Lorena Ochoa wants to climb to base camp on Mount Everest someday. What she won't do is try for the summit.
“I have many things I like to do, and I got to be alive!” she said with a gentle laugh.
If Ochoa sets her mind on something, she invariably gets there.
PHOTO: AP
At age 13, she told her golf coach, “I want to be the best.”
At 26, the No. 1 player in women’s golf also keeps her ambitions in check, vowing to quit the US circuit in five or six years.
Opening her defense of the Wegmans LPGA on Thursday, Ochoa will aim to take advantage of one of a dwindling number of chances to outplay Swede and close friend Annika Sorenstam, who is retiring at season’s end.
With six wins already this year, two short of her tally last year, “I think I have the potential ... to really break some records and make history,” Ochoa said without a hint of arrogance.
One obvious target is winning at least nine tournaments this year.
“We have a couple of majors coming. I don’t want to put numbers in. How about if I just win all of them?” she said on Wednesday.
Ochoa has a clear edge on Sorenstam at Locust Hill Country Club in suburban Rochester, a traditional, tree-lined course with compact greens.
While Sorenstam’s best finish in four tries here was second place in 1996, Ochoa was runner-up in her rookie year in 2003 and won in 2005 when she birdied six of the last seven holes to sweep past Paula Creamer.
High on her to-do list are marriage, having children and running the Boston Marathon.
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