COQUITLAM — It seemed fitting that all week long, Lydia Ko's pre-shot routine ended with a baseball swing, not a golf motion.

On Sunday, the 15-year-old amateur sensation hit a shot, actually 67 of them, that were heard around the world.

The transplanted New Zealander, aged 15 years, four months and two days, became the youngest player to ever win a LPGA Tour event when she beat a field at the CN Canadian Women's Open that included 48 of the top 50 players on this year's money list.

View photos of CN Canadian Women's Open here

It just might be the best golf story of the year and the huge crowds that were on hand at Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam -- or is that Ko-quitlam? -- roared their approval as she walked the course's sun-splashed tree-lined fairways.

The World Golf Hall of Fame called right after she completed her historic round and asked for Ko to donate something. Her Srixon golf glove is on its way to Florida.

"It feels amazing," Ko said. "It's always awesome to be able to play with the pros, but it's great to win. The last few holes it got a little bit nerve-racking."

Ko is the first amateur since Joanne Carner in 1969 to win a LPGA Tour event and the youngest winner of a Tour event by more than 16 months, breaking the record that then 16-year-old Lexi Thompson set last September.

Thompson, who missed the cut this week, was one the first to congratulate Ko on Twitter, ending her tweet with the hashtag "teenpower."

Ko won the tournament with four straight birdies to begin the back nine and then added another for good measure on the par 4 15th. Her 72-hole total of 13-under 275 was three shots better than runner-up Inbee Park of South Korea.

As an amateur, Ko passed up a winner's cheque of $300,000 -- that's about 370,000 New Zealand dollars. Park got that money.

"It feels great," Park said. "I finished second and get the first-place money. It hasn't happened maybe in 40 years. . .I was lucky this week, I guess."

Ko began Sunday's final round with a one-shot lead and many wondered whether her 15-year-old nerves would hold up. They did, and with the help of caddie Brian Alexander, a longtime Vancouver Golf Club member, she played a near-flawless round of golf.

It has been quite the month of August for Ko, who is the world's top-ranked amateur. Two weeks ago, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship in Cleveland. She headed straight from there to Vancouver and last week got a tune-up from local pro Scott Rodgers of the Saunders-Rodgers Performance Golf Academy. Rodgers felt her swing was getting too steep and suggested the baseball swing as a way of getting her back on plane.

"I think that routine helps and it gets you through the ball really well," Ko said. Golfers everywhere figure to be trying it today.

Ko hit the ball wonderfully all week, seldom missing a fairway or green, and made quite an impression on some of the world's best pros. No. 2-ranked Stacy Lewis, the young American who leads the LPGA Tour money list, was in the final group with Ko on Sunday.