KAHUKU — The bill of her white cap carries the name of a bank. The front of her powder blue shirt is adorned with a clothing company's logo and her sleeves an airline and an auto manufacturer.

But that's only because Lorena Ochoa's real constituency, the 107 million population of Mexico, wouldn't fit on her wardrobe.

"I represent them with my heart," says the reigning queen of women's golf. "They are my people."

And she is their inspiration. For on the muscled shoulders of her lean 5-foot-6, 131-pound frame, the one they call simply "La Golfista" (the golfer) — for no other description is necessary — carries the hopes and, indeed, emerging golfing future of a nation as the LPGA Tour opens its season today with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay.

Her ascension to the top spot on the LPGA money list with six victories at last year's end, dislodging Annika Sorenstam's 5-year hold on the Rolex Player of the Year award, put her on top of the newspapers back home, dwarfing at the time even the exploits of her home area's much-loved soccer teams. Overshadowing its boxers and bullfighters.

In her native Jalisco state, the 25-year-old is gaining on the other homegrown notables, mariachis, tequila, tortas ahogadas and Carlos Santana.

Wherever she goes on tour, Mexican flags can be found in the galleries, proudly waved by expats who cheer her on. "They are everywhere," Ochoa said no longer amazed at their turnout. "Even here in Hawai'i there are families from Mexico who come out to support me."

Yet it isn't merely her growing fame as a 9-time winner on the LPGA Tour or reflected glory as Associated Press female athlete of the year that command such a passionate following, many of them people who have never picked up a club or otherwise set foot on a golf course. It is also what she is doing with some of that $2.5 million she won last year.

So far this year Ochoa has opened two golf academies, one each in Guadalajara and Mexico City, and is preparing to launch a third in Monterrey, taking the game and lessons in its fundamentals beyond the estimated 18,000 that play it now on private courses in a land where public courses remain mostly a dream. Her vision is to provide instructors and scholarships so that someday she won't be Mexico's only card-carrying LPGA player.

"It is something I always wanted to do when I retired, to help share the game with other girls and motivate them to play golf," Ochoa said. "But now I thought I wanted to do it much sooner."

Less visible are the early-morning or after-rounds visits she pays to maintenance sheds and the workers who labor there at various LPGA tournament sites, thanking them. "In the United States at most of the golf courses the Mexican workers are the ones that maintain the golf course and they show up and watch me play," Ochoa said.

When she began to make a name for herself as a junior golfer Ochoa said she was "offered to come here and practice in the United States, to get teaching here and (apply) for citizenship. But that was never an option for me because I love my country and I'm very proud to be Mexican. I like to go home and share my success with my family and my country."

When she wins her first LPGA major — all nine victories have been non-majors — the promise is that Guadalajara will turn out and fill the plaza Minerva, a traditional place of wild celebration heretofore reserved for championship soccer teams.

"It is motivation knowing that they are waiting," Ochoa said.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.