Lorena Ochoa’s second act is changing lives
By RON SIRAK
My assignment was to cover the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. But when the plane touched down in the Big Easy on a sunny Tuesday and I powered up my phone it burst alive with a symphony of sound heralding missed calls and texts all with the same message: “Lorena Ochoa says she’s retiring and will explain at a news conference in Mexico City on Friday. Get there.”
Second Wind delivers stories like this to your inbox every two weeks — thoughtful, timeless, and worth your time.
Subscribe
This was shocking news. Ochoa was No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings, a spot she’d held for 158 consecutive weeks, had won on the LPGA Tour 27 times, including two major championships, and was only 28 years old. That she walked away from tournament golf in April 2010 at the same age as the game’s greatest amateur, Bobby Jones, 80 years earlier, was both coincidental and appropriate.
She and Jones were superstars who placed family above fame. They found joy in multiple activities and not a singular pursuit. In their hearts, both Ochoa and Jones loved golf more than they loved competition. They found serenity in the solitary pursuit of perfection and shunned the attention success brings.
My next flight landed me in Mexico City for Ochoa’s public announcement at the Centro Banamex Convention Center. On the ride back to Benito Juárez International Airport, my taxi driver eloquently summed up the impact of Ochoa on Mexico. His English was limited and his knowledge of golf even less, but that taxi driver likely spoke for an entire nation.
“Lorena Ochoa, goodbye to golf?” he asked, guessing why I was in Mexico. “Adios, eh?” he said, shaking his head sadly. Then he kissed the tips of two fingers, gently touched the crucifix dangling from his rearview mirror and said: “Ella tiene un buen corazon” – she has a good heart.
Now, 16 years after walking away while still No. 1, Ochoa is living a very different life than that of a touring pro, a life exactly as she dreamed – focused on family, faith and her foundation.
Coming May 3: John Steinbreder on what makes Philadelphia, site of this year’s PGA Championship and U.S. Amateur, one of America’s great golf towns.