The occasion was last week’s Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika at Mount Pleasant’s RiverTowne Country Club. But the topics offered up for examination by Dottie Pepper in her role as analyst for Golf Channel and NBC were about the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, which begins Thursday at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Md. – and which Pepper will describe for viewers in her own, inimitable style.
The second women’s major championship of 2008 comes with all the usual attendant story lines. And Pepper knows story lines, from both sides.
A two-time major winner herself (the 1992 and 1999 Nabisco Dinah Shore Championships, now the Kraft Nabisco), she understands the pressures facing players this week. She also has built a reputation in her TV work as a no-nonsense, occasionally brutal purveyor of the truth.
Anyone expecting her to pull punches, because she’s been on the receiving end, will be disappointed. Pepper loves being compared to her NBC colleague, the acerbic Johnny Miller. “I tell it like it is,” she said.
Still, the former Furman University All-American isn’t all golfing “shock jock”; there’s meat underneath the hot sauce. Take her spin on the LPGA Championship, which for most casual followers boils down to No. 1 Lorena Ochoa vs. No. 2 Annika Sorenstam, who will retire after 2008.
“I think your defending champion (Norway’s Suzann Pettersen) has gone a little unnoticed,” Pepper said. “I think she’s really starting to round into shape, winning (last week’s Swiss Open). She hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour this year yet but she comes in playing very well.”
A year ago, Pettersen was one of four first-time major winners, capping a five-win season that vaulted her to No. 2 in the world during Sorenstam’s absence. Pettersen has since fallen a spot back as Sorenstam, powered by three wins in 2008, has charged back to No. 2.
But the LPGA story for 2008 thus far is Ochoa. With six wins, including four in a row, the 26-year-old Mexican superstar is about as far ahead of Sorenstam in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings as Tiger Woods is up leading No. 2 Phil Mickelson in the men’s rankings.
This time a year ago, Ochoa was No. 1, but with a seeming inability (such as at the inaugural Ginn Tribute) to always finish off a win. This year, Ochoa has yet to blow a lead, and Pepper says the reason for that is the same reason her reign at No. 1 could be a long one.
“Statistically (Ochoa) is not that much different from where she was last year,” Pepper said. “But I think confidence is the big factor.
“And I can tell you … when Lorena’s name goes up on the leaderboard, it doesn’t go up without (other players) noticing. I think that also plays a factor (in her dominance); they know they’re not going to get a free pass, because this gal likes to win and she likes to win big.”
Sorenstam’s injuries played a role in Ochoa’s rapid rise, Pepper said, but she also said Ochoa’s improved performances were “not surprising. She had all the tools. It was a matter, I think, of having a little more confidence down the stretch, learning from the mistakes she had made in the past.”
As for Sorenstam, Pepper called her “a player that made everybody better in so many ways,” Pepper said. “She’s really going to be missed.” Especially, Pepper added, by the LPGA powers-that-be who are losing a Tiger Woods-like figure.
“The LPGA is in the middle of these TV contracts, putting a package together, (and) Lorena being the dominant player and Annika not there to push her, it leaves a bit of a question mark,” she said.
So who’s better? “I think they’re two totally different players,” Pepper said. “The common denominator is (both are) power players. I think Annika is much more calculating, more a Point A to Point B player who never seemed to make a big number.
“Lorena always keeps you on the edge of your seat because there’s that (big number) potential there. She has said, over and over, ‘I play my best when I play aggressively, and I can’t play in a really conservative mode.’”
Pepper portrays Ochoa as having “a little sort of Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer flair there.” Sorenstam, in contrast, has (or had) much in common with her buddy Tiger, or Jack Nicklaus.
“(But Ochoa’s) desire is going to be a lot like Annika,” Pepper said. “Her desire to play, compete and be No. 1 is what’s going to keep her on tour, keep her dominating.”
On other topics, Pepper sees No. 4 Paula Creamer, a two-time winner this year, as a future American major champion, comparing the 21-year-old’s career to her own. “The best thing you can do is know your preparation is going to lead you into playing well in majors, and stick to that,” she said. “I knew certain shots were going to be needed for those major championships, a lot like the way Nicklaus did.
"I thought that helped me out. (And) the timing is probably pretty similar for Paula.”
Even on a near-forgotten subject – Michelle Wie, who won’t play in the LPGA Championship – Pepper goes for the heart of the matter. “She doesn’t deserve to be there,” she said. “That’s for players who have earned their right into the field.” As for Wie in general, “I think it’s all very sad … a child mismanaged.”
Whoever wins this week’s tournament – and Pepper favors the big names – she said the course might wind up as the winner. “It favors a player with some length,” she said, “(but) you have to put the ball in play; there are places you cannot hit the ball at Bulle Rock and play well.”
That’s the Pepper game plan. Those players who don’t follow it … well, they can count on Pepper letting them, and her Golf Channel audience, know about it.
BOB GILLESPIE
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