Ochoa in a battle for Player of theYear
By Associated Press
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Lorena Ochoa has been the LPGA’s Player of the Year three straight times, a string that could end this week at her own tournament.
Threatening to ruin the party at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational is 21-year-old South Korean Jiyai Shin. She has already won the rookie of the year award and leads Ochoa by four points in the player of the year contest.
Two tournaments remain, including next week’s LPGA Tour Championship in Houston.
“It’s been a year with a little bit more ups and downs,” said Ochoa, the game’s top-ranked player. “The great thing is that I have the opportunity to be player of the year again. It’s going to be tough.”
Shin has won three times this season, and she won three times last year on the LPGA before she was even a member, including a victory in the 2008 Women’s British Open. If she wins Ochoa’s tournament on Sunday – and Ochoa finishes eighth or lower – Shin will be the Player of the Year.
The last player to pull off the double was Nancy Lopez in 1978.
Shin also leads the season money list with $1.7 million, ahead of Japan’s Ai Miyazato with $1.5 million. Ochoa is fifth at $1.3 million.
No South Korean – not even veteran Se Ri Pak – has finished No. 1 on the money list, and no Korean has ever been POY. Shin is the sixth Korean to win Rookie of the Year.
“At the beginning of the season my goal was Rookie of the Year,” Shin said. “But I’ve already made that and now I have a chance for Player of the Year, too. … There’s no pressure because I have already made my goal. Player of the Year is a bonus thing for me.”
Besides Shin and Ochoa, a few others have mathematical chances at POY, but they are long shots. They include: Cristie Kerr, Miyazato, Yani Tseng, Suzann Pettersen, Na Yeon Choi and Angela Stanford.
The 27-year-old Ochoa has won three times this season, but she failed to contend in any of the four majors. Of course, this season is being compared to the three previous when she won a combined 21 times, including two majors.
She’s playing better after a midseason slump with top-five finishes in four of her last five tournaments, including a victory in the Navistar LPGA Classic a month ago.
But she’s acknowledged that planning for her marriage next month and other off-course obligations have been a distraction.
“I’m going to try to play like it’s any other week,” Ochoa said. “I’ll concentrate on my game and leave all the distractions outside the ropes.”
The 36-player field at the Guadalajara Country Club – where Ochoa learned the game – is small but loaded with the top 31 on the LPGA money list, and five playing on sponsors exceptions. Included among the exceptions are Laura Davies, Natalie Gulbis and Juli Inkster.
“There is nothing nicer than playing at home,” Ochoa said. “I’m going to do my best to enjoy the event.”
And hope Shin doesn’t spoil it.
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harleyrod2007 on 11/12/2009, at 5:48 PM EST
“SOME QUESTIONS GO UNANSWERED...“HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED?... HOW ARE THE ASIAN LPGA PLAYERS REGARDED BY THEIR ASIAN TOUR PEERS? Have you ever thought that the Asian tours resent their players forsaking them to play in America? How do the regular players on Asian tours feel when they're knocked from an event because an Asian LPGA player decides to play? Do Asians playing on the LPGA do harm by relegating the Asian tours to "second class" tours? IOW...Do the Asian tours see themselves as TRIPPLE A and the LPGA as MAJOR LEAGUE because "their own" forsake them? If no, how do they explain why their best move to USA and play the LPGA? Do the Asian tours have aspirations of being EQUAL to the LPGA in the future? If yes, then they must have future plans to entice their own to return to Asia, agreed? Actually, that be the answer. In a few years the Asians will return home and support the Asian tours which need that STAR POWER to gain the world respect which presently is the LPGA. Japanese baseball has for years lived in the shadows of MLB as their best move to the good old USA. Is that how the Asian tours see themselves as "living in the shadows of the LPGA"? ” ”