LPGA Championship ousts Ochoa-Sorenstam dream pairing: could learn from Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson-Adam Scott U.S. Open group

Next week’s U.S. Open is already getting plenty of buzz, thanks in part to the announced pairings in the opening rounds. The world’s top three golfers will play together: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott. And the hype is already all over the sports media, just as I’m sure the USGA intended.

The LPGA could have one-upped them Sunday, and they didn’t even have to intervene and create a new pairings rule. All they had to do was let nature take its course and Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa would square off in a mighty duel in the final round of the LPGA Championship.

And they can’t even get that right.

Ochoa & Sorenstam stand tied for third heading into the championship’s final round, making for a dream pairing right behind the leaders. Given how unproven Jee Young Lee and Maria Hjorth are, it’s likely major winners Ochoa and Sorenstam will be the leaders heading down the stretch.

But officials have inexplicably jumped the gun and taken all the air out of the tournament’s sails by foregoing twosomes for threesomes, meaning Ochoa and Sorenstam will be split up.

Because of fog worries.

You’re removing boatloads of potential drama for…possible fog?

I’m sorry. When you have a major championship pairing pitting the game’s most dominant golfer versus the game’s former most dominant golfer who says she’s calling it quits at the end of the year (hard to believe, by the way), you make it happen.

Double-tee the first groups in threesomes, then send off the leaders as pairs with a small gap between pretenders and contenders, or send the first groups out into the fog anyways like guinea pigs, or outfit Bulle Rock’s final three holes with flood lights. Isn’t obsolete RFK Stadium right down the road?

You find a more creative solution than removing any chance for a possible classic finale, the kind that could be legendary and spoken of 50 years from now.

Bonehead decisions like this is just one of the reasons why the LPGA never gets any decent airtime on TV. They still don’t know how to optimize their product. You would be able to feel the tension in the muggy air between the two at Bulle Rock had they been in the same group. Even in the unlikely event they weren’t in contention down the stretch, they’d still try and beat each other’s brains out.

But we’ll have to wait for another, hopefully fog-less major later this year, but this kind of opportunity doesn’t come around often, or else Tiger & Phil would have had far more showdowns by now.

The PGA doesn’t need to optimize pairings like the LPGA does, but do you think if they had the opportunity for a Tiger-Phil pairing, or a Tiger-Sergio final, they would go out of their way to make it null?