Lorena Ochoa, the top-ranked woman golfer is the world, racked up her 25th LPGA career victory this past weekend as she won the Honda LPGA tournament in Thailand. Ochoa trailed third-place finisher Paula Creamer by three strokes going into the final round, but her six-under round of 66 was more than enough to secure her the trophy. Hee Young Park of South Korea finished second.

Said Ochoa to the Associated Press, “It has been a great week. My goal was to win the tournament. Here I am with the trophy and I am very pleased. I played especially well.”

The field at the Honda LPGA Thailand was the strongest group of women golfers ever assembled in Asia. The tour continues to Singapore this week for the HSBC Women’s Champions Tournament. Ochoa is the defending champion in that event.

(photo credit: Newscom)

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The LPGA announced on Friday that it had reconsidered a portion of its proposed requirement that two members demonstrate English proficiency within two years of joining the tour or face suspension. The meat of the proposal hasn’t really changed, but the tour vows to find other ways to communicate with its members without the threat of suspension. Said LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens in a statement on Friday:

“The LPGA has received valuable feedback from a variety of constituents regarding the recently announced penalties attached to our effective communications policy. We have decided to rescind those penalty provisions.

After hearing the concerns, we believe there are other ways to achieve our shared objective of supporting and enhancing the business opportunities for every Tour player. In that spirit, we will continue communicating with our diverse Tour players to develop a better alternative. The LPGA will announce a revised approach, absent playing penalties, by the end of 2008.

During that time we will continue to provide support under the three-year-old Kolon-LPGA Cross Cultural Program. This popular program provides all LPGA members with the best cross-cultural training in the form of tutors, translators, Rosetta Stone, the official language-learning system of the LPGA, as well as assistance from LPGA staff and consultants.”

The LPGA Tour includes members from more than 120 nations and many of the Tour’s top players are not native English-speakers, including Lorena Ochoa of Mexico and South Korea’s Se Ri Pak. The proposed suspensions drew criticism from LPGA Tour members, including Ochoa, as well as players on the PGA Tour.

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Kultida Woods (mother of Tiger Woods)

Marcella Ochoa (mother of Lorena Ochoa)

Mary Mickelson (mother of Phil Mickelson)

Bo Wie (mother of Michelle Wie)

Happy Mother’s Day to all “Green Posse” readers.

^{(all photos © newscom)}

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Twenty-one year old Paula Creamer won the SemGroup Championship yesterday, ending Lorena Ochoa’s bid (at least for now) to win five consecutive LPGA championships. But, it wasn’t easy.

Creamer blew a two-shot lead on the final hole, forcing a playoff with 47-year-old Juli Inkster. Creamer finally won the playoff by sinking an eight-foot birdie putt.

This win is Creamer’s sixth career win and second this year. (She won the Fields Open in February.)

^{(photo © Newcom)}

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Image details: Ginn Open-Final Round served by picapp.com

While many in the golf world had their eyes on the Masters Tournament, Tiger’s knee surgery, and Trevor Immelman’s surprising win at Augusta, the best woman golfer in the world was quietly winning…and winning…and winning again. On Sunday, she handily won the Ginn Open, her fourth win in a row and her fifth win this year.

Ochoa’s win on Sunday is #22 in her career. That puts her two wins behind the all-time top LPGA winners, Se Ri Pak and Donna Caponi. Will Ochoa be breaking that record this season?

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If the first two rounds of the HSBC Open in Singapore are any indication, this is going to be an exciting LPGA season (as if we didn’t already suspect that). Last year’s top-ranked player, Lorena Ochoa, debuted at this event and marched right to the top of the leader board. She finished Thursday’s round with a one stroke lead at six under and returned to shoot a seven under on Friday.

Trailing Ochoa by seven strokes are last week’s Fields Open champion, Paula Creamer; Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam (never one to be counted out); and South Korea’s In-Kyung Kim.

The tournament finished on Saturday.

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When Ochoa double-bogey’d on 17 and Natalie Gulbis birdied, Ochoa’s lead was cut to one stroke, but she held on for the victory.

The win was her eighth victory of the year, joining Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez as the only players to accomplish that in the last 20 years.

Read more about Ochoa’s ADT Championship victory from LPGA.com.

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The LPGA Tour season ends this week with the four-day ADT Championship. Thirty-two golfers have qualified for the event. They will now compete for a $1.55 million purse with $1 million of it going to the winner. The $1 million prize is a record-tying amount for first-place on the LPGA Tour.

The ADT Championship is held at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. The 2006 ADT Champion was Julieta Granada, who beat Lorena Ochoa by two strokes.

The 32 players will compete in three days (November 15-17, 2007) of “playoffs” and then a final-day shoot-out with 8 on Sunday, November 18, 2007.

Television Schedule:

• Nov 15 2:00-4:00 PM ET GC
• Nov 16 2:00-4:00 PM ET GC
• Nov 17 2:00-4:00 PM ET GC
• Nov 18 3:00-6:00 PM ET NBC

First-half qualifiers for the ADT Championship

Top 11 qualified through the ADT Points list

1. Lorena Ochoa 1,524,404
2. Paula Creamer 685,729
3. Mi Hyun Kim 647,110
4. Sarah Lee 580,948
5. Stacy Prammanasudh 552,707
6. Jee Young Lee 521,842
7. Karrie Webb 407,786
8. Cristie Kerr 395,180
9. Angela Park 375,519
10. Juli Inkster 372,980
11. Angela Stanford 367,855
12. Morgan Pressel Winner Event champion – Kraft Nabisco Championship
13. Brittany Lincicome Winner Event champion – GINN Open
14. Suzann Pettersen Winner Event champion – Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill
15. Nicole Castrale Winner Event champion – Ginn Tribute Hosted by ANNIKA

Second-half qualifiers for the ADT Championship

Top 13 qualified through the ADT Points list

16. Maria Hjorth 756,904
17. Jeong Jang 748,129
18. Se Ri Pak 490,656
19. Christina Kim 434,742
20. Ai Miyazato 427,108
21. Laura Davies 354,785
22. Inbee Park 349,906
23. Laura Diaz 326,537
24. Annika Sorenstam 325,940
25. Sherri Steinhauer 302,618
26. Shi Hyun Ahn 292,816
27. Reilley Rankin 281,929
28. Sophie Gustafson 264,607
29. Meaghan Francella Wildcard
30. Catriona Matthew Wildcard
31. Seon Hwa Lee Winner Event champion – HSBC Women’s World Match Play
Championship
32. Natalie Gulbis Winner Event champion – Evian Masters

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For the second year in a row, Lorena Ochoa received the National Sports Award in her native country of Mexico for her work in promoting the sport of golf, as well as for her charity work through the Lorena Ochoa Foundation.

This is the third time that Ocho received the award, which is presented annually by the president of Mexico. In 2001, she was the first golfer to receive the honor.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa honored Ochoa after the final round of the 2007 Corona Championship, soon after she was named the number one player in the world on the Rolex Rankings.

Photo credit: Rolex Rankings

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