There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding Lorena Ochoa’s dominance of the LPGA Tour and claims that she is the next Tiger Woods.
The Streaks
Lorena Ochoa has won four tournaments in a row on the LPGA Tour. Just this past weekend, she shot four rounds in the sixties for a nineteen under total of 296 at the Ginn Open. That was good enough for a three-shot win. She’s also finished second, first, first in her last three Major championships.
Tiger Woods’ win at the 2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational was his sixth worldwide win in a row, however these wins did not come in consecutive weeks. In fact, only his end of 2007 wins in the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship were back-to-back. Further, Tiger’s Major finished for the past year have been second, second, twelfth, first, second.
Time Will Tell
There is no doubt that Lorena is red hot right now and has had more recent success than Tiger, but only time will tell if she truly is the next Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam.
What would make Ochoa an instant household name is success on the PGA Tour. No matter how you slice it, the PGA Tour is the dominant grounds of professional golf competition. Michelle Wie’s attempts to make a PGA Tour cut are evidence of this. When Ochoa tees it up in a PGA Tour event, makes a cut, and wins we can start calling her the next Tiger Woods. Until then, she’s the next Annika.