(11 October 2010 – Prattville, Alabama)
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Australia&aposs Katherine Hull collected her second career LPGA victory at the Navistar LPGA Classic overnight. Her superb play for the week saw her finish at 19-under par total 269, one shot in front of close friend Brittany Lincicome. Korea’s Na Yeon Choi and American Cristie Kerr shared third place. Australia’s Lindsey Wright stormed home with a 9-under par 63 to finish in a tie for 5th.
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rnMidway through the back nine on Saturday, the tournament looked to be all Kerr’s with everyone else was battling for the runner-up cheque. With four holes left on the Saturday, Kerr’s lead was six shots, however she came back to the field with a double-bogey at the 15th and a further bogey at the 18th to reduce her lead to three shots going into the final day. In second place were Hull and Choi, with a host of the world’s Top-50 within another three shots. With the large fairways and greens, the scores had been low and it was going to take something special on the last day to firstly catch, and then surpass Kerr.
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rnThe gremlins from the final four holes of Saturday’s round seemed to stay with Kerr early on in her final round. While she was finding the greens, the putts were not dropping and by time she dropped a shot on the ninth hole, her lead had evaporated and she now found herself one behind Choi who picked up three birdies around the front nine. Hull had kept her run of bogey-free golf going, playing the front nine in 1-under with just a birdie at the opening hole. Her only bogey for the week came on the 17th hole (her 8th) during the opening round.
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rnAfter missing the cut at the LPGA Championship at the end of June, Choi has not finished worse than 11th in the ensuing eight tournaments. She won the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic the following week and has since finished T2, T2, T3, T2, T11 and T9 before this week. She headed into the back nine a one shot leader over Kerr, with Hull and Lincicome a further shot back and it was game on with plenty of birdies there for the taking.
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rnIt was Hull and Lincicome who started the back nine the best, both making birdies at the 10th hole, drawing level with Kerr in a four-way tie for second, which included Wright who was close to finishing her amazing final round. The scene changed dramatically at the 12th hole, where Choi made a bogey and both Hull and Kerr picked up birdies; Kerr’s a chip-in that if it hadn’t of hit the pin would have finished off the green. The birdies had certainly dried up for Choi and she had to wait until the 18th for her next birdie and by then it was all too late and she had to settle for another tie for 3rd. She did however move up to 2nd place on the Money List with her cheque for $76,680.
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rnHull and Kerr forged ahead, both making birdies at the 14th hole but Lincicome was having her say in the tournament, making back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th holes to join the final pairing in the lead at 18-under par. Playing two groups in front of Hull and Kerr, Lincicome was looking for another birdie over the final two holes but alas, she couldn’t find it and had to settle for 18-under par and a wait to see what the others could come up with over the last three holes.
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After a missed opportunity at the 16th, Hull put one hand on the trophy with a birdie putt from 25-feet at the 17th hole to move one in front with one hole to play. Hull found the green with her second shot, albeit a long way from the cup after she came up short. However, it was advantage-Hull when Kerr blocked her second shot way right. In the end, knowing she needed to chip-in, Kerr hit her chip a long way past, missed the putt back and had to settle for third.
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rnIt wasn’t all over for Hull though, whose first putt came up 6-feet short but she managed to drain that one for a brilliant victory finishing at 19-under par and a stretch of 64 holes without a bogey. After her round, she commented on the bogey-free streak, saying, “It’s nice to do that. Keeps it simple for sure, and stress free.” Asked about how she was feeling, she said, “A little overwhelming, actually. It probably won’t hit me until later. You just get so focused on executing and just finishing that you don’t think about anything else. I’m definitely on a high right now, and probably won’t come down for a while.”
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rnIt is a fitting reward for Hull who has worked extremely hard on her game with coach Steve McRae since winning the CN Canadian Women’s Open in 2008. She also made reference to the string of runner-up finishes she’s had this year. On the ALPG Tour in January, Kristie Smith fired 9-under in the final round at the ActewAGL Royal Canberra Classic to relegate Hull to second. She lipped out on the 18th green at the Bing Lee/Samsung NSW Women’s Open to lose by a shot to Sarah Oh and was beaten by a superb Karrie Webb round of 61 on the final day to finish second at the ANZ Ladies Masters. Her run continued with a second place finish at the Ricoh Women’s British Open to Yani Tseng and recognising this said, “Yeah, just I guess happy to finish one up instead of one back.”
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rnThe win should see Hull move back into the Top-20 on the Rolex Rankings tomorrow and her cheque for $195,000 sees her move up to 13th on the Official Money List with season earnings of US$674,448. The Money List race is still being headed by another of McRae’s stable, World No.2 Jiyai Shin with US$1,463,833 in earnings.
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rnIt was somewhat of a return to form for Wright whose best finish for the season, prior to this week was a tie for 14th at the LPGA Championship in June. She leapfrogged a number of players to move up to 50th on the Money List. Karrie Webb (T36) and Sarah-Jane Smith (T46) were the other ALPG Members to make the cut.
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rnThe LPGA moves to California this week for the US$1.1million CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge at the Blackhawk Country Club in Danville.