Women’s British Open, Lorena Ochoa

Now that Lorena has a 6-shot lead heading into the biggest day of her life so far, the British Open is definitely hers to lose at this point. I’m still not ruling anything out for Sunday, though it would be the biggest collapse of her career and indeed the LPGA since I can remember. Lets not forget that less than 2 months ago at the Ginn Tribute, Lorena had as big as a 6-shot lead over Nicole Castrale before she lost it in a playoff. Enough of the negativity, lets hope for Lorena and the LGPA Tour, that she holds on and captures her first career major.

If there was a darkhorse I’d pick, it would have to be Annika Sorenstam (though not really a darkhorse). She’s got the experience to mount a charge and finish under-par for the final round.

LPGA Tour, Women’s British Open, Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam

For Lorena, it was all about holding serve and she did that quite nicely on Friday. Nothing spectacular, but she played the tough course conditions as well as she could, perhaps a little defensive at times, but she didn’t make any major mistakes to shoot an even-par round for a 6-under total. She is one ahead of Wendy Ward and Catriona Matthew at the moment. I think with the course is setup, 8 or 9-under should be enough to win it which means there’s plenty of work remaining. Good Luck Lorena…

Other contenders, Annika is 3-back, though I don’t think she’ll catch the leaders.

As for Michelle Wie, she blew up today and shot an 80 round and missed the cut.

LPGA Tour, Women’s British Open, Lorena Ochoa, Wendy Ward, Catriona Matthew

It was at all surprising to see Lorena Ochoa jump out to an early 2-shot lead at the Women’s British Open after her 6-under first round. After all, she is the number one player in the world. The big question everyone is asking, is whether she can keep it. We’ll have to wait three more rounds to get that answer.

I didn’t see any other names among the leaders that jumped out other than Brittany Lincicome at 2-under and Annika Sorenstam at 1-under. Brittany has made a habit of playing well on Wed only to falter in the latter rounds, lets see if she can buck that trend.

Michelle Wie managed an even-par round, so did Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer.

LPGA Tour, Women’s British Open, Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Brittany Lincicome