Show’s Not Over

The NCAA women’s golf tournament starts today, and Lorena Ochoa can feel the heat. A sophomore at Arizona, Ochoa has turned college golf upside down with a record-setting season. She won an NCAA-record seven consecutive tournaments before finishing second in the Pac-10 tournament, then won again May 11 at the NCAA West Regional.

“Almost perfect,” she said.

Her eight victories are a single-season record, and she begins her quest for a ninth today in Seattle. She knows everyone wants to beat her, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like being the one everyone wants to beat,” Ochoa said. “To me, that is why I play golf. I know they are out to beat me, but I want to beat them too.”

Ochoa, the top-ranked woman in the nation, has a season scoring average of 70, more than a stroke better than the NCAA-record 71.33 she set last season. She has scored her nine victories by an average margin of five strokes, has shot under par in 22 of 26 rounds and has 11 rounds in the 60s. But in a sport in which egos and jealousy often go hand in hand with competition, there is little animosity toward the humble, soft-spoken 20-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico. Not only is she the player everyone wants to beat, she’s also the player everyone wants to chat with after the round.

“It’s almost like you’re rooting for her,” said Katherine Hull of Pepperdine, who is ranked third in the nation and has finished second to Ochoa three times. “I want to beat her--everyone wants to beat her--but what she has done is so awesome, and she has the personality to boot. It’s not often that happens in golf.”

Ochoa is a rarity in more ways than one. Her hobbies include triathlons, half-marathons, mountain biking and snowboarding. She also comes from a country where golf is not exactly the national sport.

At first, Ochoa shied from the attention that came with being a Mexican-born woman golfer, but she has learned to embrace her status as a pioneer.

“I think it’s good for the game,” said Ochoa, who won seven Mexican junior championships and a record five consecutive Junior World championships. “In Mexico, they don’t know about golf, but if I can help to change that, then that is a good thing. I think I can inspire people to play golf.”

Even in Southern California, Ochoa has made an impact. During her recent visit to play in the LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, Ochoa noticed Latinos in her gallery.

“I was surprised they came out to see me play,” she said. “But I was very happy to see them. They were all cheering for me. It was nice to see.”

She drives the ball about 265 yards, long by women’s standards, and is deadly accurate with her irons and around the greens. And she relishes the opportunity to think her way around the course.

“It’s a challenge unique to golf,” she said. “You have so many things to think about when you are on the course, but you have to control your mind for every shot. That is an incredible challenge, and that is what I love the most about golf.”

It all translates to a game that seems more than ready for the LPGA Tour. Ochoa played three LPGA tournaments on sponsors’ exemptions earlier this year. She finished tied for 37th, tied for fifth and then eighth at the Nabisco, an LPGA major. The NCAA tournament ends Friday, and Ochoa has scheduled a news conference Saturday, at which she is expected to announce her intention to turn pro.

“Everything is set for me to turn pro,” she said. “But you never know. If I don’t feel 100% ready after this week, I won’t turn pro.”

Ochoa has little left to prove in college golf. She has finished first or second in 17 of her 19 tournaments, third and ninth in the others, and has a scoring average of 70.71. She has shot over par only 11 times in 56 rounds and is 44 under for her career.

“She really doesn’t have any weaknesses,” Arizona Coach Greg Allen said. “She plays very aggressive on the course, but she has the game to do that. When she misses, she gets it up and down.”

Equally impressive is how she has earned the respect of opponents with her demeanor.

“She’s very nice, very genuine, yet she loves to compete, to play and to win,” said Pepperdine Coach Laurie Gibbs. “It’s an incredible mix. Of course, my players want to beat her, but at the same time, you just like her. She brings a lot to women’s golf, and she is going to make a huge impact when she turns pro.”

As a freshman, Ochoa won three times and finished second four times in 10 tournaments and was selected national player of the year. She lost a one-hole playoff to Candy Hanneman of Duke in the NCAA final.

She set unprecedented goals at the beginning of this season: to win every tournament and to finish with a stroke average of lower than 70. At first, teammates brushed those aside as golfer-speak, but then she won seven in a row, eclipsing the previous NCAA mark of five and the single-season victory mark of six.

“We thought maybe she didn’t set her goals high enough,” Allen said.

The lone blemish for Ochoa this year is something she still doesn’t like to talk about. Looking for an eighth consecutive victory, she held a four-shot lead during the second round of the Pac-10 tournament after an eagle at No. 10 left her five-under for the tournament. What followed was an unthinkable collapse in Ochoa’s mind: bogey, bogey, bogey, double bogey, par, bogey.

Ochoa blamed a mental lapse.

“It happened so fast,” she said. “I couldn’t control my mind. I was thinking about all kinds of things. My winning streak, the course record, everything except what I should have been thinking.”

The streak ended after the final round the next day, when her 12-foot birdie putt on No. 18 stopped two inches short. Had she made it, she and Jimin Kang of Arizona State would have gone to a playoff. Ochoa cried. At first, she said, she thought they were tears of sadness, but now she realizes they were tears of relief.

“I was putting so much pressure on myself to win every tournament,” she said. “I hate to lose, obviously, but I’m almost glad the streak is over. I learned from losing, and there is less pressure going into the nationals with no streak. I think it’s better this way.”