Longs Drugs Challenge - Final Round

In-Kyung Kim struggled through another windy day at Blackhawk Country Club but held on to win the Longs Drugs Challenge by three strokes for her first career victory.  Angela Stanford finished second at -7, Yani Tseng was third at -6 while Lorena Ochoa finished fourth at -4.

The adverse conditions kept the two leaders from pulling away but also ultimately kept everyone else from catching Stanford for second place, much less Kim for first.  Tseng got as low as -7 after birdies at 3 and 5 but after a bogey at 8, she was never able to get any closer than three shots.  Ochoa was -6 through six but back-to-back bogeys dropped her six shots behind and she never got closer than three.  Brittany Lang got within four with a birdie at 9 and was only three back with three to go but a double-bogey at 16 ended her chances.

Neither Kim nor Stanford could manage a single birdie on the front nine.  Bogeys at 2 by Inky and at 1, 4 and 9 by Stanford put Kim up by three strokes at the turn.  Angela chipped in for birdie at 10 to get back within two.  The two traded pars for the next three holes, then both bogeyed 14.  After each player parred 15, they matched bogeys again at the tough par-3 16^th.  At this stage, Kim was -8 with Stanford -6 and Ochoa and Tseng at -5.  Stanford and Tseng both birdied the par-4 17^th but Inky answered with one of her own (and her first of the day) to stay two up on Angela with one to go.  Kim birdied 18 to put the exclamation point on the win.

The coverage on Golf Channel is underway and I'll include any further observations in tomorrow's Epilogue.