It’s over for Ochoa, and possibly the LPGA.
Lorena Ochoa, 28, has been the LPGA’s star and No. 1- ranked golfer since the retirement of Annika Sorenstam in 2008.
Ochoa announced this week that she, too, would retire. She scheduled a press conference in Mexico City on Friday to explain her decision.
She is the four-time reigning LPGA Tour Player of the Year, and she won 27 events over the last six seasons. Ochoa also won the 2007 Women’s British Open and the 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Ochoa recently married in 2009, and since then she has mentioned leaving golf to raise a family. The decision may be what’s best for Ochoa, but it’s not what’s best for the LPGA.
The LPGA has been struggling to find and maintain new sponsors in this rough economic time when the interest in the Tour is diminishing. The LPGA has to compete with the PGA, which takes the majority of the golf fan base, and all of the other sports leagues.
It’s hard to imagine Ochoa putting away her clubs for good, but I think the huge question is: will the LPGA be able to survive without the talent she brought to the game?
