Sunday 27 October 2013

Pettersen Keeps Taiwan Title

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Suzann Pettersen held off a late challenge from Azahara Munoz to retain her Sunrise LPGA Championship title in Taiwan.

Pettersen's overnight four-shot lead had been whittled down to a single stroke at the turn after she bogeyed the ninth following three birdies in four holes from Munoz, who then joined the Norwegian on six under with another birdie at 12.

But the world No 2 responded with two straight birdies at 13 and 14, and another at the last capped a resolute three-under 69 and earned a five-shot victory over her Solheim Cup team-mate.

Munoz was left to count the cost of dropped shots at 13 and 16 as she laboured to a back-nine 37, although she still claimed outright second on four under par.

"I was 4 under through 12 holes, and I was really playing really well," said the Spaniard. "I made two bogeys coming in but I hit two really good shots and one came up short and one came up long, just misjudged the wind a little bit but I played really well."

Pettersen's fourth victory of the season made significant inroads into world No 1 Inbee Park's lead at the top of the LPGA Money List.

Park, who did not play in Taiwan, leads Pettersen by just $93,613 with two tournaments remaining this season.

"It feels great to come here and defend my title and play as well as I did," said Pettersen, whose win was the 14th LPGA Tour title of her career.

"It was very tough out there. Since the very first shot on Thursday, the conditions gave us a very big challenge. Today, Azahara gave me an even bigger challenge.

"She played really good on the front nine - well, she played really good all around. I think I can almost thank her for keep pressing and keep pushing me because I just had to keep staying aggressive and try to make birdies."

Another Solheim Cup star, Caroline Hedwall, closed with a two-under 70 to clinch third place on two under, while South Korean Eun-Hee Jee was the only other player to finish under par for the week.


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