The best possible start: Annika Sorenstam winning again. Win No. 70 for Annika came in the SBS Open on Saturday, by two strokes, with a steady final round and a clutch birdie on the 17th hole.

I imagine Lorena Ochoa watching this and having two thoughts:

1. I work extremely hard at my game already - nobody works harder ... but I better work even a little bit harder now.
   
2. This year is going to be fun.

The final round of the SBS was a lot of fun for me as a viewer and a fan. The first page of the leaderboard had its share of veterans - Sorenstam, Diaz, Kerr - and young guns - Ueda, J. Park, A. Park, J.Y. Shin. And even an out-of-nowhere wildcard, Russy Gulyanamitta, who had all of two cuts made in her career on the LPGA Tour since 2001, but somehow showed up tied for second. She may never have another Top 10, but she now has at least two years as an LPGA Tour member.

And Jane Park. Hey, watching my third-favorite female golfer (Se Ri is No. 2, and you can probably guess my No. 1) in her first charge at an LPGA victory was a blast. The only downside was listening to the announcers repeatedly act as if Jane being in contention was some kind of shock. Hey, Golf Channel nitwits: Jane Park is a monster. Have you forgotten that she was more accomplished as an amateur than either Paula Creamer or Morgan Pressel? Get used to seeing her in contention. She's going to have a better LPGA career than Pressel.

Also great to see Momoko Ueda in contention, although Ueda got pretty yippy down the stretch with her irons. Still, it's clear that she's far ahead of Ai Miyazato at this time for the title of best Japanese golfer. Ueda moves up to No. 8 on my personal list of favorite female golfers, largely because I have the words "Oh, oh, Momoko" to the tune of Van Morrison's "Domino" constantly running through my head now. In a few hours this will cease to be fun and start to be really annoying. Perhaps I'll switch to John Lennon's "Oh Yoko" at that point.

Story | Scores