Yet Another Train Wreck
The train wrecks on the professional golf tours continued this week as both Lorena Ochoa and Laura Davies spit their respective bits on the closing holes of the Ginn Open and gave the tournament to Brittany Lincicome. Actually, that’s not fair to Lincicome because she did what the others couldn’t do and that was play a great round of golf on a very tough day. Funny how the women could handle the wind today but the men couldn’t? But that’s a story for another day.
Lorena Ochoa hit more loose shots with her irons today than I’ve seen her hit the last couple of years and yet she was still in it on the 18th hole and it was painful to watch. Laura Davies also had the tournament in hand until the 17th hole but she couldn’t handle the pressure either and ended up making double-bogey.
You’ve got to give the women some serious kudos for playing in almost impossible conditions. The wind was whipping the sand from the bunkers and sandblasting their faces and legs and it definitely made it hard to concentrate. Which makes Lincicome’s even-par round all the more remarkable. But the wind is no excuse for the way Ochoa executed her iron shots, and to be more specific, she was making mental mistakes by grabbing the wrong club at times. Hello, isn’t that what your caddy is there for? Her biggest debacle was the green-side bunker shot on the 18th hole. There’s no doubt this is a difficult shot, but she tried to hit a punch shot while trying to pick it clean? She and her caddy need to review the day’s decisions and identify those things that can be improved.