Top 10 in 2014: LPGA moments

Cumulatively, it was the best year for Americans since 1999. They won 13 LPGA titles, including three by Stacy Lewis and two apiece by Michelle Wie and Jessica Korda. (Getty Images)

Christina Kim broke a nine-year winless drought when she holed out in a playoff to win the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. During her winless period, Kim dealt with back and arm injuries and battled depression. (Getty Images)

Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis battled all season for the No. 1 ranking, with Park ascending to No. 1 in October, then defeating Lewis by two strokes in Taiwan in November. For the year, each player had three wins. (Getty Images)

Qualifiers for the U.S. Women’s Open have been skewing younger for some time. In 2001 Morgan Pressel became the youngest to qualify, at age 12. In 2007 Lexi Thompson, also 12, supplanted Pressel as the youngest qualifier. This past May Lucy Li, 11, became the new youngest qualifier when she topped her qualifying event by seven shots. Li shot 78-78 and missed the cut at Pinehurst No. 2 by seven shots. (Getty Images)

Pretty good ending to a Rookie of the Year season by Lydia Ko. At the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, the 17-year-old from New Zealand won a three-way playoff on the fourth hole to collect the $500,000 first-place prize. That also made her winner of the season-long Race to the CME Globe, worth another $1 million. It was the richest payday in the history of women’s golf. (Getty Images)

With Lexi Thompson’s length, it was just a matter of time until she won her first major. The breakthrough came in the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship, where Thompson went into the final round tied with Michelle Wie, shot a bogey-free 68 and won by three shots. (Getty Images)

Stacy Lewis became the first American since Betsy King in 1993 to sweep the Rolex Player of the Year, Vare Trophy for low scoring average and LPGA money title. She won three times in 2014 while chalking up a tour-best 18 top-10 finishes. (Getty Images)

At 31, in her third year of LPGA membership after six years on the Symetra Tour, Mo Martin was an unlikely candidate for greatness. But she produced one of the greatest shots in major history - a 3-wood off the flagstick on the 72nd hole at Royal Birkdale - which propelled her to her first LPGA win, in the Ricoh Women’s British Open. (Getty Images)

Since winning her first major, the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open, Paula Creamer had not returned to the winner’s circle. But in the 2014 HSBC Champions she tied Azahara Munoz in regulation, then won on the second extra hole by sinking a 75-foot eagle putt. Her celebration was the stuff of viral videos. (Getty Images)

It’s easy to forget Michelle Wie is only 25. Wie had already played in 11 U.S. Women’s Opens before this year’s edition at Pinehurst No. 2. She held a three-shot lead on the 16th hole on Sunday, but had to make a 5-foot putt just to save double bogey. Then at the par-3 17th she drained a 25-foot birdie putt to give herself breathing room in an eventual two-shot win over Stacy Lewis for Wie’s first major championship. (Getty Images)