BIOGRAPHY

Lorena Ochoa (born in Guadalajara, Jalisco on 15 November 1981) is a Mexican golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and is currently the number one ranked woman golfer in the world. She was only the second Mexican to become a member of the world's leading women's golf tour, where she quickly became one of the the tour's top players, becoming the first Mexican golfer of either gender to be ranked number one in the world.

Ochoa grew up next door to the Guadalajara Country Club and took up golf at the age of five. She won her first state event at the age of six and her first national event at seven. All told as a junior she captured 22 state events in Guadalajara and 44 national events in Mexico. She won five consecutive titles at the Junior World Golf Championships and in 2000 she enrolled at the University of Arizona in the United States.

She was very successful in women's collegiate golf in the next two years, winning the NCAA Player of the Year Awards for 2001 and 2002, finishing runner-up at both the 2001 and 2002 NCAA National Championship and being named to the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) 2001 All-America First team. She won the 2001 Pac-10 Women's Golf Championships, was named PAC-10 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year 2001 and was All Pac-10 First team in 2001 and 2002.

In her sophomore year she had eight tournament wins in ten events she entered and set an NCAA record with seven consecutive victories in her first seven events. She won the Golfstat Cup, which is given to the player who has the best scoring average versus par with at least 20 full rounds played during a season in both 2001 and 2002, setting the single-season NCAA scoring average record as a freshman at 71.33 and beating her own record the next year by just over a stroke per round with a 70.13 average.

In November 2001, Ochoa was presented with Mexico's National Sports Award by Mexican President Vicente Fox. She was the youngest recipient of her country's highest sporting accolade, and the first golfer to receive it. In 2006 she was named NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Most Outstanding Student Athlete, an award which was bestowed as part of the 25th Anniversary of Women’s Championships celebration, taking into account outstanding performances over the past 25 years. She was the recipient of the 2003 Nancy Lopez Award which is presented annually to the world's most outstanding female amateur golfer.