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Tough Year Off The Course For Ochoa

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

EDINA, Minn. - In 11 tournament appearances this year, Lorena Ochoa has won six times, including her second major championship. She has finished out of the top 10 only once. At 26, the native of Guadalajara, Mexico, recently set an LPGA Tour record for being the youngest player to reach $2 million in earnings. But it has been a difficult year.

A week after her last victory, Ochoa withdrew from the Ginn Tribute when her uncle died in Mexico. She returned to the McDonald's LPGA Championship for the season's second major, and learned only after she finished one shot out of a playoff that her maternal grandfather had passed away. He had been ill for some time, but the golfer was expecting to return from the event with plenty of time to visit.

"I never really said goodbye ... so that was tough," she said. "He was my joy and motivation.

"The last few weeks have been rough for me. I play for a week, and I didn't play. It's been on and off, and I feel that it's important for me to get a rhythm, get my concentration on the golf course. I'll be ready to play. This is a great situation to be here in the Women's U.S. Open. I'm 100 percent, and I really want to give myself a chance to win the tournament Sunday."

LOW FUEL: Although she is ranked No. 2 in the world and has three wins this year, Annika Sorenstam will retire from competitive golf at the end of this season.

Explaining what went into that decision, the 37-year-old Swede said she realized "that my tank is running empty."

With 72 career victories, she needs 16 more titles to equal Kathy Whitworth's LPGA record of 88, but found her heart no longer totally into the game.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that you only have so much to give, and I'm coming to a point where it's hard to get geared up other than for big events," she said.

"I have a lot of patience coming into a tournament. If it goes well, it's easy to stay on top then and keep going. But when things are not going so well it's easy to lose it."

Sorenstam is a three-time Women's Open winner.

BRIGHT SPOT: While American women have a terrible record in recent major championships - six wins in the last 30 - the Women's Open has been a bright spot.

Four of those six victories, including Cristie Kerr's title last year, have come in this tournament.

Mick Elliott

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