And Then There Were Eight...One Last Time
Greg Stoda reports on Paula Creamer's gutsy effort and the eight players remaining for Sunday's last-ever ADT chase for $1 million. (That's right, I have no hope that it'll be resurrected as part of a season opening event.)
One day, eight players, $1 million. Not as simple to explain as the FedEx Cup, of course. But it'll do.
Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa - the ADT's main attractions - were cut after two rounds.
"That's the danger of the format," said an LPGA Tour official.
The field includes Suzann Pettersen (68), Angela Stanford (69), Creamer and Seon Hwa Lee (70s), Ji-Yai Shin and Joeng Jang (71s) and Karrie Webb and Eun-Hee Ji (72s). Webb and Ji pushed into the final round by getting through a playoff when Sun Young Yoo three-putted to bogey the first extra hole.
Creamer long since had become the big news of the day."I didn't know if I was going to get out of bed Friday morning," she said. "I think the last two days, my warmup has been about 30 minutes, which is normally about an hour-and-a-half. I've cut down trying to conserve energy."
Seriously, how many fewer people will watch tomorrow because Annika and Lorena are not there?
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 08:21 PM
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Reader Comments (3)
Annika and Lorena? Robots. Lorena is engaging off the golf course, and both are incredibly nice people, but they're robots on the golf course. One hopes Paula can reach the top, as she's stated she'd like to, without becoming a robot as well.
That being said, here in the cold-weather state of PA, I've long since given up watching TV golf. It's football and hockey season now, and watching golf now is just depressing. I'll pick up again when hope begins rising around February '09.
To answer your question... how many people watched rounds 1-3? Can you really cut that number down by much at all?
i also like how aggressively she plays. creamer is fun to watch and i am definitely a fan, but she doesn't have the length to go for it that way ochoa does when she decides she wants to make something happen.
i agree that sorenstam, while pretty much the greatest woman golfer ever, is boring to watch.
FWIW, almost none of the men live up to even Ochoa's level of "attitude." Tiger's exciting not only because he plays great golf frequently, but because - good or bad - he's expressive on the golf course.
I hate robots. :-P