'She's the GOAT': Lorena Ochoa's impact in women's golf still huge 15 years after retirement
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — The LPGA has returned to Mexico for the first time since 2017 and the people probably most excited for it are the eight Mexican golfers in the 136-player field. Well, except for maybe one person.
That would be the greatest Mexican golfer of all time, Lorena Ochoa.
"Amazing. This morning, I woke up, and I was just trying to think you know, how especially how important it is and maybe not as many people realize as much I do," she told Golfweek shortly after hitting a ceremonial tee shot on the 18th hole on Wednesday to officially kick off the 2025 Mexico Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba. "I know how hard it is to have an event here and get the sponsors. … this is a beautiful place.
"To see what is a real LPGA event, to have it back, I'm really excited."
Born in Guadalajara and currently residing in Mexico City, Ochoa is visiting the El Camaleon Golf Course in Playa del Carmen this week to welcome the tour back to her home country as well as to catch up with the current generation of LPGA golfers.
That includes Maria Fassi, proud to be playing in her home country for the first time as a professional.
"It's everything we always dreamt of as kids. We would come out and watch Lorena play," Fassi said Tuesday. "And then to kind of have that taken away for I think it's seven years since the last one, and then now us be the ones that people are watching and coming out to support, it's just amazing. It's an honor to represent Mexico everywhere we go."
Fassi said she first met Ochoa when she was "10 or 11" and said if not for Ochoa, she would've never considered playing golf, much less at the professional level.
"So, yeah, it's pretty cool that she's now kind of coming to watch us and support us. To me, she gets to see what she did, and I think it's very special, I know for all of us, but I hope that she knows that she's the reason why the eight of us are here."
Isabella Fierro knows the golf course well. She grew up in Playa del Carmen and has played El Camaleon dozens of times and is thrilled the LPGA is back in Mexico.
"I've known this course since I was probably 12 years old. I play local tournaments here, international events, so I have a deep love for this golf course," Fierro said. "Just the environment, everything about it is just awesome, and seeing the LPGA out here is just, that's how far Mexican women's golf has grown."
Ochoa was the spark that started it all. A four-time player of the year and winner of 27 LPGA events, including two majors, Ochoa retired suddenly at age 28 in 2010, shocking the golf world. She was short of the then-required 10-year playing career for LPGA Hall of Fame induction, but that rule was later changed and she got in the Hall in 2022.
Ochoa's legacy is being felt all over the tournament this week and that includes the record number of Mexicans competing in the same LPGA event: Maria Balcazar, Maria Fassi, Isabella Fierro, Fernanda Lira, Gaby Lopez, Andrea Ostos, Carolina Rotzinger and Clarisa Temelo. Five of those eight are in the field on sponsor exemptions, including Temelo, an amateur.
"I can tell you I speak to some of the presidents from the different courses, the different clubs in Mexico and when they tell me, 'You know, Lorena, we don't know what to do, we have so many kids,' and I laugh," Ochoa said. "It's a good problem to have, so I just want to say that it makes me really proud, honor, happy, because it's all about the growth of the game and we see that the numbers are going up, new golf courses, it's more accessible. I'm working with the Mexican Federation about having a public facility. We're holding our golf academy on Sundays. We give it for free, for the kids."
Another competitor this week, Albane Valenzuela, is Swiss but she was born in the U.S. to a Mexican father and French mother.
"Oh, my gosh, Lorena is the GOAT," raved Valenzuela. "She's the coolest player. She's probably one of the reasons I started even playing golf. My dad won with Lorena back in the day, the Spirit, like a form of world championship, if you want to call it, and he always said how incredible of a human being she was. Me growing up and as a teenager, she always took time to talk to me, brought me golf balls, brought me her polos, and I just always had very fond memories of her. I think she's the most gracious, humble champion that golf has ever produced. Really one of a kind, and the fact that she's here this week supporting is super special."
Ochoa's legacy spreads far and wide, even to South Korea. That's where Sei Young Kim, a 12-time winner on the LPGA, grew up. One of those wins was the last LPGA event held in Mexico in 2017.
"She's a legend. When I grew up, I watched her play and I, when I played her tournament [2017 Lorena Ochoa Match Play], I saw her. I met her," Kim said. "I was like so nervous. I feel like I meet the superstar."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC Sports
30 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
SPORTSENGINE PLAY TO PROVIDE LIVE COVERAGE OF2025 AMERIGOL LATAM CUP TOURNAMENT FOR NON-TRADITIONAL HOCKEY COUNTRIES
Players Representing Teams from More than 30 Countries to Convene at Florida Panthers IceDen in South Florida; Games will be Streamed in 4K and Available on SportsEngine Play Free to the Public MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Aug. 13, 2025) – Showcasing that ice hockey is truly a global sport, the rapidly growing SportsEngine Play youth and amateur sports streaming platform will present comprehensive coverage of the 2025 Amerigol LATAM Cup, Aug. 17-24, a weeklong tournament featuring teams and players from more than 30 countries not traditionally known for playing hockey. More than 1,400 players comprising 62 teams from Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions around the world will converge on South Florida for eight days and 142 games, with games scheduled to stream live via a dedicated tournament channel on the SportsEngine Play website. Through seven days of competition, the Amerigol LATAM Cup will help raise awareness of how ice hockey has impacted the sports culture of each participating country, and help promote youth participation across the U.S. The tournament will take place at the Panthers IceDen in South Florida. SportsEngine Play will stream all games in 4K, providing a more immersive hockey viewing experience. The Amerigol LATAM Cup was developed to provide athletes with an opportunity to showcase their hockey skills while inspiring a new generation of fans outside of North American borders. Beyond the games, the tournament also is a cultural exchange where players and fans meet new people and experience diverse sporting traditions. The growth of the LATAM Cup has been supported by the NHL and the NHL Players' Association through its Industry Growth Fund, established in 2013 to support local hockey programs and reduce barriers to participation. Representative countries competing in the 2025 Amerigol LATAM Cup include: *comprise the Caribbean team **comprise the Central America Team ***comprised of 12 Native American nations As part of SportsEngine's leading youth sports technology brands, SportsEngine Play is the first-of-its-kind subscription streaming service for amateur sports, connecting millions of families and fans with events, games and tournaments featuring young athletes. The platform serves a constantly growing list of sports facilities nationwide and is constantly adding new competitive content through acquisition of streaming rights to elite amateur sports that will entertain and inspire. About SportsEngine SportsEngine creates powerful technology and services to simplify and grow youth sports, making it easier for organizations to connect with coaches, families, athletes and fans. SportsEngine technology serves thousands of youth sports organizations, clubs, studios, franchises, tournaments, teams, National Governing Bodies, professional sports leagues and municipalities; and equips millions of coaches, families, athletes and fans with technology products that help simplify their sporting lives. The SportsEngine family of brands includes SportsEngine HQ, an industry leader in youth sports club, league and team management technology; SportsEngine Play, a first-of-its-kind subscription streaming service for capturing and viewing live and on-demand video of youth and amateur sporting events, and offering the industry's most comprehensive collection of player development and training content; SportsEngine Motion, an all-inclusive management software specifically developed for studio and class-based sports, as well as sports that conduct camps, clinics and private lessons; SportsEngine Tourney, a youth sports tournament management software; SportsEngine AES, a competition management software designed specifically for volleyball. Many of these offerings also provide technical integrations, making the youth sports experience more connected and simpler than ever before. SportsEngine also owns and operates the National Center for Safety Initiatives (NCSI), which provides youth sports background screenings to nearly 1 million coaches and volunteers to help keep youth sports experiences for young athletes safe and positive. -SportsEngine Play-
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
U.S. Amateur 2025 live leaderboard: Round of 64 scores, tee times, highlights
(Editor's note: Golfweek's Cameron Jourdan is following all the action from Olympic Club. Check out his updates from the second round here.) SAN FRANCISCO — Match play has arrived at the 2025 U.S. Amateur. Two rounds of stroke play are in the books, and there is a 20-for-17 playoff Wednesday morning to determine the final spots in the match-play bracket. Then, the battle begins to see who will advance to Thursday morning's Round of 32 in the Bay Area. Follow the Round of 64 at the 2025 U.S. Amateur on Wednesday for live updates, highlights, leaderboard, scores and more. U.S. Amateur live leaderboard Click here to follow scores from the U.S. Amateur. U.S. Amateur Wednesday tee times Click here to see tee times for Wednesday's Round of 64. U.S. Amateur format Every player in the field will compete in 36 holes of stroke play on Monday and Tuesday, where the field will be cut to the low 64 players for match play, which begins Wednesday. A playoff will be used if needed to determine the 64 players. Then, the Round of 64 takes place Wednesday, Rounds of 32 and 16 on Thursday, quarterfinals on Friday, semifinals on Saturday and the 36-hole championship final on Sunday. U.S. Amateur TV information All times ET U.S. Amateur ticket information Fans must purchase tickets to attend the U.S. Amateur. For more information, click here. What the winner of U.S. Amateur receives
Los Angeles Times
6 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
The Sports Report: Stumbling Dodgers fall into a first-place tie
From Jack Harris: This should've been it. A storybook ending. A cathartic late-game breakthrough. The kind of dramatic, momentum-shifting triumph to finally give the Dodgers some much-needed life. In the top of the ninth inning at Angel Stadium on Tuesday night, Shohei Ohtani lifted the team to the verge of a narrative-changing victory, breaking a tie score with the kind of swing that could have catapulted them into the season's closing stretch. With former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen on the mound, and a split crowd in Anaheim rising to its feet, Ohtani blasted a go-ahead home run deep to right field. He flipped his bat and emphatically smacked his hands together. He screamed toward a euphoric Dodgers dugout that was going raucously wild. 'Big hit right there,' manager Dave Roberts said. 'Obviously, you felt it in the dugout.' What the Dodgers felt next, however, might last much longer. Continue reading here More bad news for Dodgers' bullpen: Brock Stewart goes on the IL After one year, this MLB postseason schedule innovation is no longer Dodgers-Angels box score MLB scores MLB standings From Ira Gorawara: Almost hidden in a mocha pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt, and wearing those same fire-red Air Jordans from his Aug. 4 return to Los Angeles, Clippers royalty Chris Paul adorned the Sparks' bench. And though the 20-year veteran barely lifted a palm — leaving the cheering to his wife and daughter — Paul's court savvy still seemed to seep across the hardwood, finding its way to the Sparks' Kelsey Plum. Plum, who can very well be the tale of any Sparks game, but 'chooses to win,' as coach Lynne Roberts says, seemed to be scoring and assisting at will through a coast-to-coast battle against the New York Liberty, a tug-of-war that stayed taut until the rope finally slipped from the Sparks' grasp, 105-97. About three minutes before halftime, Brink sat on the bench while trainers wrapped her left ankle during a Sparks timeout. She never joined the team's halftime huddle as play resumed after the break, and when she finally emerged at the 6:17 mark in the third quarter, she watched the rest of the game from her seat. Continue reading here Sparks box score WNBA standings From Eduard Cauich: Jaime Jaquez Jr., who is preparing for his third season in the NBA with the Miami Heat, and his sister Gabriela Jaquez, a standout player for the UCLA Bruins and the Mexican national basketball team, set aside their own workouts to lead others through some familiar drills. The siblings recently hosted a summer camp for about 180 participants ages 6 to 16 at the Sports Academy facilities in Thousand Oaks. The three-hour camp aimed to promote basketball skills, discipline and a passion for the sport among children and teens. Some participants traveled from other states to attend the camp. 'It's good to come back and give something back to the community, especially in a place where we grew up. Being able to do this is special,' said Jaime, who grew up in Camarillo, shone for four years at UCLA and has represented Mexico in international tournaments. Continue reading here From Anthony De Leon: Even before Keenan Allen returned to the Chargers last week, he was already having an influence in the receiver room. As a rookie, Ladd McConkey studied Allen's practice film on his team-issued iPad, trying to absorb lessons from one of the league's best route runners — the very player whose rookie records for receptions and receiving yards McConkey would eventually surpass. 'You sit in team meetings, pull up your iPad and just watch,' McConkey said. 'Watching his one-on-one stuff from previous years, when he was here. I'm going to check this out, see what he's got.' Now, the 33-year-old Allen and 23-year-old McConkey are inseparable on the field. Throughout practice, McConkey picks the veteran's brain — something he says 'would be dumb if I didn't.' Continue reading here Jon Gruden wins Nevada Supreme Court arbitration appeal against NFL and Roger Goodell Travis Kelce is ready to tone down 'party guy' image as his 13th NFL season begins From Kevin Baxter: The Galaxy are the worst team in Major League Soccer. That's not subjective opinion, it's objective fact. Just look at the MLS standings, where the Galaxy are dead last after Sunday's 4-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders, a game that wasn't nearly as close as the score would indicate. But the Galaxy are also one of the four best teams in Major League Soccer. That, too, is not subjective opinion but objective fact because, after an unbeaten run through Leagues Cup group play, the Galaxy are one of just four MLS teams to advance to the tournament quarterfinals. How can both things be true simultaneously? That's a good question — and one that can be only be answered subjectively. 'It takes time for a group to come together and a team to find out who they are,' Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz offered. 'We had to discover ourselves a little bit.' Continue reading here 1919 — Upset scores a win against Man o' War in the Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga. The defeat is Big Red's only loss in 21 starts. 1933 — Gene Sarazen wins the PGA Championship by defeating Willie Goggin 5 and 4 in the final round. 1935 — The first roller derby begins in Chicago by promoter Leo Seltzer. 1987 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee equals the world record in the women's long jump — 24 feet, 5½ inches — in the Pan American Games at Indianapolis. She matches the mark set in 1986 by Heike Dreschler of East Germany. 1995 — Cuba's Ana Quirot, severely burned in a 1993 kitchen accident, wins the 800 meters at the world championships at Gothenburg, Sweden. 1995 — Steve Elkington shoots a final-round 64 and birdies the first playoff hole to beat Colin Montgomerie and win the PGA Championship. The 64 is the lowest final round by a PGA Championship winner. 1997 — Wilson Kipketer topples Sebastian Coe's 16-year-old record in the 800 meters, finishing in 1 minute, 41.24 seconds in Zurich, Switzerland. Haile Gebrselassie also shatters his own 5,000 record with a time of 12 minutes, 41.86 seconds. 2002 — Natalie Coughlin breaks the 100-meter backstroke world record, timed in 59.58 seconds at the U.S. national championships. She is the first American to hold the world record since Catherine Ferguson in 1966. 2008 — Michael Phelps swims into history as the winningest Olympic athlete with his 10th and 11th career gold medals and five world records in five events at the Beijing Games. He wins the 200-meter butterfly and swims leadoff for the U.S. 800 freestyle relay team. 2016 — The U.S. women's 4x100-meter medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel — winners at the Rio Games — delivers the nation's 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history. 2016—Michael Phelps closes the Rio Olympics with a gold medal in the butterfly leg of the 4x100 medley relay. Phelps finishes his career with 28 medals, having won five golds and a silver at these games. 1910 — The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates played to an 8-8 tie. Each team had 38 at-bats, 13 hits, 12 assists, two errors, five strikeouts, three walks, one hit batsman and one passed ball. 1921 — George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns became the first batter in American League history to hit for the cycle twice. Sisler went 5-for-5 and drove in three runs in a 7-5, 10-inning win over the Detroit Tigers. 1921 — John 'Mule' Watson of the Boston Braves pitched two complete-game victories over the Philadelphia Phillies. 1931 — Tony Cuccinello of the Cincinnati Reds had six hits in six at-bats in the first game of a doubleheader at Boston. Cuccinello had a triple, two doubles and three singles to knock in five runs as the Reds won 17-3. Cuccinello hit a three-run homer in the eighth of the nightcap to give the Reds a 4-2 win. 1939 — The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics 21-0 to equal the major-league record for lopsided shutouts. Every batter in the Yankees lineup hit safely. Joe DiMaggio and Babe Dahlgren had two home runs apiece, each hitting an inside-the-parker. Pitcher Red Ruffing had four hits and drove in three runs. 1948 — Satchel Paige, 42, pitched his first major league complete game against the Chicago White Sox. Paige gave up five hits en route to 5-0 Cleveland victory. 1957 — Milwaukee pitcher Lew Burdette hit his first two home runs to lead the Braves to a 12-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds. 1969 — Jim Palmer of the Orioles, plagued by arm trouble the year before, threw an 8-0 no-hitter against the Oakland A's in Baltimore. 1979 — St. Louis' Lou Brock reached 3,000 hits with an infield hit off Chicago Cubs pitcher Dennis Lamp. St. Louis won 3-2. 2004 — Kansas City rookies Abraham Nunez and John Buck hit grand slams to lead the Royals past the Oakland Athletics 10-3. 2005 — New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera blew his first save since April 6 in a 7-5 win over Texas. Rivera had converted a career-best 31 consecutive saves before allowing Kevin Mench's two-run, tying single in the ninth. 2013 — Paul Goldschmidt hit the first pitch of the 11th inning for a game-ending home run after leading off the ninth with a tying homer, to help Arizona beat Baltimore 4-3 with a winning blast for the second straight night. 2015 — The Toronto Blue Jays won their 11th straight game, beating the Oakland Athletics 4-2. The AL East leaders also won 11 in a row in June, becoming the first team with winning streaks of at least 11 since Cleveland in 1954. 2016 — Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge became the first teammates to hit home runs in the first at-bats of their major league debuts in the same game, sparking the New York Yankees to an 8-4 win over Tampa Bay. 2018 — Ronald Acuna Jr. hit leadoff homers in both games of a doubleheader for the Atlanta Braves. 2020 — Mookie Betts hits three home runs for the sixth time in his career in an 11-2 win over the Padres. The three home run game ties Betts with Johnny Mize and Sammy Sosa for the most all-time although Betts reached the total in 813 games while Mize needed 1,884 and Sosa 2,364. Compiled by the Associated Press That concludes today's newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you'd like to see, email me at To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
