A Hall of Famer retains her love for the game and feeds her passion for giving back.
A decade ago, Lorena Ochoa shocked the golf world by retiring from tour life. She was 28 years old, the No.1 player in the world, and had won 27 times on the LPGA Tour after being named NCAA Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002 at the University of Arizona. She was the LPGA’s Rolex Player of the Year four years in a row and a hero in her home country as the first Mexican to win on the tour. In 2017, she entered the World Golf Hall of Fame. Today, she lives in Mexico and has three children with her husband, Andres Conesa, chief executive of Aeroméxico. As we spoke, Lorena’s children whispered to her in the background. We talked about her career, her decision to retire, and her life after having been away from the tour for 10 years.
What are your days like now? The most beautiful thing is being a mother and having my chiquitas, being able to spend time with them. I’m in charge of my time; I get to prioritise my kids. My foundation takes a lot of my time. [The Lorena Ochoa Foundation operates a school for underprivileged students.] I do a lot of work to make sure I have the money every year to support and continue improving the school and facilities. I’ve started getting into golf-course design with Greg Norman. We’re doing two courses [in Belize and Mexico]. It’s fun to start learning about the business and the process. In a way, it’s been easier than I thought. All the knowledge we have, when you see land, I have a good imagination, and I’m good at visualising how the courses are going to look when they’re finished. Not many designers look at the women’s side. It’s nice that I can. If I’m playing with my friends, how are they going to handle the golf course, the shapes, the difficulty of the greens, the length of a hole? I’m excited to have my name on my first golf course in Mexico. Hopefully there will be many more in the future.
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Do you play a lot? I don’t play much. When I know I need to play, I go and practise a few weeks before so I don’t feel too bad. If I’m doing a clinic, I’m OK – I can hit balls fine. Playing 18 holes, that’s more difficult – I have to count! [Laughs.] And then sometimes you feel comfortable, you picture the shot, you swing, and the ball goes completely different, and you feel horrible. [Laughs.]
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Do you play as a family? Pedro [age 8] loves soccer and cycling. Julia [6] loves dancing and tennis. But they know it’s important for them to know how to swing and hit it OK, because they want to be able to play with my father, brothers, sisters and cousins. I don’t see that they love the game, though. Maybe Diego will. He’s only 4. [Laughs.] Diego, the little one, we’ll see – he’s a surprise. He has a very different personality.
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Retiring from professional golf at 28 – why did you choose that moment? The more time that’s passed, I feel so blessed that I saw the perfect moment. I was tired of travelling and practising and playing. I was brave to see that. Instead of letting time pass, it was clear to me that this was it. I wanted to prepare to finish. It happened very naturally. When I was home, I planned everything with my family and my sponsors. Some said, “You should play one more year to make sure you say goodbye at every venue,” and I said I’d die if I did that – it’d hurt too much. During that time, we had a tournament in Mexico. I told them I wanted to finish in Mexico. To have my friends and family and fans there, it was a beautiful way to say goodbye.
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At that time, not many women were travelling with their children on tour. Did you consider doing that, or did you know you wanted to keep it separate? I never saw myself playing and having children at the same time. When I started playing on tour, I was giving 100 percent to the training, the travel, the offseason, all the sacrifices I had to make. I thought I’d give it 10 years. Golf would be my priority, and I’d be full. Then I wanted to stop and do things outside the golf course, starting with my foundation. But also, I wanted to just live life, be with my family – go on trips, go skiing, go fishing, just be normal. The idea of coming back on tour with a kid, and maybe not being able to compete at 100 percent, not being able to win, maybe be in the top 20, I was not comfortable with that. That’s why I gave it my all, and now I’m enjoying this other part of my life.
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Was it hard being on tour, knowing what you were missing out on back home? It was never hard until the last three or four months. I always enjoyed the competition, the travel and all the responsibilities as a pro with the media, sponsors. The problem started when I found golf wasn’t my priority. I found Andres, and I wanted to get married. [They were wed in 2009.] Everything changed. It was the right time for me.
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What’s the best moment of your career – if you can pick one? It’s impossible to choose one moment. The Majors, but to me, winning in Mexico was probably the most special. I always play really well in Morelia [the Tres Marias Championship, which Ochoa won three times in the six years it was played]. Overall, I have great memories. I have friends and players who don’t enjoy it anymore, and they’ve continued to play. For me, it was different. I got to enjoy it the whole time. That’s why I still love golf.
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What’s the best tip or lesson you ever got? That’s really difficult to answer. I learned from everybody. A few things Annika did, or a few things Juli [Inkster] told me, or advice Nancy Lopez gave me about my family. Rafa [Alarcon], my coach, how we approach things with sport psychology.
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Do you feel like you left anything in golf unachieved? As an athlete, being so competitive, we always want more, but one of the things it also teaches you is to be OK with what you have. I won only two Majors [the 2007 Women’s British Open and the 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship], and I think God had some special plans for me. Both of them mark my career and personal life, knowing that my name is going to be there for the rest of my life. My answer is always, I’m super, super, super happy with what I have; I’m blessed, with the different experiences. The most beautiful thing is representing Mexico and opening golf for my country. I’m really happy with that. And thankful.
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Do you think about your accomplishments differently now than you did when you were achieving them? When you’re out there, things are easier. I play, have fun and things start going in the right direction the more you practise, the more you know yourself. Sometimes Gaby [Lopez] is like, “Lorena, now that I’ve won my first event, and now that I’ve won my second event, I realise how crazy you are and how difficult it was for you to win so many events.” [Laughs.] I think sometimes for people here in Mexico – media, my parents, fans – they thought it was easy because I was winning and winning. But now that there are so many more [Mexican] players, they can tell how difficult it is to win one event.
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What are you most proud of? The better I played, the more I was able to give back, to start a foundation and help many, many kids. The foundation was always my motivation when I was playing. Today, we’ve had more than 5,000 kids already pass through the school. We’ve impacted so many lives. God gave me the opportunity to play good golf to help others. That’s something special, and I’m going to continue to do that.
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What do you miss about the tour? I miss many things. Playing in front of a big crowd, trying to win on Sunday is a special, unique feeling. My friends and the travelling, talking to my close friends for hours about life and golf and your feelings inside the golf course. I don’t think about that all the time. I lived that part of my life, and I’m doing so many things right now, I don’t have time.
Golf made me the person I am today. It’s always going to be my passion. I’m in touch with my friends. I don’t feel too distant. I went to California to give a speech, I saw my friends, and it brought back many memories. I cried, and it was emotional. That night I went home, and I was like, Wow, I’m so grateful to have my family and my kids.
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Do you still follow the tour? Now that we have more players from Mexico, I’ll ask my husband how they’re doing, and we’ll pay attention to see how they’re doing on the weekend. But no, I don’t regularly watch the women or the men. It’s really strange how it’s not part of my routine anymore. I’m very close with the Mexican players, but that doesn’t mean that I watch golf on Sundays.
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Does the tour seem different now than when you were playing? It changes every year. There are so many players from different parts of the world. It’s nice to see that it’s become such a global sport. I’m also very impressed by the technology in the clubs, the distance. How far Gaby hits the ball or Maria Fassi hits the ball, I don’t want to play with them. [Laughs.] The last time I played with Maria, I think she was like 25 yards ahead of me. It doesn’t feel good!
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Do you spend a lot of time with the young Mexican pros? They talk to me all the time. I’m very close with Gaby. She asks me my opinion about her decisions. I know how serious she is. We have a national association, IGPM [Impulsando al Golf Profesional Mexicano], giving support to the new professionals in Mexico. We raise money to give them some support, to help them feel more comfortable at the beginning. I’m very involved. All of them are trying to make it. Hopefully I can give them some advice, help them a little bit. It’s exciting to see how many Mexicans are on tour, in the men’s and the women’s as well as Symetra and Korn Ferry.
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What about young players now excites you? They’re young and fearless and probably don’t know how difficult it’s going to be. But they are super, super excited and giving it their all. They feel comfortable asking me for advice. They text me, e-mail, call me, I help them make a decision, or they ask why are they playing this way, or they don’t feel comfortable with their head. I love to share my knowledge.
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What do you think is the most important piece of advice you’ve given younger golfers? Golf is a unique sport. Something that works for Gaby is not going to work for Maria. I always try to explain to them two things. How important the mental side is: you have to know yourself and how your body works in little, little details. The better you know yourself, the better you’re going to start dominating. In my career, I was very analytic, very specific in little things. Every day, I did an analysis of everything: the way I think, the way I walk, the way I communicate with my caddie, the way he answers, the way he looks at me, the way we walk, the rhythm – so many little details that I think are very important.
I also tell them to always work on your weaknesses. Some people know what their weaknesses are but don’t touch them. They get lazy. I always asked myself, What is the weakness? If I was having trouble with 65 yards, or 4-iron, or driver with a fade, then I’d spend two to three hours at the range so that I’d dominate those weaknesses. Then I have that ability. I know I’ll be able to hit them in competition. Once you get travelling, you start doing the easy things. You forget about the difficult things that you don’t like to do. What is key is to take care of your weaknesses really quickly. That way you have more space to improve. And that’s not just true in golf, it’s also true in life.
This article first appeared in issue #602, December 2020
