Sweet success

For Lorena Ochoa, life is nothing but a chocolate cake. The top female golfer in the world is only 5 feet 6 and looks small enough that she could hide out in the bag with her clubs, but make no mistake, she has her cake and knows how to eat it too.

The U.S. Women’s Open starts today at Interlachen Country Club, a roller coaster of a golf course, where Ochoa once again is expected to sit in the front row with her arms in the air, take all the twists and turns and ups and downs and finish first.

And if she does, it can mean only one thing. It’s chocolate cake time.

“I only have it when I play good,” Ochoa said. “It’s a rule.”

As it turns out, cake is her carrot. If Ochoa doesn’t play well, she punishes herself and stays away from her favorite treat. But if she plays well, she takes the cake.

Let’s just say she’s probably on a first-name basis with frosting. Maybe she should add it to her list of endorsements, a heavyweight group that includes Audi, Banamex, CitiGroup, Rolex, Lacoste, Ping and Aeromexico.

Ochoa is riding high these days; in fact, she’s soaring. Only 26, she’s won two of the last three majors -- last year’s British Open at St. Andrews and the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April -- and she’s expected to add to that this week on the Donald Ross-designed layout with five par fives and the sinister, tilted greens.

Look for Ochoa to even them out a bit. Maybe she won’t, but that’s the way it’s trending lately on the LPGA Tour, where Ochoa is routinely given a greater chance than anyone else.

It’s easy to see why. Ochoa is midway through her sixth year as a pro and she has already qualified for the Hall of Fame, once she completes 10 years on tour. She has won 23 times (six this year), won player of the year twice, led the money list twice, and steadily moved into third place on the LPGA Tour’s all-time money list.

With $10.4 million in career earnings, Ochoa trails only Annika Sorenstam, 37, with $20.8 million and Karrie Webb, 33, with $13.5 million.

You know the normal rule of thumb for a sovereign . . . uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

That’s not the way Ochoa feels it. With Sorenstam supplanted as the No. 1 player and retirement plans in order at the end of the year, Ochoa assumes the role of principal target for every player in the field. Let her eat cake. She’s supposed to win.

Ochoa wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like it. Good thing it’s me. I like that position,” she said. “It’s a process, it took me a few years to be where I am today. And I feel comfortable. I said this before, you never need to feel too comfortable or too happy that you are there because there are always going to be so many good players behind that are trying to catch you.

“But at the same time, I’m learning I’d like to stay here, I’d like to stay on the top.”

She seems comfortable so far. In 11 tournaments this year, Ochoa is a total of 133 under par and has 10 top 10s. In her six victories, she is a combined 107 under par.

She also rules the statistics. Ochoa is first in earnings with $2 million, and also first in scoring average, driving distance, birdies, greens in regulation, rounds in the 60s and rounds under par.

Sorenstam is second on the money list this year with $1.4 million and admitted what is clear to everyone.

“Lorena, she’s obviously playing very well,” Sorenstam said. “But I’m not really sure how she feels about this week.”

We already know how Sorenstam feels, since this is her 15th and last U.S. Open and that she is stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the year. But if Ochoa has taken her place among the elite, Sorenstam does have something Ochoa does not.

That would be three U.S. Open titles, in 1995-96 and then again in 2006.

For Ochoa to break through, she’s going to have to battle through some unexpected setbacks in her family life. She missed one tournament when her uncle died and she flew home to Guadalajara.

Then, at the LPGA Championship the first week of June, her grandfather died on Saturday, but the news was kept from Ochoa until she finished playing Sunday.

Ochoa tied for third, and last week tied for sixth at the Wegmans LPGA.

She broke down when talking about her grandfather.

“I never really said goodbye, because I thought one week will be short and then I’ll be back to see him again and to see how he was doing,” she said.

“He was my motivation when he was alive and he watched me play.

“I’m doing OK. I think family is the most important thing. It was hard, it is still hard today, but it gives me motivation to play good for them.”

Ochoa began playing golf when she was 5 in Guadalajara and became an eight-time national champion as a junior. She won 12 collegiate titles at Arizona, eight in her sophomore year, and in 2001 she tied for seventh at the Welch’s/Circle K as an amateur.

That same year, Ochoa was NCAA player of the year and freshman of the year.

In 2002, the year before she turned pro, Ochoa was eighth at the Kraft Nabisco. She was 20.

After that, Ochoa never looked back, at least on the golf course, but she always kept her vision on her roots. She has been named Mexico’s female athlete of the year three times, opened Ochoa Golf Academies and launched the Lorena Ochoa Foundation that opened three elementary schools in Mexico.

She routinely buys breakfast for Latino groundskeepers at LPGA tournaments and her hearty gallery is not difficult to spot. They are the ones proudly waving Mexican flags.

Her manager is her brother, Alejandro, who recently signed a deal to form Ochoa/Hills Golf Design, a collaboration with Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest on course designs in Mexico.

Ochoa remains a popular figure in her country and has worked on projects for Mexican President Felipe Calderon, but she isn’t interested in personal involvement in politics -- at least yet.

“Never say never, but not right now,” Ochoa said. “Golf is my priority. So you never know. Maybe later when I finish. I’m not controversial, I don’t try to discuss too much political things, but I support my country and my government.”

This week at Interlachen, golf is everyone’s priority, but it’s not going to be easy.

The 6,789-yard course is the longest in U.S. Women’s Open history, perhaps made slightly less difficult with a par of 73 and a couple of reachable par fives.

As for Ochoa, her personal degree of difficulty lies not only in carrying the weight of the loss of two key family members, but also in how she handles the role of the unquestioned front-runner in her sport.

Sorenstam handled it with casual aplomb, but not always.

“When you’re only here four times a year with the chance it seems like it’s so easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself,” she said. “All of a sudden you start thinking about the trophy when it’s Thursday. And I made those mistakes.”

In the meantime, Ochoa wouldn’t mind adding some chocolate cake to her diet, say, Sunday night.

“I’ve been good the last few months,” she said. “And I’m ready for this one.”

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Career path

Year-by-year breakdown for Lorena Ochoa:

*--* Year Events Cuts Wins 2nd 3rd Top 10s Earnings Rank Scoring avg. 2003 24 23 0 2 3 8 $823,740 9 70.97 2004 27 27 2 1 5 18 $1,450,8 3 70.02 24 2005 23 20 1 4 0 10 $1,201,7 4 71.39 86 2006 25 25 6 6 2 20 $2,592,8 1 69.24 72 2007 25 25 8 5 2 21 $4,364,9 1 69.68 94 2008 10 10 6 0 0 8 $1,954,5 1 68.61 27 *--*

YEAR-BY-YEAR WINS

2004 (2) -- Franklin American Mortgage Championship, Wachovia Classic Hosted by Betsy King

2005 (1) -- Wegmans Rochester LPGA

2006 (6) -- LPGA Takefuji Classic, Sybase Classic, Wendy’s Championship for Children, Corona Championship, Samsung World Championship of Golf, The Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions

2007 (8) -- Safeway International, Sybase Classic, Wegmans LPGA, Women’s British Open, CN Canadian Open, Safeway Classic, Samsung World Championship, ADT Championship

2008 (6) -- HSBC Women’s Champions, Safeway International, Kraft Nabisco Championship, Corona Championship, Ginn Open, Sybase Classic

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Sources: lorenaochoa.com and lpga.com

Los Angeles Times