Sunday May 23, 2010, 10:58 PM

Sun Young Yoo won the Sybase Match Play Championship Sunday, beating Angela Stanford 3 and 1 in the final to claim her first LPGA Tour title.

"My goal was to get past the first two days," said Yoo, who became the eighth straight non-US winner on the LPGA Tour. "I did a lot better."

Yoo, a 23-year-old from South Korea who is in her fifth LPGA Tour season, won the 13th and 14th holes with pars and took a 2-up lead with a 15-foot birdie putt - her first birdie of the match - on the par-three 16th.

When Stanford missed a birdie attempt at 17 and conceded Yoo's birdie the match was over.

In the morning's semi-finals, the 28th-seeded Yoo beat world number one and top seed Jiyai Shin 2 and 1 to book her finals berth.

Stanford, seeded 10th, advnced to the championship match with a 19-hole victory over Amy Yang.

Shin won the all-Korean consolation match 3 and 2 over Yang, then the two watched their compatriot win the title, racing onto the green to shower Yoo with water.

"She's a solid putter and, obviously, a solid player," said Stanford, a four-time winner on the LPGA Tour.

"If you don't put any pressure on her, she's going to make everything - and I didn't put an ounce of pressure on her."

Yoo's victims in the tournament also included 32nd-seeded Briton Karen Stupples, fifth-seeded American Cristie Kerr, 12th-seeded Song Hee Kim and fourth-seeded Yani Tseng of Taiwan.

"I felt really comfortable out there," Yoo said. "I wasn't nervous."

Yoo gained a slim early edge by winning the par-three third with a par before she and Stanford halved the next seven holes.

Stanford gained a 1-up lead with birdies at 11 and 12 - her only birdies of the contest - but handed Yoo the 13th with a bogey.

Stanford's approach rolled off the green into dense, wet rough. She took a drop because of standing water, but her third shot rolled into the same swampy area.

"It was really mushy down there, but I shouldn't have been down there in the first place," Stanford said.

Yoo took the lead on the par-four 14th with another two-putt par after Stanford failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker.

Yoo stretched her lead with the birdie at 16, where Stanford's tee shot hit the flagstick and landed 20 feet away.

"The flagstick didn't help," she said.

© 2010 AFP/sid