Associated Press Associated Press ADVERTISING RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Sun Young Yoo won the Kraft Nabisco Championship with an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday, earning her first major title after I.K. Kim missed a 1-foot putt
Associated Press
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Sun Young Yoo won the Kraft Nabisco Championship with an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday, earning her first major title after I.K. Kim missed a 1-foot putt on the final hole of regulation.
Yoo won the LPGA Tour’s first major of the season with steady play down the stretch, but she got to make the traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond only after Kim’s mind-boggling miss on the same green minutes earlier.
Yoo, who earned her second career LPGA Tour victory, and Kim finished at 9 under, but Kim could have all but wrapped up her first major with the tap-in par putt. Kim might have struck the ball oddly, and it toured the lip of the cup before coming out on the same side it entered.
Kim’s unbelievable miss on the Dinah Shore course will go down in tournament lore after a thoroughly wacky final round in which five players held the lead.
Kim had been the most consistent contender amid those wild momentum swings, going bogey-free through 17 holes — until she made a mistake reminiscent of Scott Hoch’s missed 2-foot putt that would have won the 1989 Masters, and Doug Sanders’ miss on a 3-footer to win the 1970 British Open.
Kim and Yoo, both from South Korea, shot 69 in the final round.
Top-ranked Yani Tseng finished third at 8 under with a disappointing final-round 73. Even after blowing a Sunday lead at the Kraft Nabisco for the second straight year, the Taiwanese star had a chance to join the playoff on the 18th, but pushed a long birdie putt wide by an inch.
Defending champion Stacy Lewis closed strong with a 66 to finish in a four-way tie for fourth place with Amy Yang (69) and late leaders Karin Sjodin — who shot a 74 after entering the final round even with Tseng — and Hee Kyung Seo, who had a three-stroke lead on the back nine before bogeying her final four holes for a 71.
HOUSTON OPEN
HUMBLE, Texas — Hunter Mahan won the Houston Open to become the first two-time winner this year on the PGA Tour, finishing with a 1-under 71 to beat Carl Pettersson by a stroke.
Mahan, the Match Play Championship winner in February, finished at 16 under at Redstone. The victory moved Mahan to No. 4 in the world ranking, the first time he’s ever been the highest-ranked American.
He earned $1.08 million for fifth PGA Tour title.
Pettersson closed with a 71 in the final tuneup for the Masters next week at Augusta National.
Third-round leader Louis Oosthuizen was another shot back at 14 under after a 75. Defending champion Phil Mickelson (71), Keegan Bradley (71), Brian Davis (74) and Jeff Overton (68) tied for fourth at 12 under.
SICILIAN OPEN
SCIACCA, Sicily — Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen won the Sicilian Open for his first European Tour title, closing with a 3-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over England’s Chris Wood.
The 22-year-old Olesen finished at 15-under 273 on the Verdura course.
Woods matched the course record with a 64.
Americans Rich Beem (69) and John Daly (70) tied for 11th at under.
