Gladstone, N.J. – Candie Kung had a simple explanation for her quarterfinal victory over Annika Sorenstam in the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship.
“I made one more putt than she did,” Kung said. “That’s how I won.”
Sorenstam, never comfortable with the slow pace on Hamilton Farm’s rain-soaked greens, blew a two-hole lead with four to play.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” Sorenstam said. “I had a great chance – 2-up with four to go … Candie played very well.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. To finish with a bogey doesn’t make you very happy.”
After conceding a 2-foot par putt to the eighth-seeded Kung on the par-4 18th, the top-seeded Sorenstam slid her 8-foot par try right of the hole to end a frustrating week on the greens.
“With all the rain that we’ve had, they’re very slow,” Sorenstam said. “I don’t think they’ve been able to double-cut them the way they wanted, but they’re the same for everyone. You’ve got to learn the speed.”
Kung, a former Southern California player from Taiwan who won all three of her LPGA Tour titles in 2003, will face 60th-seeded Marisa Baena in the semifinals this morning. Baena beat six-time major champion Karrie Webb 2 and 1.
“Candie is a good player. She needs all the credit,” Sorenstam said. “She was a seeded player coming into this week and she played really steady. She was 2-down and she turned it around. That takes a lot of strength.”
In the other semifinal, 14th-seeded Wendy Ward will play Meena Lee, a 23-year-old rookie from South Korea seeded 47th. Ward beat 59th-seeded Sophie Gustafson 2 and 1, and Lee held off No. 39 Pat Hurst 1-up.
Kung nearly took the lead on the par-3 17th, but her 15-foot birdie try lipped out.
“I was like, ‘OK, it hit the lip. Let’s go to 18,”‘ Kung said.
Kung made an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15th to pull within a hole and squared the match with a par on the par-4 16th after Sorenstam drove into the left rough, failed to reach the green in two and two-putted for a bogey.
“I just told myself to hang in there,” Kung said. “I felt confident with my game.”
