The LPGA Tour was in Singapore this week for the HSBC Women’s Champions tournament and Stacy Lewis topped a very strong leaderboard for her first win of 2013.
The 2012 LPGA Player of the Year held the 54-hole lead and shot one-under par to finish a single shot better than reigning U.S. Women’s Open Champion Na Yeon Choi.
Choi, Lewis and Inbee Park are nipping at the heels of Yani Tseng for the No. 1 world ranking. Tseng has been No. 1 on the Rolex Rankings for 107 weeks. She struggled through the middle of 2012 which allowed other players to gain on her.
Lewis was the first American to win the LPGA Tour’s Player of the Year honors since Beth Daniel in 1994. She had four wins and 16 top-10 finishes last year.
Paula Creamer who was involved in a traffic accident on her way to the airport in Thailand earlier in the week finished at 13-under par and captured third place.
Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn, who finished second last week to Inbee Park in Thailand, was fourth in Singapore. Ariya, still a teenager, just turned professional in January joining her sister, Moriya on the professional circuit.
With Jessica Korda and Danielle Kang tied for fifth place, Lexi Thompson finishing T-8 and Morgan Pressel getting a T-10, there were six Americans inside the Top-10 in Singapore.
The ladies get a week off and the LPGA finally moves to the continental United States for the RR Donnelley Founders Cup in Phoenix, March 14-17.