Golf:That was not another 40-mph wind gust that sent shivers up and down the 18th hole at Mission Hills Country Club yesterday evening. It was the crowd's collective gasp when IK Kim, the leader by one stroke at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, missed a tap-in par putt on the par-5 finishing hole to fall out of the lead and into a play-off with her South Korean compatriot Sun Young Yoo.

Yoo, 25, won her first major championship - and second LPGA title - with a birdie the first hole of sudden death. As Yoo and her caddie took the victory leap into Poppie's Pond, Kim was making a valiant effort not to wallow in her tears.

Her miss at the 18th in regulation, on a putt so short it would have been conceded in match play, presented a window of opportunity for Yani Tseng, the top-ranked player, and she nearly crawled through it. Shortly after a stunned Kim cleared the green, Tseng hit her third shot to within 25 feet of the pin. Her birdie attempt to join the play-off looked good until it curled around the cup.

Tseng, 23, began the day tied for the lead with Karin Sjodin of Sweden. By the time the last putt dropped, three more players had held at least a share of the lead: Yoo, Kim and Hee Kyung Seo. Sjodin had a three-stroke lead early in the round, and Seo was ahead by three before stumbling down the stretch. Sjodin carded a 2-over-par 74 and Seo a 71, to finish in a tie for fourth with Amy Yang, who posted a 69, and Stacy Lewis (66).

After Tseng's final putt slid past the hole, she crumpled to the ground in shock and disappointment. Kim had little time to regroup. After signing for her score of 69, she was whisked in a cart back to the 18th tee, where she met up with Yoo, whose 69 had given her a 72-hole total of 9-under 279.

Kim, a three-time tour winner, had donated her entire paycheck from her last victory, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, to charity. She tried to look at her runner-up finish as a blessing, but the tears in her eyes made it hard to see anything clearly.

"It's just hard to kind of focus on what's going on right now because I was still a little bit bummed about what happened, honestly," she said.

Yoo described her victory as huge and said she felt more nervous speaking about the victory than sealing it. "I think I did better than I was expecting, so I'm very happy," she said. "I was thinking one shot at a time and keeping it simple."

It was hard to say which was more shocking: Kim's miss or Tseng's closing 73.Tseng, the top-ranked women's player, won here in 2010. She collected 12 titles worldwide last year and posted victories in three of her first five starts in 2012. She became the second-youngest player, after Nancy Lopez, to reach 15 LPGA victories, and started the day tied for the lead, at 9 under, with Sjodin.

Last year, Tseng entered the final round at Mission Hills with a two-stroke lead, shot a 74 and was overtaken by Lewis. This time, Tseng opened with a bogey that turned into a three-stroke swing when Sjodin eagled the second hole. After two more bogeys on the front side, Tseng settled down.

"I was totally shocked that I couldn't make that last putt," Tseng said. "But I tried my best again."She added: "I don't feel I played really bad today. I think just needed a little more luck to drop some putts. A little disappointed, but not really. You know, it's not the end of the world."

Motivated by last year's near-miss here, Tseng had cut such a large swath through the tour that nobody blinked earlier in the week when she said she had been jumping in her backyard pool to practice for the winner's leap into the pond running alongside the 18th green.

If there has been a negative to Tseng's dominance, it is that people believe it is easy to be her. Lewis said the expectations that Tseng carries like an extra 10 pounds must be hard to bear.

"I think Yani's got a ton of pressure on her," Lewis said, adding, "I couldn't imagine having that pressure."Kim can imagine it now, after having a taste of what it is like to think you have a major locked up and lose it."I don't know," she said. "Sometimes, things happen, and it's kind of tough because it's Nabisco, but hopefully I'll have better or more chances." New York Times Service