On May 16, 2004, in just her second year as an LPGA Tour member, Mexico native Lorena Ochoa became the first player from her home country to win on the LPGA Tour.

She collected her first career title at the Franklin American Mortgage Championship benefiting Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, which was held at Vanderbilt Legends Club’s Ironhorse Course in Franklin, Tenn., after beating Wendy Ward by one stroke with a four-day total of 16-under. The win was one of two victories that Ochoa earned during the 2004 season and was the first of 27 titles she racked up before retiring from professional golf in 2010.

Ochoa won two major championships – the 2007 AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews and the 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club – and was No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for a total of 158 career weeks, a record that stood until 2023 when Republic of Korea native Jin Young Ko reached 163 career weeks as world No. 1. Her 158 weeks is still an LPGA Tour record for most consecutive weeks as Rolex Rankings No. 1.

Ochoa was the first player in LPGA Tour history to reach $3 million in single-season earnings in 2007, doing so in 21 events, and she then became the first athlete to cross the $4 million mark in official money just four tournaments later that same year. The 2008 season saw Ochoa earn $1 million in five events, making her the fastest player ever to earn $1 million in single-season money, a record that was matched by Nelly Korda in 2024 at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards.

Her final LPGA Tour victory came during the 2009 season at the Navistar LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala., and Ochoa hasn’t competed in an LPGA Tour event since the 2012 Lorena Ochoa Invitational presented by Banamex and Jalisco in Mexico, finishing in a tie for 18th that year in her namesake tournament. The 2010 season was Ochoa’s last on the LPGA Tour.

She is a four-time Rolex Player of the Year, earning the accolade in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, and Ochoa also won the Vare Trophy, an honor recognizing the athlete with the lowest season-long scoring average, those same four seasons. Ochoa won the Heather Farr Award in 2007 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.

She was granted entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2022 after the organization decided to eliminate the 10-year entry requirement. Ochoa had earned 37 Hall of Fame points in her eight years as a full-time LPGA Tour member.

On This Date: Lorena Ochoa Becomes First Player From Mexico to Win on LPGA Tour

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