Most of kids are all right

Just when you thought nothing could get in the way of the Lorena Ochoa bandwagon, it hit a bump in the road Thursday at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, and it wasn’t only her double bogey at the last hole.

It was a statement from Generation Text, a full-scale moment from the designated youth movement.

Angela Park, who recently turned 19, is in the driver’s seat after the opening round of the $1-million Samsung World Championship, and Paula Creamer, 21, is sitting right beside her.

Young and younger. The way Creamer spoke, it’s like, well, what did you expect?

“It’s just the way golf is going,” she said. “It’s a matter of time when everybody was going to really compete.”

Park and Creamer took turns beating up Bighorn with their five-under-par rounds of 67. That’s one shot better than Ochoa, 30-year-old Mi Hyun Kim and 19-year-old Morgan Pressel, whose 68 included four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back.

Ochoa, who has won six times on the LPGA Tour this year, would have been closer to another victory if not for a misadventure on the 355-yard, par-four 18th.

Ochoa knocked her drive from the elevated tee to the right and into a bush and had to take an unplayable lie. She hit her third shot short and in the rough, missed the green and wound up with a double bogey.

“Seventeen really good holes,” Ochoa said. “It was only one hole.”

One hole was enough to cost her the lead, but it didn’t dampen Ochoa’s outlook.

Ochoa took over the No. 1 ranking from Annika Sorenstam in April and has kept on track for a landmark season. Besides becoming the first to pass $3 million in earnings in one year, Ochoa has already moved to fifth in the LPGA’s official career money list even though she doesn’t turn 26 until November.

Park, who was born in Brazil but went to Torrance High, has already assured herself of the LPGA’s rookie-of-the-year award. With a fifth at the LPGA Championship and a tie for second at the U.S. Women’s Open, plus four other top 10s, Park is ninth on the money list with $847,933. In 23 tournaments, she has missed only one cut.

Park, seeing the Bighorn course for the first time this week, said her goals for the year were to win a tournament, not miss many cuts and to win the rookie-of-the-year award.

Park birdied the first three holes, but played the four par-five holes in a combined even par. Creamer, who hits it longer, had a different day on the par fives -- a combined three under.

The key to Creamer’s round came early. She saved par on the second hole after she drove into the left bunker and managed to get up and down from 115 yards. She rolled in a 10-footer for par, and then made a birdie at the fifth.

Park said she was nervous because she was paired with fellow teenager Michelle Wie.

“I was shaking,” Park said.

Wie turned in a shaky eight-over 79, which is four shots worse than her poorest score in 11 rounds in the Samsung. Wie, who birdied the 17th hole to avoid an 80, is last in the 20-player field. She turned 18 Thursday.

“It was a really tough day for me,” Wie said. “But there’s always tomorrow.”

By the time Wie had played 14 holes, she was 13 shots behind Ochoa.

Park, the second-youngest player in the field, has held at least a share of the lead five times this year, but she’s still looking for that first victory.

“I was trying to forget about that,” she said. “I just play as I have nothing to lose, and all of these girls, I feel like they are so much better than me, so I come out here and grind it out.”

[email protected]