BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Paula Creamer squandered another late lead and fell into a playoff she didn’t want. She got the result she desperately needed, beating Juli Inkster on the second extra hole Sunday at the SemGroup Championship.
One week after losing to Annika Sorenstam in a playoff, Creamer bogeyed the 18th hole for the third straight day and went to a playoff when the 47-year-old Inkster, trying to become the oldest LPGA Tour winner, poured in an 18-foot birdie putt.
Instead of getting nervous, Creamer was determined as ever.
“I was not going to lose this week,” she said. “I was going to win the tournament.”
She twice gave herself birdie putts in the playoff, making an 8-footer on No. 10 for the victory.
Lost in the duel was the end of Lorena Ochoa’s title streak. Going for a record-tying fifth straight victory, Ochoa never got on track, even in a final round absent of much wind. She closed with a 2-under-par 69 to tie for fifth, five shots back.
“It’s done,” Ochoa said. “I tried really hard and it didn’t work. Hopefully, I’ll start a new streak next week.”
Creamer was headed for the worst kind of streak.
She said she gave away the Stanford International Pro-Am last week in south Florida, losing the lead with a careless bogey on the 16th hole and losing to Sorenstam with a bogey on the first playoff hole when she left a 6-foot par putt short.
Creamer was a combined 6-over on her final three holes this week, but she looked as if she finally figured out how to finish it off. Then she sent a 5-iron from the 18th fairway over the green, and she missed a 10-foot par putt to shoot 1-over 72.
Inkster then made her longest putt of the day for a 70, and both finished at 2-under 282.
Footnotes.
Zimbabwe’s Denis Watson, who shot a 3-under 69, birdied the final hole to win the FedEx Kinko’s Classic in Lakeway, Texas, taking advantage of countryman Nick Price’s late collapse.
Price (75) appeared to be in control of the tournament until watery double bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes.
Price tied for second with Scott Hoch (69) and Tim Simpson (70).
• Peter Lawrie (67) made par on the second playoff hole to win the Spanish Open in Seville after Ignacio Garrido’s (72) approach shot rolled into the water.
The Associated Press
