Ochoa’s not that sharp in her final four

It’s still Lorena Ochoa’s tournament to win today at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, but that’s not exactly a radical line of thinking these days. The way Ochoa plays, it is pretty simple. She shows up, she posts some low numbers, she wins.

There’s time to catch Ochoa, with one round to go in the LPGA Tour’s first major of the year, and she made it a little easier with her finish Saturday.

Ochoa coaxed a one-under-par 71 out of Mission Hills Country Club, including a three-putt bogey at the 15th and another bogey at the 18th after she laid up into a bunker and then three-putted again.

Still, Ochoa is in the lead at six-under 210, although her advantage went from three shots to one in that damaging four-hole closing stretch.

“It was up and down,” Ochoa said. “It was hard, but the most important thing is I’m in the lead and I have a chance to win a major.”

Ochoa birdied the 10th, 11th and 12th and zoomed to seven under, but she said she felt out of rhythm all day.

Hee-Won Han shot a two-under 70 and is closest to Ochoa, but those late bogeys gave more than a few players a breath of fresh air.

Possibly the most buoyant of the group doing the chasing is Cristie Kerr -- a major champion just like Ochoa -- who applied a headlock to Mission Hills with a six-under 66.

That put some wheels under Kerr, the reigning U.S. Open champion who began the day tied for 29th and ended it in a tie for third with Maria Hjorth and Seon Hwa Lee -- two shots behind Ochoa.

Hjorth bogeyed the last hole for a 72, and Lee climbed from 19th place with her 68.

Liselotte Neumann, Heather Young and Inbee Park are only three shots back and very much in the running.

Kerr got a hint at dinner Friday night that she might have a good day. She pulled a message out of a fortune cookie that read “A great day ahead.”

“So go figure,” she said. “Maybe that’s all it takes.”

It’s also true you can improve your fortunes with seven birdies, which is the trick Kerr pulled off in her third round. Her only slip-up was a three-putt bogey at the 14th, but some flashy putting later in her round offset that.

Kerr made a 25-footer to save par at the 16th, then rolled in a 35-foot putt to birdie the 17th. She said she missed a couple of putts but didn’t want to sound as if she wasn’t happy about her day -- but about that score.

“It could have been stupid low,” said Kerr, who was seven shots back to start the round.

Now, there’s the momentum thing to think about.

“Momentum is kind of everything in golf,” Kerr said. “If you can keep the momentum on your side, there is really nothing you can’t do.”

Suzann Pettersen made the cut on the number and putted miserably. So all she did Saturday was putt only 27 times, shoot a tournament-low 65 and vault from a tie for 62nd to a tie for ninth with Annika Sorenstam, four shots behind Ochoa.

“I played myself into the tournament again,” Pettersen said.

It doesn’t hurt when you hole out with a six-iron from the fairway from 158 yards for an eagle, which is what Pettersen did at the 395-yard seventh. The ball took one bounce and hopped into the hole.

“Straight into the wind,” said Pettersen, who won her first major last year, the LPGA Championship, and four other tour events.

As for that wind, it picked up in the afternoon and made play with a greater degree of difficulty. But the wind didn’t bother Sorenstam nearly as much as her stomachache.

Sorenstam looked as if she’d be better off on a sofa instead of playing, but between grimaces and spending some time lying in the grass, she still managed a one-over 73 -- her first round over par in 2008.

“I just wanted to finish the round,” Sorenstam said. “I didn’t want to walk off the course.”

There is still a small chance, said Sorenstam, and whether she is the one who applies pressure on Ochoa or it comes from someone else, it’s going to have to happen soon.

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