And the gap between the purses on the LPGA and PGA Tours is narrowing. In 2000, LPGA Tour money winner Karrie Webb's earnings of $1,876,853 would have placed her at No. 19 on the PGA Tour money list. In 2007, Ochoa's earnings would have made her No. 7 on that list, behind Rory Sabbatini and ahead of Jim Furyk.

"We're seeing the beginning of a whole new world," says Judy Rankin, the Hall of Fame great who works as a golf analyst for ABC and ESPN. "Although it should be pointed out that right now it's only benefiting a handful of players, things are structured so that they can set themselves up for life. That was never possible, even just a short time ago.

"After leaving the tour, a few players got cushy jobs as golf resort directors. I left at a reasonably young age and was able to make a new career. But for most, the only way to make a living was teaching. It's not sour grapes, just a statement of fact."

In decades past, even those LPGA players who planned their post-tour days with careful calculation found rough sledding. In the late 1970s, Hall of Famer Carol Mann began to prepare for what she jokingly calls her "after-life." She devised a business plan, which included a contract as an NBC commentator and a golf school that would travel from course to course. She also signed on with a marketing agency.

"The mistake I made," Mann says, "was not to build accountability into the agreement" —a yearly assessment of what the company had done for her, and an agreement on what it would do in the coming months. The agency's job was to keep Mann in the public eye and to bring in business opportunities.

"When you don't have the spotlight on you, your value goes down every day," she says. "As players, our performance is evaluated each year so we can keep our tour cards, and I should have held [the agency] to the same standard. I didn't, and for that I blame myself."

Today's young stars have nothing but respect for their predecessors on the LPGA Tour.

"I know I'm very lucky to have been born at this time," Kerr says. "The players of the past need to be celebrated and thanked."

John Sommers Ii / Reuters Cristie Kerr overcame family and personal problems to become a champion.

"Today's girls are doing so well," says Kathy Whitworth. The winningest golfer of all time—her 88 career victories are the most of any player, male or female, and she earned about $1,700,000 in her 33 years on the tour. "What's happened has been terrific when you consider where we started."

Mark Steinberg, head of the golf division at IMG, the world's most powerful sports marketing agency, represents Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam. He says he is "very bullish" on women's golf.

"The trend is strong," he said. "We're seeing increased purses, increased popularity and more corporate sponsor interest."

Steinberg lists four traits an athlete needs to become a brand-name star: dominance in the field; an ability to deal professionally with corporate sponsors; accessibility and making time to fulfill commitments; and a personable manner.

What makes Kerr's success story so compelling is that, to a greater or lesser degree, she struggled with all four of these points. In 1996, she arrived on tour as an 18-year-old hotshot out of South Florida, the 1995 AJGA Junior Player of the Year. But she played poorly and lost her card for a season. Her competitive intensity and focus were misinterpreted as aloofness. Fiery, unused to losing and lacking a bit of social polish, Kerr was labeled a "brat."

And she was fighting demons off the course. Her father, a teacher, and her mother, a paralegal, had gone into debt to support Kerr's pro career. Then their marriage began to crumble. Depressed, confused and guilt-ridden, Kerr turned to food for solace. She ballooned to 185 pounds, and back spasms further hampered her game. She was only 21 years old.

There have been several signal moments in Kerr's life. One came in 1999, when she took a personal vow and became a fitness fanatic (losing, along with 60 pounds, her thick eyeglasses and unbecoming perm). Another was in 2002, when, in great shape and in golfing form again, she won her first LPGA tournament, the Longs Drug Challenge. A third turning point came in 2003, when she met a professional mentor who turned out to be a soul mate, Erik Stevens.

Stevens, 42, has had an unusual career path. A Division III ice hockey standout in college, he was finishing a post-graduate degree in physiology and nutrition at Columbia University when he took the post of health and fitness director at Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel. Working at the posh establishment brought him into contact with financiers and celebrities, several of whom convinced Stevens that he had a future in the sports business.

He opened a development and management company and quickly learned the ways of athletic marketing. Stevens remembers getting a call from a colleague of legendary golf instructor Jim McLean, telling him about an LPGA Tour player who had great promise but no agent. Her name was Cristie Kerr.

"I couldn't believe it," Stevens says. "Here was this fantastic golfer, wonderful-looking with a great personality, and the only endorsement deal she had was with a cereal company."