HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — In her rookie year on the LPGA Tour, playing in only her third major championship, 19-year-old Yani Tseng felt lucky to become the youngest winner of the LPGA Championship yesterday.

After the day she had at Bulle Rock, that was hardly the case.

First, she went 18 holes with Lorena Ochoa and closed with a 4-under 68 in searing heat, denying the No. 1 player in women's golf a chance to win a third straight major. Then came a sudden-death playoff with Maria Hjorth that lasted four holes.

Tseng, of Taiwan, finished it off on the 18th by choking down on a 6-iron out of the first cut of rough and hitting the perfect shot, the ball stopping 5 feet behind the hole for the winning birdie.

"I can't believe I just won a major," said Tseng, who finished at 12-under 276.

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.

"I don't think it's really hit me, but I'm sure I'm going to be very, very tired pretty soon," Hjorth said.

Ochoa birdied two of the last three holes for a 71 and finished one shot out of the playoff, along with Annika Sorenstam.

Tseng won 19 times as an amateur, first gaining recognition in 2004 when she rallied to beat Hawai'i's Michelle Wie — at a time when Wie was on top of her game — at the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links.

Tseng became the second-youngest winner of an LPGA major behind Morgan Pressel, who was 18 when she won the Kraft Nabisco Championship last year.

ELSEWHERE

Stanford St. Jude Championship: Justin Leonard won in a playoff, holing a 19-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole to beat Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Robert Allenby (65—276) at Memphis, Tenn. Leonard (68—276) won on the 150-yard, par-3 11th when Immelman (69—276) pushed his birdie attempt past the hole at the TPC Southwind. Hawai'i's Dean Wilson shot 2-over 72 and finished tied for 13th at 280.

Rex Hospital Open: Scott Gutschewski won his second career Nationwide Tour title, closing with a 5-under 66 for a two-stroke victory over Chad Ginn (71) and Esteban Toledo (69) at the TPC Wakefield Plantation at Raleigh, N.C. Gutschewski finished with a 14-under 270 total.