Lorena Ochoa

Lorena Ochoa was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1981. The 26-year-old has been playing since she was five, and it has paid off for her. She is now the number 1 female golfer in the world. She won her first event at age 6 and took her first national event at age 7. From age 7 until her junior year of high school, she captured 22 state events in Guadalajara and 44 national events in Mexico.

She played collegiate golf at the University of Arizona on a scholarship. While there, she won the NCAA Player of the Year awards for 2001 and 2002. After her sophomore year of college, she left to play golf professionally. She won three out of ten events, which caused her to top the money list and earned her membership to the LPGA Tour. As a rookie, she placed in the top ten in eight tournaments, placing her ninth on the LPGA's official money list. She won her first title in 2004 at the Franklin American Mortgage Championship. This made her the first Mexican-born player to have won a title on the LPGA Tour.

In 2006, her first round score of 62 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship tied for the lowest score ever shot, by female or male, in any major championship. She also won six tournaments and topped the money list that year, which is why she was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. In 2007, Ochoa won her first major championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews. That year she became the first woman to ever earn more than $4,000,000 in a single season. She hasn’t slowed down in 2008; she won her second major championship at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.