Lorena Ochoa set a professional golf (mens or womens) record yesterday by shooting a 62, the lowest score ever for a major championship.  Teenage phenom Michelle Wie shot a very solid 66 and is second heading into the second round at Rancho Mirage, California.  Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel both shot 69s and Annika Sorenstam shot a 1 under 71 in the opening round.

Phil Mickelson leads the Bell South Classic after one round and is looking for a win here to springboard his confidence heading into the Masters next week.  Mickelson traditionally plays a tournament the week before the Masters because he feels it better prepares him mentally for the long week at Augusta National.

The LPGA’s first major of the year, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, begins this week in Ranch Mirage, California.  And while Annika Sorenstam is the overwhelming favorite, she’s got the LPGA’s version of the young guns snapping at her heels.  The LPGA hasn’t had this excitement since Nancy Lopez dominated the tour her rookie season in 1978 by winning 5 consecutive tournaments.  Annika welcomes the challenge of the younger players and all the media coverage its brought to the LPGA as well.

Annika is my pick to win the event, but watch for Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, and Cristie Kerr to be factors come Sunday afternoon.  And what about the Pressel/Wie rivalry?  Both players have played down their roles, but there’s no doubt that fans have picked sides in not only this rivalry, but the Sorenstam/Creamer rivalry as well.

It’s never too early for a silly-season event, but they are usually held in the fall/winter months when most of the tour players have long hung up their clubs for the season.  Enter this year’s Tavistock Cup.  For those not aware of the Tavistock Cup, it’s an event where very rich players playing each other for “fun” at each other’s exclusive country clubs in the greater Orlando area.  Yes, there’s money involved and it’s even broadcast live on the Golf Channel for those fortunate enough with banker’s hours.

Last year’s event was quite good actually, with the tournament coming down to Els and Woods (who else?) playing in near-darkness to determine the ultimate winner.  Monday’s matches ended with Tiger’s Team (Isleworth CC) up by two points with Woods/O’Meara (who else) securing the winning points for the day’s matches.  Tiger even won an extra $10,000 (each) for his teammates by winning the long-drive contest.  Wow.  Like they really need that chump change.

In other golf news, last week’s Player’s Champion Stephen Ames has decided to bless the field at the Masters with his presence.  He was actually planning on NOT playing in the Masters so that he could spend more time with his family.  Now spending more time with your family when you can, is a very good thing.  However, there are professional golfers, present and past who’d give their left eye to play in the Masters.  Ironically, Ames hits the ball long and straight which makes him well-suited to Augusta National.

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour continues its Florida Swing this week without the defending champion Kenny Perry though. He’s scheduled to have knee surgery and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. Tiger Woods is the easy favorite, but he hasn’t played this tournament particuarly well, and he’s probably more in the mind set of prepping for the Masters.

LPGA Tour

Annika Sorenstam continues to prove she’s the reigning queen of the LPGA by winning her first event of the year (again). While there are certainly plenty of “young guns” on the LPGA tour waiting to inherit the crown, Sorenstam still has 3-5 good years left before she decides to persue other avenues. Until that time, she’s the one that everyone will have to consistently beat.

Champions Tour

Tom Kite carded his first win almost two years on the Champions Tour this past weekend in soggy California. I keep looking for Hale Irwin to come surging on Sunday each weekend, but it appears his age finally may be catching up to him. What an incredible Champtions Tour run Hale has had. No one has dominated the senior circuit like Irwin.

Stephen Ames, the 42-year old journeyman professional from Trinidad became the 2nd oldest player ever to win the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra, Florida.  Ames definitely caught lightning-in-a-bottle today and shot a 5-under, 67 to win by 6 shots over Retief Goosen from South Africa.

Ames has only won one other tournament on the PGA Tour, but you would have never known it by his spectacular play, especially down the stretch.  While 4 of the top 5 in the world were falling by the wayside, Ames kept hitting fairways and greens en route to the biggest win of his career.  Ironically, this win comes only a few weeks after Tiger Woods eliminated Ames from the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in a 9 and 8 lopsided victory.

The other surprising story this Sunday was the total collapse of Singh, Goosen, Els, Mickelson, Woods.  Goosen and Singh had realistic chances to give Ames a run for the trophy, but neither could sustain a run of consecutive birdies.  As usual, the golf course stole the ultimate show and while the winning score of -14 is outstanding, the rest of the field had more than their share of problems handling the TPC at Sawgrass.

Ames now qualifies for the Masters, which is two weeks away now and look for grumbling to begin there once the players start arriving because the powers-at-be at Augusta National have lengthened the course once again and the results have pretty much eliminated the medium-length hitters.  The brain-trust at Augusta evidently isn’t aware you don’t have to stretch a golf course to 7500-yards to make it tough.  Look at Hilton Head, where the course is very short by tour standards, but every year, the best in the world have a tough time navigating this gem of a course.