Lorena Ochoa is on her way to the desert again, and what a celebration it will be at the Chevron Championship as she’s finally getting into the LPGA Hall of Fame. As Golfweek first reported, the LPGA has announced that the 10-year requirement that kept Ochoa out of the Hall has been removed by the tour’s Hall of Fame committee.
Players must amass 27 points and play 10 years to gain entry into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame. Ochoa, a former Arizona Wildcats star, amassed 37 points in seven years before retiring in 2010.
“The Hall of Fame Committee wanted to understand why the 10-year rule was originally instituted, so we talked to the other Hall of Famers about the reasoning,” said Beth Daniel, an LPGA Hall of Famer and member of the LPGA Hall of Fame Committee in a statement.
“I spoke to Carol Mann right before she passed away. Carol was president of the LPGA when the rule was set up and said it was because they needed players at that time to keep playing to keep the spotlight on the Tour. I think we have seen that the Tour is strong enough now that we don’t need that requirement, so the committee decided to do away with it. If you make the Hall of Fame in less than 10 years, more power to you. We shouldn’t keep you out of the Hall of Fame for that reason.”
LPGA Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez phoned Ochoa with the news. Ochoa played at the UA from 2000-02, winning 12 of the 20 tournaments she played in before turning pro.
“It was very special to receive Nancy’s call, said Ochoa. “She is a person I admire a lot,” said Ochoa, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017. “When the call came in, I was in my backyard. It started as a casual conversation, how is my family, my children. Then she said she has good news to share. My first thought was something related to my foundation. I could not guess. When she told me I was taken aback, and I was very moved, never imagined. I walked around the garden several times and laughed to myself for several minutes. I composed myself from the excitement, then drove off to pick up my children from school. After that, I called my parents, and my father was very happy and surprised also.”
In addition, all 13 LPGA founders will now be in the LPGA’s hall in an honorary category, including local resident Shirley Spork. Currently, only five of the 13 founders are in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Alice Bauer, Bettye Danoff, Helen Detweiler, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Sally Sessions, Marilynn Smith, and Spork will now all be inducted.
The tour will also now award one point for an Olympic gold medal, retroactively retroactively giving a point to 2016 gold medal winner Inbee Park and 2020 winner Nelly Korda.
The LPGA’s Hall of Fame is the toughest to get into in all of sports. To date, there are 25 entrants.
