By Travis Puterbaugh, Curator
World Golf Hall of Fame
The Navistar LPGA Classic, a women’s professional golf tournament which ran from 2007-2016, may not have been played in Mexico, but it still felt like home to Lorena Ochoa.
“There are places where you feel comfortable. You feel a good vibe and you like the course,” Lorena Ochoa said of the Senator Course at Capitol Hill on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. “This has been really good for me. I feel comfortable here. I have a lot of good memories.”
When Lorena Ochoa sank her final putt on the 18th hole of the Navistar LPGA Classic 10 years ago, few might have predicted that it would be the last winning memory of her 27-LPGA-title Hall of Fame career. An 18-under, 4-stroke victory to cap back-to-back titles at the event in Prattville, Alabama, might have even sparked speculation on whether or not Ochoa could make it three in a row in 2010.
The year prior – in 2008 – Ochoa won seven times on the LPGA Tour, including her second Major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. On the heels of her victory at the Women’s British Open in St Andrews, she became the first woman on the LPGA to win consecutive Major Championships since Annika Sorenstam in 2005. Ochoa followed that up in 2009 with three more championships, Rolex Player of the Year honors, and the Vare Trophy for the season’s lowest scoring average, each for the fourth consecutive year.
There seemed to be no ceiling on how high she could continue to climb in the game.
As the golfing world would find out six months later, Ochoa had no intention of climbing any higher, pursuing a three-peat in Alabama, or running down titles anywhere else in the world for that matter.
In April of 2010, Ochoa announced her intention to retire full-time from professional golf following the Tres Marias Championship in Mexico to begin raising a family and devoting more time to her charitable foundation.
“I’m not going away because I am not playing good golf,” Ochoa said at the time. “I’m going away because this is the right time for me. I’ve achieved my goals. I’m happy, and I want to leave as No. 1.”
It was a devastating blow for Ochoa’s fans and the game of golf to lose a player of immense talent, seemingly in her prime at the age of 28 with much left to contribute to the sport. She always indicated that her career window might only stay open for 10 years, but the announcement still felt premature as she had only turned professional in 2002.
“Lorena does everything for the right reasons,” said fellow Hall of Famer Juli Inkster. “She’s a person who knows what she wants, and she wanted to have a family. She wanted to stay home. She loved golf, but it wasn’t the driving force in her life.”
Ochoa was never solely defined by her accomplishments on the golf course.
Today, she remains recognized as one of the game’s great ambassadors and role models for the impact she is making on education in Mexico. She left the game on top, on her own terms, and never looked back.
