The Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The ADT Championship was truly a rags-to-riches moment for Lorena Ochoa.
Ochoa had taken a four-shot lead with two holes to play going to the 17th green at Trump International, and the $1 million payoff seemed as secure as an armored truck.
Fifteen minutes later, after Ochoa chopped up the 17th hole with a double bogey and Natalie Gulbis made birdie, the lead was down to one. And a few minutes after that, Gulbis was 15 feet away for birdie on the 18th as Ochoa stared at a nasty lie in the rough.
Ochoa was one mistake away from perhaps the biggest collapse of her career, the first hint of drama Sunday.
``It was fun for the fans and for all of you,'' Ochoa said. ``But it didn't feel very good.''
The atonement was simply amazing.
Only able to see the top half of the golf ball that was buried in the rough, with water separating the 161 yards between Ochoa and the 18th flag, she opened the face of her 6-iron, took a high, steep swing and hit a shot worth $1 million.
The ball landed on the front of the green, caught a slope and stopped 30 inches from the cup. The distance became even shorter when Gulbis, needing a birdie for any hope, left her putt well short of the hole.
``I had a horrible lie,'' Ochoa said. ``Because of the conditions, and because I was only one shot leading the tournament, I think it was my best shot so far in my career.''
One final birdie gave Ochoa a 4-under 68 and a two-shot victory over Gulbis in the season-ending ADT Championship to claim the $1 million prize, the richest in women's golf.
Ochoa wrapped up her sensational season with eight victories, joining Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez as the only players to do that over the last 30 years. Having already broken the LPGA Tour record for most earnings in a year, the $1 million stretched it even more to $4,364,944. And she went over $10 million in career earnings.
All of this was too much for Ochoa to take.
``It's all about breaking records,'' Ochoa said. ``It was not only about the money list, but winning eight tournaments this season. It's been amazing from start to end. I think the only thing I can do is just go home and celebrate.''
Gulbis had to settle for a 70, the only other player under par, and $100,000. Third place went to Paula Creamer after a 72.
Ochoa plans to celebrate in typical fashion.
She said she would donate $100,000 to a relief fund in Tabasco, Mexico, for flood victims. A good chunk of it will go to her foundation in Guadalajara, to buy land for an elementary and high school it is building for underprivileged children.
``I always want to give back,'' she said. ``And this is a good day.''
She almost gave back too much on the golf course.
After the scores were reset after the second and third rounds and half the field eliminated each of those days, the $1 million came down to eight players who all had equal opportunity.
Ochoa was the only one who seemed to be playing a different course.
She birdied the second and third holes to quickly put her name atop the leaderboard, made a 12-foot par save on the next hole, and added two more birdies to pull away. After a chip from behind the par-5 ninth for her fifth birdie, Ochoa was five shots clear.
``I was surprised,'' she said, ``but happy.''
Gulbis and Paula Creamer, who wound up third, were the only ones remotely in range.
Everyone else had vanished at the seventh hole, with the first five players hitting into the water. Karrie Webb found the water twice on her way to a quadruple bogey, and she finished with an 84 for the highest score of her Hall of Fame career on the LPGA Tour.
Gulbis figured it was over when Ochoa kept scratching out pars, and it appeared imminent on the 16th when Ochoa, in a deep bunker some 131 yards away, hit 7-iron to 15 feet to secure another par.
She had said the running joke all week had been to build a three- or four-shot lead heading to the 17th ``in case something happens.''
``And that's exactly what happened,'' she added with a laugh.
Her 8-iron went over the green, and her attempt with a putter out of the fluffy grass came up 20 feet short down the slope. She gunned that one 6 feet by and missed to take double bogey, after Gulbis holed her birdie putt.
Suddenly, the lead was one.
Her tee shot cut the corner of the lake and the bunker, but wasn't enough to get over the rough. Gulbis, with a hybrid 3-iron from the fairway, hit a beautiful approach to 15 feet that applied even more pressure.
``Lorena was spending a lot of time looking at her lie, so I was assuming that the lie was not very good,'' Gulbis said. ``She's the best player in the world, so I thought that at least we'd get kind of an eye-for-an-eye putt at it.''
That thought didn't last long.
Ochoa knew she caught it clean, watched it hit the green and listened for the crowd to tell her how special it was. The shot was reminiscent of Se Ri Pak hitting a hybrid to 2 inches in a playoff to the win the LPGA Championship last year, or Shaun Micheel hitting 7-iron to the same distance on the final hole at Oak Hill to win the PGA Championship in 2003.
``The best shot of my career,'' Ochoa said at the trophy presentation. ``Five years, that was the best one. All of you saw that.''
They saw it. And after her year, most came to expect it.
Lorena Ochoa Wins ADT Championship
Suzann Pettersen maintains lead in Thailand
PATTAYA, Thailand - Suzann Pettersen is easy to keep track of these days on the LPGA Tour. The first place to look is the top of the leaderboard. The Norwegian star was there again Friday in the second round of the Honda LPGA Thailand, two shots clear for the second straight day. She has had at least a share of the lead in four straight tour rounds and seven of her last 10.
"I don't really watch the leaderboard much when I play," Pettersen said. "I play my own game. Maybe now and again I'll take a quick look at what's going on, but it's 18 holes and it doesn't really matter how you start or how it looks after four holes. ... I just try to play as hard as I can and shoot as low as I can."
Chasing her third victory in four weeks, Pettersen holed a 115-yard wedge shot for eagle on the par-4 13th and birdied the 18th. Her 4-under 68 left her at 11-under 133 after two warm days at Siam Country Club, a sharp contrast to the cold and wind she faced last week in South Korea in her fourth tour victory of the year.
"It's another great day on the golf course," Pettersen said. "Not too windy. Comfortable temperature. Not so steamy. I'm just trying to play each hole like what they give me. A lot of good shots today and a lot of good putts."
Canadian Alena Sharp, winless in two full seasons on the tour, matched Pettersen's 68 to hold the second spot. Laura Davies was third, four strokes back at 7 under. She eagled the 18th for a 66, matching the best round of the day on the Pattaya Old Course.
"It's good to play alongside Suzann," Sharp said. "I tried to keep up with her. I hope to continue playing good the next two days. I will be nervous. But nerves are good as long as you can handle it. I want to win. I had been in the leading position before, but I didn't handle it well. I have to handle it well this time."
Paula Creamer shot a 66, too, birdieing three of the last five holes to join Joo Mi Kim (67) and Angela Park (70) at 6 under.
Coming off a second-place finish Sunday in a Japanese tour event, Creamer had seven birdies and a bogey after making three birdies and three bogeys in her opening 72.
"I putted better than today, but yesterday I hit the ball better," Creamer said. "Tomorrow, I have to hit a lot of greens and make a lot of putts."
Pettersen birdied the par-5 first to get to 8 under, but then made four birdies and four bogeys in a nine-hole stretch that left her back at 8 under as she played 13.
"I tried to hang in there," she said. "I had a lot of opportunities and made a lot of mistakes. It was not windy, but it was a comfortable temperature."
Defending champion Hee-Won Han, making her first start since the birth of her first child this summer, had a 70 to top a group at 5 under.
Annika Sorenstam followed her opening 72 with a 68 to reach the halfway point at 4 under. The 10-time major champion had an early birdie-double bogey-birdie stretch, then birdied Nos. 9 and 10 to get to 2 under and picked up strokes on 13 and 15.
Winless since September 2006, she's making only her 11th tour start in a season marked by a long break because of neck and back injuries.
Catriona Matthew and Kraft Nabisco winner Morgan Pressel rebounded from opening 75s. Matthew was 3 under after a 66, and Pressel's 68 left her at 1 under.
Former Duke star Virada Nirapathpongporn topped the five Thai players in the field, shooting a 71 to reach 1 under. Onnarin Sattayabanphot (71) was even, and 11-year-old Ariya Jutanugarn shot a 74 to fall to 5 over.
Se Ri Pak and Japanese star Ai Miyazato struggled. Pak was 7 over after a 78, and Miyazato's 80 left her 59th in the 60-player field at 15 over.
Ochoa rallies, then wins playoff
Lorena Ochoa erased a three-shot deficit over the last two holes of regulation, then beat South Korean rookie In-Kyung Kim in a playoff to win the Wegmans LPGA yesterday in Pittsford, N.Y.
Ochoa closed with a 1-over-par 73 for an
8-under 280 total on the Locust Hill course and won with a par on the second playoff hole. She eagled the par-5 No. 17 and got even on the last hole when Kim missed a 4-foot putt for par.
"It was a really good thing -- not the beginning of the day but the end of the day," Ochoa said. "I just never lost my hope."
It was Ochoa's first playoff win in five attempts. She earned $270,000 and tops the season money list at $1.52 million, almost a half-million dollars more than her nearest rival, Suzann Pettersen of Norway.
The 19-year-old Kim, who closed with a 72, has made steady progress. Her previous best finish was a tie for fourth in the Corning Classic last month. She missed the cut in four of her first six outings but stayed through the weekend in the past six, tying for 21st at the LPGA Championship two weeks ago.
"I can cry right now, but I'm not going to cry for this," Kim said. "I played really tight with the No. 1 player, and I'll take that experience. Next time, I'm never going to let it go."
South Korean compatriot Mi Hyun Kim, an eight-time tour winner, drove behind trees to finish with a bogey and drop into third place at
7 under.
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