Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam won the 71st title of her career, capturing the LPGA Stanford International Pro-Am on Sunday when Paula Creamer left an eight-foot par putt short on the first playoff hole.
Sorenstam moved 17 triumphs shy of matching Kathy Whitworth’s all-time LPGA victory record by taking her 48th victory when at least sharing the lead entering the final round.
It was the second triumph of the season for Sorenstam, who won the LPGA opener in Hawaii. Creamer also won an early season event in Hawaii but missed out on her sixth LPGA title when she came up short in the playoff.
PHOTO: AP
Sorenstam and Creamer finished 72 holes on eight-under par 275 after Creamer fired a final-round 69 and Sorenstam, who began the day with a one-stroke lead, shot 70.
Australian Karrie Webb, playing with a new putter she began using only this week, fired a stunning seven-under par 64 to threaten the leaders but settled for a share of third with South Korean Young Kim on seven-under 276.
Japan’s Momoko Ueda was fifth on 278 after a final-round 71.
Creamer birdied the par-five second and par-3 third holes to grab the lead but fell back with a bogey at the par-three seventh while Sorenstam birdied the par-five sixth.
Creamer birdied the ninth to match Sorenstam for the lead. The Swedish star answered by opening the back nine with a birdie but Creamer matched her with a birdie on the following hole.
Sorenstam fell out the lead with a bogey at the par-three 13th but after a bad tee shot, Creamer missed a long par putt at the 17th, leaving her level with the Swedish star for the lead as they approached the par-five 18th tee.
Each missed a long birdie putt to finish 72 holes deadlocked, sending them back to the 18th tee to begin the playoff.
Creamer was just off the green while Sorenstam was near where she had been in regulation, 10 feet from the cup. Creamer rolled the ball eight feet past the cup while Sorenstam just missed and made par.
When Creamer left her comeback putt inches short of the cup, Sorenstam had her second triumph of the season.
Webb made a major charge with five birdies in a row starting at the second hole. She added two more at the 11th and 12th holes and answered a bogey at the 14th with a birdie on the 16th but finished one shot out of the playoff.
“I’m very pleased,” Webb said. “I felt like my game is close. I’ve been trying not to get too frustrated. I’ve been getting down on myself because my golf is not producing the results like it should have been. But the putts went in today.”
World number one Lorena Ochoa, who won a week ago, skipped this event. The Mexican star has won five of six events which she has entered this year and 10 of her past 15 starts.
The US$2 million event, making its LPGA debut with a Pro-Am format the first three days, featured two courses in the opening rounds.
■Scott wins in Texas
AFP, IRVING, Texas
Australian Adam Scott sank a stunning 48-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole on Sunday to defeat US player Ryan Moore and win the PGA Byron Nelson Championship.
Scott squandered a three-stroke lead when the day began but blasted out of a fairway bunker to find the green, then rolled home an epic putt to win his sixth US PGA Tour title and a US$1.152 million top prize.
“I dug it out of nowhere,” Scott said. “I found my range on the third playoff hole. I had been getting it too close before. I got away with one today I think.”
Scott ended a US victory drought of more than 12 months, having last won a US PGA title at last year’s Houston Open, although he captured a European Tour event earlier this year at Qatar.
Moore, the 2004 US amateur champion, missed out in his bid for his first PGA title but matched his best finish on the tour, a lone runner-up spot previously achieved at last year’s Memorial tournament.
The third playoff hole was the third visit to the 18th for both players in less than an hour. Moore was in the fairway and rolled his approach just off the green while Scott found a fairway bunker with a difficult lie near a slope.
Scott blasted a wedge shot below foot level onto the green but 48 feet from the pin, 33 farther than Moore, then rolled the mammoth putt into the cup for his fourth birdie in six tries this week at the 18th hole. Moore missed his 15-footer just left of the cup and Scott had the triumph.
Scott dropped a 10-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Moore, both finishing four rounds on seven-under par 273, four strokes ahead of third-place US veteran Bart Bryant at the US$6.4 million event.
The playoff began on the 18th and Scott had a chance to win it with a 10-foot birdie putt but left it short. Each tapped in for par and went to the 17th tee.
Bryant found the green on the 196-yard par-3 hole but was 30 feet and two major mounds from the cup while Scott just cleared a water hazard and left himself a 12-foot birdie putt for the victory.
Bryant rolled his effort eight feet past the cup, but Scott rolled his birdie bid just left of the cup, settling for par and forcing Bryant to sink his tension-packed putt to continue the playoff, which the US golfer did.
In the fourth round, Scott squandered what had been a three-stroke lead when the round began, opening with a bogey and taking a double-bogey at the par-three fifth when his tee shot found water shy of the green.
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