Yani Tseng

The atmosphere around Yani Tseng on Saturday was rowdy in a good way. The gallery was full of fans wearing "Friends of Yani" T-shirts and many of them were from nearby Beaumont, where Tseng once set up housekeeping when she was ready to qualify for the LPGA Tour. Tseng, a 22-year-old from Taiwan, qualified no problem and now she's aiming to become the first woman since Annika Sorenstam in 2001-02 to defend a Kraft Nabisco Championship in this, the first major of the year. With six birdies and not a hint of a bogey at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Tseng rushed to a six-under-par 66 in Saturday's third round.

RANCHO MIRAGE -- Jodi Ewart Shadoff, a newlywed from Britain, joined Na Yeon Choi and Suzann Pettersen as the leaders after the first round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the LPGA Tour's first major tournament at Mission Hills Country Club. Ewart Shadoff, who was married in January, played in the afternoon and joined Choi and Pettersen atop the leaderboard late in the day as she played in the final group. The tri-leaders shot four-under-par 68 and led Amy Yang and Anna Nordqvist by a single shot.

Defending champion and formerly top-ranked Yani Tseng was dropped from the Kia Classic field after missing her 9:10 a.m. pro-am tee time in Carlsbad on Wednesday. "I'm embarrassed to admit that I wasn't feeling well last night and accidentally overslept and missed my tee time for the pro-am this morning," Tseng said in a statement. "I was extremely excited to compete this week to defend my title at the Kia Classic and to try to regain the No. 1 spot. This was an unfortunate mistake and I want to apologize to Kia, my sponsors and all of the fans.

The fact that an American golfer is ranked No. 1 in the world is not a surprise. The fact that a second golfer is ranked No. 1 - a woman - is very much a surprise. Of course, everyone knows Tiger Woods; the other is Stacy Lewis, and she has been talking a little Twitter trash with her top-ranked counterpart. "I tweeted Tiger, 'Congrats. Welcome back to No. 1.'" She was being funny. "Apparently in [140] characters, people couldn't find the humor in that," Lewis said. Lewis' ascension to No. 1 caught a lot of people by surprise.

Top-ranked Yani Tseng successfully defended her title in the LPGA Tour's NW Arkansas Championship on Sunday, beating Amy Yang with a four-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff. Yang missed a six-foot birdie try before Tseng holed the winning putt on the par-five 18th. Both players closed with three-under-par 68s to finish at 12-under 201 on the Pinnacle Country Club course at Rogers. Yang parred the final 11 holes of regulation, holing a 41/2-foot putt on the 18th to force the playoff.

Taiwan's Yani Tseng won the Northwest Arkansas Championship at Rogers on Sunday for her third LPGA Tour victory of the year, shooting a six-under-par 65 to rally past second-round leader Michelle Wie . Tseng birdied four of five holes early on the back nine, then held on for a one-stroke victory over Wie with a birdie on No. 18. Tseng finished at 13-under 200. Wie (69) gave up the lead on the back nine — the same half of the course she played in seven-under 28 during a scintillating stretch Saturday.

Golfer Karin Sjodin of Sweden lists putting together Ikea furniture as a hobby, which would seem a mentally and physically cruel way to spend time off. But it took unremitting patience and an ability to figure out unfathomable wind patterns Saturday during the third round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, skills needed to conquer Ikea and skills Sjodin showed with her round of four-under-par 68....

Yani Tseng of Taiwan shot her second consecutive four-under 68 on Friday, taking a four-shot lead after the second round of the Women's British Open at Southport, England. The American duo of Brittany Lincicome and Christie Kerr joined Amy Young of South Korea in the chase entering the weekend. "There was no wind this morning and it was very calm, so it was nice out there," said Tseng, who is trying to win her third major championship. "The course played totally different than what we played the last three days, so it was really nice."

The trouble with buying a house from Annika Sorenstam was twofold for Yani Tseng. First, she considered Sorenstam an idol, and Tseng became tongue-tied in her presence. Second, the size of the trophy room left an indelible impression. "It's huge," Tseng said. One problem resolved itself this year when Sorenstam visited Tseng to give the young Taiwanese star some career advice. As for the trophy room, well, a few more days like Sunday won't hurt. Tseng, 21, gathered some hardware for the shelf by shooting four-under-par, final-round 68 to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

Reporting from Carlsbad -- Yani Tseng had led after the first, second and third rounds of the Kia Classic golf tournament, and by the ninth hole of the final round, she was five shots ahead of the field. So the top-ranked women's golfer in the world played the final nine holes without much pressure from those behind her and enjoyed the accolades she received on the course. Plus, the cries of "Go, Yani" distracted the large groups of birds walking alongside the golfers. Tseng, in only her fifth year on the LPGA Tour, collected her 15th title after a safe two-under-par 70 in Sunday's final round at the La Costa Resort course led her to a six-shot victory over South Korea's Sun Young Yoo. Tseng, of Taiwan, had a four-day total of six-under 274 and won $255,000.

Defending champion and formerly top-ranked Yani Tseng was dropped from the Kia Classic field after missing her 9:10 a.m. pro-am tee time in Carlsbad on Wednesday. "I'm embarrassed to admit that I wasn't feeling well last night and accidentally overslept and missed my tee time for the pro-am this morning," Tseng said in a statement. "I was extremely excited to compete this week to defend my title at the Kia Classic and to try to regain the No. 1 spot. This was an unfortunate mistake and I want to apologize to Kia, my sponsors and all of the fans.

Kevin Streelman finally won on the PGA Tour with a game that looked as if he had done this many times before. Streelman didn't make a bogey over the final 37 holes on the tough Copperhead course at Innisbrook. He didn't miss a shot over the last 11 holes on his way to a four-under-par 67 for a two-shot win in the Tampa Bay Championship at Palm Harbor, Fla. Boo Weekley, who teed off three hours before the leaders, had a tournament-best 63 and waited to see if that would be enough.

Natalie Gulbis, a veteran golfer from Sacramento, will miss the LPGA Tour's season opener this week as she undergoes treatment for malaria, the LPGA and IMG, Gulbis' management company, announced on Wednesday. Gulbis, who withdrew two weeks ago from the HSBC Women's Champions tournament in Singapore because of an illness later confirmed to be malaria, is receiving treatment at her home in Las Vegas and is expected to make a full recovery within three weeks. The LPGA season opens this week at Wildfire Golf Course in Phoenix with the Founders Cup tournament.

Stacy Lewis had a case of the jitters. She also had enough left in her game. Lewis, the 2012 LPGA player of the year, won the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore on Sunday for her sixth title on the tour. She closed with a one-under-par 71, overcoming two bogeys and some shaky putting on the back nine to hold off South Korea's Na Yeon Choi by one stroke. "The last four or five holes, I was pretty nervous, I'm not going to lie," said Lewis, who finished at 15-under 273 at Sentosa Golf Club.

South Korea's Inbee Park took advantage of 17-year-old Thai star Ariya Jutanugarn's closing triple bogey to win the LPGA Thailand tournament by a stroke. Jutanugarn blew a two-stroke lead on the par-five 18th hole at Chonburi, driving into an unplayable lie in a bunker, hitting over the green and three-putting for an eight. Park shot a five-under 67 to finish at 12 under, and earned $225,000 for her fourth LPGA Tour title. Jutanugarn had a hole in one on the par-three 12th and closed with a 72. Top-ranked Yani Tseng had a 63 to tie for third at 10 under with So Yeon Ryu (68)

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came back from two laps down Saturday to win the Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway, in Kansas City, Kan. The race was extended six laps because of a late caution, which helped Stenhouse grab his sixth win of the season because the cars in front of him didn't have enough gas to make it to the finish. Sam Hornish Jr. ran out of fuel before the planned restart, which extended the caution period another lap. As the field came to the green, Paul Menard ran out gas. Kyle Busch then pulled away from the field, but his tank ran dry as he exited the third turn of the final lap. Stenhouse, who had lined up in fourth on the restart, zipped past for the victory.

Where are the Americans in the world's most prominent individual sports, golf and tennis? Not on the leaderboards very often. The sports' next majors begin soon — the U.S. Open men's golf championship on Thursday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., and Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Monday — and there doesn't seem much reason to expect an American winner. On turf where, in the not-too-distant past, Americans dominated, they now mostly founder.

The Lakers confirmed Thursday that Dwight Howard would be sidelined when the team opens its preseason slate of games Oct. 7 in Fresno against the Golden State Warriors. Howard is not expected to be ready to participate when the Lakers start training camp Oct. 2. The newly acquired center, who had surgery in April to repair a herniated disk in his back, said last month that he might not be ready by the Lakers' season opener Oct. 30. The Lakers probably will shift Pau Gasol to center in Howard's absence and use Jordan Hill as their starting power forward.

A perplexing flubbed tap-in putt on the 18th hole from I.K. Kim jumbled the emotions of players and fans alike Sunday at the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Instead of having a triumphant day, Kim's miss on the 72nd hole of play put her into a playoff with fellow South Korean Sun Young Yoo. And it was the 25-year-old Yoo, who came from behind most of the day, who knocked in an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, the par-five 18th, to win her first major.