West Palm Beach, Fla. – Hall of Famer golfer Greg Norman and recently retired LPGA star Lorena Ochoa announced Oct. 20 a partnership to jointly design championship and resort golf courses worldwide. To start this historic partnership, the two golf greats have contacted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in hopes of being selected to co-design the golf course that will host the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
Ochoa, the LPGA Tour’s former No. 1-ranked player from 2007-10, and Norman each operate numerous businesses, charitable programs and diverse activities related to the game of golf and will continue to do so in an effort to grow the game of golf.
This golf course design partnership is born in mutual admiration of each other’s accomplishments within the golfing world. Norman has had tremendous success designing golf courses worldwide including numerous courses in Ochoa’s native country of Mexico. Norman designed the El Camaleón Golf Club which hosts the first and only PGA TOUR event in Mexico. El Camaleón opened to rave reviews from the tour players and is entering its fifth year of hosting the Mayakoba Golf Classic Feb. 23-27.
Ochoa recently launched her own design company, and the Ochoa brand is very strong in Mexico and South America. Combining Ochoa’s appeal in Mexico and South America with Norman’s 23 years of golf course design experience will present a unique offering to the golf course design client. This partnership will showcase their vision for the next generation of golf course design, offering relaxing, scenic playable courses for men, women and junior golfers. These two talented individuals, successful both as professional players and golf course architects, will offer men and women alike, regardless of age and ability, a golf course that will turn a normal round of golf into an “experience,” the duo say.
This new collaboration on golf course design will extend worldwide and will be handled as a separate entity from their own respective brands and will be utilized only for those special projects that require the synergy of these two champions to produce an even greater golf course.
“Lorena has achieved an incredible amount of success in the golf world in a relatively short period of time and working with her will give me the opportunity to co-design courses with another professional golfer with different views or philosophies than my own,” Norman said. “In particular, she will bring a ladies perspective to the playability element which is sure to improve the course in that regard. There are specific projects where doing a co-design with Lorena will better fit the client’s needs and in these cases we both look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with the other. The fact that we’re friends only makes the process that much more enjoyable.”
Says Ochoa: “I feel very lucky to work with Greg, as we all know he is regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, but also he is an incredibly successful business owner and I am just starting. I look forward to the opportunity to learn from Greg and offer my unique perspective which hopefully will allow us to bring lots of energy and excitement to our new collaboration.”
Lorena will also ensure that each design takes the lady and junior golfer perspective into account.
“We need to include a woman’s look into the design process to make sure the final results offer a great experience from the front tees as well as the back tees,” she says.
Ochoa and Norman will be playing together during the pro-am at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational presented by Banamex & Corona Light on Nov. 10.
