Record run takes Inkster to title

Juli Inkster smashed the US Women's Open tournament record on her way to a five-stroke victory at West Point, Mississipi, giving the American her first major LPGA title in a decade.

Inkster fired a one-under par 71 to finish at 16-under par 272 for the $1.75 million event, keeping runner-up Sherri Turner and third-placed Kelli Kuehne at bay to capture the $315,000 top prize.

"This is the best," Inkster said. "I didn't sleep a wink last night. I felt like I was pregnant. The food would not stay down.

"I love what I do. To be able to walk up the 18th hole with a five-shot lead at the US Open, it just doesn't get any better than that."

The former US Women's Open record was 10-under par 278 by Britain's Alison Nicholas in 1997 and the record for 72 holes over a par-72 course was nine-under by Pat Bradley in 1981.

Both marks fell easily as Inkster won her fourth career major and became one of only seven women to capture the US Amateur and US Women's Open titles. Her most recent prior last major title win came at in the 1989 Dinah Shore Classic. and her three titles this year are one more than her past six seasons combined.

The victory helped ease the heartbreak Inkster suffered at the hands of Patty Sheehan in this event in 1992, when Inkster parred the final two holes but was matched by Sheehan's birdie-birdie finish and lost in a playoff.

"I talked to Patty Sheehan before I left because we keep in constant touch," Inkster said. "She said, `Juli, it's your time to win this thing'."

Inkster made her second bogey of the tournament on the third hole and Kuehne pulled within three strokes. But Inkster birdied the sixth and salvaged a tough par at the seventh by nearly holing a buried bunker shot.

Inkster never let her rivals get within three strokes. Kuehne, 22, was second when the day began but stumbled to a 74 to fall off the pace.

Turner remains without a win this decade but the 42-year-old picked up her first top-three finish in any tournament since the 1995 Dinah Shore with a 71. Her total, however, would have won the prior 53 US Women's Opens.

Canada's Lorie Kane was fourth at 280, followed by Meg Mallon and Carin Koch of Sweden. Grace Park, the 1998 US Amateur champion and college player of the year, was the first amateur to break par in the US Women's Open. She shattered the women's amateur record by seven strokes in her farewell to the amateur ranks.