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Lorena Ochoa began playing golf at age 5 and has been winning every step of the way. Ochoa, winner of the LPGA's first major, has won five of the six events she has played in this year.

Before leaving for Arizona, Ochoa asked Alarcon if he would one day be her coach. But first, she worked her way through college alone.

She sometimes struggled to understand professors or write papers in English, but found her stride on the golf course, winning 12 of 20 tournaments in two years and twice earning NCAA Player of the Year honors.

"I just remember seeing this little bitty thing and wondering how in the world she can hit the ball so far,'' college coach Greg Allen said of the 5-foot-6 Ochoa. "She had a quiet confidence about her. The belief she has in who she is just sets her apart.''

Ochoa, who lived with a Mexican family off-campus as a freshman, was good enough to turn pro after one year but stayed on a second season to mature, winning eight of 10 tournaments. She then clinched the Futures Tour money title to earn a ticket to the LPGA Tour in 2003.

Alarcon and Ochoa then got to work, outlining a five-year plan that included becoming No. 1 in the world.

Along the way, she has hit some bumps, squandering a chance to win the U.S. Women's Open in 2005 by hooking her tee shot into the water on the 18th hole and making a quadruple bogey. That same year, she blew a three-shot lead to Sorenstam in Phoenix, a devastating loss.

But she saw the mistakes as a chance to get better.

"She's so good at learning from experiences and adversity and turning it into a positive,'' Allen said. "She's such an emotional person — she laughs, cries — but she has really learned to control those things, and that has helped her finish down the stretch.''

A Catholic, Ochoa prays daily and crosses herself before every round, often on the first tee. Friends say that faith feeds her confidence, keeping her calm and balancing her other interests in life.

"The best thing about Lorena isn't what she does on the golf course,'' Allen says. "The way she cares about people and wants to make their lives better, that's who Lorena really is.''

At La Barranca, the Guadalajara elementary school she sponsors, low-income students race to hug her when she visits.

Interest in Ochoa is exploding across Mexico, as thousands of kids and adults crowd courses in ribbons and baseball hats, chanting "Lo-re!'' and running from hole to hole alongside her. This fall, she will become the youngest player to host her own LPGA event there, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

Ochoa and her brother already have opened two academies to train instructors and hope to help build public courses, an effort to make golf more accessible.

"The country looks to Lorena because they've identified with her career and what's important to her,'' Alejandro Ochoa says. "She's an inspiration to keep going, never quit and, despite the circumstances, stay humble and tied to your goals.''