Larry Bohannan—one of my favorite golf writers—had an interesting piece on the LPGA as it entered the Samsung Championship last week. He seems to feel that after years of waiting, the LPGA may finally be on the verge of a breakthrough.
The most interesting bit, however, is his take on Annika Sorenstam: that for all her starpower, whe may have been holding the LPGA back.
For all of Sorenstam’s greatness, there may have been a downside to her brilliant play. As she was winning an average of eight tournaments a year over the last six year, often by lopsided margins, she wasn’t allowing anyone else a chance to win. Every tournament Sorenstam won was another missed opportunity for younger, talented players who just kept coming up short against one of the game’s all-time great competitors.
In a sense, Sorenstam condemned the younger players to being stuck with the worst label in sports – potential. Potential in sports means a player ought to do something in the future, but hasn’t done anything yet.
In this, I think that Larry has left something unsaid—that in the same way, Tiger Woods may be hurting the PGA Tour.
I’m going to think some more about that one and fill it out later.
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I would tend to think that with the rise of Ochoa and Creamer, the LPGA is out of these Sorenstam doldrums now. It is often much more exciting than the PGA tourneys that Tiger is playing in. If it is Sunday afternoon, and Tiger is ahead at the end of 54, and Creamer, Ochoa, Wie, and Sorenstam are within a few shots on the LPGA tourney that day- the LPGA is going to be the match with some excitement.