Another Near Miss For Ochoa

Southern Pines, N.C. – Winning isn’t merely a learning process, but an evolving lesson in which the application of skills nurtured and known is ever evolving. Lorena Ochoa understands this, having won enough to grasp the concept and yet still digesting the key elements would bring her more reliable results in a championship setting.

Ochoa, the No. 1-ranked player in women’s golf, left Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club Sunday night asking herself hard questions and finding only some of the answers to what it takes to win at its hardest, when you have to exorcise demons and execute basics.

Lorena Ochoa finds it hard to digest a critical bogey on the 17th hole Sunday. (John Mummert/USGA)

Of course, it is in exercise in futility when it doesn’t all congeal, when your best beats everyone except one person who did the little things better and handled the big things more deftly.

So the 62^nd U.S. Women’s Open is Ochoa’s latest trip to school. Cristie Kerr shot a closing 1-under-par 70 and turned a one-stroke lead over Ochoa into a two-stroke victory to win her first major championship in her 42^nd attempt.

Ochoa, 25, still awaits her first grand slam trophy. She has gone to school on this subject now 23 times. Her tie for second with Angela Park was her best finish in the U.S. Women’s Open and tied her best in a major championship.

"I am proud of myself. There is nothing to be ashamed of," said Ochoa, whose final-round 71 left her at 3-under 281 for the championship, the first time she has broken par in seven Open appearances. "I think that if you have a chance, you put yourself in contention, and you’re trying to win a tournament, I won’t change that for anything. I don’t need to be frustrated. I’m just happy to be in this position that I’m giving myself a chance to win my first major.

"It hurts (not winning), but I did everything that I could."

No quite. She let the Open trophy slip through her hands, and there is a literal element to that assertion.

Ochoa can trace her missed opportunities down the stretch to two wayward drives. Ranked 50^th in driving accuracy for the week, the native of Guadalajara, Mexico, hit a poor drive at the par-5 15^th that prevented her from reaching the green in two shots. She had to settle for par one hole after Kerr converted a birdie that broke a tie with Ochoa.

Two holes later, Ochoa pulled her tee shot left into a tree. The ball caromed into a bunker, and from there she topped a 5-wood and suffered a killing bogey. In the opening round she had stuck her 5-wood from a fairway bunker into the hole for an eagle at the par-4 third. Reprising that stroke proved impossible, though she said later, "I did have visions of doing that."

The poor tee ball at 17, she said, was the result of a faulty gripping of the club. "I lost my grip," she said. "I was kind of like … I didn’t like my position, and on the way down I kind of lost the grip a little bit. It was loose in my hands. At the end, probably, the 17^th hole was the one that cost me."

Instead of visions of an eagle, Ochoa had to digest the recurring vision of an ugly drive at an inopportune time costing her the championship. Just two years ago, Ochoa stood on the 18^th tee at Cherry Hills Golf Club in Denver having fought back to 2 over par for the championship and very much in the picture. But she duck-hooked her ball into the lake that separated the tee from the fairway and suffered a quadruple bogey.

More than likely, Ochoa will grow out of making such blunders, learn how to cope with the pressure and the expectations and the distractions and hit golf shots of value at valuable junctures. In the meantime, she maintains an equanimity that should also prove valuable in future majors.

"I’m doing OK," she said, when asked about hiding her frustrations. "Of course, there are times where I will really either just be sad or upset. It really hurts when you don’t win. At the same time, it’s just life."

It is. That’s one lesson Ochoa already knows well.

Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has appeared previously on www.uswomensopen.com.