The World’s No. 3, Suzann Pettersen, shot a five-under 67 on Sunday and overcame a three shot deficit to win by two shots the Safeway Classic presented by Coca Cola for the second time in three years.
Pettersen shot a nine-under 63 on Saturday to get to second place, started the day T-2nd with 36-hole leader Pornanong Phatlum, three shots behind Yani Tseng. She played in the last group on Sunday with Tseng and both got in trouble early as the double-bogeyed the Par-3 second hole.
Tseng’s lead was down to one over Phatlum and Pettersen was still three behind at that moment. But Pettersen would roar back and birdied five on the next six holes to get to the lead at 18-under and made the turn after shooting 33 in the front nine.
Tseng would make bogey on the third and fourth holes to fall to 14-under, but battled back within two of Pettersen at 16-under after birdies on the Par-5 fifth and seventh holes. We had ourselves a mano-a-mano at the time, but Tseng would bogey the Par-4 ninth to exit the front nine with a 39, a six-shot swing between her and Pettersen.
Tseng would not recover from that. She would go on to make three more bogeys on the back nine to finish her final round with a six-over 78 for a total of 12-under 276 for the tournament, dropping eight slots into a T-9th finish.
Pettersen would keep pressing the pedal to the metal by making birdies on 10th, 11th and 13th to move to 21-under and have a commanding four-shot lead over the World’s No. 2 player Stacy Lewis who played a bogey-free front nine in 33 and moved second place at 17-under.
Phatlum had battled her way back to 16-under after a birdie on the Par-4 10th, but consecutive bogeys on 13th and 14th would take her out of contention. She would add a double-bogey on the Par-4 17th and finished her round with a three-over 75, good for a total like Tseng of 12-under 276 and a T-9th finish.
Lewis had sneaked up the leaderboard with solid play and was within distance of Pettersen should she falter in the back nine. But Lewis could only muster one more birdie at the Par-4 15th to move within three shots of Pettersen, but the 32-year-old from Osla, Norway never gave up the lead.
Pettersen would run into trouble at the 175-yard, Par-3 16th, following a short tee shot with a poor chip. But she minimized the damage when her next chip rolled within three feet to set up a bogey-saving putt.
She then closed with two pars on her way to her $195,000 paycheck and second title of the season. She had won the LPGA Lotte Championship in a playoff over Lizette Salas back in April.
For Lewis it was a bounce back performance after she withdrew prior to the start of the second round of last week’s CN Canadian Women’s Open citing she was mentally tired and exhausted from the Solheim Cup loss.
She played a bogey-free round of four-under 68 for her aggregate total of 18-under 270 and finish in solo second place. She earned a paycheck of $117,114 for her effort. It was her 13th Top 10 finish of the year to go along with her three victories.
Finishing third was American Lizette Salas who shot a three-under 69 product of four birdies and one bogey that came on the Par-4 14th. She would finish at 17-under 271 and earned $84,958 for her sixth Top 10 finish this year.
Cristie Kerr, a winner here in 2008, made her fifth birdie of the day at the Par-5 12th and moved within three of Pettersen. But a bogey on 15th dropped her four shots behind, adding another one on the final hole finishing with a three-under 69, and a total of 16-under 272 for the tournament. This was Kerr’s fourth Top 10 of the season.
Germany’s Caroline Masson continues her recent post- Solheim Cup good run closing with a two-under 70 for a solo-fifth finish at 15-under 273. She made a bogey today on the Par-4 third, but managed three birdies the rest of the way for her second straight Top 10 finish. She finished T-7th at the CN Canadian Women’s Open last weekend for her first Top 10 of the year.
American Gerina Piller shot the day’s low round, a bogey-free 66 to finish T-6th at 14-under 274. She had her sixth birdie of the day at the Par-5 12th but her move would stall after she par the rest of the holes.
She would finish tied with Germany’s Sandra Gal who hung around the top of the leaderboard all weekend. Gal was at 14-under when she reached the Par-4 ninth, but a bogey would set her back as she made the turn. She played the back nine at one-under which gave her a three-under for the round and the tie finish with Piller for sixth place.
Australian Hall of Famer Karrie Webb fired three birdies and three bogeys today for her even final round and finished in solo-eight place at 13-under 275. It was her fifth Top 10 of the season, but her first since sh won the Shoprite LPGA Classic presented by Acer in late May.
Rounding up the Top 10 at a T-9th with Tseng and Phatlum were France’s Dewi Claire Schreffel an American’s Lexi Thompson, Sandra Changkija and Austin Ernest who had the tournament’s lowest round of 62 on Saturday.
The LPGA will be off this week, but will resume the action the following week with the fifth and final Major Championship of the season, the Evian Championship. The World’s No. 1 player, South Korea’s Inbee park will go for an unprecedented fourth Major Championship in a single season.