Lorena Ochoa: Part Tiger Woods, part Mother Teresa

"Usually, you don't say this about someone who is at the top and always beating up on everybody, but Lorena is the greatest, nicest person you will ever meet," said Christina Kim, an LPGA Tour player and a close friend of Ochoa's. "Come up with any nice word you can think of to describe a person, and Lorena embodies it. If there is anyone other than myself that I'd want to have all of this success, it would be Lorena."

Ochoa, the fresh face of the LPGA Tour, is in town this week for the U.S. Women's Open that starts Thursday at Interlachen Country Club in Edina. She is trying to win her first U.S. Women's Open against a field that includes No. 2-ranked Annika Sorenstam, the former face of the tour. Sorenstam, who won this championship just two years ago, is trying to join early LPGA Tour legends Mickey Wright and Betsy Rawls with a record-tying fourth U.S. Women's Open title before retiring at the end of the season.

"I really like watching Annika and Lorena play," Rawls said. "Annika is obviously a great champion. And Lorena, gosh, that little kid can really hit it. She's really come on the last couple of years with all of the things that go into making a great champion."

Rawls said there's also a certain "it" factor to Ochoa that makes her an essential part in the evolution of women's golf.

"She's got it all, and people just love her," Rawls said. "What she has is the charisma. It's not something you can manufacture. You either got it or you don't. And Lorena is a lot like Nancy Lopez was when she first came on tour in the '70s. She's got it."

Ochoa's rise to No. 1

In replacing Sorenstam as the world's No. 1-ranked women's player, Ochoa won six times in 2006 and eight more times in 2007, including her first major, the Women's British Open at St. Andrews. Ochoa also captured back-to-back LPGA Tour Player of the Year awards as Sorenstam battled a ruptured disk in her neck during a winless 2007 season.

This season, Ochoa has won six times, including one major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She also became the fastest player to reach $12 million in career earnings in LPGA Tour history, and became the second-youngest player to qualify for the Hall of Fame, even though she'll have to wait until 2012 to be eligible for enshrinement.

Ochoa's average margin of victory this season is 6.3 strokes, including an 11-shot rout over the runnerup Sorenstam at the HSBC Women's Champions. Sorenstam has been in the field for all but one of Ochoa's victories this season. Ochoa, meanwhile, has been in the field in only one of Sorenstam's three victories.

"For sure, Annika has been my motivation," Ochoa said. "I admire her so much. She helped me get better. Now, my level of golf is different. I can go out there now and tee it up and feel confident that I can beat her."

Ochoa's appeal goes much deeper than her results between the ropes. For starters, she is dedicated to helping disadvantaged kids in Mexico through the Lorena Ochoa Foundation and the Ochoa Golf Academy. Secondly, she simply does not behave like the typical modern superstar athlete.

Humble and a bit shy, she opens formal press conferences with a giggle, a nod and a polite "hello" and/or "hola." She speaks English well but slips enough to be cute and funny without knowing it. This month, she even thanked the media for covering the LPGA Championship.

Ochoa goes even further out of her way to be kind and encouraging to the groundskeepers and other laborers whose work behind the scenes are vital to a golf tournament. Most of them are fellow Mexicans who idolize Ochoa, the only Mexican with a full exemption on the LPGA Tour and the only golfer from that country, male or female, to reach No. 1 in the world.

The Monday before the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April, Ochoa surprised the grounds-keeping crew at Mission Hills Country Club. Before heading out for her first practice round of the week, she slipped in the back door at the club's maintenance building, where 100 or so workers were about to eat breakfast after working for hours to get the course ready.

Most of the workers were speaking Spanish when Ochoa walked in with a friendly, "Hola!" Cheers and chants of "Lorena!" ensued.

Then Ochoa did what any multimillionaire athlete would do for the guys who cut the grass: "I helped make scrambled eggs for them," she said. "They are good people that work really hard."

Years ago, when Ochoa played the Kraft Nabisco Championship as an amateur, members of the grounds crew at Mission Hills told her they were going to hire a mariachi band to serenade her coming off the 18th green on the final day. The club wouldn't allow it.

On the Monday before this year's tournament, Ochoa told the grounds crew to bring their families and the mariachi band. She would clear it with the club and would be waiting for them on the 18th green Sunday.

Ochoa proceeded to shoot a bogey-free 67 on the final day. With a large gallery on her heels chanting in Spanish and waving Mexican flags every step of the way, she won by six shots.

When she finally reached the 18th green, there it was, a mariachi band set to begin blaring as soon as the victory was complete. The exclamation point came moments later when Ochoa and about 25 friends and family members from Ochoa's native Guadalajara made the victor's traditional leap into Poppy's Pond that surrounds the 18th green.

Asked how she would celebrate, Ochoa giggled and said, "With all of the Mexicans, they will drink a lot of tequila. But not me. I need to be ready for next week."

The following week, Ochoa went to the Corona Championship in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico and won by 11 strokes for the second time this season. The victory gave her enough points to qualify for the Hall of Fame.

Her roots are deep in Mexico

Ochoa returns to Guadalajara when she isn't playing. She's very close to her father, Javier, a real estate developer, and her mother, Marcela, an artist.

Ochoa, two older brothers and a younger sister were raised in a home that's about a pitching wedge from Guadalajara Country Club. She began playing golf at age 5. By 6, she had won her first tournament. At 7, she won her first national tournament.

By 12 or 13, Ochoa told her coach, former PGA Tour player Rafael Alarcon, she wanted to "be the best."

"I lost a few tournaments and I didn't like the feeling of losing," Ochoa said. "So I told Rafael I wanted to prove that I wanted to be the best, and asked him what do I need to do. And we started from there."

Today, Ochoa's popularity in Mexico goes beyond athletics. She's treated more like a national treasure than a sports celebrity. The LPGA Tour will tap into that popularity further this November with the inaugural Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara.

Ochoa's foundation is well-known for helping poor children by providing health care and education. It has grown through the years to include special programs for children with cancer and at-risk kids who need better guidance.

So, obviously, Ochoa has many more interests besides golf. In fact, she has so many that she said she will be retired from competitive golf long before she reaches Sorenstam's age (37).

"I want to come back to Mexico and work on my foundation," Ochoa said. "I want to do other things."

For now though, fans can sit back and enjoy the wiry 115-pounder with the peculiar swing that comes with hitch at the top and an odd turn of the head. How that swing stands up next to Sorenstam's mechanical precision under U.S. Women's Open pressure at a tight, demanding course such as Interlachen could be the best story line of the week.

"They are two totally different players," said former LPGA Tour player and current television golf analyst Dottie Pepper. "I think Annika is much more calculating, more of a 'Point A to Point B' player, who never really seems to make a big number. Lorena always kind of keeps you on the edge of your seat because there's that potential there. ... There's a little sort of Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer flair there with Lorena."

Her confidence is on the rise

Ochoa's swing has abandoned her before coming down the stretch in the U.S. Women's Open. A hooked tee shot while trailing by one on the 72nd hole in 2005 led to a quadruple bogey. Another hook last year on the 71st hole led to a bogey and a two-shot loss to Cristie Kerr.

Ochoa claims she and Alarcon have refined her swing to make it more dependable under pressure. That, she said, was a key to winning back-to-back majors after going 0-for-23 in her previous attempts.

Not everyone credits the mechanics of Ochoa's swing to her dominance this season.

"Last year, she was one of those players who hadn't won a major," said Laura Davies, a four-time major winner. "Then she won a major and her confidence took off. Golf is all about confidence."

Ochoa's confidence is so high that some of her peers mention her name the way some PGA Tour players have mentioned a certain fellow who has spent many a Sunday pumping fists and kissing trophies.

"She's like Tiger is for the men," said Se Ri Pak, a five-time major winner. "It's going to be hard for any of us to catch up with her on a consistent basis."

Obviously, Woods and the PGA Tour are still far ahead of the LPGA Tour in popularity. But Ochoa was asked if her popularity could match Tiger's if she continued to win and dominate at her current pace.

"That's a good question," she said. "I'm doing anything I can do to make that happen. Tiger is Tiger, and he's from the United States. But I'm doing OK in my country, too."