PGA Tour:  Stanford St. Jude Championship – Memphis, TN

Though it began as a light-field, pre-Major championship event, the Stanford St. Jude Championship turned into a thriller, with the cream eventually rising to the top and two extra holes being required after Justin Leonard, Robert Allenby and Masters champion Trevor Immelman deadlocked on four-under-par 276.  Playing under surprisingly difficult conditions on a course which has often yielded low scores, Leonard, who has enjoyed a strong 2008 campaign, ultimately claimed victory by holing a 19’ birdie putt on the second extra hole to win – though he might well have closed things out in regulation save for a sloppy bogey at the 71st.  Meanwhile Immelman, who has struggled mightily since his win at Augusta, dramatically birdied the final three holes of regulation to card his 276, and narrowly missed an 11-footer that would have extended the playoff to a third hole.  Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, was Allenby not winning, for the talented Australian previously sported an incomparable 10-0 record in playoffs worldwide; his hopes died with a missed 20-footer just moments before Leonard holed the eventual winner.  Narrowly missing the playoff were the quartet of Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Boo Weekley and Alex Cejka (who collectively tied for 4th), as well as Australia’s Gavin Coles, who came to the 72nd tied for the lead before double-bogeying to tie for 8th.  With the victory, Leonard jumps to 3rd-place on the PGA Tour money list, 25th in the Official World Ranking and, perhaps most importantly, 5th in the ongoing Ryder Cup points race.

     FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
European PGA Tour:  BA-CA Golf Open – Vienna, Austria

India’s Jeev Milkha Singh claimed his third career European Tour title at the third BA-CA Open in Vienna, an event shortened to 54 holes due to Thursday rains.  With most of the region’s elite stars already in America preparing for the upcoming U.S. Open, Singh tore out to a four-shot 36-hole lead with rounds of 64-63 over a scoring-friendly Fontana Golf Club layout, then posted a remarkably steady Sunday round of even-par 71 – a rare feat in that it included 18 consecutive pars.  This left him one stroke better than England’s Simon Wakefield (who birdied the 54th to make it close) and three ahead of a group of five players which included Pelle Edberg, Martin Erlandsson, Peter Fowler, Michael Jonzon and Ian Pyman.  The victory lifts the 36-year-old Singh to 9th in the E Tour Order of Merit, and from 90th to 71st in the Official World Ranking.

                   FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          E TOUR STATS
 
 
Asian Tour:  Bangkok Airways Open – Koh Samui, Thailand

Forty-one-year-old Thaworn Wiratchant claimed his 10th international victory – but his first in his native Thailand – by winning the fourth annual Bangkok Airways Open, his 271 total beating Japan’s Shintaro Kai by three.  Wiratchant grabbed the early lead on Thursday with an opening 66, trailed Kai by one at the halfway point after a second-round 69, then pulled away with back-to-back 68s on the weekend to seal the victory.  The win lifts Wiratchant to 14th in the Asian Order of Merit, and allows him to jump 56 places in the World Ranking, from 238th to 182nd.

                   FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          ASIAN STATS
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Lombard Insurance Classic – Ezulwini, South Africa

Twenty-two-year-old Merrick Bremner, little-known outside of South Africa, won his first-ever Sunshine Tour title at the second Lombard Insurance Classic, his 54-hole total of 198 beating countryman Kevin Stone by three.  Bremner’s opening rounds of 67-65 over the Royal Swazi Sun Country Club were enough to establish a one-stroke lead over Bradford Vaughn (who ultimately tied for 3rd)  and a three-shot bulge over Stone and several others.  But only Stone could match Bremner’s closing 66 (which included five birdies and an eagle) as the upstart pulled away from the remainder of the field, the win lifting him from oblivion (aka 95th) to 52nd in the Sunshine Order of Merit.

                   FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          SUNSHINE STATS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  McDonald’s LPGA Championship – Havre de Grace, MD

Taiwan’s nineteen-year-old Yani Tseng has enjoyed an impressive rookie year on the LPGA Tour, but her fortunes took a quantum leap at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship when, after defeating long-hitting Maria Hjorth on the fourth hole of sudden death, she became only the second teenager (behind Morgan Pressel) ever to claim a ladies professional Major championship.  Playing in intense heat over Pete Dye’s Bulle Rock Golf Course, Tseng began the final round tied for 5th, four strokes behind Saturday leader Jee Young Lee, then fired the day’s low round among the contenders with a four-under-par 68 that closed with a birdie at the par-4 14th, followed by a string of pars coming into the house.  Hjorth, on the other hand, could count herself somewhat fortunate just to reach the playoff after a fairway metal approach to the 15th ricocheted out of a greenside creek (turning a likely six into four) and a tricky chip at the 16th found the hole for another unlikely birdie.  A bogey at the par-3 17th dropped her back into a tie with Tseng, however, necessitating the four-hole playoff which ended when Tseng carved a perfect 175-yard 6 iron from the rough to within five feet at the 18th hole, then holed the putt for the victory.  The tournament’s heavy favorites, world numbers one and two Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorentstam, tied for 3rd, one stroke out of the playoff.  Ochoa battled gamely to the end, birdieing both the 16th and 18th, while Sorenstam missed a number of makeable birdie putts throughout the weekend.  In addition to becoming the first Taiwanese player to win a Major championship, Tseng figures to make a large jump in this Monday’s updated Rolex Rankings, having entered the week at 25th.

        FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          LPGA STATS          INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere…

France’s Gwladys Nocera won for the seventh time on the LET, successfully defending her title at the ABN AMRON Open in the Netherlands with a 13-under-par total of 203.  The victory was Nocera’s second of the 2008 season………In Japan, Korea’s Mi-Jeong Jeon won for the eighth time on the JLPGA Tour, her 204 total edging Sakura Yokomine by three at the Resort Trust Ladies………Scott Gutschewski took the Nationwide Tour’s Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, NC, his 272 aggregate defeating Chad Ginn and PGA Tour veteran Esteban Toledo by two………Scotland’s Andrew McArthur claimed the first victory of professional career at the Euro Challenge Tour’s Reale Challenge de Espana, his 280 total edging Lloyd Saltman and Alfredo Garcia-Heredia by one………Zimbabwe’s Tony Johnstone scored a remarkable victory at the Euro Seniors Tour’s Jersey Classic, carding a 213 total over the venerable La Moye Golf Club course to claim his first senior victory four years after being diagnosed with (and being revolutionarily treated for) multiple sclerosis.