Lorena a worthy champion

WHAT a fitting start to Ricoh's sponsorship of the Women's British Open it was, with Lorena Ochoa claiming her first Major championship at St Andrews last month. When the world No 1 finished runner-up to Cristie Kerr in this year's US Women's Open, the media started asking if she was ever going to win a Major.

To my mind, given her ever-improving record in the Majors ­ prior to the Women's British Open, she had finished, tied 10th, tied 6th and 2nd respectively in the year's Majors to date ­ and her constant improvement as a player, not to mention the fact that she is still only 25, it wasn't a question of if Lorena was going to win a Major, but when. And so it proved.

It was absolutely appropriate that the Mexican's first Major came on a historic, ground-breaking debut at the Home of Golf.
Ever since her record-setting amateur career at the University of Arizona, Americans have known not only about the talent that Lorena has, but perhaps more importantly what a wonderful person she is. Lorena has always been loyal to her family, friends and to Mexico and her Spanish roots.

That loyalty manifested itself with most of her immediate family accompanying her to St Andrews for the duration of the championship, as well as a number of her most devoted fans. One fan who travelled over to support Lorena ­ Miriam Jaramillo, a
diminutive middle-aged woman of Hispanic background from New York ­ walked all 72 holes with Lorena. This is a feat in itself since St Andrews isn't the easiest of viewing courses, but when you are barely over five feet tall it amounts to just under 10,000 steps per round. Now that's what I call loyalty!

After her win, Lorena chose to host an evening with her family in the public bar at the Dunvegan Hotel, where she had stayed for the week. The owners of the hotel, Sheena and Jack Willoughby, couldn't believe that she had chosen to be in the public bar, rather than in The Claret Jug, the hotel's private restaurant.

I witnessed Lorena happily giving time to everyone in a packed bar. Her only respite came when she disappeared to the reception area to take a congratulatory phone call from the president of Mexico! Many of the media thought Lorena would struggle if the wind got up, but when it did, on the Saturday, she laid the foundations for her historic win.

She posted a level-par 73 when most of her nearest rivals struggled to break 80. It was evident that all of the hard work Lorena had put in ahead of her trip specifically with St Andrews in mind really paid off. Throughout the round she looked as if she was in complete control of her game and still enjoying herself, whereas most of the other players' games and personalities were buffeted by the 30mph gusty winds.

With a five-shot lead going into the final round, Lorena cruised to victory. There were mini surges by Annika Sorenstam, Linda Wessberg, American Reilly Rankin, Maria Hjorth and Jee Young Lee ­ the latter two both enjoying career-best finishes as joint runners-up ­ but none could live with such brilliance and consistency.

Congratulations, also, to England's Melissa Reid who claimed the leading amateur honours and who will undoubtedly lead GB