Major Issues, Major Pressure

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The U.S. Women’s Open is strangely different this week.
 
Some of the world’s best players will actually feel as if they’re escaping pressure when they step inside the ropes Thursday morning, or that they’re escaping the kind of pressure they aren’t comfortable with for the kind of pressure they crave.
 
They’ll reach the first tee leaving behind relentless questions about the future of the LPGA and their embattled commissioner to immerse themselves in what could be one of the most demanding tests of their time.
 
Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course is a beast at 6,740 yards. It’s the second longest layout in the history of the championship with greens that roll and twist in confounding contours.
 
“I think Sunday afternoon, after everything is done, there’s going to be a lot of mentally tired players,” eight-time LPGA winner Paula Creamer said.
 
Stress and strain have mounted on and off the course with news early in the week that key LPGA players delivered a letter to their organization’s board of directors asking for the resignation of commissioner Carolyn Bivens. The discontent is focused on the loss of title sponsors and a shrinking schedule.
 
Ochoa didn’t dispute her involvement in the preparation of the letter when she stepped before assembled media Wednesday.
 
“Everybody has been talking about it, and we, as players, want to be more involved in what is happening, and we want to see the tour going in a better direction,” said Ochoa, the world’s top-ranked player. “Hopefully, things will start moving in a good direction, because we are worried that we’re losing tournaments and we want to get back on a good track.”
 
One player after another entering the media room this week has been asked about the controversial letter.
 
“I want to perform and do my best, just leave everything else outside,” Ochoa said.
 
Bivens was scheduled to attend the championship on Thursday, but tour officials confirmed that she has canceled her appearance.
 
The U.S. Women’s Open is all about stress and pressure and overcoming adversity. It’s about survival. It’s a theme that fits this entire LPGA season with pros worried about their tour’s future.
 
Saucon Valley, though, will demand their full focus.
 
“It’s a phenomenal, classic U.S. Open course,” said Christina Kim, a two-time LPGA winner. “Immaculate condition, long course, nasty rough, challenging greens, tests every club in the bag. It’s all of that, and it’s fair.”
 
Ochoa, 27, believes the routing favors her left-to-right ball flight as she bids to regain her status as the tour’s most dominant player.
 
Ochoa arrived for last year’s U.S. Women’s Open having won six times on the season. She enters this year having won twice. When Jiyai Shin claimed the Wegman’s LPGA two weeks ago for her second victory of the season, she moved into first place on the Rolex Player of the Year points race and on the tour’s money list.
 
A two-time major championship winner, Ochoa wasn’t a factor in the year’s first two majors.
 
“Competition is tough, we all know that,” Ochoa said. “We know good players are coming, and it’s getting better and better. I’m just trying to practice harder and harder. I’ve already won two tournaments this year, but I’m not at the top. I want to make sure I continue playing and getting better, every week being consistent, so that at the end of the year, I’m at the No. 1 position, the way I like.”
 
Ochoa is looking to win her first U.S. Women’s Open.
 
Creamer, 22, is looking to claim her first major in her 21st start in one. She’s paired with Ochoa and In-Kyung Kim in the first two rounds.
 
“Hopefully, we can feed off each other and make a lot of pars and birdies,” Creamer said.
 
If this championship really is about overcoming adversity, Creamer’s fully prepared, despite her limited practice regimen.
 
After starting the season with a mysterious stomach malady, Creamer began feeling better last month, only to injure her left thumb. She was unable to defend her title at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic last week because of inflammation of the thumb joint. She has received two cortisone shots over the last week.
 
“My thumb feels much better,” Creamer said. “A lot of ice and Advil are my two favorite things right now.”
 
In her first four seasons on tour, Creamer never withdrew from an event. She has withdrawn from three this season.
 
“It’s been frustrating,” Creamer said. “It feels like a character building year, because I’ve been through a lot.
 
“It’s been the hardest year I’ve had out here. I thought ’06 was because I didn’t win, but I’d rather go through that year than this.”
 
The way Saucon Valley is set up, nobody’s likely to escape hardship this week.
 
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