Press
Ochoa Stars on Screen as Well as Green, in Documentary Charting Her Rapid Rise
By KAREN CROUSE
Published: June 5, 2008
HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — Documentary filmmakers often spend years tailing their subjects, trying to capture the money shot. Lorena Ochoa of Mexico made it easy for the two men who followed her around with a handheld camera for 11 months. What they caught on film was a great comet: Ochoa supplanting Annika Sorenstam as the world No. 1 and winning her first major, on the hallowed grounds of St. Andrews.
Less than a year after the climactic ending was filmed at the 2007 Women’s British Open, the documentary already has the feel of a period piece.
There to document Ochoa’s butterfly-like emergence from her cocoon was a second cousin of hers, Jonathan Ochoa, and his friend Christopher Vitiello, who studied film at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Jonathan Ochoa said he was inspired to collaborate on the documentary with Vitiello after attending the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship and watching streams of fans trailing Lorena, lifting her spirits and her game. Read Full Article…
Golfer Ochoa wins AP female athlete
By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer
Lorena Ochoa didn’t have a blueprint for becoming the best in the world, and she certainly didn’t have a role model. Mexico had yet to produce anything resembling a world-class golfer, and Ochoa did not look like one at age 12.
So it was surprising when she told her coach she wanted to be No. 1.
“At that time, with the way I was playing, and being in Guadalajara, it was a little bit crazy to think that way,” Ochoa said toward the end of a historic season. “But I did it. It took me a long time, but I did it.”
Such was her dominance that for the second straight year, Ochoa was the overwhelming choice as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. It was the fifth straight year a golfer has captured the Female Athlete award, the longest streak of any sport.
Two of her cousins made a documentary of Ochoa this year, bringing a hand-held video camera to all the tournaments. They live in the United States, and often tried to expand Ochoa’s vocabulary.
Instead of saying she had a good day during the U.S. Women’s Open, she said it was “delightful,” and then looked to her cousins to make sure she used the word properly.
Perhaps the next word to learn is sensational. Her play has been nothing but that for the last two years.
Lorena Subject of New Documentary
In 2006, two 20-something filmmakers decided to make Lorena Ochoa the subject of a 90-minute documentary. Lorena’s cousin, Jonathan Ochoa, and friend Christopher Vitiello formed Los Pistoleros Productions and since then, have been part of a very exciting ride. The two have been to Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago and to Augusta to witness Lorena receiving an award. But they have also been to a school in Guadalajara, Mexico, where Lorena was helping a young boy with his homework and to some of the poorest communities in Mexico. The pair hopes that their telling of Lorena’s amazing life – on and off the course – will touch, educate and entertain the audience when the film is released sometime in 2008, if all goes according to their plan.
LPGA Tour No. 1 Lorena Ochoa subject of new documentary
Christopher Vitiello has discovered a foolproof method on how to get your career rolling after you graduate from college.
“You have to find a friend who has a famous family member, and you make a documentary film about them,” said Vitiello, who has those requirements in longtime friend Jonathan Ochoa, cousin of the world’s No. 1 woman golfer, LPGA Tour star Lorena Ochoa.
After graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Vitiello proposed the idea to his friend, who jumped at the idea of making the film about his famous kin.
“I was stuck in that ‘everything is a movie’ mode,” said Vitiello. “This is what I’m loving to do right now. And Jon jumped on it.”
That was in 2006; since then the two have seen everything from Lorena getting an award at Augusta, to helping a child with his homework at the school she funds in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“We’ve gone from Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago to one of the poorest communities in Mexico and all along the whole spectrum,” Vitiello said. “We’ve met so many different people, all connected to Lorena.”
In making the as-of-yet-untitled 90-minute documentary, the young filmmakers (both are 24) have seen both of their families come together to help make the vision a reality. Vitiello’s father has helped the pair greatly, including gifting his son with the camera the pair now use, and the two are quick to thank MOM Productions (their mothers), as well as virtually all other family members.
Viva Lorena! Local filmmakers get inside look at Lorena Ochoa’s rise to the top
Annika Sorenstam didn’t win in her rookie year, but then racked up 16 wins over the next four years to solidify herself as the next great women’s golfer.
Almost 10 years later, history appears to be repeating itself with Lorena Ochoa, the 25-year-old phenom from Mexico who is on a similar path.
After five years on the LPGA Tour, Ochoa has the same number of wins as Sorenstam did — and she was also blanked during her rookie year.
Ochoa’s runaway victory in the Samsung World Championship at Palm Desert on Sunday was her seventh win of the season and 13th in two years. It also clinched her second consecutive player of the year award and pushed her season earnings to an LPGA-record $3.3 million.
Ochoa, who hasn’t finished outside of the top 10 in stroke-play events since May, has been the No. 1-ranked player in the world since surpassing Sorenstam in April. And with four wins in her last six starts, there seems to be nothing or no one standing in her way to continuing her run at the top.
“It’s been a long process to get there, but I enjoy very much all of the process, and that’s where I like to be, so I’m going to keep working hard,” Ochoa said at a media conference after her win.
Mi Hyun Kim, this weekend’s runner-up in the elite 20-player field, is impressed, to say the least.
“She is still young, but mentally good, and if she hits long, she hits a good putt,” Kim, a two-time winner from South Korea, told reporters on Sunday. “She has a lot of good things. I’m jealous.”
No one may be more impressed than Chris Vitiello and Jonathan Ochoa, two young filmmakers from Encinitas who are working on a documentary about the Mexican superstar.
The two San Dieguito Academy alums have been tracking Ochoa for more than a year and were there with her at all four majors this season, including her maiden major win in the Women’s British Open at St. Andrews in August.
“Something clicked in her at St. Andrews,” Vitiello said Monday night from Palm Desert, where he and his film partner attended the Samsung World Championship. “She’s so in control of herself. She knows who she is and why she’s here and her game has grown because of it.”
Jonathan Ochoa, who is Lorena’s second cousin, played plenty of golf with her as a kid in Mexico at Guadalajara Country Club, near where the two grew up. He’s not at all surprised by her prowess inside the ropes, but continues to marvel at how she handles herself with all that goes with being No. 1 in the world.
“She’s embraced the process of understanding how to handle pressure and constantly working for the next level,” Jonathan said.
Vitiello said the documentary, which is currently in post-production and set to be completed early next year, will capture all sides of Ochoa — from her golf game and training regime to her charity work and the warm relationships she continues to build with her peers, the media and especially her fans.
For now though, it’s tough to set aside her performance.
“She’s always been very outspoken about being No. 1, and now that she is, it seems to be driving her more (to stay there),” Vitiello said. “Her growth has been steady. It’s been a slow, perpetual incline. And this was the year where it all came together.”
And to hear Lorena tell it, there seems to be no end in sight.
“There are so many places that I have room to improve — my short game, a better feel with my putting, working on lies,” she told reporters Sunday. “So I’m looking forward to that. I want to go home and work hard in the offseason, even harder than last year, and be ready for next year.”
