Pro Golfer Lorena Ochoa to Retire at the Top of her Game

Mexican born Lorena Ochoa, 28, currently the number one ranked female golfer in the world, announced today that she plans to retire after this year’s LPGA season wraps.

According to the newspaper Reforma, Ochoa is planning a press conference for Friday to formally announce her plans for the future.  

Ochoa’s management group also release a statement that read, "Lorena Ochoa confirms her retirement from the LPGA, as news reports in some media have said today. 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."

With that, she will close the book on a pretty impressive career spanning over 20 years (eight at the professional level) that includes over 30 professional wins, the Futures Rookie and Player of the Year, LPGA Rookie of the Year, two time AP Female Athlete of the Year and the Best International Athlete ESPY. 

Ochoa first took hold of the club as a five-year-old girl and by the age of six had won her first state event and by seven, she won her first national event.  She won five consecutive titles at the Junior World Golf Championships and with that won a full athletic scholarship to the University of Arizona.

While at college, Ochoa showed no signs of letting up.  She won NCAA Player of the Year honors during the 2001 and 2002 campaigns and won the 2001 Pac-10 Women’s Golf Championship. 

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Ochoa had her “career year” in 2007, with eight first place finishes and 21 top 10 finishes.  That same year she won the Women’s British Open and also became the first woman ever to earn more than $4 million in a single season, surpassing crowd favorite Annika Sorenstam’s previous record of $2.8 million.

Gary Player, who is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, lists Ochoa in the PGA Tour media guide as his favorite woman athlete for her dedication to the sport and physical fitness initiatives. 

In addition to her work on the green, Ochoa is devoted to her philanthropic efforts in her native Mexico.  The Lorena Ochoa Foundation operates La Barranca, a school in Guadalajara for over 250 underprivileged students.  In 2008, the foundation opened a high school in the same area.

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