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Golf's Worthy Alternative

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 25, 2008

Updated: 06/25/2008 12:12 am

EDINA, Minn. - First, there is Lorena Ochoa, now the world's most dominant golfer on two legs. Following closely is the retiring Annika Sorenstam, ready to end her LPGA Hall of Fame career at the end of this season but still No. 2 in the world. After that two-fisted punch comes a wave of angles and story lines that could be built on readiness and resurgence.

The U.S. Women's Open tees off Thursday hoping to prove its game a worthy alternative to the Men-Without-Tiger Tour.

"Yes. You can put it that way," said Ochoa, a 26-year-old native of Guadalajara, Mexico, who played collegiately at Arizona. "I think it's a good opportunity for us to get more fans, so they can really see what we are all about.

"There are still people out there that don't believe we have the game or the shots or the excitement. I think they will find out. I think without Tiger sometimes the ratings go down, and hopefully they turn to us and it will help us."

For pure drawing power, a "Lorena and Annika Show" would be as close as women's golf could get to the television ratings bonanza delivered anytime Tiger Woods goes into a final round battling (insert name of your pool guy here).

Ochoa took over as the LPGA's top player in 2006 and now has 23 career victories and two majors. In the past 15 months she has won 13 titles, including two majors - the 2007 Women's British Open and this year's Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Sorenstam, meanwhile, would like to deliver her own retirement package. Despite erasing memories of a winless 2007, during which she had neck surgery, with three victories this year, the 37-year-old Swede has announced intentions to shut down her record-setting career at season's end.

With 72 career titles and 10 majors, Sorenstam cannot reach those respective LPGA career records held by Kathy Whitworth (88) and Patty Berg (15) before calling it quits. But already owning three U.S. Women's Open titles (1995, 1996, 2006), another this week would pull her even with Betsy Rawls (1951, '53, '57, '60) and Mickey Wright (1958, '59, '61, '64) as the event's only four-time champions.

Just don't call it a goodbye stop.

"Do I feel like it's a farewell tour?" Sorenstam said. "No, it was never meant to be that way. I felt the responsibility to announce my stepping-away decision, because I think I owe that to everybody. But it's not meant to be something else than that.

"I'm focusing on playing golf. I want to finish well and, you know, I have a chance to win the money list and player of the year, so that's kind of what's my focus and nothing else."

Ochoa and Sorenstam story lines may top the week's possible scenarios, but a number of others will demand attention.

As in, is Michelle Wie still relevant? And, is Taiwan's 19-year-old Yani Tseng's victory in last month's McDonald's LPGA Championship another step in the growing Asian dominance of women's golf?

Wie, who turned professional in the fall of 2005 and finished tied for third in the following year's U.S. Open, is now an 18-year-old freshman at Stanford and missing from the spotlight. After struggling toward the end of the 2006 season, Wie sprained a wrist early last year. In nine LPGA and European tour events that followed, Wie missed the cut three times, withdrew twice and finished a collective 111 strokes behind the leader in four events she completed.

Wie received special exemptions from the USGA that allowed her to play in the past two U.S. Women's Opens, but this year had to earn her way back through the qualifying process.

She succeeded and, with the addition of a recent T-24 in an LPGA event, announced optimistically that she is returning to form.

"I think last year was, 'Oh, God, don't let this hurt. Come on; just let me swing the golf club. Just let me finish 18 today, '" Wie said. "It's a lot different now. Right now golf is getting a lot more fun. I can actually hit shots now.

"I know I'm not fully, fully recovered, but I feel like I'm getting there and I think I'm - this past year and everything I've been able to become a better player and stronger player than I ever was before. And I feel like I'm on the road to that."

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com.

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