Ochoa stuns golf world

"I prefer to be remembered for other things," she has said. "It's not about golf. It's not about the game."

But will golf be fine without Ochoa? Her surprise announcement on Tuesday that she is retiring from golf is the latest in a series of recent blows that has left the LPGA Tour reeling.

Ochoa, the tour's player of the year in each of the past four seasons, posted a brief statement on her website that only hinted at why she is stepping down.

The former Wildcat, who married in December, has scheduled a news conference Friday in Mexico City, where she said she will share "news of a new state in her life," according to the announcement.

Earlier this year Ochoa said she planned to play four more seasons, but would retire when it was time to start a family.

An tour spokesman said officials would not comment on Ochoa's retirement or its effect on women's golf until after Ochoa's news conference.

"Obviously, when you lose your No. 1 player, it certainly is not good news," said Charlie Rymer, an analyst for LPGA broadcasts on the Golf Channel. "It's a tough pill to swallow. You provide a stage for your larger-than-life stars and that's what pushes the needle in golf. There's some negatives to that. When you put your eggs in one basket, sometimes the basket gets a little fragile and the eggs roll out."

Ochoa's decision to step down, at 28, makes her the second LPGA star, after another former Wildcat, Annika Sorenstam, to walk away from the game in less than two years.

Couple that with a decline in sponsorship, plunging TV ratings and a surviving tour roster with few well-known personalities, and commissioner Michael Whan finds himself battling to keep the tour relevant six months after taking the job.

The tour schedule has only 26 events this year, down six from two years ago. Only 14 will be played in the U.S.

Purses are down too, with last year's overall prize money of $47.6 million marking a 20 percent decline from the year before.

Whan has helped find new sponsors, but the tour hasn't been as successful in recouping its lost television time and the broadcast fees that come with it. According to viewership numbers supplied by the Nielsen Company, the LPGA's audience has fallen by two-thirds since 2006.

And the loss of the engaging Ochoa 23 months after the retirement of the equally personable Sorenstam - an eight-time player of the year and the tour's all-time money winner - will not help those numbers grow.

"This is kind of a rebuilding time for the LPGA," said Hall of Fame golfer Amy Alcott, who spent more than three decades on the tour, winning 29 tournaments. "To lose one of its great stars and great entertainers, that's difficult."

Ochoa, who became the world's top woman golfer in 2006, won 21 titles over the next three seasons and poured much of her earnings into charities in her native Mexico, where she has become the most recognized and revered athlete outside of soccer. That has opened new doors for golf in Latin America, and especially Mexico, site of three LPGA tourneys this season.