WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Thursday morning at the Michelob Ultra Open felt an awful lot like Sunday afternoon. The top three players in the world were paired together for the first time that anyone can recall – Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen. Ochoa and Sorenstam traded birdies and fist pumps for five hours in front of a good-sized crowd. The citizens of Williamsburg love being a part of history – and these two players are certain to go down as two of the best ever. Too bad the first round wasn’t televised.
Pettersen, Michelob’s defending champ, surely felt like a third wheel at times. While Sorenstam (64) and Ochoa (65) had plenty of red on their cards, the Norwegian could muster only an even-par 71.
“Your playing partners played pretty well today,” a reporter said to Pettersen after the round.
“You think?” she replied with a mischievous grin. “I never found a rhythm.”
This reporter managed to catch 17 holes of the historic round. Missed No. 1 after doubling back to the hotel for an extra pair of socks, which turned out to be a good call on this rainy, dreary day.
Fans have waited all year for an Ochoa/Sorenstam showdown. Both of Sorenstam’s victories in 2008 came when the world No. 1 took the week off. They seemed poised to duel at the year’s first major until Sorenstam fell ill over the weekend and couldn’t muster a charge at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. In the aftermath of Ochoa’s four-victory streak and Sorenstam’s Miami beach party at the Stanford International, the timing of this marquee pairing was perfect.
Rest assured Sorenstam is feeling 100 percent this week. Her trainer, Kai Fusser, was walking outside the ropes and said the Swede is “back to normal.” What’s normal for Sorenstam? She bench-pressed 145 pounds Wednesday and did two sets of pull-ups (six apiece) with 25-pound weights strapped around her waist. She did two more sets of eight without weights.
OK, maybe not so normal.
Sorenstam’s bogey-free 64 is her lowest round since September 2006, but she isn’t getting carried away.
“To make a statement on a Thursday really doesn’t matter,” said Sorenstam, who trails Mhairi McKay by a stroke. “I mean (there are) three more days. Anything can happen.”
Then she left the interview room to have a massage. A good day by anyone’s standards.
Ochoa trailed the Hall of Famer by three strokes through 10 holes. She battled back with four birdies on the back side (including three consecutive on Nos. 14-16) to stay within one of Sorenstam and two off the lead.
Weather.com calls for a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms Friday and 30 percent for the weekend. As expected, Ochoa takes adverse weather conditions in stride.
“I just try not to complain and to be happy with what we have,” Ochoa said. “I don’t waste energy on things out of my control.”
This marked the first round since April that Ochoa has played without the weight of a streak on her shoulders. Ochoa has finished runner-up at Kingsmill three of the five times she’s played but, like Sorenstam, has never won here. Perhaps she’ll start a new streak come Sunday.
From the top of the leaderboard to the bottom, a few of the faithful in Williamsburg showed up to watch Michelle Wie play here for the first time since 2004. Wie tied for 12th four years ago but struggled Thursday with a 4-over 75 in Round 1. It was four miles down the road at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club that Wie battled Yani Tseng in the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. Tseng drained a 12-foot birdie putt on the 36th hole to defeat Wie, but the Hawaiian drew plenty of fans.
Thursday, however, fewer than two dozen showed up to show their support. For those who didn’t see Wie play, she offered this explanation:
“I hit the ball really well, especially toward the end. I hit it here and there,” Wie said.
“A couple of bad breaks here and there, you know, a yard here, a yard there, a putt here, a putt there, and that makes a world of difference.”
Now we know.
Posted: 5/8/2008
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