Just a few days ago, Annika Sorenstam said she was ready to pass on the torch when she decided to announce her retirement from the LPGA Tour at the end of the season.
What the Swede hadn’t realised, though, was that Lorena Ochoa had grabbed it from her months ago.
Mexican Ochoa, the emphatic successor to Sorenstam as the world’s number one player, earned her third straight victory and sixth of the season at the Sybase Classic in Clifton, New Jersey.
Her victory, though, was very much different to the routs she dealt out five times earlier this season. This time, she had to grind out a one-stroke triumph over a crowd of five players in a rain-shortened tournament.
She closed with a one-under 71 for a winning total of 10-under 206 over 54 holes. That was one stroke better than Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson of Sweden, Morgan Pressel, Catriona Matthew of Scotland, rookie leader Choi Na-yeon Choi and Brittany Lang.
Ochoa has now won 23 professional tournaments and $12 million in prize money, achieved four years faster than Sorenstam, who failed to sustain a challenge after a second round of 73. Ochoa said in an AP article:
“It was a tough day, but I did it. I think that was what was important. It doesn’t matter how you do it sometimes. You play really good, other players struggle, sometimes you just keep yourself in a good position. Today it was different. It was a different win, but I enjoyed it a lot.â€
Sorenstam was among a group of players who finished five strokes adrift of the winner. She started the final round with a bogey and ended the day with a 71. Sorenstam, who had won her previous two tournaments, said:
“I wanted to start with birdies, put some pressure on and it started the other way. It was tough to come back.â€
While Ochoa was collecting yet another trophy, Ryuji Imada was claiming his first-ever victory on the US PGA Tour.
Japanese native Imada shot a final round of 67 and then beat Kenny Perry in a play-off to win the AT&T Classic in Duluth, Texas – just one year after he himself was beaten in a play-off in the same tournament.
Perry, who ended with a 69, and Imada were tied at 15-under-par 273 at the end of 72 holes, one stroke ahead of Camilio Villegas (66).
Imada, 31, needed just a par to win the play-off, having failed in last year’s play-off when he found water. This time it was his opponent who found water. Imada said in the PGA Tour website:
“I never really believed in destiny. But I’m starting to believe it. I’m just going to cherish this one. Nobody can take this one away from me.”
On the first play-off hole, Perry ended up in the drink. Although he cleared the pond guarding the front of the green with his second shot, he could only watch in incredulity as the ball hit a pine tree, bounced back across the putting surface and rolled into the water.
Perry then took a drop but almost found the hole with a wickedly spinning wedge shot. However, it went 14 feet past and he could not save for par. Imada, easily putted for par from four feet.
On the European Tour, Richard Finch provided one of the most most memorable moments of the season so far after he fell into the River Maigue on his way to victory at the Irish Open.
He was three shots clear of the field as he come down the par-five 18th hole at the Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort. He drove the ball into the right rough and then hit his attempted lay-up to the edge of the riverbank.
Although he made a brilliant shot to reach the green, his swinging momentum carried him into the water, which prompted laughter from the watching galleries.
He eventually needed three puts to secure the victory with a 10-under-par total of 278, two shots ahead of Felipe Aguilar and three ahead of Ireland’s Gary Murphy, Robert Karlsson and Lee Westwood. Finch closed with a 70 and said on the European Tour website:
“As I hit the shot, I knew straight away I had sort of made decent contact. I don’t know whether I slipped or went round with momentum. And then the next thing I sort of just was gradually falling down the bank.â€
