It comes across on the golf course, to the point of engaging more and more spectators on the LPGA Tour. As the emotive Arnold Palmer was to the taciturn Ben Hogan when he succeeded him in the late '50s, so Ochoa is to the purposeful Sorenstam. At the 2007 U.S. Women's Open at Pine Needles in North Carolina, where she finished T-2 to Cristie Kerr, Ochoa was the clear crowd favorite.

"It was amazing," says her cousin, "because this was in the American South, where the stereotypes of Mexicans are pretty negative. But because of her energy, the people were with her, and I know for a lot of those people she opened up this whole new view of who Mexicans are."

It's not that Ochoa is flamboyant—far from it. Her flashiest mannerism is tossing the ball up and catching it after holing a putt. It's that she connects.

"Lorena is extremely human," says Hall of Famer Carol Mann. "She's not an LPGA marketing doll, someone who reads their own press clippings. And she is not a robot, a player who hides herself in the game. Yes, she's talented, but she's charismatic because she shares how much she enjoys it, and the more she shows you who she is, the more you want to know her and the more you pull for her. It's a rare quality—Nancy Lopez had it—but it's wonderful for the sport and contains a lesson. To this day, Annika's finest hour was her first tee shot at Colonial, when she showed her humanness."

Ochoa's likability can obscure her skills. Despite her size, she plays a big game that allows her, like Tiger Woods, to make hay on par 5s. Her innate talent for shotmaking allows her to bend the ball either way, letting her shoot at more pins than most of her competition. Ochoa is happiest on the course and plays her best when she is aggressive, relying on her exceptional touch around the green to make up for the errors that are the trade-off of her style. But because she is also a good putter, when she is on, Ochoa is a birdie machine.

Alarcón, who began working with Ochoa regularly in her early teens, is loath to fiddle with what he considers genius.

"Lorena's swing isn't textbook," admits the 49-year-old former PGA Tour player, who was an All-American at Oklahoma State in 1983. He acknowledges that the way the clubshaft points to the right of the target at the top of her backswing, and her trademark tilting of the head away from the target at the start of the downswing, are both unorthodox moves.

"Lorena is a player who can manufacture golf shots; I believe she has more shots than anyone out there," Alarcón says. "Her grip, alignment and posture are very sound; and after all, a lot of great players swing the club very differently. Changing her into a player who maybe hits the ball a little straighter but can only hit one kind of shot would be wrong. It would take away her gift."

Ochoa agrees. "The way I learned, I was very lucky. I have some guidance on technique, but I like to learn a lot on my own. Since I was a kid, I figured out how to hit the ball high, how to hit it from the water or the trees, and if it's better with this or better with that. We all have abilities, and sometimes nobody knows they have them. You have to discover them yourself."

Concludes Alarcón, "What really sets Lorena apart is her mind. At the age of 12 or 13 she told me, 'I want to learn to beat you one day. If I can beat you, I know I can be the No. 1 woman in the world.' Most kids, especially from a small country, don't think that way. But Lorena knew she was special."

Still, Ochoa has shown she has a propensity for mistakes off the tee in the closing stages of tournaments, especially in -hitting untimely hooks. She's only won one of five playoffs and, of course, has yet to win a major championship. "That ability to finish comes to players in different ways," says Alfredsson. "It's come to Lorena more slowly, and perhaps it does have something to do with having so much empathy for others. I think it's a vulnerability that makes her more endearing, but she'll figure it out."

Ochoa freely admits that over the years she has had productive sessions with three different sports psychologists, but adds, "In the end, you have only yourself on the golf course, and even after you get help, you have to figure out everything for yourself. You just have to take the bad moments and take them as a good thing, as part of the process. There are some players who look back all the time and regret all the time. But I'm a simple girl, in a way, in that I just put things in the trash and move forward."

Ochoa certainly doesn't see herself as soft. The young woman whose favorite movie is Gladiator and who has a Superman driver headcover says she favors extreme sports because of what she believes they can do for her mental toughness.

"All those sports, I only do them because I know that they make me a better person and a better player in the end. A half marathon or rock climbing is the same as golf—you don't give up, you control your mind, you keep going," Ochoa explains. "You learn to push yourself because your body and your mind can go as far as you want. There is no limit. And I believe of all the sports I do, golf is the one where you have to control your mind the most."

It's clear these are things she thinks about a lot. Another friend and former teammate in international amateur events, Alejandra Martin del Campo, says that when she notices Ochoa daydreaming and asks her what she's thinking about, "90 percent of the time, the answer is golf."

But as badly as she wants to do her very best, Ochoa never comes across as grim. Catherine Lacoste, who in 1967 became the only amateur winner of the U.S. Women's Open, and whose family's eponymous apparel Ochoa wears, considers her to have an amateur spirit, adding, "My father [former tennis champion René] used to say, 'Smile at the ball and it will go in the hole.' I always sense Lorena is smiling at the ball."

Ochoa also sees no contradiction in being No. 1 and remaining popular among the players. "It's not hard. On the LPGA you don't have to do anything but say 'How are you' and 'Good morning' and 'Have a good day.' There are people who don't even say that, who just look straight ahead. But I think if you are nice to others, they will be nice to you. It's just a rule in life."

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