The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Pettersen closing in fast on LPGA awards

By Korea Herald

Published : Nov. 13, 2013 - 19:01

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Just more than three months ago, Park In-bee went to St. Andrews with a shot at becoming the first golfer to win four straight majors in one year. She was No. 1 in women’s golf by any measure ― world ranking, money list ― and it wasn’t even close.

But as the LPGA Tour goes into the final two weeks of its season, there’s a chance Park won’t win any of the major awards. And she might even lose her No. 1 ranking.

Suzann Pettersen, who had only one win after the Women’s British Open the first week in August, might have a mathematical chance to overtake Park at No. 1 in the world if she were to win the Lorena Ochoa Invitational this week in Mexico.

Pettersen is only $93,613 behind on the money list with two events left, including the season-ending CME LPGA Titleholders, which pays $500,000 to the winner. The LPGA player of the year is based on points. Park leads 290-252, but with 30 points awarded for a win, that’s not out of Pettersen’s range.

The other big award is the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. Park has fallen to No. 3 behind Stacy Lewis (69.54) and Pettersen (69.59). (AP)

Lewis leads LPGA team

Stacy Lewis shot 7-under 65 to lead the LPGA Tour team to the championship of the 3Tour Challenge on Tuesday.

The LPGA Tour combined for a score of 17 under, edging the Champions Tour by one stroke and beating the PGA Tour by nine strokes.

Lewis (31-34) had eight birdies, including six birdies on the first nine holes at the Rio Secco Golf Club, and one bogey to pace the LPGA Tour toward its first 3Tour win since 2009. Natalie Gulbis, with four birdies and two bogeys, was next for the LPGA Tour at 2 under. Cristie Kerr didn’t have her score count on five holes in this two-player, best-ball format that allowed each team to discard one score per hole. (AP)