Lorena Ochoa chases down Annika Sorenstam to win Samsung Championship
Mark this day on your calendar. It may turn out to be the day there was a changing of the guard on the LPGA tour. Starting the day at the Samsung Championship, 23-year-old Lorena Ochoa was 3 shots back of leader Annika Sorenstam. By the end of the 15th hole, Lorena had not only chased down Annika with five birdies and an eagle, Lorena had opened a 3-stroke lead over Annika. When it was all said and done, Lorena shot 7-under for -16 for the tourney; Annika shot 3-under for -14.
When Lorena won last week in Mexico, I blogged about why Lorena Ochoa is better than Michelle Wie. (Wie finished +5, 17th place out of 20 golfers this week.) Basically, it comes down to putting. Lorena is a natural putter and she rolls in just about everything when she gets hot. Today, she had 23 putts after 16 holes — you do the math on how good that is. Today, Lorena solidified her claim to being the heir apparent to Annika Sorenstam. Lorena won 12 times out of 20 tournaments in her NCAA career. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lorena rattle off those kind of numbers on the LPGA tour.
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