Pettersen claims LPGA Korea in playoff

Suzann Pettersen of Norway survived a near-disastrous final round to claim the LPGA HanaBank Championship in a playoff in South Korea yesterday. Pettersen defeated Catriona Matthew of Scotland with a birdie on the third hole of the sudden-death playoff on the par-72 Ocean Course at the Sky72 Golf Club. The world No. 9 took home $270,000 for her first LPGA victory in more than a year. The two ended the regulation tied at 11-under, but only after Pettersen blew her five-stroke second-round lead with a 74. Her round included two double bogeys on two different par-3 holes. Matthew, who began the day seven shots behind Pettersen, fired a 67, the low round of the day, with six birdies and one bogey. The two had pars on their first two trips to the par-5 18th. Then on the third try, Matthew hit her third shot from 115 yards long and left of the pin, and her birdie putt rolled wide left. Pettersen put her second shot into a greenside bunker, but struck her approach to about six feet to set up the clinching putt. She had missed two birdie putts of about the same distance on two previous playoff holes. In regulation, Pettersen made the turn at 11-under, two-over for the day. She birdied the 10th but had her second double bogey of the day on the par-3 12th to fall to 10-under. That placed her two shots behind Matthew, playing two groups ahead, with six holes to play. Pettersen got back to within one at 11-under with a birdie on 14th. Matthew had back-to-back birdies on 13th and 14th but fell back into a tie with Pettersen with her lone bogey of Sunday on 16th. Defending champion Yani Tseng of Taiwan finished one stroke out of the playoff in sole possession of third. It was the best finish for the slumping world number one in strokeplay since April. Pak Se-Ri, a 25-time LPGA winner and a World Golf Hall of Famer, finished fourth at nine-under. Pak, the inaugural champion of this tournament in 2002, shot a 70 with six birdies and four bogeys. American Brittany Lincicome and South Korean Park Hee-Young matched Matthew’s 67 and finished in a tie for seventh with four others at seven-under.