Name: Lorena Ochoa
Birthplace: Guadalajara, Mexico
Birth Date: November 15, 1981
Height: 5'6"
2009 Earnings: $809,680
Career Earnings: $14,026,169
Lorena Ochoa was a golfing prodigy in her native Mexico, who turned into arguably the greatest collegiate golfer ever, and is well on her way to a sterling professional career.
Ochoa began golfing when she was five, growing up next to Guadalajara Country Club. By age six, she had already won a state championship, and by seven her first national championship.
In her junior career, Ochoa won the U.S. 8-12 Junior World Championship five straight years; won twice in Japan; won the Colombian championship three times; and the Mexican national championship eight times.
She attended college at the University of Arizona. In 20 collegiate tournaments, Ochoa posted 12 victories and six seconds; she never finished outside the Top 10 or more than three strokes off the lead. In the 2001-02 season, Ochoa won eight of 10 tournaments, including the first seven in a row, and finished second in the other two.
She was very successful in women's collegiate golf in the next two years, winning the NCAA Player of the Year Awards for 2001 and 2002, finishing runner-up at both the 2001 and 2002 NCAA National Championship and being named to the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) 2001 All-America First team. She won the 2001 Pac-10 Women's Golf Championships, was named PAC-10 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year 2001 and was All Pac-10 First team in 2001 and 2002.
In her sophomore year she had eight tournament wins in ten events she entered and set an NCAA record with seven consecutive victories in her first seven events. She won the Golfstat Cup, which is given to the player who has the best scoring average versus par with at least 20 full rounds played during a season in both 2001 and 2002, setting the single-season NCAA scoring average record as a freshman at 71.33 and beating her own record the next year by just over a stroke per round with a 70.13 average.
In November 2001, Ochoa was presented with Mexico's National Sports Award by Mexican President Vicente Fox. She was the youngest recipient of her country's highest sporting accolade, and the first golfer to receive it. In 2006 she was named NCAA Division I Womens Golf Most Outstanding Student Athlete, an award which was bestowed as part of the 25th Anniversary of Womens Championships celebration, taking into account outstanding performances over the past 25 years. She was the recipient of the 2003 Nancy Lopez Award which is presented annually to the world's most outstanding female amateur golfer.
She turned pro in 2002. Playing on the Futures Tour, Ochoa won three of 10 events she entered and led the money list, earning her LPGA Tour card for 2003.
And in 2003, Ochoa won Rookie of the Year honors with two seconds, and finished ninth on the money list.
Her first LPGA victory came at the 2004 Franklin American Heritage. She won one more time that year, while setting LPGA Tour rookies for most birdies, most rounds under par and most rounds in the 60s.
Ochoa was third on the money list in 2004, and fourth in 2005 when she won once.
The year 2006 was a breakout season for Ochoa, who posted six victories, including a stirring come-from-behind win at the Samsung World Championship where she outdueled her playing partner, Annika Sorenstam, in the final round. She also won the Tournament of Champions by 10 shots with a record-breaking score of 21-under.
Through the end of 2006, Ochoa was without a major championship to her credit. Earlier in 2006, she fired a 62 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the lowest round ever scored in a men's or women's major, but lost the title to Karrie Webb in a playoff.
But at The Old Course at St. Andrews, in the 2007 Women's British Open, Ochoa earned that first major title with a 4-stroke, wire-to-wire victory.
She went on to win eight times total in 2007, becoming the first LPGA golfer to cross the $3 million single-season earnings mark, then a couple weeks later crossing $4 million.
Early in 2008, when she won the Corona Championship in Mexico, Ochoa qualified for the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Ochoa is heavily involved in promoting youth golf, especially in her home country, has taken part in and led numerous charitable efforts and established a scholarship fund for young Mexican golfers.
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