Ochoa Hottest Athlete in Sports

BY KEVIN BLACKISTONE,

AOL

Posted: 2008-04-23 18:59:12

Filed Under: Golf

Sports Commentary

Lorena Ochoa
4 Inna Row
Nineteenth Hole, Top of the World

Dear Ms. Ochoa,

Please accept my congratulations on the continuation of your magnificent run in the LPGA last weekend in Reunion, Fla., at the Ginn Open. Even Tiger Woods hasn’t done what you just did, win a fourth title in four consecutive weekends. And we all marvel at his stranglehold on the PGA. Some among us have even said he’s the most-dominant athlete out there. Well, what does that make you?

Lorena Ochoa

Lorena Ochoa of Mexico carries the Kelly Jo Dowd Championship Trophy as she holds up four fingers, signifying her four consecutive tour wins, after the final round of the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

Reuters

Lorena Ochoa of Mexico celebrates after making her putt on the 18th hole and winning the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

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Lorena Ochoa of Mexico pumps her fist after making a putt on the eighth hole during the final round of the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

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Lorena Ochoa of Mexico celebrates after making her putt on the 18th hole and winning the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

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Lorena Ochoa of Mexico poses with the Kelly Jo Down Championship Trophy after the final round of the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

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Lorena Ochoa of Mexico hits from a bunker on the 17th hole during the final round of the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

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Lorena Ochoa of Mexico acknowledges the gallery as she approaches the 18th green during the final round of the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

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Lorena Ochoa of Mexico tees off on the 18th hole during the final round of the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

Reuters

Lorena Ochoa of Mexico shows off the Kelly Jo Dowd Championship Trophy after the final round of the LPGA Ginn Open golf tournament in Reunion, Florida, April 20, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Kaleita (UNITED STATES)

Reuters

Lorena Ochoa, of Mexico, reacts as her ball misses the cup on the 18th hole during the final round of the Ginn Open LPGA Golf Tournament in Kissimmee, Fla., Sunday, April 20, 2008. Ochoa became the first LPGA Tour player in 45 years to win four tournaments in consecutive weeks. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matay)

You’re also a No. 1-ranked player in the world. You notched your fifth victory on Sunday in six starts this season. You’ve won the last two LPGA majors – the Women’s British Open and the Kraft Nabisco just a few weekends back – and you are now poised to do another Tiger imitation by winning the Lorena Slam, let’s call it, four LPGA majors in a row.

You are also in position now to do something that your game has never witnessed – win a fifth title in five straight weekends. And when you won your third consecutive tournament in Mexico – your home – two weekends ago, it qualified you for the LPGA Hall of Fame despite you being just 26 years old.

It’s just a shame the nearly unprecedented body of work you’ve put together as a golfer in general and woman sports standout in particular was overshadowed coming out of last weekend by novelty.

What occurred last weekend that most observers wanted to talk about, however, was open-wheel racecar driver Danica Patrick finally garnering the checkered flag after several seasons and 50 races. There is no doubt that becoming the first woman to beat the men in a major car race is worthy of all manner of coverage and celebration. But all told, what Patrick did doesn’t measure up to what you’ve done. Indeed, the best thing about Patrick’s victory in the Indy Racing League’s Japan 300 was that it put her in the sports news for the right reasons finally rather than sexist reasons, which she not only perpetuated but exploited.

Patrick wasn’t even the best female racecar driver when she was invited to the major circuit three years ago. That title went to Katherine Legge, who became the first woman to win a major open-wheel race when she won at Long Beach in 2005 to kickoff the Toyota Atlantic Championship series.

But Legge was regarded for her driving and not her looks and didn’t play up the latter. Patrick was most well known for her looks, which the predominantly male fan base of car racing considered “hot.” As such, Patrick posed in suggestive photo shoots for glossy magazines and did the high heels and short skirt thing on late night TV talk shows. Just last February, Patrick posed for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.

As much as Patrick, 26 like you, appeared to be daring to advance the cause of women in sports by challenging the guys on the Indy circuit, she was stalling the women’s movement, if not setting it back.

It probably isn’t fair to engage in what may appear as nitpicking at Patrick’s breakthrough, but it shouldn’t be allowed to stand out of perspective, either. Fact is, she only beat 17 other cars, the last two champions of her circuit moved on to NASCAR and the Champ Car series drivers stayed in California for their season’s finale. Champ Car and IRL are about to reunite rather than remain watered down and uninteresting competing against each other.

There is nothing to sniff at about the LPGA, though. It’s never been more competitive. Annika Sorenstam is still playing. So are Paula Creamer and the Seoul (South Korea) Sisters, led by Se Ri Pak and Grace Park. You, Ms. Ochoa, just happen to be dominating them, not unlike Tiger does in the PGA or Roger Federer has been doing on the men’s tennis tour.

If you pull of the Lorena Slam, capturing the LPGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open, you would match what Tiger did at the turn of the millennium by owning all four majors in your game at the same time.

I read that like Sorenstam, and the one-time girl golf prodigy Michelle Wie, you’ve been invited to play in PGA Tour events but you’ve declined. You are to be applauded for not feeling the need to prove your excellence by playing against men.

There is no doubt that the novelty of competing against men, and finally beating them, has been everything for Patrick. She also had no alternative for her sport.

Ms. Ochoa, you are the best at your sport – if not any sport – and by a long shot right now. That’s saying a lot more than winning a single event.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a regular panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, an XM Satellite Radio host and a frequent sports opinionist on other outlets like National Public Radio and The Politico. A former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News, he currently lives in Hyattsville, Md.

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2008-04-21 18:08:21