Creamer holds off Inkster in Oklahoma
IN: News | LPGA | SemGroup Championship (2008) | Round Four | by Bruce Young | 05 May 2008
Paula Creamer put behind her loss to Annika Sorenstam last week in Florida when she outlasted the LPGA veteran Juli Inkster to win the SemGroup Championship, her second event of the season and her 6th overall.
For Creamer it was her second week in succession in a playoff while for Inkster she found herself in a playoff in this event for the second year in succession having lost to Mi Hyun Kim last year.
With an age difference of 25 years between the pair, it was a case of the experienced and tough seven time major winner, Inkster, up against the comparatively inexperienced but still classy Creamer. The younger player was able to battle a wayward putter over the final round and birdie the second extra hole from 8 feet to win.
Creamer had lost to Sorenstam last week at the first extra hole of a playoff at the Stamford International and there were no doubt moments during today’s final round when Creamer must have thought she was about to let another one get away on her. On the demanding Cedar Ridge layout in Oklahoma, the playoff pair were the only players to finish 72 holes under par.
In what was a repeat of last year in more ways than one, Inkster birdied the last hole of regulation just as she had done 12 months ago and her opponent again bogeyed the last to carry the event over to a playoff. Both two putted the first extra hole with Creamer missing from ten feet although she finally made up for it with the great approach at the second extra hole and the winning putt.
“I’m done,” said Creamer after her round, referring to the mental exhaustion she was experiencing having spent so much of the last two weeks in winning contention.
Jeong Jang and Angela Stanford finished in a share of third four shots from the winning total while Lorena Ochoa made ground on the final day to finish in a share of 5th place.
The best of the Australians were Michelle Ellis and Sarah Kemp who both finished 43rd with Katherine Hull 62nd.
The LPGA Tour heads back east to Virginia for this week’s Michelob Ultra Championship.
