WILMINGTON, Delaware, 15 June 2004 — Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam claimed her seventh major title by successfully defending the LPGA Championship on Sunday, cruising to a three-stroke victory with a four-round 13-under-par 271 total.

South Korea’s Ahn Shi Hyun finished in second place, two shots ahead of her compatriot Grace Park, who won the first major of the season in March. With Friday’s play having been washed out by rain, the final 36-holes were all completed on the final day and the world No. 1 took control with a third round 64 to move six strokes clear.

However, the last round was more of a struggle. Seven shots ahead with ten holes to play, Sorenstam had an out of character run of double-bogey, bogey, bogey from the ninth to find herself just two ahead with three to play.

But she birdied the 16th and 17th and could afford to bogey the 18th for a 72 and a comfortable victory over Ahn, who shot 66. Park had a 68 to finish alone in third.

Sorenstam collected $240,000 for her fifth worldwide victory this season, and has now won four of the last ten majors.

For 19-year-old Ahn, who wasn’t even a member of the Tour when she won the LPGA event in South Korea last year, it was another sign that she is the latest world-class player to emerge from her country. Playing several groups ahead of Sorenstam, she set out on the final round nine shots behind, but the flawless five birdie round piled on the pressure.

Park never really threatened to close the gap on Sorenstam, but she made a late attempt at a charge with an eagle at the 16th, although she then dropped a shot at the last.

Teenager Wie Helps US Retain Curtis Cup

In London, teenager Michelle Wie won her second singles match in the Curtis Cup to help the United States clinch a 10-8 victory over Britain and Ireland at the Formby Golf Club in north-west England on Sunday.

The 14-year-old Wie, the youngest US player to appear in the competition, routed Nicola Timmins six and five before Elizabeth Janangelo beat Shelley McKevitt one-up to clinch the win for the US in the battle for trans-Atlantic supremacy in amateur women’s team golf.

It was the Americans’ fourth successive victory in the biennial event. Wie lost both her foursomes, but won both her singles matches in the two-day tie. The tall Hawaiian has made a name for herself by playing in several LPGA events.

She also narrowly missed out on becoming the first woman to make the cut in a men’s PGA Tour event at the Hawaiian Open in January.