(Half Moon Bay, California)
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America&aposs Paula Creamer has held off a strong field to win her fourth title of the season at the limited-field Samsung World Championship in California. Her final round 3-under par 69 gave her a 72 hole total 9-under 279, which was good enough for a one-shot victory over Korea’s Song-Hee Kim. Americans Juli Inkster and Angela Stanford were one shot further back in a tie for third alongside World No. 1 Lorena Ochoa and World No. 4 Suzann Pettersen.
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This event sees 20 of the world’s top players invited to play, with only four of the current Top-20 on the Rolex Rankings missing this week. Creamer, the current No.5 led the star-studded line up with 18 holes to play and was very much in control during the tense final round. She played bogey free over the last 37 holes of the tournament and this was effectively what clinched the title for her. In the final round, she posted birdies at the 2nd, 5th and 15th holes to reach 9-under par, a mark that no other player reached at any time throughout the tournament.
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Kim was the only player to put any significant pressure on Creamer, rallying from a bogey at the 11th to post 3 birdies in a row from the 12th hole to reach 8-under par. However, she couldn’t quite reach that 9-under mark having to settle for four straight pars to finish the tournament. It meant that Creamer could afford no mistakes and, with the aid of her caddy who ordered a lay up on the par-5 last, negotiated the final few holes to seal her 8th career victory. Afterwards, referring to the fact that she lives in the area, she said, “This means a lot. I put a lot of pressure on myself every time I come here and to finally have one, it feels really good.” Her winner’s cheque for US$250,000.00 sees her move into 2nd place on the LPGA Official Money List with US$1,742,733.00 in season’s earnings.
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Katherine Hull continued her solid play of recent times, finishing in outright 7th in this elite field, just 3 shots behind the winning score. She was in the hunt all week but just couldn’t convert enough birdie chances to catch the leaders. She fired rounds of 70, 73, 69 and 70 that included only six bogeys for the week. It was her 4th Top-10 from her last 5 starts and this result should see her move closer to the World’s Top-20 when the Rolex Rankings are released tomorrow. Karrie Webb was the only other Australian in the field finishing in 16th place at 5-over par total 293.
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The Longs Drugs Challenge kicks off on Thursday and it is the last full-field event for the year on mainland America. Australians in the field are Wendy Doolan, Rachel Hetherington, Sarah Kemp and Sarah-Jane Kenyon.
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