TUCSON, Ariz. - Karen Stupples kept rubbing her cheeks while standing on the 18th green and waiting for her partners to putt out.

The tears just wouldn't stop falling.

"It's realizing a dream," the 30-year-old Englishwoman said after winning her first LPGA title with the best 72-hole score in LPGA Tour history. She closed the Welch's/Fry's Championship with a 7-under 63 on Sunday to finish the event at 22-under 258.

She opened her sixth season on the LPGA Tour by beating Grace Park and Jung Yeon Lee by five shots. Stupples was leading Park by four shots when she got a champion's welcome at the finishing hole.

"I was never really sure if I could do it, if I had it in me," Stupples said. "You know, how it was going to happen. I really didn't know.

Stupples broke the tour record for raw score, set by 2003 Tucson champion Wendy Doolan, who missed this year's cut, at 259. Last year was the first time the event was played on the 6,176-yard Dell Urich layout. Annika Sorenstam's 261 in 2001 at Moon Valley in Phoenix is the tour's best for a par-72 course.

Park, sixth, third and fourth in Tucson the last three years, turned in a 67, but bogeyed the last hole to drop into a tie with Lee (66) at 263.

"Obviously, it's disappointing the way I finished," Park said. "But Karen was awesome. She didn't make a single mistake from the outside, and I couldn't hang in there."

Stacy Prammanasudh finished seven shots back after a 67, and Laura Davies, who began the round tied with Park one shot behind Stupples, carded a 71 to land in a tie with Shi Hyun Ahn (63) and Aree Song (67) at 267.

Stupples eagled the 13th hole to pull away from her nearest rivals. The 30-foot putt after she reached the green from 212 yards with a 7-wood got her to 21 under - good for a three-stroke lead on Park, who had dogged her since the fifth hole.

After a birdie at No. 16, Stupples' emotions overwhelmed her on the 18th green, waiting for Davies and Park to putt out

"I knew that I played a good game of golf, but I didn't know if it would be good enough," she said.

She was second by four shots to Sorenstam in the ANZ Ladies Masters on Feb. 29 - her best finish in an international event - and used the experience to turn back the challenge of more seasoned players.

"You learn a lot playing with Annika," Stupples said. "She is an unbelievable competitor and somebody who will never give up. I learned a lot from that."

Stupples, who led from the 17th hole of the second round on, had only three bogeys, going back-to-back with them on the last hole of the third round and the first of the fourth.

But she soon dialed in, birdieing Nos. 2 and 3 to open a one-shot lead on Park.

Park, a former Arizona State star, got a share of the lead at 16 under with a birdie on the fifth hole, and kept pace when both birdied the sixth and parred the seventh.

But on No. 8, Stupples' approach shot landed a foot in front of the pin, hopped backward and stopped 10 inches behind for a tap-in birdie.

Park never caught up, and the issue was all but settled when she parred No. 12 while Stupples ran in her only eagle of the tournament.

Davies played the first 12 holes without making a birdie. By the time she did, she was seven shots back and depending on the leaders to stumble.

AP-ES-03-15-04 0403EST