Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng became the youngest female golfer in history to win four major titles, shooting a final-round 66 to capture the 2011 Wegmans LPGA Championship by 10 strokes.
Tseng, 22 years, 5 months, 3 days, already had the distinction of being the youngest player in LPGA history to win three majors by capturing the 2008 LPGA Championship, 2010 Kraft Nabisco Championship and the 2010 RICOH Women’s British Open.
Patty Berg won her fourth major at the 1941 Western Open when she was 23 years, 2 months and 1 day. The youngest golfer to ever record four major titles was Young Tom Morris, who accomplished the feat back in 1872 at the age of 21.
Tseng entered Sunday’s final round with a five-shot lead over Cindy LaCrosse and Morgan Pressel. After a bogey on the opening hole, Tseng made three straight birdies to increase her lead to seven strokes. Birdies on No. 6 and No. 8 brought Tseng’s lead to 10 strokes and when she made the turn, she held a 9-shot lead at 17-under-par. Tseng was chasing history on the back nine as she tried to match the lowest score in relation to par at a major championship, which is 19-under-par. Birdies on 14 and 17 helped her to tie that mark and Tseng missed a birdie putt on her final hole that would have given her the record.
For Tseng, it was her eighth career victory on the LPGA Tour and half of those wins have been majors.
Tseng became the 15th player to win a major and the tournament before. Lorena Ochoa was the last to accomplish this feat in 2008 when she won the Safeway International and Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2008, Tseng has led or co-led going into the final round nine times and she has now won four times. She went 0 for 4 to start her career in 2008 and 2009, but since then she’s 4 for 5, her only loss coming at this year’s Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Record-breaking: While Yani Tseng didn’t quite catch Cristie Kerr for largest margin of victory, her 19-under par total tied the major record for lowest 72 hole score in an LPGA major. There have been three additional players to reach 19-under par in a major championship: Dottie Pepper at the 1999 Kraft Nabisco Championship, Karen Stupples at the 2004 Weetabix Women’s British Open and Kerr last year.
American presence: Tseng captured the win on Sunday at the Wegmans LPGA Championship but there were a number of Americans that finished near the top of the leaderboard. Five of the top-10 finishers were from the U.S.A. and that’s significant since points for the U.S. Solheim Cup team were doubled this week.
