Lorena Ochoa wasn’t sure she could make it to the top.

It was her fourth day on Mexico’s tallest mountain. Her little legs felt like mush as she climbed the snow-covered top of the Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano with an elevation of 18,405 feet the third-highest peak in North America.

She was 12 years old.

“We got to the peak, and I was really tired,” Ochoa said. “It was windy and cold, and I was feeling bad. It took me six months of training really hard for that, and it was a good feeling when I finally got to the top.”

She’s trained even harder for her next big climb.

The 20-year-old Ochoa became the first Mexican to earn her LPGA Tour card by leading the money list on the Futures Tour. She played in only 10 events and won three of them.

That will make expectations about as high as the Pico de Orizaba.

Already a national hero in Mexico, last year she became the first golfer and youngest athlete to earn a National Sports Award, which came with a parade in Mexico City and an audience with President Vicente Fox.

As a sophomore at Arizona, Ochoa won eight out of 10 tournaments, falling just short of her goal to sweep them all. Still, she managed to break the NCAA women’s scoring record (70.13) for the second straight season.

Ochoa also dabbled in the big leagues, with alarming success. She was in contention during the final round of the year’s first major before finishing eighth in the Nabisco Championship, five strokes behind Annika Sorenstam. A week earlier, she tied for fifth in Tucson, Ariz., four shots behind Laura Diaz.

“She was going straight for the pins,” Sorenstam said. “She had no fear.”

Ochoa tied for 14th last week at the Betsy King Classic, in which she used her fourth and final sponsor’s exemption. Afterward, she immediately went home to Guadalajara for a much-needed break.

Just don’t get the idea Ochoa will take it easy.

She is bundle of energy who has competed in two triathlons, two half-marathons and two ecothons (mountain biking, hiking, swimming, kayaking and rappelling). Ochoa can’t imagine life without golf, but it’s her passion for outdoor sports that makes her such a fierce competitor.

“What I like about it is the way you prepare yourself and your mind,” she said before the final round at the Betsy King Classic. “You learn to be tough, even though you’re having a hard time, and you try to do your best. You just have to keep going and going and going.”

How she wound up in golf is a matter of destiny.

The Mexican Golf Federation estimates that only 18,000 people play golf in a country of nearly 102 million people.

Ochoa lived only 50 yards from Guadalajara Country Club, and she begged to join her father and two older brothers for casual rounds. Javier Ochoa finally relented when his daughter was 5.

“From the time she first swung a club, it was her passion,” the father said.

Ochoa became so good so quickly that she created imaginary opponents to keep herself focused. She won her first state tournament at age 6, her first national title a year later and then captured the first of five straight titles in her age group at the Junior Worlds in San Diego when she was 8.

“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,” said Kevin Hansen, the former head pro at Guadalajara. “But it’s a combination you cannot believe.”

LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw is hesitant to heap praise on any newcomer and drive expectations higher than they already are.

Still, he noted Ochoa’s collegiate record: winning 12 times in 21 tournaments, finishing lower than third only once.

Should Ochoa succeed, her impact could be enormous. One of the reports that came out of the “Golf 20/20: Vision for the Future” seminar two years ago was that Hispanics are the fastest-growing demographic among golf fans.

“Having a Latin American star will open a new fan base for the LPGA,” Votaw said.