Pressel Wins Nabisco Championship
Wow. What a finish to the Nabisco Championship. I was ready to switch over to the NASCAR race at Martinsville (and what a race THAT was!) on about the 14th hole of today’s championship because it was not exciting golf by any stretch. But I figured just let it play out because it is a major and you never know what might happen. Nobody was making a run at Pettersen and she seemed to be cruising along just fine.
But then, all of a sudden, it got interesting. Her driver went south on the home holes and left her with very difficult recovery shots and she was never able to get up and down. More surprisingly, Se Rik Pak was making mistakes right along side Pettersen so it appeared that Pettersen would survive unscathed. Wrong again.
Flying under the radar (at least from television coverage) was Morgan Pressel, the 18-year-old young gun that’s been making noise on the LPGA ever since almost winning the 2005 Womens U.S. Open in Denver at Cherry Hills. Pressel shot a remarkable 3-under 69 when the average score of the top-20 was 72.57, and posted 3-under for the tournament about an hour before Petterson was finished. It will be written by some that Pressel backed into the championship. Hogwash. Yes, Pettersen blew an engine coming in, but Pressel shot the kind of round that champions do on Sunday.
And how does Pettersen’s meltdown compare to Greg Norman’s meltdown at the Masters? I don’t think it compares at all. Norman had a 6-shot lead on Sunday, and Pettersen had a three-shot lead that she blew, which is a world of difference. Norman also hit some very questionable shots at Augusta, where Pettersen only had her driver to blame on the incoming holes. In fact at no point did I feel that Pettersen was completely out of it, until her birdie putt missed on 18.
We’ll see how this affects Lorena Ochoa going forward, as she collapsed on the weekend to become a non-factor. I don’t think it will have long-term effects on her, but it’s going to sting a little while. Same for Paula Creamer.
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