Golf Capsules: No. 1 Ochoa looking to marriage, family, golf

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Lorena Ochoa is having one of the best years of her life, and it has nothing to do with being ranked No. 1 in golf.

She’s getting married next month in her hometown, which will be a boon for Mexico’s edition of Hola magazine. Her engagement was front-page news in every paper in the country. But the pending marriage hasn’t helped the struggling LPGA Tour, which needs a dominant star.

Ochoa’s won only three times — compared to 21 times in the previous three seasons including two majors — and didn’t contend in any of the four majors. Jiyai Shin of South Korea is about to take the player of the year award, which Ochoa has claimed three straight times.

Ochoa finished tied for sixth on her home course last weekend at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Michelle Wie won her first LPGA event and earned much of the attention at the Guadalajara Country Club.

"For me, personally, it been a better year (than the last three)," Ochoa said at her tournament. "If you are talking about the results on the golf course, for sure it’s not the best year for me. But what’s important is I am happy."

In Mexico, she’s the country’s highest profile athlete — except for soccer stars Rafa Marquez of Barcelona or Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire — and expected to win every tournament.

But Ochoa has been candid. She is traveling more, playing less and has more off-course obligations, which include her charity foundation. She’s also planning to move from Guadalajara to Mexico City after her marriage to Andres Conesa, the CEO of Aeromexico airline — one of her sponsors.

Conesa has three children from a previous marriage, so she’ll step into a ready-made family.

"Personally, it’s more important the things that I do outside the golf course," she said. "And that’s been my main focus right now."

Ochoa may follow the path of former No. 1 Annika Sorenstam, who married this year just weeks after ending her career. She gave birth to a baby girl in September.

"I will think about a family, but later on," said Ochoa, who is often described as a "great ambassador" and an "awesome person" by other players.

Brittany Lincicome says Ochoa hasn’t changed this season, except she seems "more stretched with other things." Lincicome said Ochoa has stopped coming to meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

"She said she just did not have time," Lincicome said. "I mean, she is still religious but she told us she had other obligations."

With all the distractions, Ochoa’s weak spot on the course was probably her putting. She complained about it last week at her tournament, yet was seldom seen practicing on the putting green. Paula Creamer, who finished second to Wie, made a point about how much time she spends on the practice greens.

"You see it with No. 1 players in the world," Angela Stanford said. "There are a lot more demands on their time. ... I can’t imagine planning a wedding and then also being the No. 1 player in the world and carrying that with you. I’m sure it’s gotta be a lot more difficult."

Ochoa has recovered from a deep, midseason slump marked by one of the worst rounds of her career — an 8-over 79 in the second round of the U.S. Women’s Open. In early October, she won the Navistar Classic for her third victory. She shot 8-under 64 in the final round of the Mizuno Classic this month to finish second.

Ochoa’s been No. 1 for 2 1/2 years, and she’ll stay there heading into next season no matter what she does at this week’s season-ending LPGA Tour Championship in Houston. But she’s being pushed by Shin, who also leads the season money list.

Sorenstam was a commanding player, and Ochoa was expected to take over the mantle. Sorenstam’s departure may have increased the pressure on Ochoa, who has dominated in stretches but doesn’t quite pull the crowds the way Michelle Wie does — particularly in the United States.

"With Annika stepping away, it was bigger than most people thought," LPGA spokesman David Higdon said. "Lorena was caught in the middle a little bit. Annika had always been the iconic star. I think people probably didn’t realize how much Annika allowed Lorena to grow as a player."

Higdon acknowledged the LPGA desperately needs a superstar. It’s blessed with a strong rookie class including Shin, but it’s needs one player to emerge.

"When you have a close race like we have right now, it’s interesting and exciting to watch," he said. "But I always feel like when you have a dominant player like Lorena, it raises the level and everybody picks up their game."

Juli Inkster has been in Ochoa’s shoes.

The 49-year-old Inkster has won seven majors and 31 tournaments, mixing her career with raising a family.

"It wasn’t easy, and my results showed the ups and downs," said Inkster, who began traveling with her daughters six weeks after they were born. They’re now 19 and 15.

"I really think Lorena still has a passion for golf," Inkster said. "I still think she wants to be No. 1. But I don’t think golf defines Lorena. Golf is what she does, not what she is."

On the Fringe: Woods leaves Aussies eager for his return

MELBOURNE, Australia — Still wearing his gold jacket from winning the Australian Masters, with his car waiting to take him to the airport, Tiger Woods had one more stop to make at Kingston Heath.

He stood atop a bench and looked out at some 250 volunteers who had gathered outside the tournament office to see him one last time. Woods thanked them for their support, saying his week would not have been as special without them.

In true Aussie fashion, one bloke wasn’t interested in a speech.

"What about those errant shots?" he interrupted as his fellow volunteers laughed along.

"You’re supposed to kick those back into the fairway," Woods replied. "Make sure you learn that next time I’m here."

That left everyone — volunteers in the parking lot, more than 100,000 fans who passed through the gates, tournament officials and anyone who caught a glimpse of the world’s No. 1 player — with a couple of nagging questions.

When exactly does Woods come back?

"I would love to," he said on three occasions, without saying whether he would return to defend his title.

The only time Woods didn’t defend a title on the PGA Tour, except for being injured, was when the old BellSouth Classic changed its dates in 1999 to one week before the Masters. Woods never plays that week. International events, with their appearance money, are different. Woods twice did not return to defend a title, after the 1997 Asian Honda Classic and the 2000 Johnnie Walker Classic.

He received a $3 million appearance fee to play in Australia, half of that paid by the state government.

"I don’t think he’s expected to come back," Ian Baker-Finch said. "But it would be great if he did to defend."

The bigger question: What happens to golf in Australia when he doesn’t return?

For a country that produces more PGA Tour players than any other outside the United States, golf Down Under has been lagging over the last decade with a drop in sponsorship and interest. Not since Greg Norman was No. 1 in the world has there been the kind of buzz that took Kingston Heath hostage for a week.

"We had a massive spike," said David Rollo, who runs tournament operations for IMG in Australia. "If we don’t have something that’s not 80 percent of this, we’ll have lost an opportunity."

The appeal of Woods was alarming.

Yes, he attracts large crowds wherever he goes. The fans in China were the largest ever for when Woods played the HSBC Champions the previous week in Shanghai. Woods now has won in 13 countries, and he has captured a trophy on every continent that plays golf. Even so, Melbourne is one of the world’s great sporting cities, used to seeing some of the biggest stars in cricket, rugby, tennis, swimming.

Woods captivated them like few others.

A woman standing near the first green on Saturday looked down on a reporter who was inside the ropes. She wasn’t sure why he was there, only that he had an unobstructed view of Woods.

"This must be the greatest day of your life," she said.

The walking scorer with Woods’ group on Sunday is a member at Kingston Heath who plays off a 1 handicap and has a career-best round of 69. She knows her golf. Yet as Woods was about to tee off in the final round, she looked at the teenager holding the scoreboard and said, "This is the holy grail in golf."

Melbourne is the kind of place where sports fans don’t typically buy tickets in advance, rather they walk up to the gate on the day of the event. The PGA Tour found that out the hard way in 2001 for the Accenture Match Play Championship when the gallery was sparse until officials gave up on the weekly badges and went to daily tickets.

For the Australian Masters, tickets sold out the first week in October, and 35 percent of the sales were outside the state or country. That’s unheard of for this city.

"I think that because he’s the No. 1 athlete in the world, people appreciated the fact that he came," said Baker-Finch, a former British Open champion who helped with TV coverage. "He’s held in high regard. Everyone built him up. It was a special week, not just for golf, but for Australia and sport. To me, he over-delivered."

Rollo said when IMG decided to take over the Australian Masters, its goal was to attract top-ranked players outside of Australia. Victoria won the bidding war for Woods over New South Wales in Sydney, and it proved to be a boon. While the government paid half the appearance fee, it said the economic return in town was $20 million.

Not everyone was optimistic about Woods returning next year, especially since he is expected to be back in 2011 at Royal Melbourne for the Presidents Cup.

What happens in the meantime?

Woods’ appearance in the Quad City Classic as a 20-year-old in 1996 — he lost a 54-hole lead to Ed Fiori and tied for fifth — generated so much enthusiasm that the community rallied around its PGA Tour stop. Woods never returned, although what is now the John Deere Classic is attracting stronger fields than before, even in its spot on the calendar one week before the British Open.

Rollo said IMG is committed to bringing in three international players — in addition to the Australians — from the top 25 in the world. There was talk of making an offer to Phil Mickelson, along with a couple of other players who might move the needle.

"Hopefully, there were a lot of kids who were out there or watched on TV and said, ‘I want to be part of that,"’ Rollo said. "Hopefully, that will be Tiger’s legacy going forward."

Doug Ferguson covers golf for The Associated Press.

Notebook: Giving new definition to being on tour

MELBOURNE, Australia — Tiger Woods first made his move in the Australian Masters in the middle of the opening round, getting his name on the leaderboard next to a player named "Jordan" that even some of the local fans did not recognize.

Damien Jordan, the last player to get into the field, was worth getting to know.

The 29-year-old rookie fulfilled one part of his dream by making it through Q-school last year on the Australasian Tour, a goal that had been put on hold when he enlisted in the Army and served two tours in Iraq.

The first tour was for five months in 2002, and he returned in 2005 for a seven-month tour of more heavy combat. He left the Army a year later, and took two years to polish his game. If anything, it has given him a different perspective than most.

"Regardless of what happens, I know I’ll go home at the end of the day and have a hot shower, have a good feed," he said. "Half the time you’re over there, you’re thinking, ‘This could be the time when an IED goes off and I’m not going home."’

Jordan’s parents introduced him to golf at a young age, and he was slowly developing into a decent golfer when he felt compelled to join the Army, serving in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment.

"A lot of people before me have given their lives for the country, and I thought, ‘Why should I be different and not put my end up?"’ Jordan said. "That’s what I did. I met a lot of good mates, a lot of friends for life, and it made me stronger out here."

Even now, he faces a struggle different from most.

He said his time in the Army cost him his marriage, which Jordan said was one of the untold statistics of Army life. He spends as much time as he can with his two daughters, ages 2 and 3.

Jordan said he will take medication the rest of his life to cope with the dreams, and he continues to see a psychiatrist twice a month.

"Even smells can bring it back," he said. "I walked into a fruit and vegetable shop, and there had been an Iraqi shop that had the same incense going," he said. "That made it tough. It was exactly the same. I’m trying to get away from stuff like that."

Jordan mostly played the pro-am circuit this year in Australia, in which amateurs put up the purse while playing with the pros. It would be comparable to a mini-tour in the United States, and Jordan won eight tournaments.

The Australian Masters was his first event that counted on the world ranking. He opened with a 69 before falling well back and finishing toward the bottom of the leaderboard.

Asked for his greatest moment in golf, he smiled.

"Playing here, mate," he said. "It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my golf career. To make the cut, and to be out here, is just brilliant. And I got to see Tiger. To play in the field with anyone of that stature is phenomenal."

Jordan was not sure if he would get into the Australian Open or the Australian PGA Championship next month. Asked for his ultimate goal, he did not mention winning or even playing a particular tournament.

"Just keep living the dream, doing what I’m doing," Jordan said. "Every day is a win for me."

RACE TO DUBAI

The European Tour has four players in position to win the Race to Dubai, which features a $7.5 million bonus pool in addition to the $7.5 million purse this week at the Dubai World Championship.

Rory McIlroy, the 20-year-old from Northern Ireland, moved atop the standings with his runner-up finish last week in Hong Kong, putting him about $190,000 ahead of Lee Westwood. They are followed by Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher.

Paul Casey is fifth in the standings, but has withdrawn with a recurring rib injury.

PRESIDENTS CUP

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said the tour has agreed to look into the possibility of staging the Presidents Cup in China in 2019, which he said might be enough time for China to set a goal of having a player capable of competing in the matches, or worthy enough to be a captain’s pick.

If that’s the case, it would leave 2015 open for an international venue.

Finchem is intrigued by the idea that the Presidents Cup head to South America in 2015, one year before golf returns to the Olympic program in Brazil. Golf is only guaranteed the 2016 and 2020 Olympics before another vote of confirmation. It is important that golf put on a good show in Rio.

"We can’t just show up and say, ‘We’re here,"’ Finchem said.

The Nationwide Tour is headed to Colombia next year, home country of Camilo Villegas. One problem is that the best players from South America are coming from Argentina — two-time major champion Angel Cabrera, Andres Romero, Ricardo Gonzalez, Daniel Vancsik and Estanislao Goya. Argentina held a wildly successful World Cup, won by Tiger Woods and David Duval, in 2000.

"Will that help with an Olympics in Brazil? I don’t know," Finchem said.

He said the first priority before South America — perhaps Brazil, in this case — can be considered for a Presidents Cup is getting more golf courses built.

TIGER’S CHECK

Depending on the exchange rate when the check was written, Tiger Woods earned a little more than $250,000 for his victory in the Australian Masters, which was the sixth-lowest winning check of his career.

Two of those checks came on the PGA Tour.

Woods earned $216,000 for winning at Disney in 1996 and the Mercedes Championship at La Costa to open the next season. The tour negotiated its new TV deal later that year, and prize money took off a few years later.

The smallest check was $48,450 in 1997 for winning the Asian Honda Classic, followed by $190,798 for winning the Johnnie Walker Classic in 2000. Woods also received only $223,061 for winning the Johnnie Walker in 1998.

Of course, he received appearance fees that dwarfed the total purse in those overseas events.

DIVOTS

Tiger Woods earned 28 world ranking points with his victory in the Australian Masters, the fewest for any victory since he received 24 in the 2000 Johnnie Walker Classic. ... There were 91 players who earned over $1 million on the PGA Tour, the fewest since 78 players in 2005. ... The PGA Tour had 13 playoffs this year, three short of the record last set in 1991.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Adam Scott tied for third in Singapore and tied for sixth in Australia. It was the first time he had top 10s in consecutive tournaments since May 2008.

FINAL WORD

"I’m definitely playing well. I haven’t missed a cut since Tiger invited me to his tournament. But unfortunately, it’s not about missing cuts out here." — Chris Riley, who failed to finish inside the top 125 on the PGA Tour money list to keep his card.

-- Doug Ferguson

Golf Glance

LPGA TOUR

LPGA Tour Championship

Site: Richmond, Texas.

Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.

Course: The Houstonian Golf and Country Club (6,650 yards, par 72).

Purse: $1.5 million. Winner's share: $225,000.

Television: Golf Channel (Thursday-Saturday, 3-5 p.m., 9:30 p.m.- 11:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2-4 p.m., 9:30 p.m.- 11:30 p.m.; Monday, 9 a.m.- 11 a.m.).

Last year: Inaugural event.

Last week: Michelle Wie won her first LPGA Tour title, beating Paula Creamer by two strokes in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. The 20-year-old Wie shot 70-66-70-69 at Guadalajara Country Club, Ochoa's home course. Wie was making her 65th LPGA Tour start.

Notes: The top 120 on the money list after the Mizuno Classic two weeks ago qualified for the season-ending tournament. The event replaced the ADT Championship, the limited-field Trump International finale that had a $1 million top prize. Jiyai Shin won that event last year, beating Karrie Webb by a stroke in the eight-player Sunday shootout. ... Wie is making her 19th LPGA Tour start of the season. She also will play the European tour's Dubai Ladies Masters in December. ... Shin has an eight-point lead over Ochoa in the player of the year race. Cristie Kerr is third, 29 points behind Shin. Points are awarded to the top 10 finishers, with the tournament winner getting 30, second place 12 and third nine. If Shin ends Ochoa's three-year reign, the 21-year-old South Korean will sweep the rookie and player awards. Nancy Lopez is the only player to win both in the same season, accomplishing the feat in 1978. Tied with Ochoa for the tour victory lead with three, Shin wrapped up the money title last week. She has made $1,775,104 — $279,292 more than second-place Kerr. ... Ochoa leads Shin in the Vare Trophy scoring average race, 70.2250 to 70.2674.

On the Net: http://www.lpga.com

PGA EUROPEAN TOUR

Dubai World Championship

Site: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.

Course: Jumeirah Golf Estates, Earth Course (7,675 yards, par 72).

Purse: $7.5 million. Winner's share: $1.25 million.

Television: Golf Channel (Thursday, 2-7 a.m., 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 5:30-9:30 p.m.; Friday-Sunday, Noon-7 a.m., 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 5:30-9:30 p.m.; Monday, Noon-3 a.m., 7-9 a.m.).

Last year: Inaugural event.

Last week: Tiger Woods won the Australian Masters for his seventh victory of the year, closing with a 4-under 68 at Kingston Heath. Paid a $3 million appearance fee to make his first Australian start in 11 years, Woods has 82 official worldwide victories. Greg Chalmers finished second, two strokes back. ... France's Gregory Bourdy won the Hong Kong Open for his third European tour title, beating Rory McIlroy by two strokes. Bourdy jumped to 47th on the money list to earn a spot in Dubai.

Notes: The top 60 on The Race to Dubai money list qualified for the season-ending event, with only Paul Casey (rib injury) and Anthony Kim missing. The 20-year-old McIlroy tops the standings with $3,778,016. Second-place Lee Westwood ($3,587,256), third-place Martin Kaymer ($3,471,564) and fourth-place Ross Fisher ($3,132,976) are the only player in contention for the $1.5 million top prize from the $7.5 million bonus pool. McIlroy, Westwood or Kaymer would win with a tournament victory, regardless of where the others finished. The Race to Dubai money winner also will receive a seven-year European tour exemption. The tournament winner will get a five-year exemption. ... Citing the economic downturn, the event purse and bonus pool were cut 25 percent in September — from $20 million to $15 million. ... Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Camilo Villegas and Sergio Garcia are in the field. ... The Omega Mission Hills World Cup is next week in China.

On the Net: http://www.europeantour.com

OTHER TOURNAMENTS

Men

PEBBLE BEACH RESORTS: Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational, Thursday-Sunday, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and Del Monte Golf Course, Pebble Beach, Calif. On the Net: http://www.pebblebeach.com

JAPAN GOLF TOUR: Dunlop Phoenix, Thursday-Sunday, Phoenix Country Club, Miyazaki, Japan. On the Net: http://www.jgto.org

PGA TOUR AUSTRALASIA: NSW PGA Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Wollongong Golf Club, Wollongong, Australia. On the Net: http://pgatour.com.au

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Champions Tour National Qualifying Tournament, Tuesday-Friday, TPC Scottsdale, Champions Course, Scottsdale, Ariz. On the Net: http://www.pgatour.com

ASIAN TOUR: Cambodian Open, Thursday-Sunday, Phokeethra Country Club, Siem Reap, Cambodia. On the Net: http://www.asiantour.com

TOUR OF THE AMERICAS: Roberto de Vicenzo Classic, Thursday-Sunday, San Eliseo Golf and Country Club, San Eliseo, Argentina. On the Net: http://www.tourdelasamericas.com

Women

JAPAN LPGA TOUR: Daio Paper Open, Friday-Sunday, Elleair Golf Club, Ehime, Japan. On the Net: http://www.lpga.or.jp