Rookie Louise Friberg fired a tournament-record 65 to win the MasterCard Classic Honoring Alejo Peralta. Fellow rookie Yani Tseng finished second at -5, one shot back. Jane Park and Jill McGill wound up tied for third at -4, and Pat Hurst, Na Yeon Choi and Eva Dahllof tied for fifth at -3.
Starting the day at +1, ten shots out of first and playing eight groups ahead of the overnight leaders, Friberg birdied three times on the front nine to reach -2. Another birdie at 11 and an eagle at the par-5 12th moved her to -5. When she birdied 14 and 15, Louise was -7 and tied for the lead with Oh. A bogey at 16 dropped Friberg out of the lead momentarily but then Oh bogeyed 11 to create a three-way for first with Louise and Tseng.
Meanwhile McGill had birdied 11 and Na Yeon Choi had birdied 12 to reach -5 and close within one. Choi started falling back with a bogey at 13 and a double at 17 knocked her out completely. McGill bogeyed 14 to fall two back and couldn’t find another birdie over the final four holes. Friberg parred her last two to reach the clubhouse at -6 and remain in the three-way tie for the lead. Pat Hurst and Jane Park both birdied 16 to get within two shots but neither managed to get any closer.
The worm turned at 14 and 15 - Oh bogeyed to fall out of the tie and when she double-bogeyed 15, she was three down with three to go. Ji-Young bogeyed 18 to finish -2 and T8. Tseng suffered bogey at 15 to leave Friberg alone in first. Pars at 16 and 17 took the Taiwanese rookie to the par-5 final hole needing birdie to tie, and Yani only made par.
I had this notion that Lorena Ochoa was going to make a run from eleven shots down to challenge for this title and she did shoot 68 to finish tied for eighth. Little did I know that Friberg, an LET player in 2007, would clear the ten-shot deficit she had entering the final round to win the damn thing outright. Absolutely amazing. When I first started looking at the leaderboard around 5pm EDT (real-life work intervened), my jaw literally dropped in astonishment. The rookie from Sweden whose great diary entries at her website have made me a fan just showed us all she can play a little golf too. Congratulations Lollo!
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2 comments:
Too kewl. I can hardly wait for Louise's next post.
Louise responds to Hound Dog contemplating adding her to his favorites by going out and winning the Master Card.....how about that!! Great win for a nice lady...Way 2 go Louise!!
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