(6 April 2010 – Rancho Mirage, California)
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Yani Tseng fulfilled her wish of jumping into Poppie&aposs Pond after she completed a one-shot victory at the Kraft Nabisco Championship on Sunday. A final round of 4-under par 68 was enough to edge out Norway&aposs Suzann Pettersen, who finished runner-up at this event for the third time in four years. Korea’s Song Hee Kim finished three shots behind in outright third, with World No.1 Lorena Ochoa another three shots back in fourth.
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rnIn the end, the final round turned out to be virtual matchplay between Pettersen and Tseng after overnight leader Karen Stupples succumbed to a disastrous start and ended up shooting 6-over par 78 to finish in a tie for 5th. It was Tseng who got off to the best start, chipping in for eagle at the par-5 2nd, followed by another birdie at the 3rd. She added another birdie at the 8th to go out in 4-under and move to 13-under par. Pettersen had played the front side in even par and found herself four shots behind with nine to play.
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rnBoth players made birdie at the 11th before Tseng made her only blemish of the day with a bogey at the 12th. Pettersen had her chances to narrow the gap on the next three holes, narrowly missing birdie putts from inside 12-feet on the 13th, 14th and 15th holes and it appeared her chances had faded. However, she made a birdie at the 16th to narrow the gap to two shots. Both players parred the 17th and it came down to a chip for eagle on the 18th for Pettersen to tie Tseng. Unfortunately it just missed on the left, she tapped in for birdie and Tseng had two putts from 15 feet to claim her second major. She did that and raised her arms in triumph, the second time in four weeks after she won the Handa Women’s Australian Open at Commonwealth Golf Club last month.
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rnAfter her win, she answered a bevy of questions from the media before an earthquake which measured 6.9 on the Richter scale shook the media centre. She made a cheeky grab for the trophy as the room shook, beaming with a huge smile. One interesting point she made in her press conference was to thank her idol, Annika Sorenstam, whose house she had recently purchased. She said, “I really want to thank Annika Sorenstam because she came to my house and we sat down and talked about two hours, and she helped me a lot about my game, about the mental (aspect), and she told me to go step-by-step….when you get inside the ropes, have fun and play golf, and you don’t want to think about too much.”
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rnKarrie Webb was the leading ALPG Member finishing in a tie for 5th at 4-under par, while Katherine Hull was the only other Australian to make the cut finishing in a tie for 24th at 2-over par.
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Photos by Paul Melville – ALPG