Ochoa's Goes to 11

As in, an 11-stroke victory in Lorena Ochoa's season debut at the HSBC Champions. Eleven strokes better than runner-up Annika Sorenstam, 13 shots better than third-place Paula Creamer, the winners from the two previous weeks. Ochoa was the only player double-digits under par, and she was twenty under.

The golf media and blogosphere had a buzzword when Sorenstam won in Week 1: "statement." As in, "Annika made a statement." Well, if Annika made a statement in her Week 1 victory, what did Ochoa make at the HSBC with an 11-stroke win?

It wasn't a statement. It was a ransom demand. And like any good ransom note, Ochoa's has three demands:

1. At least 10 wins
   
2. At least 2 majors
   
3. $5 million in earnings

And we shouldn't just coronate Ochoa. While she's earned many comparisons to Tiger Woods and to Sorenstam she trails both those players in success in majors. And in closing the deal.

Will this be the year Ochoa really does start looking more like Woods and Sorenstam than Phil Mickelson? (Hey, it's not a bad thing to look like Phil - you'll win a lot, after all; you'll just blow a few tournaments here and there, too.) She needs to win majors, and to win the close ones, too - assuming anyone gets close to her, that is.

Addendum: Here are the first eight places on the leaderboard, sans scores:

Lorena Ochoa
Annika Sorenstam
Paula Creamer
Laura Diaz
Stacy Prammanasudh
Karrie Webb
Ji-Yai Shin
Christina Kim
Morgan Pressel
In-Kyung Kim

Good Lord, that's a great leaderboard! Until you remember that Ochoa was 11 strokes ahead of the pack.