Danny Moloshok / Reuters

Lorena Ochoa celebrates with family and friends after winning the Samsung World Championship in October. Ochoa won nine LPGA events in 2007.

Sorenstam was injured for about half the season, but even the Swede wonders if she could have stopped Ochoa.

"I have a lot of respect for Lorena," Sorenstam sad. "I think she's a fantastic player. She deserves to be No. 1. She's playing consistent every week. She's playing as good as anybody can play."

Still, she is not perfect, which showed in two collapses at majors, and another that almost cost her $1 million. A four-shot lead was trimmed to one at the ADT Championship, and Ochoa found her tee shot on the 18th so buried in Bermuda rough that she could only see half the ball as she sized up her 161-yard shot over the water.

She hit her approach to 30 inches, the signature shot in the best season of her career.

"I think she's been the best player," Karrie Webb said. "I don't think any of the players question that."

Playing golf is only part of what makes Ochoa a superstar. At a gathering of LPGA Tour founders, Ochoa politely asked each for an autograph.

And after winning $1 million from the final event of the year, Ochoa pledged $100,000 for flood victims in Mexico and set aside a large amount to help build schools for the needy children in her town.

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.