Karrie Webb won on the first extra hole, but simply getting into a playoff sent Ochoa soaring. She went wire to wire in her next start to win the Takefugi Classic in Las Vegas. The next two months, she finished first or second in six tournaments.

Ochoa poured it on at the end of the year.

She won for the first time before her home crowd in Mexico, then seized control of the points-based LPGA player of the year award with a momentous duel in the desert against Sorenstam in the Samsung World Championship. The Swede had a three-shot lead going into the final round, but Ochoa fired at flags and closed with a 65 to win by two.

"She has blossomed to become a great player," Sorenstam said. "She is hitting the ball longer. She is hitting it straighter. She's putting extremely well. It's fun to see. She is such a nice person, and it's nice to see good things happen."

Ochoa grew up in Guadalajara and was 5 when she begged her father to take her to the golf course with her brothers. Three years later, she won the first of five straight titles in her age group at the Junior Worlds in San Diego.

"I don't know if she was born with a little bit of desire and a lot of talent, or a little bit of talent and a lot of desire," Kevin Hansen, the former head pro at Guadalajara, once said. "But it's a combination you cannot believe."

Intensely proud of her heritage, Ochoa reaches out to the Mexicans she sees at golf tournaments, many of them working on maintenance crew, all of them stopping to watch whenever she goes by.

"I'm very proud to be Mexican, and every time I see some Mexicans on the course, it could be the workers, or Mexicans that live here ... it gives me extra motivation," she said. "It makes me want to do things better and play good for them."

The only thing lacking from her stellar season was a major championship. But there is a feeling that will change soon.

"When you make those mistakes your first year or second year, you get them out of your way and then you make good things come," Ochoa said. "I'm a positive person, and I learn a lot, and it's not going to happen again, those bad shots. I didn't win any major, but I think I'm ready for them."

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