Lorena Ochoa Fan Club

[Gxgolfer]

Post your messages and specific info Here!

 

Check out her website:

http://www.lorenaochoa.com/

 

Lorena Ochoa

HEIGHT: 5'6"

BIRTH DATE: 11/15/1981

BIRTH PLACE: Guadalajara, Mexico

RESIDENCE: Guadalajara, Mexico

EDUCATION: University of Arizona

TOUR STATUS: Exempt

ROOKIE YEAR: 2003

International Player

 

 

[sergizmo]

Great finish by Lorena this week! Hopefully she can keep it up and go on a huge tear.

[sergizmo]

Another win by Lorena! ;) It's still May and she has 2 wins and 5 second place finishes. This is shaping up to be a huge year for her. Go Lorena!

[cpa49707]

I can't think of a golfer that is on a hotter streak in golf than Lorena. All her hard work and talent is realling shinning thru. Way to go Lorena!!!!!!

[steph1964]

Wish I were in Newport this weekend! My EWGA club had specials etc. but none of us signed up. Anyway, Ochoa is playing well. I like that she is a "fit" player. I like Gulbis for the same reason...and Annika of course. Pressel to me is a bit chubby and cranky.

 

Wouldn't you love to golf in Mexico where ever she learned to golf? Need to learn more about golf in Guadalajara...

[sergizmo]

Victory number 4 this year. She is going to tear up the tour next year. All it will take is her first major win and the floodgates will open.

[Stevers]

It is great to see Lorena finally win in Mexico! It seems like in the past she let the pressure of playing in front the home crowd get to her. Hopefully her success will increase the level of interest of golf in Mexico.

[sergizmo]

Win #5 on the year for Lorena. Comes from 3 behind Annika to win by two. Certainly puts her reputation of not being a good "finisher" to rest.

 

Lorena is now up over $400,000 on the money list, and will probably be player of the year.

[Stevers]

Another Cerveza shower....

[steph1964]

Yes! What a win, and a joy to watch.

[sergizmo]

Win #6 (by 10 strokes) this year along with POTY. Lorena has been flat-out awesome this year.

[steph1964]

A real shot maker. Nice for a change amongst the women.

[steph1964]

Good win Lorena!! I love that she is interested in helping children in Mexico with education. I hope she continues to improve her game. That said, I thought that Sarah Lee played so well for 3 1/2 rounds! What a beautiful swing...if she develops the ability to finish a tournament WOW she could go very far on the tour.

[steph1964]

OK...that was a REAL bad drive on 17. Was she trying to prove she could drive it further? It was just awful. Oy.

 

Next time. For sure.

[sergizmo]

And now a major chammpion! ;)

 

It's been a long time coming for Lorena, but she won with style. A four stroke victory at the home of golf, the first time the women's tour has ever played St Andrews.

 

Hopefully the floodgates will open and many more major championships will be won by this classy young lady.

[Callaway Girl]

Lorena will be one of the greatest players of all time. And she has a world-class attitude. Keep swing those clubs!!

 

`CG

[tbowles411]

Golfer Lorena Ochoa announces retirement

By STEPHEN WADE, AP Sports Writer
19 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY (AP)—Lorena Ochoa retired on Tuesday, the second time in the last three years the biggest star on the U.S. LPGA Tour decided to step away.

The 28-year-old Mexican announced her decision on her website and will discuss her plans on Friday. Ochoa, who has been No. 1 in the world for the last three years and won 27 times over the last six years, may well be the best-known athlete in her country who was not a footballer.

“Lorena Ochoa confirms her retirement from the LPGA, as news reports in some media have said today,” her statement said. “The reasons and more details on the matter will be given by Lorena personally in a press conference on Friday in Mexico City. Lorena will share this news of a new stage in her life with her sponsors, family members and friends.”

The U.S. LPGA told The Associated Press it would not comment until Friday’s news conference. The U.S. LPGA said—at Ochoa’s request—it would let her explain the decision.

Ochoa is scheduled to play next week in the Tres Marias event in Morelia, west of Mexico City. It was not clear if she would indeed play there or if this month’s Kraft Nabisco Championship in California, where she finished fourth in the year’s first major, was her finale.

“I’m just crushed,” Judy Rankin, a Hall of Famer and television analyst, said upon hearing the news. “We won’t get to see her play golf. Mostly, we won’t get to see her.”

Annika Sorenstam was 37 when she announced her retirement in May 2008, saying she wanted to pursue other interests and start a family. She now has a daughter.

Ochoa was married in December to Andres Conesa, the chief executive of Aeromexico airline. He has three children from a previous marriage.

“I must admit that I was surprised, but not shocked, when I heard the news yesterday that Lorena is going to retire,” Sorenstam said on her blog. “She has always said she would play for maybe 10 years and then leave the game to start a family. She just got married and obviously feels that she is ready for that next chapter in her life.”

Ochoa has also talked openly about wanting to have children of her own. Last year she began traveling more, playing less, and had more off-course obligations, which include her charity foundation.

“Personally, it’s more important the things that I do outside the golf course,” Ochoa said last year before a tournament she hosts in her hometown of Guadalajara. “And that’s been my main focus right now.”

Her retirement was a blow to the U.S. LPGA, which has been struggling in a tough economy and has seen its number of tournaments decline in recent years.

“While the LPGA will certainly miss her great play, warm demeanor and smile, I am personally very happy for her,” Sorenstam said. “The most rewarding days are ahead of her, and I wish her all the best.”

Sorenstam was a commanding player, and Ochoa was expected to assume that role although she never quite drew the crowds the way the Swede did.

Ochoa was defined as much by her dominance as her graciousness. Mindful of her roots, she often would go to the maintenance barn during U.S. LPGA Tour events and speak with the workers, many of them from Mexico.

She rose to No. 1 in the world in 2007, succeeding Sorenstam, and she captured her first major at St. Andrews a year later by winning the Women’s British Open. Ochoa’s other major was the 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she took the traditional jump into the pond with her family as a mariachia band serenaded her.

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Ochoa produced 21 titles, but last season she won only three times. She still was honored as the tour player of the year for a fourth consecutive year.

This year she has played four events, with no victories and one finish in the top 10. Ochoa has missed the cut only four times in 172 events as a member of the U.S. LPGA, and not since 2005.

Jiyai Shin of South Korea is No. 2 in the world rankings and Yani Tseng of Taiwan, this year’s Kraft Nabisco winner, is No. 3. Also in the mix to take over for Ochoa could be Hawaii-born Michelle Wie, who won her first tournament last season and may have the star power the U.S. LPGA is looking for. Wie is No. 9 in the rankings.

Sorenstam predicted a few years ago that Tseng would be a world No. 1 within a few seasons. Tseng has won only three U.S. LPGA events, but two have been majors.

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson in Jacksonville, Florida contributed to this report.