Lorena Ochoa wins 2007 Women's British Open

St. Andrews, Scotland (Sports Network) - This time there would be no meltdown, no miraculous shot from another player, no doubt about it.
Lorena Ochoa has her first major championship.
The Mexican star closed with a one-over 74 in the final round Sunday to win the Women's British Open by four shots, ending her 0-fer in the major championships with a weekend of steady golf on the Scottish coast while all the pressure of dubious past performances in the majors rested on her slight frame.
She seemed to handle it with ease, protecting her first-round 67 with three scores of 74 or better to finally gain that last bit of validation for her now-unassailable No. 1 ranking.
No one -- not Annika Sorenstam, not previous foil Karrie Webb -- could stop Ochoa this time. Her stunning 16-month run to the top of the women's game has its climax.
Ochoa finished at five-under 287. She led after each of the four rounds.
Several players took stabs at Ochoa's lead early on, but there were only three other survivors to par when all was said and done. Jee Young Lee and Maria Hjorth had matching 71s in the final round to finish at one-under 291.
Reilley Rankin also shot a 71 and was alone in fourth place at even-par.
Sorenstam, who was within five shots of Ochoa after six holes, went five-over par on her last 12 holes and tumbled all the way into a tie for 16th place at four-over 296.
Looking for a jolt to her middling play, Sorenstam didn't come close to getting it. She closed with rounds of 77 and 76 on the weekend.
Ochoa had never won a major before Sunday, but she didn't lack opportunities.
She squandered a seven-shot lead in the final round of last year's Kraft Nabisco Championship and was beaten in a playoff by Webb. It was a record- tying meltdown at the modern women's majors, one that almost felled her in regulation.
Many remember Webb's miraculous hole-out eagle from the fairway at the 18th hole that Sunday, and for good reason. But lost in the mix was Ochoa's own eagle moments later, set up by a gutsy five-wood into the 18th green at Mission Hills.
Ochoa was in the mix until the last hole of the 2005 U.S. Women's Open, then suffered a meltdown. She closed with a quadruple-bogey when a par could have gotten her into a playoff with Birdie Kim.
The '06 Kraft Nabisco was the only other time Ochoa held the 54-hole lead at a major. Sunday, she improved to 7-6 all-time with the third-round lead, and 3-3 this season.
It was her 10th win in 16 months, her fourth this season. And it was never in doubt