LPGA State Farm Classic
Panther Creek Country Club
Springfield, Ill.
Final-round notes and interviews
June 12, 2011
Yani Tseng -21, Rolex Rankings No. 1
Cristie Kerr -18, Rolex Rankings No. 4
Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng shot a 4-under 68 on Sunday to capture the LPGA State Farm Classic by three strokes over Cristie Kerr. It was Tseng’s second LPGA Tour victory this season and her fifth victory world-wide. The 22-year-old also won the LPGA’s season-opening Honda LPGA Thailand.
The overnight leader at 17-under-par, Tseng had a one-shot lead over Mindy Kim when she teed off for the final round. Tseng got off to a hot start, making a birdie on the first hole. She would then make five consecutive pars while Kim recorded back-to-back birdies on No. 5 and 6 to pull even with Tseng at 18-under-par. But after Kim’s bogey on No. 7 gave Tseng the outright lead back, she continued to pull away from the field. Birdies on eight and 13 moved Tseng to 20-under-par. She sealed her seventh-career LPGA Tour victory with a birdie on 17 to finish at 21-under-par 267.
For Tseng, this is the third time in her career that she’s captured a victory after entering the final round as the leader or co-leader.
It was a third straight runner-up finish for Cristie Kerr on Sunday. Her attempt at a 15th LPGA Tour victory fell just shy, as she wound up three strokes behind Tseng despite shooting a 5-under 67 in the final round. Three weeks ago, Kerr lost to Suzann Pettersen in the finals of the Sybase Match Play Championship and she fell one shot shy of victory at last week’s ShopRite LPGA Classic. Kerr now has six top-10 finishes in nine tournaments this season, five of which were top-5 finishes. In two weeks, Kerr will try to defend her title at the Wegmans LPGA Championship.
Brittany Lincicome came up just short in her bid for two consecutive victories. One week after capturing her fourth career LPGA Tour victory at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Lincicome finished in a tie for third with Paula Creamer at 16-under-par. Despite a slow start with a bogey at the second hole, Lincicome played the next 11 holes in 4-under to pull within two shots of the lead but she couldn’t maintain her charge. Lincicome, who shot a final-round 70 to snap a streak of five straight rounds in the 60s, now has three top-10 finishes this season.
Golden ticket winners: Se Ri Pak, Mindy Kim and Wendy Ward punched their "Ticket to CME Group Titleholders" at the LPGA State Farm Classic, each earning a spot in the season-ending CME Group Titleholders event, which will be held Nov. 17-20, 2011 at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Fla. The inaugural CME Group Titleholders, a season finale with a field made up of three qualifiers from every LPGA Tour tournament, is a format never previously used in professional golf.
Of Note…LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Se Ri Pak recorded her best finish of the 2011 season, finishing in a tie for fifth at 15-under-par. Her previous best finish was a T10 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship …Vicky Hurst shot the low round of the day on the Sunday with a 6-under-66 to move from a T47 to a T19…Next week, the LPGA Futures Tour tees it up down the road in Decatur at the Tate & Lyle Player’s Championship, the Tour’s only major champ
Full Article: LPGA.com News & Entertainment
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