As you no doubt already know, Nicole Castrale beat Lorena Ochoa in a playoff to win the Ginn Tribute. But for a good part of the back 9, it was actually a three-golfer race. As Hound Dog describes, Cristie Kerr was right in the thick of things on the back 9, getting it to -9 until she double bogeyed the 17th hole. Castrale's birdie and Ochoa's bogey on that hole--following up her bogey on 16 (the second day in a row she bogeyed both holes)--brought both golfers to -9, where they stayed after parring the 18th. Congratulations to Castrale for doing something perhaps even more impressive than Meaghan Francella and her playoff win over Annika Sorenstam--beating a healthy world #1!
As has happened in many weather-affected tournaments this season, the winner was the one who hung on the best. It's not like Castrale made a huge charge to pass Ochoa; Ochoa came back to her. When you think about it, for Ochoa to finish +5 over her final 24 holes is simply astounding. As a college player, she was relentless when it came to closing the deal, winning almost every event she entered in her final year as an amateur. Earlier in her professional career, she had several catastrophic collapses in big tournaments and seemed to have trouble breaking through to the victory circle. It took her until last season to really break through--and then only after some more Sunday disappointments, especially early in the season. Even though she's won two events this year, she's had chances to win many more.
And she'll have many more chances to come. So many people with a chance to make a move on her over those uncharacteristic 24 holes of hers failed to do so: Paula Creamer and Sarah Lee could only manage 71s and get to -5 (T4); Angela Park shot a 76 to fall to sixth place at -3; Angela Stanford's 75 dropped her back to T7 with Mi Hyun Kim (73), Heather Young (71), and Christina Kim (70) at -2; and even though almost everyone else in the top 20 failed to break 75, very few who were +4 to E coming into Sunday made a move on them, either. This suggests not only that the course conditions were just very tough (tell Ai-chan, whose 82 today was probably her worst round as a professional!), but that there are very few players on the LPGA who week in and week out can keep pace with Ochoa, as well. Sure, a different handful of people might give it a real shot from week to week, but the other people in the top 30 of the money list are simply not playing consistently enough to keep up with Ochoa every week she plays. Right now, it seems that her closest competitors are Paula Creamer, Mi Hyun Kim, and Sarah Lee. Certainly nobody else who's made $300K or more so far on the season has been playing as well as these three over the past month or so--and look how far behind Ochoa they are. She's still gotta be the favorite in any tournament she enters. It must be scary for her competitors to consider that she could break away from the pack and run away with a tournament any given week.
Even in defeat, Ochoa is still the top story of the week.
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