Steve Elling of CBSSportsline wrote an interesting article on Wednesday about the prospect of Lorena Ochoa playing on the PGA Tour. Ochoa, a native of Mexico, has already been invited to play at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, which is played just north of Cancun. Ochoa addressed the topic last week:
My idea was first to play on the LPGA and dominate here and just try to do my best and achieve my goals. But right now I have no intentions to (accept a men's exemption).
I think it's completely different. I think there are other things that I could do to improve my game or to have an experience, maybe an exhibition, but not to play on the PGA.
Though the response isn't promising, Elling provides his own argument...
Moving up a league seems downright logical, since tedium could set in at any moment -- if not for her, then her growing fan base. She's has won her five LPGA starts this year by an average of 7.6 strokes, including a pair by 11. Yeah, a touchdown, field goal and two-point conversion amount to a pretty big deficit in golf.
When Annika Sorenstam played against the boys at Colonial in 2003, it created a three-tiered public-relations boon for her career, the event and the LPGA. Ochoa last year supplanted Sorenstam as No. 1 in the women's rankings, and though the notion of females competing against men has since been relegated to the stuff of desperate publicity stunts (see: Michelle Wie), Ochoa's presence in a field can be justified on a competitive level.
I completely agree with Elling. Ochoa has been crushing her opponents and has been playing with the ferocity and determination of a Tiger Woods. She has a lifelong invitation to Mayakoba, which is now staged the same week as the Accenture Match Play. What better place to start than there.
