South Korea's I. Park Is Youngest Open Champ

EDINA, Minn., June 29 -- The 63rd U.S. Women's Open began with 28 teenagers in the field on Thursday and ended Sunday with one of them, 19-year-old Inbee Park of South Korea, walking down the 72nd fairway at Interlachen Country Club with a five-shot lead and a wide smile, knowing she soon would become the youngest champion in tournament history.

With a birdie-birdie start that pushed her into a lead she never lost, Park, a highly accomplished junior player now in her second season on the LPGA Tour, made America's national championship her first victory as a professional. With a 2-under-par 71 and a 9-under 283 overall, she ultimately prevailed by four shots over her 43-year-old playing partner, Helen Alfredsson (75 -- 287) of Sweden.

"She played fantastic," said Alfredsson, who never got closer than that four-shot margin on the back nine. "I was very impressed with her composure. She was very calm, she never changed anything. . . . She's been a great player, very steady. She's one of the Koreans I know the name of -- there's so many of them. We're trying to remember all these names."

Park, who moved to Florida as a youngster and now lives in Las Vegas, supplanted her hero and countrywoman Se Ri Pak as the youngest Open champion. Pak won at age 20 in 1998, and Park recalled staying up in the middle of the night to watch the broadcast beamed back to South Korea. Park also is the fourth straight foreign-born major champion, and foreign-born players have won 25 of the last 31 majors.

"I really can't believe I just did this, especially with all the big names on the trophy," she said after a four-birdie, two-bogey round. "I tried to stay calm and focused all day. It just happened."

There were six Parks in the field this week, and when play started Sunday, nine of the top 20 players on the leader board were natives of South Korea. Two Americans -- 23-year-old Stacy Lewis and 21-year-old Paula Creamer -- were first and second through 54 holes and went off in the final pairing. But when both players made double bogey on the short 473-yard par-5 No. 2, it was the first of many signals that this was not going to be their day.

Lewis, the surprise third-round leader, was attempting to become the first player to win a major championship in her first event as a professional. Instead, a day after shooting a stunning 67 to take a one-shot lead into the final round, she and virtually everyone else struggled in swirling 20 mph winds. She tied for third place with Koreans Angela Park (73) and In-Kyung Kim (75), all at 4-under 288.

"I felt like I didn't play all that poorly," said Lewis, who needed 35 putts, 12 more than Saturday. "I just got above the hole on some of my shots and you just can't be there. I was hitting my shots a little farther that usual, maybe some adrenaline. It's hard to be upset. I finished third in the U.S. Open, my first pro event."

Creamer, a six-time champion on the LPGA Tour trying to break through for her first major title, instead continued to play poorly in Open final rounds. She came in averaging 75.6 fourth-round strokes in her five previous Opens, and her 5-over 78, with two double bogeys, continued that trend, leaving her at 3-under 289 and in a four-way tie for sixth.

"It's probably the most disappointed I've been in a long time," said Creamer, in pink from head to toe and using a pink golf ball, likely a first from any golfer in the last group in the final round of an Open. "It was just so hard for me to get anything close to the pin."

The grandest shot of the day came from a player who eventually finished tied for 24th. But Annika Sorenstam, playing in what she says will be her final Open in her last season, went out with a flourish. With hundreds in the grandstand looking on, she holed out a 6-iron shot from 199 yards out in the fairway for an eagle for the ages at the 530-yard 18th hole.

"Leaving with another great memory," said Sorenstam, who ended her Open career with a 78 and 3-over 295. "Maybe not the one I had in mind, but I'll take it. It's been an emotional roller coaster all week. . . . I've never seen crowds like this. It was amazing. They have been so supportive."

The champion, who earned $585,000, will never forget the night she first thought about taking up golf. She was living in suburban Seoul and recalled watching Pak win the '98 U.S. Open in a playoff against Jenny Chuasiriporn at Blackwolf Run in Wisconsin. The tournament was on Korean television at 3 a.m. and her parents' cheering after every Pak putt for par or birdie kept waking her up. She said she picked up a club for the first time a few days later.

"I really would like to thank Se Ri for what she's done for golf, for Korean golf," she said. "I didn't know anything about golf back then. But I was watching her. It was very impressive for a little girl. I just thought I could do it, too."

After a year, Park said she began to figure out the game, and soon was playing the American junior circuit. In 25 sanctioned events, she had 18 top-five finishes and in 2002 won the U.S. Junior Girls' title, finishing second in the same event in 2003 and 2005 before turning pro two years ago after she graduated from high school.

Park began the final round two shots off Lewis's lead, but had an inkling this might well be her breakthough day when she holed out a 60-foot chip from off the green at the 344-yard opening hole. She nearly did it again at No. 2, chipping from the same distance to about a foot from the cup for a tap-in birdie.

"It was the putting this week," said Park, who needed only 26 in the final round. "I made a lot of 15- and 20-footers. . . . I just tried to play my game today and not think it's the U.S. Women's Open. I just tried to wipe it out from my head. And it worked."