INCHEON, October 9, 2011 (AFP) - Yani Tseng made it six LPGA wins this season as she triumphed over two-time defending champion Na Yeon Choi to take the LPGA HanaBank Championship in Incheon, South Korea on Sunday.
"It was very tough out there... Na Yeon Choi was playing so good," Rolex Rankings No. 1 Tseng said after notching up her 11th career victory on the LPGA Tour, "I tried to focus on every shot, every hole."
Taiwan's Tseng had started the day tied with Korea's Choi, one shot back of second-round leader Soo-Jin Yang, also from Korea. But she shot 33 on the front-nine to take an early lead in the final round.
It was a tight ending as Tseng shot a final-round, four-under 68 to finish at 14-under-par and one shot ahead of Choi.
"The crowd is amazing", Tseng said, "When Na Yeon makes birdie, it was like a huge crowd, and I think it's the first time in my life I saw that many people on a golf course."
It was a special win for Tseng after the disappointment of two years ago, when the LPGA HanaBank Championship came down to the final hole, and Choi made a birdie to beat Tseng by a stroke and capture her second career LPGA victory.
Tseng, who is good friends with Choi off the course, had to sink her par putt on the 18th hole to complete her win.
"She played great and I played good", Tseng said, reflecting back to the 2009 event. "I did my best then, and I feel like she just played better than me and she deserved to win the tournament.
"Two years after, we both have got some more experience and we both got more wins. It's very different out there."
Birdies on No. 13 and 15 helped Tseng to a two-stroke lead but after Choi made a birdie on 18 to cut the lead to one, Tseng had to sink a short par putt to secure the title.
After tallying seven bogeys over her first two rounds to go along with 16 birdies, Tseng posted a bogey-free final round to earn her 11th career LPGA Tour success.
Just short of the three-peat: Choi was not just chasing her first victory of the 2011 season on Sunday, she was trying to capture the tournament title for a third consecutive year.
Choi, who won in her home country of South Korea in 2009 and 2010, fell just shy of accomplishing the feat. The four-time winner on the LPGA Tour finished one shot behind Tseng after shooting a final-round 68.
Leading final-round scores on Sunday from the $1.8 million LPGA HanaBank Championship (South Korean unless stated, par 72):
202 - Yani Tseng (TPE)
203 - Na Yeon Choi (KOR)
205 - Brittany Lincicome (USA), Jimin Kang (KOR), Soo-Jin Yang (KOR)
206 - Meena Lee (KOR)
208 - Yeon-Ju Jung (KOR), Jiyai Shin(KOR), Amy Yang (KOR), Sun Young Yoo (KOR), Chella Choi (KOR)