01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 28, 2006

In her short time on the LPGA Tour, Lorena Ochoa has proven that the best foreign players aren't all from the Far East.

While eight South Koreans have won on the Tour this year, the pride of Mexico has outplayed everyone in the world. In 13 events, the 24-year old has 10 top-10 finishes and two wins -- at the Takefuji Classic and the Sybase Classic. In one six-week period, she finished first or second in each tournament. Not surprisingly, she's the Tour's leading money winner with $1,204,987.

Ochoa, who grew up in Guadalajara, doesn't hide her golfing goal. She wants to be the world's best player, just like her idol, Nancy Lopez.

"My goal is to be the No. 1 player in the world," she said last week in Rochester, N.Y. "It's time to have another player up there."

After a collegiate career at the University of Arizona, where she won 12 times and finished second six times in 20 starts, Ochoa knows all about winning golf tournaments. Now in her fourth pro season, Ochoa has five wins to her credit and has finished in the top 10 a whopping 46 times.

The missing piece? A major title. That's the first major step in separating Ochoa from world number one Annika Sorrenstam and Karrie Webb, the leading money winners in each of the previous 11 seasons.

Ochoa is one of a handful of LPGA stars who can be tabbed as a favorite to take this week's U.S. Women's Open title. She hits the ball long enough, leads the LPGA in greens-in-regulation and is a fine putter. That combination hasn't yielded much in previous Opens, however. In five tries, her only top-10 finish came in a tie for sixth last year at Cherry Hills.

Ochoa's foes have learned never to count her out. At last year's Rochester, N.Y., LPGA stop, she birdied six of the last seven holes to beat Paula Creamer by four strokes. This year, at the Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas, Ochoa posted a 19-under score with rounds of 63-68-66. At the Sybase Classic (in New Rochelle, N.Y.), she closed with a 66 to win by two strokes.

There have been disappointments, too. The biggest may have come at the Kraft Nabisco Championships in April, the first major of the season. Webb holed out for eagle on the 72nd hole to move to 9-under par, but Ochoa had an eagle of her own to force a playoff. In the playoff, both players hit over the 18th green in two shots but Webb made a seven footer for the winning birdie while Ochoa failed to get up and down.

If Ochoa finds herself in the same position this weekend, perhaps she'll prove she's ready to win her first major title.

-- KEVIN McNAMARA