LPGA
Ochoa leads Wie by three RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) – Lorena Ochoa survived a day that roughed up just about everyone Saturday in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, finishing with a testy par putt for a 2-over 74 and a three-shot lead over Michelle Wie in the first major of the year.
Ochoa led by at least three shots the entire round, although she felt fortunate walking off the island of an 18th green at Mission Hills.
Wie had a 10-foot birdie putt that grazed the right edge of the cup. Ochoa, whose wedge nearly spun back into the water, holed a 5-footer for par that left the 24-year-old Mexican in control, but only barely.
“I’m happy with the finish,” said Ochoa, who was at 9-under 207. “Three shots makes a big difference.”
Wie was happy her 1-over 73 wasn’t worse.
The 16-year-old from Hawaii went from the right rough into the left rough, then into the bunker on the 13th hole, and it appeared as though she would tumble out of contention like so many others before her. But she made the bogey putt, followed with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 14th and started giving herself chances.
Wie finished by missing four birdie putts inside 18 feet. Still, she was in the final group, in position to become the youngest player ever to win a major.
“If I’m destined to win, it’s going to happen,” she said. “I’m going to try my hardest.”
Wie played in the final group of the ’03 Kraft Nabisco when she was 13, so she knows the tradition of the winner jumping into the pond surrounding the 18th green.
“I’ll be sure not to wear white tomorrow,” she said.
Most everyone else was seeing red on a blustery day that kept defending champion Annika Sorenstam in neutral with a 73, and sent Paula Creamer to her worst score as a professional. She needed a birdie on the last hole for a 79.
The biggest smile belonged to Natalie Gulbis, winless in 110 starts since joining the LPGA Tour. She shot a 4-under 68 and moved from a tie for 14th into the final group with Ochoa and Wie, still five shots behind at 4-under 210.
Shi Hyun Ahn (71) and Seon Hwa Lee (74) also were 4 under.
Ochoa began the tournament with a 62, matching the lowest score ever in a major, but the Dinah Shore course at Mission Hills has been fighting back ever since. The average score Saturday was 74.9, and only 10 players remained under par through three rounds.
And while Ochoa is the only player in the final group with an LPGA Tour victory – and is the oldest at 24 – none has experience winning a major.
“Hopefully, I’m more mature,” Ochoa said with a laugh, when it was mentioned that Wie was a junior in high school and Gulbis still only 23. “Being out here help, to know how it feels. But in a major, you never know what will happens.”
There were changes in the weather – warm and calm, then cool and windy – but no change atop the leaderboard.
Ochoa still had a few nervous moments.
She pulled her opening tee shot into the left rough, then hooked the next shot so badly that it might have gone into a water hazard unique to Mission Hills – a pool in someone’s backyard – had it not struck a tree. She wedge out short of the green, and escaped with only a bogey when her 8-foot putt curled into the cup.
“My best putt of the day,” Ochoa said. “It gave me confidence, made me happy.”
Despite a 15-foot birdie from the bunker on the par-5 second, Ochoa was far from steady, dropping two more shots before another 15-foot birdie on the par-5 ninth to be 1 over for the front nine.
No one else, however, gave her any reason to fret.
The best look at birdie Wie had on the front nine was an 18-footer, so fast down the hill at No. 6 that she barely nudged it and watched it graze the lip. Similar to the second round, it could have easily gotten away from her. Wie chipped well short on the third and missed a 12-footer for par, then ran a 40-foot birdie putt about 8 feet by the cup on the next hole, poised for another bogey. She made that one, and stayed within range.
As for the missed chances at the end of the day?
“Saving them up for tomorrow, I guess,” she said.
Sorenstam tried to jump-start her chances in the first leg of the Grand Slam with birdies on two of the first four holes, she stalled after a bogey on the par-3 eighth. She wound up nine shots behind.
“I can’t seem to make a putt and it’s just very, very tough to be level par,” Sorenstam said. “I’m playing the way that I normally play here. Just nothing is happening.”
Nothing good happened to Creamer. She bogeyed her first three holes and escaped a big number on the seventh, when it took her five shots to reach the green before making a 10-footer for bogey. And she got what could have been a momentum boost on the eighth, when she chipped from the putting surface, over a ridge, to save par.
But a bogey on the par-5 ninth sent her out at 41, and her 79 was her worst in a major since she closed with a 79 at Cherry Hills last year, after starting the final round one shot behind.
Wie was tied for the lead in the U.S. Women’s Open and shot 82, but says she has learned from that.
“I tried to force things,” she said. “It wasn’t my day.”
Then, she noted that she played in the last group off in the second round based on her tee time, and in the last group Saturday because of her score. Sunday will be her third straight day going off last.
“I’m all ready for the final group thing,” she said.