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CN CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 15, 2007Lorena OchoaEDMONTON, ALBERTA THE MODERATOR: Thank you all for coming in. We are with Lorena Ochoa. I ask you to bear with me. I've got kind of a lengthy introduction. I was looking at some stats, and since last year's 2006 CN Canadian Women's Open, you've obviously had a few wins, enjoying your first win in Mexico; you've won four times this season; a couple weeks ago you won your first LPGA major championship at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf; you are the current Rolex player of the year; you lead the Tour in the majority of the stats, including 14 top-10 finishes; you've opened golf academies in Mexico and you've also become the top-ranked golfer in the world. It's been quite a year for you. Talk about everything that's been going on since your recent win at the British Open. LORENA OCHOA: Thank you. Hello, everybody. Yeah, this has been a great year. Last year it was a great year, and it was a big challenge and hard because I had high goals of improving in 2007 and more important to get to No. 1 in the World Rankings. I finally did it this year. It was a long wait, but it was great. Like you all know, it was hard for me to get my first major victory, and it's hard to express everything what happened in St. Andrews, but for sure it was worth the wait. It was a great week that I will remember for the rest of my life. I was really lucky to have my family over there and other friends from Mexico. It was a great time. So now we're back here and playing again in a huge event. I think it's very important for all of us. The field is very strong. I practiced yesterday on the course, and it looks beautiful, so I can't wait to start playing tomorrow. Q. As you well know, confidence is the name of this game, but you've been so consistent and played so well all season long. What's been the best part of your game this year? LORENA OCHOA: Well, that's a good question. I think I'm hitting the ball a little bit farther. I think I'm a lot more accurate are my driver, that makes things easier. I've feel I can improve my short game and especially my putting. I have some goals for the 2007 season and I'm a little behind, so I need to improve on my putting. More important is to be consistent every week, which is my goal. If I can, win, but just being able to stay in the Top 10 and be consistent every tournament. That's the way to go. For sure that's going to put me where I want to be at the end of the year, and I'm very pleased the way I started playing this season. We have another party to go, so I'm excited to keep going. Q. Are you comfortable? Are you now comfortable with the label of being the No. 1 player in golf right now? LORENA OCHOA: Yes, for sure. It's something that it's not only one week or two weeks, thinking about being the No. 1 player in the world. It's something I've been dreaming since I was very little and I've worked really hard. I knew that it would take me four or five years, and it took me five years to get to the No. 1 position. I want to be there, so I'm going to keep working hard and try and enjoy my moment as much as I can. I know a lot of good players are coming behind, but I like to be there, so I'm going to keep working hard and I want to stay there. Q. Can you tell us a little bit about how important it is for you to give back to your country and how much of an impact you feel you're able to make on your country in terms of developing golfers? LORENA OCHOA: Well, we have a couple of golf academies, one in Guadalajara, one in Mexico city. It's great to see the changes. It's been happening slowly, but right now we have so many families and so many golfers, little girls and boys, and it's just great to see the progress, and hopefully there will be many professionals in the future. I'm just trying to do whatever I can. Every time I go back home I spend time with the kids and try to motivate them and show them what they can do. I feel it's very important and I'm very blessed to do what I do and I wish that for everybody. Q. Can you talk about the course, what you feel the challenges are going to be during the weekend? LORENA OCHOA: I think it's a great golf course. I think it's going to be a big challenge for all of us, but it's in the same condition for everybody. I think it's playing long. The greens seem to be really, really fast if they're down grain. I played yesterday 18 holes. I thought it was important to get used to the conditions. We'll see. I mean, it depends a lot on the weather. Hopefully we'll see good weather the rest of the week. I don't think this course is going to be too long. Q. We've heard about all of your accomplishments in the last year. Can you trace it back to one moment out on the course where your game just clicked and you knew it was all coming together and that it was going to set up for a really good year of golf? LORENA OCHOA: It's hard to mention like one day or one tournament. I think it started at the beginning of the year for sure. I was in contention in big tournaments in the beginning of the year. I won in Phoenix, Arizona, before the first major. You really feel comfortable because you know what you practiced in the off-season is really working, you're feeling good, you're feeling strong, and the changes are showing good results. For me what's most important is the off-season. I cannot waste any time, any days. I need to make sure I get six, seven weeks of hard work and be ready to start playing. And once we start traveling it's just a matter of trying to maintain yourself, do the best you can because it's really tough when you start traveling. Q. Did you think there was anything besides the size of the purse here that attracted such a great field? Is this an important event other than the purse? LORENA OCHOA: For sure. I think if you start looking at the courses, the best way to put it. In my case I love to play different tournaments outside the country. Actually I love Edmonton. I have a lot of friends here. There are a couple families here that they know my family in Guadalajara, and I'm having dinner with them tonight and tomorrow. Two different families that my relatives used to come here and learn English. As soon as they told me that the tournament was in Edmonton, I was very excited to come and spend the week here. And like I said, I enjoy very much going outside the country. I've never seen so many fans so excited and so -- they are knowledgeable. They know where they are and who are the players and how important it is to have the best players in the world. They appreciate that. We like that very much. It shows a lot of support from the community. Everyone seems very excited. Q. Can you talk more about that Edmonton connection? Can you tell me more about your family's relationship with them? You had a little reunion there yesterday on the 14th. What are the ties there? LORENA OCHOA: A lot of my relatives, my cousins, there are around 35, 40, they used to come here when they were 13, 14, 15 for a year and stay in their house and study English. It's just something that became a tradition. Every year a different cousin would come and they used to go to Mexico for vacation. Just friendship. I know that they are a special family for my aunt and my dad's family, the Ochoas. So I love to see them yesterday they were here for the practice round, followed me 18 holes, and they are going to be here today. That shows a lot of connection. Q. You talked about becoming No. 1 in four or five years, and you talk about it very matter-of-factly, very confidently, that that was going to be your future and you were going to be No. 1 one day. Where did that confidence come from to just look at it that matter-of-factly and think four or five years down the road I will be the No. 1 player in women's golf? LORENA OCHOA: Well, it's difficult to say that because everyone wants to be No. 1 in one or two years. You have to stay patient; it's not that easy. The confidence, I think it's just been very clear to me what I wanted to do and how far I wanted to go. It makes a difference, don't be afraid of putting high goals and just work every day to get closer and closer. I think it's very important to have a family, a support group that really believes in me and helps me because it would be impossible being by myself in a lot of this. It's a way of showing that everything can be done, you just need to -- just go as far as I can and really believe that you can achieve that. Q. This is more of a feature question, but as the No. 1 player in the world, what's your opinion on women trying to play in the PGA? Do you think it's a good step for ladies to go there or for ladies to develop their game in the LPGA? LORENA OCHOA: I didn't understand the question, sorry. Q. As the No. 1 player in the world, did you ever consider trying to make a jump to the PGA, or do you feel like ladies should develop their game in the LPGA? How do you feel about women that try to do that, and would you ever consider doing that? LORENA OCHOA: No, never say never, but my opinion, what I want to do for sure is do what I want to do here and dominate where I am in women's golf. I don't believe men's golf is near to women's golf. It's very different in every aspect. Like Annika, what she did, I think it was great because she needed to push herself and she needed to see how far she could go. But I don't have that opinion for other players because I think it's much better just going one step at a time, play junior golf, play college golf, play in the LPGA, and then when you dominate and you do all the big things, then maybe you can go ahead and play maybe one week with the men. Q. So you feel that taking a more traditional approach to your golf development and career development is a better way to go? LORENA OCHOA: Yes, and I think it goes together with there are so many young players now coming out that they didn't have a chance to go to college. My opinion is hopefully all of them have an opportunity to go to college, play college golf, at least two or three years. Hopefully they finish their college career, but just take advantage of that. We'll be here forever. The LPGA is going to be here forever. I think it's very important for golf and also for your life outside of the golf course. Q. In the past you've been drawn to the more extreme sports as a hobby. What draws you to those sports, and have you had a chance to indulge your passion for their sports recently? LORENA OCHOA: Well, I love the outdoors. My favorite sport outside the golf course is water skiing. I love that. I do that every time I go home on the weekends. I think it helps your game, your body to be strong. I like hiking a lot, and I think it's the same way. It's a way to get out, do something different, get all the stress away and change the routine. I think the best way to do it is to play a different sport, get everything out. I think that the challenge, mental challenge, is very important. I like to do half marathons two or three times a year. That's my way of trying to break my time and waking up every morning and playing for that as a goal. All of that just -- you really learn that you can go as far as you want, you just need to push yourself. I think everything comes together, to be a better person, a better player, and it really helps me. Q. When was the last half marathon you've run? LORENA OCHOA: February of 2007. Q. Do you remember your time? LORENA OCHOA: 1:48. We wanted to break 1:50. We did pretty good. It was good. I'm going to try to do better next year. Q. You often spend a lot of time when you go to a tournament and you speak to the maintenance staff at that course. I'm wondering if you've done that here? LORENA OCHOA: No. They were not here yesterday. Usually we go pretty much to the same cities and play the same golf courses and I know a lot of them, a lot of the maintenance group. A lot of them are Hispanic or Mexican, so we just kind of go and say hi and say thank you to all of them for their hard work. I would love to do it this week. I haven't met the main guy or I haven't seen any of the crew, but hopefully I see them later on in the week. Q. (No microphone.) LORENA OCHOA: I don't like to think about any players in particular. I just play the course, try to make a lot of birdies. I think the first round is very important to be in a good position, so I'm going to try to do that tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Thank you all very much for coming in. Good luck this week. Thank you for joining us. End of FastScripts |
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