Golf Events / Bill Elliott / 30 July 2008 /

Bill Elliott's golfing highlight of 2007 was Lorena Ochoa's Open win at St Andrews, so can the women provide him with the top moment of '08? It's very possible...

At last it is the women's turn to strut their stuff in a proper media spotlight when the Ricoh Women's British Open opens for business. Not the 'ladies' note and not the 'girls' either. In these post-feminist times this lot want to be known as real women which is good to hear because, believe me, quite a lot of them really deserve this description.

There was a time when female pro golfers could be a bolshie bunch, aggressively determined to be projected as serious 'sportspeople'. This, often, was hard to do even for the most sympathetic sportswriter. Either they were the sort who held hands with another woman before, after and even occasionally during a round or they were the pretty-pretty princesses who were more concerned with the state of their nail polish than the speed of the greens. Often, sadly, their golf was, at best, mediocre.

Thankfully this sorry state of affairs has changed totally. The top women now are as competent as their male equivalents while, for the most part, they dress and project themselves admirably. This is why this week's championship over the Old Course at Sunningdale in Berkshire is a must-see event for anyone even half-seriously interested in the old game.

Currently the best pound-for-pound golfer in the world, Lorena Ochoa, is worth the admission money alone while the current greatest female, Annika Sorenstam, is making her final major appearance before this shy and likeable Swede retreats from the game's sharpest edges to begin a family.

Ochoa's victory in this Open over the rather more famous Old Course at St Andrews turned out to be the highlight of my golf writing year in 2007. It was the first time I had watched the young Mexican in action, the first time I had met her and I admired her on-course and off-course displays hugely.

Ochoa is a sponsor's dream. Good-looking (and, no, I'm not being sexist here - d'you think Tiger would make quite as much money if he didn't look as he does?) and polite and warm and friendly she is one hell of a talented golfer, the first woman I've ever seen who has a short game even half as good as the top blokes.

So far this year Ochoa has won half a dozen times including her second major, the clumsily named Kraft Nabisco Championship back in March. She finished a disappointing 31st in the US Open in June but she was reeling from the death of her grandfather and a favoured uncle at the time.

She was back to her real self in the recent Evian Masters, her old sense of fun restored sufficiently for her to take a first round lead after a 65 before haring off to switch into football boots and join Zinedine Zidane and David Ginola in a charity football match. You may by now have gathered that I think Lorena - [4.0] to win this week - is a top girl, sorry, woman.

I feel the same way about Sorenstam. To date she has won 72 times on the LPGA Tour and thrown in 10 majors to confirm her status as one of the very best golfers ever to pull on a pair of spikes. It may be a cliché to suggest that she reflects the expected Swedish 'cool' but it only a cliché because it is true. The only time I have ever seen her nonplussed was when I asked her a few years ago at a British Open that was sponsored by Weetabix how many of the sponsor's product she could get through at breakfast and she clearly didn't have an earthly what Weetabix was.

Now we may see her nonplussed again at Sunningdale.

"Yes, it's emotional just knowing it is the last one for me, " she says.

"But I have made up my mind what I want to do and although this may be a bit sad I am excited and happy about my future."

Sentimentalists amongst us would love to see this dignified golfer succeed one final time before swapping birdies for babies but it may be asking just a tad too much and that's reflected in odds of [17.0]. Ochoa is the obvious favourite but the top 30 women in the world are in Berkshire over the next few days, a stellar cast list that includes Karrie Webb ([40.0]), Paula Creamer ([16.0]), Se Ri Pak ([65.0]) and Britain's own Karen Stupples ([40.0]) who won this title at Sunningdale just two years ago.

Get there if you can. The women would love to see you. Maybe even the girls would too.

* The Women's British Open is live on BBC TV from Thursday onwards.

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