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RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPENJuly 30, 2008Lorena OchoaASCOT, ENGLAND COLIN CALLANDER: Good morning, we have Lorena Ochoa with us. Is the win at St. Andrews still something you think about a lot? LORENA OCHOA: Yes, a lot. Hello, everybody. For sure, St. Andrews was a special memory. I think I will have that at the top of my head for many years. It's great to be here as defending champion, and I'm really excited to start tomorrow really early and hopefully we get a good start and go from there. COLIN CALLANDER: It's a course you know well and I believe you finished fourth here last time. Can you talk about your liking for the golf course? LORENA OCHOA: I have good memories of the past and what happened four years ago, and I feel more mature today and I think I have more experience and that will help a lot and hopefully I can manage to make a few birdies. I think the weather is not too bad and the scores could be low, so it's important to take advantage of the par 5s and try to really make birdies on those holes. Q. (Regarding importance of winning first major last year). LORENA OCHOA: I think of course winning my first major was very important, not only because everybody was asking, when are you going to win your first major. That was very important. I knew I could do it. It was just a matter of time and I just need to stay patient. And after that, I loved winning the Canadian Open and that was a great summer, really put me in a different position as a player and also for other players to see my level of golf. And so that's what I'm trying to repeat this year and just continue that and I hope to start this week. Q. Do you feel the pressure going to win a major; was it a relief? LORENA OCHOA: No, I really think it was a lot of pressure and relief, not for me about, it was more something that I knew was going to happen and I have a lot of faith in my game. I was just trying to be patient and wait for the right moment. I'm still the same person and know that I can do it at any time and I think that helps a lot. Q. Inaudible. LORENA OCHOA: Not yet but I will do something. Let me finish tomorrow to see how it goes. That sounds good, I think I could go to Augusta and have dinner there and walk around there, I may do that if you recommend that. (Laughter). Q. It looked for a while as though you would win every week, and recently not so much; is there any part of your game that has not been as strong as it was earlier in the year? LORENA OCHOA: No. I felt so good and I won so many tournaments, and so it was going to happen, some time to rest and I'm okay with that, part of the season and part of golf. It was really tough mentally, just pressure and busy and too many things to do and the travel and back and forth in México was very exciting and I had a lot of things to do with my sponsors. After the Open, it was a little bit too much for me. It was a good time to take a few weeks off and relax and rest and get back. I'm really excited right now. I'm very motivated and I would love to just have a great second part of the season. We have many tournaments and I would like to win many more. That's my goal. Q. You said last month when you have time you like to talk about the St. Andrews experience with your family. Is there some memory from the final round that you saw or heard or a shot -- LORENA OCHOA: No. 17 when I was in the bunker, everyone panicked and even though I was winning by a lot. I was excited, and I can't even remember the hole -- 14, or 15, the par 4 coming in and the par 5 on the front nine. It was raining a lot. It was very cold and I hit a 5-wood to the green, I had like 175 yards and I had a huge putt, maybe the longest in my career, and it broke a lot and it was raining and I'm trying to keep my distance, I hit the best putt of my life probably, really close, and 2-putted for par. So that was a great memory. Q. You said last year after you won that you would like to go back to St. Andrews and see the town at the time when you weren't under pressure and playing golf; you were going to look at all the other things. Have you done that in the last year? Did you go back? LORENA OCHOA: No. I think it's something I will do maybe when I retire later on, maybe with my friends, maybe with my family. You know, as busy as we are in the summer and as much golf as we play, when I take time off, I will not go and play more golf. (Chuckling) So maybe I will go later on. The time off I take is always in December, January, and so it's a bit too cold. That's one of the things I want to do later on in my life. Q. Did it surprise you when you heard that Annika was going to retire at the end of this year, and has that got you thinking about how much longer you want to go on playing before doing other things? LORENA OCHOA: I think we knew it was happening, this year or next year. It was surprising, the timing that she announced it; it was a bit early in the year. But we respect her a lot, and for sure it's something that makes us think how different it is going to be on the Tour without her, and how much she has given us and golf. You know, like any other player, I wish her the best in the next stage in her life. She helped me a lot and motivated me a lot and was a great inspiration to me and I thank her for all of the great memories. My career, it's to the going to go on forever but I don't have a set number of years, maybe five, six more years, and I will see, but for sure, I want to be a little more normal person and spend more time in México. Q. Just wondering from after the U.S. Open if you worked with Rafael Alarcón at all or if you just totally got away from golf, and if not, have you talked to him on the phone about any swing thoughts heading into this week? LORENA OCHOA: I spoke with him the next day and we talked about things outside the golf course and inside, things that we think we need to work on. He gave me a few exercises that I've been doing for the last few weeks. But I didn't practise much. It was more like a time off to relax and refocus again and get start with my new golf for the second part of the season. I was thinking before we started last week, we both agreed that the time off was good and now I feel fresh and recharged. I haven't talked with him this week. I think I should do it today. I think he's waiting for the call. I will see him next week, on Tuesday. Q. Annika has said she's leaving, at 37 years old, and you talk about leaving in five or six years and you'll only be 31 or 32; isn't that too young to be leaving the game? LORENA OCHOA: No, I have a very different way of seeing life, a different path, and that's why I don't want to necessarily win the same number of tournaments she won or play the same amount of years. I'm a little bit younger, I'm aware of that, and life is too short. There are many things I would love to do, also, outside of golf. This is already my sixth year, so should be good, 10, 12 years, and then move on. Q. Can you talk about when you have to get this trophy and put it back and you have to give it back to the R&A, just the feeling of having that trophy, giving it back, something that you have to give back but you don't want to give back again? LORENA OCHOA: I never thought about that. I have a great picture with the trophy and it's just tradition. I always agree with that, and I think it's a very important history and tradition as a golfer, having so many champions before. I'm just really happy to be part of that and my name is right there on the trophy. We have a little smaller version of the trophy at home, and actually people come to the house and knock on the door and say, "Can I take a picture with the trophy"? It's crazy, I have no complaints, and it's beautiful to have that, even if it's just for a moment. Q. Could you expand a little bit on what you would like to do when you finish the game, please? LORENA OCHOA: I don't know for sure. For sure my foundation is very important. That's my priority and I want to be there 100% and really work there and to make sure that those kids that are in need receive help and support. I think the opportunity to receive an education is very important and it's an opportunity to change people's lives. That's what I want to do and just grow that in that matter with the foundation. I don't know, maybe golf course design; I would love to start a family; many things, but it's so far down the road. I'm just trying to focus now on the next few weeks and that later when the time comes. Q. Do you have a target to what you want to achieve before you retire? LORENA OCHOA: I want to stay at the top. I want to be No. 1 as long as I play. I'm trying to focus like I said every week and just make sure I still achieve with hard work year by year and end of the year, November, I want to be top of the Money List, top of the Rolex World Ranking, which is the most important thing to be No. 1 year by year, so we go one year at a time. Q. And you hope to retire as No. 1? LORENA OCHOA: Mm-hmm. Q. How hard was it for you to get to No. 1, and what do you think that you have to do to maintain that position? LORENA OCHOA: It was very hard. It took me four or five years. I think for sure you need to decide to be one step ahead of everybody and just work twice as hard. There is no real formula. It's something that easy, and you really work hard, if you have a balanced life and you have your goals and you're very focused on what you want to achieve and don't get too distracted with things that happen around golf, and then most important thing is to rest and to practise and always have the time to do those two things. And then I don't know, I'm still learning. I am still trying to find what is best for me. I do believe I have a lot of room to improve just year by year, and that's also one of the things that you have to keep in mind. There is always room to improve. There is always motivation. I think that's what is most important. Q. In México, are women golfers -- I know how highly you are rated out there, but are women golfers in general seen as being as important as men, because here we have clubs where women are not quite allowed in the front door and things like that. LORENA OCHOA: In México, golf is very hard. We don't have the public golf courses. The opportunities are very few. I mean, I want to say they treat us really good. I think now, also, with what I'm doing and other professionals, there are about seven, eight professionals behind me that are trying to qualify for the LPGA, they open new spaces and new areas for women, for girls. I have no complaints. I mean, it's not the same for women and for men. There's only a few golf courses that you can practise in the morning or you can play in the morning on one or two days a week. But it's okay. That's the way it is and it's tradition, and I feel that I have support from the people at my club and in Guadalajara, and we are changing that, little by little. Q. Do you think México can ever get to the situation that Korea are in now where women's golf is bigger than men's golf? LORENA OCHOA: I think it's already bigger for sure. I mean, we don't have a women's professional circuit, but we have better results than the men internationally. Of course, we are not going to be like Korea and have 30 Mexican players in the next few years. We don't have any Mexicans this year on the LPGA, and we have about seven or eight professionals that are playing on the FUTURES Tour, and we have another ten that are playing in college, so they are coming. Q. When people knock on the front door hoping to take a picture with the trophy, do you or your family invite them in for coffee or anything? Have you made any new friends? LORENA OCHOA: (Chuckling) It's more close friends and relatives, not strangers. For sure I try to keep my private life just private, and then friends, first thing they open the door, it's like, "Where is the British Open trophy." It changed a little bit, their priorities coming to the house. Q. Do you get inspiration from the fact that Padraig Harrington retained the men's open title, and do you believe that you can do it this year as well? LORENA OCHOA: When he won, I was thinking the same, you know, I want to do it, and it would be the two of us the same. For sure I think it would be a great story. You know, it would be great, yeah. Q. I think you said recently that one of your weaknesses is eating too many desserts; do you allow yourself that weakness because you train so hard, or is somebody telling you not to eat as much as you do? LORENA OCHOA: That is my weakness and it's been forever. I like to treat myself; when I play good, I have a good dessert. It depends, tomorrow, if I have 6-under, I say, okay, I can have a dessert, but even par with four holes to go, I tell him two birdies to finish and I get dessert, so every day it changes, but that's my motivation. Q. Sunningdale has a great history in golf. How do you view the course and the event this year, the Women's British Open? LORENA OCHOA: Like I said, played here before. I was here four years ago and I know the course very well. I already played 36 holes, and this is a course that you need to be mentally prepared for, and like I said, just play really good, the par 5s to get birdies, that will be important, and just stay one day at a time. It important to get a good start tomorrow, and then just try to really focus one day at a time and I hope to have a position to win on Sunday. COLIN CALLANDER: Lorena, thank you very much and good luck on your defence. LORENA OCHOA: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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