Youth shows potential
Yani Tseng of Taiwan became the first rookie in 10 years to win a major, beating Maria Hjorth on the fourth hole of a playoff Sunday with a 5-foot birdie on the 18th hole to win the LPGA Championship at Havre de Grace, Md.
Tseng, a 19-year-old with a decorated amateur career, closed with a 4-under 68 and became the second youngest woman to win a major. Not since Se Ri Pak in the 1998 McDonald’s LPGA Championship had a player won a major as a rookie.
“I feel so lucky,” Tseng said.
Hjorth appeared to have fate on her side when her fairway metal bounced off the rocks in a creek, over a ledge and across the green, turning a bogey into a birdie on the 15th hole. She closed with a 71, and missed a 12-foot birdie before Tseng holed the winning putt.
Lorena Ochoa went 14 holes without a birdie, ending her hopes of a third straight major. She birdied two of the last three holes for a 71 and finished one shot out of the playoff, along with Annika Sorenstam.
Sorenstam had a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole to get into the playoff, but she left it short and shot 71. She was trying to join Mickey Wright as the only four-time winners of the McDonald’s LPGA Championship.
Tseng and Hjorth finished at 12-under 276.
Rathdrum native Tracy Hanson shot a 75 and finished with a four-round total of 293.
PGA Tour
Justin Leonard won the Stanford St. Jude Championship at Memphis, Tenn., in a playoff, holing a 19-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole to beat Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Robert Allenby.
Leonard blew a one-stroke lead with two holes left to drop into the playoff, but won on the 150-yard, par-3 11th when Immelman pushed his birdie attempt past the hole.
It’s Leonard’s 12th PGA Tour title, his second at TPC Southwind and his first since the 2007 Valero Texas Open. He closed with a 4-under 68 to match Allenby (65) and Immelman (69) at 4-under 276.
Leonard earned $1.08 million and now is fifth in the Ryder Cup standings. He has not played in the Ryder Cup since 1999, when his 45-foot putt on the 17th hole at Brookline clinched the largest comeback in history.
Leonard was the closest to a birdie on the first hole of the playoff on the par-4 18th only to come up a foot short. All three parred, sending the playoff to the island green at No. 11.
Allenby, who came in undefeated worldwide in 10 playoffs, went first from 21 1/2 feet and missed a foot to the right. Leonard stroked in his putt next, the ball slowing near the cup to show off the Nike logo before falling in.
Immelman, who birdied the last three holes of regulation to join the playoff, had the shortest putt at 11 feet to push the playoff to a third hole. But he just missed, giving the title to Leonard.
European PGA Tour
India’s Jeev Milkha Singh won the Bank Austria Open at Oberwaltersdorf, Austria, parring all 18 holes in the final round for a 71 and a one-stroke victory over England’s Simon Wakefield in the rain-shortened tournament.
Singh finished at 15-under 198. Wakefield closed with a 68. The event was reduced to 54 holes after rain wiped out play Thursday.