Lorena Ochoa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lorena Ochoa |
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Ochoa in 2008
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| Personal information | |
| Born | 15 November 1981 Guadalajara, Mexico |
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
| Nationality |  Mexico |
| Spouse | Andrés Conesa Labastida (m. 2009) |
| Career | |
| College | University of Arizona (two years) |
| Turned professional | 2002 |
| Current tour(s) | LPGA Tour (joined 2003) |
| Former tour(s) | Futures Tour (joined 2002) |
| Professional wins | 30 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| LPGA Tour | 27 |
| Futures Tour | 3 |
| Best results in LPGA Major Championships (Wins: 2) |
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| Kraft Nabisco C'ship | Won: 2008 |
| LPGA Championship | T3: 2008 |
| U.S. Women's Open | T2: 2007 |
| Women's British Open | Won: 2007 |
| Achievements and awards | |
| World Golf Hall of Fame | 2017 |
| Futures Tour Rookie of the Year |
2002 |
| Futures Tour Player of the Year |
2002 |
| LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year |
2003 |
| LPGA Tour Player of the Year |
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 |
| LPGA Vare Trophy | 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 |
| LPGA Tour Money Winner |
2006, 2007, 2008 |
| Heather Farr Player Award | 2007 |
| Bob Jones Award | 2011 |
Lorena Ochoa Reyes (born 15 November 1981) is a Mexican former professional golfer. She played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour from 2003 to 2010. Lorena was the top-ranked female golfer in the world for 158 weeks in a row. This is an LPGA Tour record! She held this spot from April 23, 2007, until she retired on May 2, 2010, when she was 28 years old.
Lorena was the first Mexican golfer, male or female, to be ranked number one in the world. Because of her amazing records, many people think she is one of the best female golfers ever. She was added to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.
Contents
Early Life and Amateur Golf Career
Lorena Ochoa was born and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico. She was the third of four children. Her dad was a real estate developer and her mom was an artist. Lorena started playing golf when she was just five years old. She won her first state golf event at age six. By age seven, she had won her first national event in Mexico.
When Lorena was 11, she met professional golfer Rafael Alarcón. She asked him to help her improve her game. Alarcon asked her what her goal was. Lorena told him she wanted to be the best player in the world.
As a junior golfer, Lorena won 22 state events in Guadalajara. She also won 44 national events in Mexico. She won the Junior World Golf Championships five times in a row! In 2000, she went to the University of Arizona in the U.S. on a golf scholarship. There, she was teammates with Natalie Gulbis. While studying in Tucson, Lorena worked hard to improve her English. She watched movies and read magazines between practice and tournaments.
Lorena was very successful in college golf. She won the NCAA Player of the Year Awards in 2001 and 2002. She finished second at the NCAA National Championship in both 2001 and 2002. She also won the 2001 Pac-10 Women's Golf Championships.
In her second year of college, she won eight of the ten tournaments she played in. She even set an NCAA record by winning seven events in a row! Lorena won the Golfstat Cup in both 2001 and 2002. This award goes to the player with the best scoring average. She set new NCAA records for scoring average in both her freshman and sophomore years.
In 2001, Lorena received Mexico's National Sports Award. She was the youngest person and the first golfer to get this high honor. In 2006, she was named the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Most Outstanding Student Athlete. This award recognized her amazing performances over 25 years. In 2003, she received the Nancy Lopez Award. This award is given to the world's best female amateur golfer.
Nancy Lopez, a famous golfer herself, said that Lorena is very thoughtful. She remembers small details about people even after meeting them only once.
Professional Golf Career
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Lorena left college after her second year to become a professional golfer. In 2002, she won three events on the Futures Tour. She earned the most money on that tour, which allowed her to join the LPGA Tour for the 2003 season. She was also named the Duramed FUTURES Tour Player of the Year.
In her first year on the LPGA Tour in 2003, Lorena finished in the top 10 eight times. She was named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year. In 2004, she won her first two LPGA Tour titles. She became the first Mexican-born player to win on the LPGA Tour. That year, she also finished in the top 10 in three of the four major championships.
In 2005, Lorena won the Wegmans Rochester LPGA. In 2006, she tied a record for the lowest score ever in a major tournament with a round of 62. By the end of 2006, she had won six tournaments. She earned the most money and won her first LPGA Tour Player of the Year award. She also won the LPGA Vare Trophy for having the lowest scoring average.
Lorena's achievements were noticed outside of golf. She won the 2006 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award. She also received Mexico's National Sports Prize for the second time.
In April 2007, Lorena became the world's number one ranked golfer. She took over this spot from Annika Sörenstam.
In August 2007, Lorena won her first major championship. This was at the famous Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland. She won the Women's British Open by four shots. She then won the next two LPGA events, becoming the first golfer since Annika Sörenstam in 2005 to win three events in a row.
Also in 2007, Lorena became the first woman to earn more than $4,000,000 in a single season. This broke Sörenstam's previous record.
In April 2008, Lorena won her second major championship, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She was the first golfer since Sörenstam in 2005 to win two LPGA majors in a row. After winning, she celebrated by jumping into the pond on the 18th green, which is a tradition for this tournament. The next week, she won the Corona Championship in her home country by 11 strokes. This win helped her qualify for the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Lorena was coached by Rafael Alarcon, the same Mexican professional who she met as a child.
Retirement from Golf
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On April 20, 2010, Lorena Ochoa announced that she planned to retire from professional golf. At a press conference in Mexico City on April 23, 2010, Lorena said her last tournament would be the 2010 Tres Marias Championship. She explained that her career plan was always to play for "around ten years" and to be the number one ranked player.
She also shared that she felt ready to focus on other things. She wanted to be closer to her family and work on her foundation. Lorena said she would still be an LPGA member. She would also play in her own tournament, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. She mentioned that she might play in a U.S. Open or a Kraft Nabisco in the future.
Lorena did return to play a few tournaments in 2012. She competed in the Lacoste Ladies Open de France and her own Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
Tournament Host
In November 2008, Lorena became the host of a new yearly LPGA event. It is called the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. This tournament is held at her home course, Guadalajara Country Club. The money raised from the tournament helps support the Lorena Ochoa Foundation.
Personal Life
Lorena Ochoa's success has helped her family's business, the Ochoa Group, in Guadalajara. Her brother, Alejandro Ochoa, manages it.
Lorena is represented by Ochoa Sports Management. This company also manages other golfers and operates the LPGA Corona Championship and the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
The Lorena Ochoa Foundation runs La Barranca, a primary school in Guadalajara. This school helps 250 students who might not have many opportunities. In 2008, the foundation also opened a high school. Their goal is to keep adding new classes and build a separate high school building.
Lorena got engaged to Andrés Conesa Labastida, who is the CEO of Aeroméxico. They got married in December 2009. In April 2011, Lorena announced she was expecting their first child. By mid-2017, she had three children.
Major Wins and Achievements
Lorena Ochoa won 30 professional tournaments in her career. This includes 27 wins on the LPGA Tour. She won two major championships:
- The 2007 Women's British Open
- The 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship
She was also named the LPGA Tour Player of the Year four times (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009). She won the LPGA Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average four times as well. Lorena was the LPGA Tour's leading money winner for three years in a row (2006, 2007, 2008).
Honors and Awards
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2001
2002
2003 2006
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2007
2008
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2009 2011
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Team Appearances
Amateur
- Espirito Santo Trophy (representing Mexico): 1998, 2000
Professional
- World Cup (representing Mexico): 2005
See also
In Spanish: Lorena Ochoa para niños
- List of golfers with most LPGA Tour wins
- Statue of Lorena Ochoa, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
