The Girls Skilled Golf Affiliation (LPGA) and the LPGA Corridor of Fame Committee (previously often known as the Veterans Committee) just lately introduced that the LPGA Corridor of Fame has modified its entry necessities. Essentially the most vital modification consists of lifting the 10-year enjoying requirement to enter the Corridor of Fame, which makes two-time main champion Lorena Ochoa eligible for induction. Ochoa earned 37 Corridor of Fame factors in her eight-year enjoying profession earlier than retiring in 2010.
“The Corridor of Fame Committee needed to know why the 10-year rule was initially instituted, so we talked to the opposite Corridor of Famers in regards to the reasoning,” stated Beth Daniel, an LPGA Corridor of Famer and member of the LPGA Corridor of Fame Committee. “When you make the Corridor of Fame in lower than 10 years, extra energy to you. We shouldn’t preserve you out of the Corridor of Fame for that motive.”
The Committee additionally elected to induct underneath the Honorary Class the remaining eight of the LPGA’s 13 Founders not already enshrined within the Corridor of Fame, together with Shirley Spork, who was monumental in creating what’s now the LPGA Professionals group.
Ochoa performed on the LPGA Tour from 2003 to 2010, profitable 27 LPGA Tour titles throughout her profession. Her victories embody two main championships, the 2007 AIG Girls’s Open and the 2008 Chevron Championship. Together with incomes Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Yr honors in 2003, Ochoa was a four-time Rolex Participant of the Yr (2006-2009) and four-time Vare Trophy recipient (2006-2009). Throughout her time on Tour, Ochoa was No. 1 within the Rolex Girls’s World Golf Rankings for 158 weeks (April 23, 2007, to Could 2, 2010), which is the document for many complete and most consecutive weeks spent at No. 1. She obtained the information of her induction from 48-time LPGA Tour winner Nancy Lopez, a 1987 inductee into the LPGA Corridor of Fame.
“It was very particular to obtain Nancy’s name. She is an individual I like rather a lot,” stated Ochoa, who was inducted into the World Golf Corridor of Fame in 2017. “When the decision got here in, I used to be in my yard. It began as an informal dialog, how is my household, my youngsters. Then she stated she has excellent news to share. My first thought was one thing associated to my basis. I couldn’t guess. When she instructed me I used to be bowled over, and I used to be very moved, by no means imagined. I walked across the backyard a number of occasions and laughed to myself for a number of minutes. I composed myself from the thrill, then drove off to choose up my youngsters from faculty. After that, I known as my dad and mom, and my father was very completely satisfied and stunned additionally. It’s an honor to obtain this recognition. It was surprising and really particular to me”.
