Lorena Ochoa Is Quietly Making Her Move In Women’s Golf

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Newport, R.I. – Lorena Ochoa stood under the glistening sun Tuesday at Newport Country Club, her tanning oil providing radiance while she signed several autographs.

When she finished, standing outside the ropes and all, she blended in as almost unrecognizable while holding the hand of father Javier, the successful realtor, as they retreated for lunch in the clubhouse.

Lorena Ochoa signs a flag for a girl shortly after her practice round Tuesday. (John Mummert/USGA)

Had this been Guadalajara, Mexico, her presence would no doubt cause a mob scene. Much like it did at the MasterCard Classic in Mexico City in March. How big is her presence? She’s in the newspapers there virtually every day, and, her following is so intensive that the country is already close to canonizing her. (Well, not really, but you understand).

"It’s huge," said Sophia Sheridan, the only other Mexican-born contestant playing in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open. "She has to have a bodyguard. People are always trying to come up to her. I don’t know how she does it."

To listen to it, Ochoa has achieved the same rock-star persona as Carlos Santana or the same celebrity A-list status as Salma Hayek -- two other prominent Mexicans – whenever she returns to her native land. She is to golf there as three-time Grammy Award winner Ramon Ayala is to the accordion.

So that means Ochoa’s head is larger than the stratosphere, right? Hardly. Ochoa is more grounded than a buried fiber optic cable. She speaks softly with a trace of confidence, but more important, always with manners made for a tea party.

At 24, she has been anointed as the player who has the most ability to make Annika Sorenstam, one of Sweden’s closest things to a mythical Valhalla Norse goddess, mortal. The proof is in the pudding.

Quick, who leads the LPGA Tour money list this year? The knee-jerk reaction is to say Sorenstam? Not so. It’s Ochoa. She has quietly earned her way to the top via 10 top-10 finishes in 13 starts this year. That includes a win at the ShopRite, a top-10 finish in the LPGA McDonald’s Championship and an agonizing loss in a playoff to Karrie Webb at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

The one tournament that perhaps stings more is how she completed last year’s Women’s Open. On the cusp of winning her first major in a quirky climactic finish, the naturally-aggressive Ochoa left Cherry Hills licking her wounds. The leader board shows a sixth-place finish, but the championship was in her hands. The way she sloppily played the 72^nd hole could draw comparisons to the final-hole flops that Jean Van de Velde (1999 British Open) and Phil Mickelson (this year’s U.S. Open) carved out. The tumble began when she put her tee shot in water. An easy swing, coupled with major final-hole pressure, caused her to hit behind the ball.

"You never do that when you are pumped up or when you have adrenaline," she said of the catastrophic swing that led to hitting her ball into the water.

A quadruple-bogey eight left her on the precipice of devastation. But she swore she’d learn from the failure, the pain that seared her heart. So she worked hard in the off-season to control adrenaline in pressure-packed situations the best that she could. She worked on her swing, driven by a hunger to not disappoint herself again.

The former University of Arizona standout – recently named as the NCAA’s top female student-athlete golfer for the last 25 years -- isn’t surprised by her success this season, but isn’t ready to lay claim to Sorenstam’s eminence as the best female golfer in the world. It’s eerie that their collegiate careers juxtaposed against the professional almost mirror one another. Both tasted success on the college level, with Ochoa posting more wins in her two years (12) in school than Sorenstam (seven) had in three. But Sorenstam earned an NCAA Championship title to Ochoa’s none.

When Sorenstam started her professional career, she was the young hotshot trying to make a mark. But at that time there wasn’t a single player she was chasing because the likes of Juli Inkster, Betsy King, Meg Mallon, Dottie Pepper, to name a few, had dominated the scene.

"As far as being the No. 1 player in the world," said Ochoa, "I think that’s something too soon for me. I’m just early in my career."

Said Sorenstam of Ochoa’s rise: "I think everybody would have thought that this was going to happen. Lorena has been on top for quite some time. … I don’t think it surprises anybody. She’s a great athlete."

"When I finished," said Ochoa of swimming the last 4 kilometers, "when I get to the line, it was like winning the U.S. Open. It was a great feeling. I never felt that never before."

She’s taken those training tools and has applied them to her game. She continues to practice and hang around with Sheridan, who also grew up in – go figure – Guadalajara. While playing on a junior circuit, Sheridan befriended Ochoa, whom she idolized, and the two have become close. When Sheridan needs advice about her game while she competes on the Futures Tour, she asks Ochoa. When Sheridan, 22, was looking for U.S. colleges to attend, she turned to Ochoa. She wanted a place to go that had a good golf program and solid educational foundation. Ochoa suggested the University of Cal-Berkley, telling Sheridan, "Aww, just try it out and if you don’t like it [the golf], fine," said Sheridan laughing.

Ochoa’s point was well understood by Sheridan: sometimes you have to take a risk, and if you do and fail, learn from it and move on to something else.

Some of that philosophy was learned from the legendary Nancy Lopez, who actually has taken Ochoa under her wing.

"Every time I have a question, I go to her and she would always respond and always give me her point of view," said Ochoa. "She’s been very helpful to me. To me, Nancy Lopez is a hero. When I was growing up, the only thing I hear is, ‘You can be like Nancy Lopez, you’re like Nancy Lopez, she’s winning tournaments.’"

That was drilled in her head when she began learning the game at age 5 at Guadalajara Country Club, one of six private courses in a city that, still to this day, has no public facilities.

But, if she can just stay on course, stick to the plan, those numbers could become exponential based on her success as perhaps the world’s best player one day.

"This is my fourth season, and I’m just trying to go up little by little," said Ochoa. "That’s my goal that I’m working really hard to get up there, but that will come with time."

And, fortunately for Ochoa, time is on her side.

Ken Klavon is the USGA Web Editor. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.