Golf: Tseng scores runaway victory at LPGA Championship

PITTSFORD: Yani Tseng of Taiwan underlined her status as women`s world number one by winning the LPGA Championship by 10 strokes on Sunday to become the youngest golfer to amass four major professional titles. The 22-year-old Tseng, who began the overcast day with a five-shot lead, doubled her advantage by posting a final-round 66 at Locust Hill for a record-equalling total of 19-under-par 269 that left American Morgan Pressel (71) a distant second. Tseng, who won the 2008 LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock and last year`s Kraft Nabisco and Women`s British Open at Royal Birkdale, surpassed Pak Se-ri of South Korea and Tiger Woods, who were both 24 when they won a fourth professional major.
Patty Berg was 23 when she captured her first four majors in the years before the formation of the LPGA. The long-hitting Taiwanese matched the best women’s major score in relation to par, duplicating Cristie Kerr’s total here last year, Dottie Pepper’s winning score at the 1999 Kraft Nabisco and Briton Karen Stupples’ total in claiming the 2004 Women’s British Open. “I feel very excited,” said Tseng, who thrust her arms in the air and tipped her cap to acknowledge the cheers of the gallery as she walked up the 18th fairway. “I almost cry, because it was so emotional,” she told reporters. “I’m from Taiwan. It’s a little country and the people here are very, very supportive of me. I feel really good about that.”
Her brilliant showing at Locust Hill represented a rebound from disappointment at the previous women’s major, the Kraft Nabisco in April, where she lost a two-shot lead in the final round to finish second to Stacy Lewis. The victory was her third of the season and gave her three major wins from the last six women’s majors played. In a telephone interview with the Golf Channel, 10-times major winner Annika Sorenstam called Tseng “the new face of the LPGA”