Ochoa is Open-eyed

LPGA star knows what it takes to win this major

Lorena Ochoa twice has let chances to win the US Women's Open slip away. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

EDINA, Minn. - Tears have flowed. Lorena Ochoa cannot deny that. But fears? Never part of the equation. Not in any golf tournament and not at the US Women's Open.

Ask her, then, about the heartache this national championship has inflicted upon her and the 26-year-old Mexican will point not to her nerves, but to fate. "It was not meant to be," said Ochoa, of those US Women's Opens that eluded her grasp in 2005 and 2007. "And my life would be different today if I won the US [Women's] Open. So I understand the reasons why."

With an even demeanor and engaging personality, Ochoa feels as if her time has arrived. The 63d US Women's Open gets underway today at Interlachen Country Club - a golf course nearing its 100th birthday that is celebrated as the home to Bobby Jones's US Open victory in his epic Grand Slam season of 1930 - and women's golf's most dominating player has embraced the challenge, not brushed it off. Tell her she's the favorite, that she should win, and that's fine.

"I've been good the last few months and I'm ready for this one."

If you suggest she prepared the hard way, by absorbing crushing disappointment, Ochoa will not tell you that you are wrong. She stood on the tee at the 72d hole at Cherry Hills outside of Denver three years ago, her score at 3 under for the day, 3 over for the tournament, her chance at a US Women's Open victory perhaps a few swings away. But the first swing went dead left into water, and the second went wide right into deep, gnarly rough. Her completion of that par-4 18th hole required eight misguided strokes and if the quadruple-bogey halted any chance to win, more than anything it tested her resolve.

She fought back tears, choked her emotions, and stood in front of reporters, surrounded by loyal family and friends.

"I fought so hard for 71 holes," Ochoa said that day. "Just the last [hole], you know. I feel really sad. That's the way golf is."

Three years later, she remains philosophical.

"I don't think I was ready to control all the things that happen when you win a major," she said. "At Cherry Hills, I was too young."

Twenty-three is what she was at the time, but even with such a youthfulness and a pro career that was in its third season, a careless perception had been shaped regarding the pride of Guadalajara - she might not have the winning formula within her. There had been 63 LPGA Tour starts, for instance, and while more than half (36) had been top 10s, only three had been turned into victories. It was a damning stigma to be stuck with, but Ochoa took stock and never wavered.

No matter that so much seem piled against her.

"Everybody gets hard on you and you lose control of your confidence," she said. "I think we've seen that before with a few players. Now, I understand."

Oh, how she understands, and how she has taken those lessons and turned the women's golf world into her own playground.

In the 73 LPGA Tour tournaments since that Cherry Hills collapse, Ochoa has won 20 times. That has solidified her lofty position as the game's queen, but it's what she's done in the major championships that satisfy her the most. Haunted by the despair of the 2005 US Women's Open, the near-misses at the Kraft Nabisco in 2006 (second) and Women's British Open later that season (fourth), and yet another late fourth-round mishap that cost her the 2007 US Women's Open (joint second), Ochoa was no longer a good player who couldn't win; she was a player who couldn't win the big ones.

"I did everything I could. I know where I made the mistakes," Ochoa said of those major chances that fizzled.

When the next opportunity rolled around, last summer's Women's British Open, it was Ochoa's 24th start in a major. At the finish, she was first, finally. When the next major appeared, the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April, Ochoa again won. Suddenly, she had transformed from the player who couldn't win the big ones to the player who didn't seem capable of losing. Crazy how that unfolds, but never was it credited to a swing change or mechanics. No, the foundation to Ochoa's life, to her very existence, has more to do with it.

Faith.

"I think family is the most important thing," said Ochoa, whose sense of pride for Mexico shines through. Famously, Ochoa will take time to visit golf course maintenance workers, especially in LPGA Tour stops in California, since so many of them are fellow Mexicans.

"You know, I would like to give them a little bit back," she once explained. "I enjoy them very much."

Like so many successful athletes, Ochoa has her own foundation. The funds from the Lorena Ochoa Foundation and the Ochoa Golf Academy go to help disadvantaged youths in Mexico. With her star power unquestioned, the LPGA Tour has three tournaments in Mexico on its 2008 schedule. She remains not only her sport's best player, but arguably its most charming personality.

"Halo everybody," is how she begins every press conference, not to be funny, but because she considers it proper etiquette. It's why she visits with those on the grounds crew. It's why she smiles so effortlessly and has attracted a huge fan club - from within the LPGA Tour ranks, no less. But it's not the manners that attract the greatest amount of attention from her competition.

"When Lorena's name goes up on the leaderboard, it doesn't go up without [being] noticed," said former LGPA Tour star Dottie Pepper. "They know they're not going to get a free pass, because this gal likes to win and she likes to win big."

She's won six times in 11 starts this year, 11 times in her last 20, going back to last year. A dominating stretch of golf, the likes of which we've become accustomed to with Annika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods, but whereas they have won 10 and 14 majors, respectively, Ochoa is just getting going. Two of the last three is a nice start, but the US Women's Open comes packaged differently, with a scent of heartache and a dash of regret.

This week can fix all of that. At least that is her plan and to that point, she will rely on an added incentive. Her uncle and her grandfather have died within the last three weeks.

"I'm doing OK," she said. "It was hard. It is hard still today, but it gives me motivation to play good for them, for my family."