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38 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 4, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com `Major really defines one's career' Continued from page 37 Oakville's Sandra Post, pictured as a commentator for ABC's golf coverage, was the youngest-ever to win an LPGA major championship until 18-year-old Morgan Pressell won last weekend's Kraft Nabisco Championship. much tougher. A major really defines one's career. It really stays with you forever. That can be a pretty heady thing." Post knows a thing or two about pressure. Playing in her first major championship, she was tied with Kathy Whitworth -- the all-time leader in LPGA wins who was in her prime in 1968 -- through four rounds, setting up an 18-hole showdown. Even more daunting was the fact that Whitworth had won the tournament on the same course the previous year. Post found herself thinking, `What am I doing here?' While the playoff delayed her record-setting performance by a day, it also gave the Canadian media, which had been busy covering the Canadian Open that weekend, a chance to get to the Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Massachusetts, to document golf history. Playing with a 14-year-old local kid as her caddie, Post turned in a stellar round of 68. "I made everything that day," she said. Still, it was a battle for 16 holes until Whitworth drove her tee shot into the trees on 17, ending the drama as she finished with a 75. "She put up a big number and I made up five shots on her on that hole," Post recalled. "We (Post and her caddie) were both in a little bit of shock. All of a sudden the two of us are on the cover of every newspaper." The golf gods were much kinder to Pressell on Sunday than they were in 2005. Despite finishing with a solid round of 69, she trailed by four shots until she sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. She then waited for an hour and watched as the leaders incredibly, one by one, faltered down the stretch. Se Ri Pak bogeyed five of the last six holes and Stacy Prammanasudh did the same on three of the last five. Catriona Matthew three-putted the 18th from 30 feet to fall one shot behind Pressell. Brittany Lincicome missed a 10-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have tied her for the lead. Leader Suzann Pettersen bogeyed 15, double-bogeyed 16, bogeyed 17 and then, with her last chance to force a playoff, missed a 25-foot birdie putt on 18. Post said her record went largely unnoticed for decades until Tiger Woods won his first major, the 1997 Masters, at 21 years and three months. That sent fans and reporters scrambling to the record books, only to find he had been bettered by an LPGA rookie 29 years earlier. Post not only topped Woods, but also Jack Nicklaus (22), Annika Sorenstam (25) and Betsy Rawls (23). "I had no idea what a major win would do," said Post, who went on to win LPGA rookie-ofthe-year honours. "It put a lot of pressure on me to continue on, as it will with Morgan." Post struggled in her second year on tour but, although she wouldn't record her second of eight LPGA victories until 10 years later, she always remained a contender. She had 20 career second-place finishes and was in the top 15 in earnings for seven consecutive years beginning in 1974. In 1978, Post recorded her first of two straight wins at the Dinah Shore (now known as the Kraft Nabisco Championship and granted major status in 1983), the same event at which Pressell would eventually break her record. "I was delighted that Morgan won that event. It brings back a lot of memories," said Post, who now operates a golf school in Bolton. "Records are made to be broken. It's exciting to watch the next generation. Young people have so much more opportunity now, how could it have lasted?" And yet it did for 39 years. Legein, IceDogs fall prey to Wolves in first round By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Stefan Legein's breakthrough season came to an end much sooner than he anticipated. The 18-year-old winger and his Mississauga IceDogs were bounced from the Ontario Hockey League playoffs Sunday as the Sudbury Wolves completed a five-game upset of the IceDogs in the opening round. Mississauga finished 23 points ahead of the Wolves in regular-season play, earning the second-most wins in the Eastern Conference with a 43-21-0-4 mark and earning the conference's third seed. However, Sudbury - which was led by a nine-point series by local resident Justin Donati - won the postseason opener in Mississauga and then took control of the series with home wins in Games 3 and 4. "We had such a good year and were maybe coming in there a little cocky," said Legein, who had three goals and two assists in the five games. "After Game 1 we realized we had to play, and we came back and got a win in Game 2, but (Sudbury) out-competed us all series. Their key players stepped up and a couple of our guys struggled, and that's what the difference was." It was a disappointing end to a stellar year for Legein, who will likely be a second-round selection in this spring's NHL Entry Draft. The Holy Trinity grad recorded 43 goals and 32 assists (more than tripling his point production in his first two OHL seasons), was named an Eastern Conference all-star and scored a goal in the Home Hardware Top Prospects Game. "It was a good year," Legein said. "It was luck of the bounce, who I was playing with, finding the puck in the right spot... little stuff like that." Donati and the Wolves will open their second-round series tomorrow against the Barrie Colts, the East's top seed. Other local products to advance to the second round of the OHL playoffs include John Tavares, Tyler Donati, Sam Gagner, Steve Mason, Zack Shepley and Victor Oreskovich. Tavares made his first OHL playoff series a memorable one, scoring three goals and adding nine assists as the Oshawa Generals downed the Kingston Frontenacs in five games. Tyler Donati had two goals and nine assists to spark the Belleville Bulls to a five-game win over the Ottawa 67s. Mason stops 61 shots in victory Gagner and Mason both played major roles in the London Knights' sweep of the Owen Sound Attack. Gagner scored a goal and had 10 helpers in the series, while Mason faced 47 or more shots in all four games -- including a 61save effort in London's 2-1 overtime win in Game 2. Shepley, a defenceman, was held pointless and had a minus-1 rating in the Plymouth Whalers' sweep of the Guelph Storm. Oreskovich, a forward with Kitchener, missed the Rangers' first-round victory over the Sarnia Sting because of a knee injury. Oakville's Peter Di Salvo was a backup netminder with the Sting but did not see any playoff action. Other OHL second-round matchups include Belleville versus Oshawa, Plymouth against Kitchener and London versus the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. BARRIE ERSKINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER ELIMINATED: Stefan Legein (right), pictured in recent regular-season action against the Oshawa Generals, and the Mississauga IceDogs have been eliminated from the OHL playoffs.