Friends back in Florida, Annika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods have sent each other a number of text messages over the years, whether it's wishing the other person luck in a tournament or chiding each other over who has the most majors. For a time, they both were in leagues of their own on their respective tours, so it seemed a natural friendship, one built out of immortality.Obviously, it's time for Tiger to add Lorena Ochoa to his address book.
While no one it seems will match the super-human strength of Woods this season on the PGA Tour, the Mexican superstar certainly is playing Tiger-like on the LPGA Tour.
At the Safeway International in Arizona on Sunday, she won for the second time in three starts, giving her 16 wins dating back to April of 2006.
What's most impressive about the 2008 campaign so far is the way she's winning. In short, the women's No. 1 player is dominating.
She beat Jee Young over the weekend by seven shots, registering a record-setting 22-under-par 266 at Superstition Mountain. She posted rounds of 65, 67, 68 and 66 and surpassed the tournament scoring record by four shots.
It was her second rout of the year. A month ago at the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore, she walloped the field by 11, again posting four rounds in the 60s for a 20-under 268. In an event in which only 13 players finished under par, Ochoa opened with rounds of 66 and 65 and turned in identical 69s on the weekend.
It was a dominating performance, one that drew comparisons to Woods' blazing start in 2008. Ochoa is as humble as any player in golf and is normally soft-spoken, but she was not shy when the Tiger line of questioning surfaced in a post-tournament press conference.
"When (Tiger) won the (Buick Invitational) by 10 (he actually won be eight), I had that in mind," she said. "You know, it can be done, and why not go and win my first tournament by 10."
She was later asked if her victory would send a message to the rest of the LPGA.
"Yes. I think yes," she said.
It also sends a message to Tiger that he has some company.
With the season's first two majors set to tee off over the next two weeks ---- the Kraft Nabisco Championship starts Thursday followed by the Masters ---- the focus will remain on golf's two best players. And talk has already surfaced over which player will have a better season. Comparing their 2007 seasons, it's a virtual dead heat.
Woods won seven times in 16 events, and also recorded three runner-up finishes and 12 top 10s. Ochoa, meanwhile, won eight times in 25 events, adding five runner-up finishes and two third-place showings. Her top-10 finishes totaled 21.
Woods and Ochoa each won a major, with Woods finishing in second in both the Masters and the U.S. Open. He tied for 12th in the British Open. Ochoa won the British Open, and tied for second in the U.S. Women's Open, tied for sixth in the LPGA Championship and tied for 10th in Rancho Mirage.
All that adds up to is a split decision.
This year, it may seem that Woods is having a better season ---- he has won four of five ---- but remember that the PGA Tour starts six weeks before the LPGA.
Ochoa wasn't even on anyone's radar until she started the season a month ago. Woods had already won three times around the world by then.
A 19-time winner on the LPGA Tour at age 26, Ochoa is making a run this season that already is drawing comparisons to Sorenstam's magical season in 2002 when she won 11 times. That was second only to the 13 Mickey Wright won in 1963. While it's still early, no one can doubt Ochoa's chances of challenging the record.
Certainly not Ochoa.
"I don't really have a number in my mind," she said. "Every tournament I play, I play to win."
Tiger-like indeed.
