Date: July 21, 2008
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Oh wins LPGA play-off

South Korea&aposs Ji Young Oh took advantage of Yani Tseng&aposs late mistakes to win the LPGA State Farm Classic on Sunday on the first hole of a play-off. Oh bogeyed the 17th to hand Tseng the initiative, but she dropped a shot at the 18th as the pair finished on 18-under-par 270. Tseng, who won her first title at the McDonald&aposs LPGA Championship, struggled on the 18th in the first hole of the play-off, making a second successive bogey on the hole while Oh tapped in for par to claim her first LPGA Tour victory. Unfortunately for the LPGA Tour, the event was already without Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer, and will be remembered more for Michelle Wie&aposs disqualification than for Oh&aposs triumph. Wie was disqualified on Saturday after finishing the third round in second place, a stroke behind Tseng. Wie failed to immediately sign her scorecard at the end of the second round on Friday. Wendy Doolan was the best of the Australian contingent in a tie for 12th place on 13-under, while Michelle Ellis took a share of 19th a further stroke back. Katherine Hull fired a closing 67 to finish at 10-under. Meanwhile, German Martina Eberl has stormed home to take out the Italian open by a commanding five-stroke margin. Eberl fired a two-under-par final round of 69 to finish up on nine-under 275 for the tournament, well clear of her nearest opponent Carmen Alonso (four-under) who finished outright second. Eberl&aposs fourth round consisted of four birdies and two bogeys as she went on to pocket the 60,000-pound ($AU122,940) first prize. Alonso rocketed up the leaderboard on the final day with a five-under par effort, which included seven birdies in the space of nine holes between the 8th and the 16th, but Eberl was well out of reach. Swede Maria Hjorth, Welshwoman Becky Brewerton and Dane Lisa Holm Sorensen all finished equal third a shot further back from Alonso on three-under. It wasn&apost the most memorable of tournaments from an Australian perspective with Joanne Mills ending up 16 shots off the pace in a share of 30th spot on seven-over while Dana Lacey (12-over) and Karen Lunn (17-over) finished well out of contention.