Ji-Yai Shin carded a 70 to win the ADT Championship and its $1 million payday.  It was the third LPGA victory of 2008 for Shin in only ten starts.  Karrie Webb finished second one shot behind while Paula Creamer and Seon Hwa Lee tied for third, four shots down.

For most of the day Shin and Webb topped the board, neither more than one shot ahead as they dueled head-to-head.  Karrie took the lead with a five-foot birdie at 8 but missed a six-footer for birdie at 9.  At the turn, Webb was -2 with Shin at -1 while Lee and Eun-Hee Ji were even par.  Seon Hwa had just birdied 10 from eight feet to tie Ji.  Karrie three-putted from 35 feet at 11 (a five-foot miss for par), the bogey dropping her into a tie for the lead.

The par-5 12^th changed a few scorecards.  Ji-Yai birdied it from 15 feet while Karrie flew her third over the green and bogeyed, giving Shin a two-shot lead at -2.  Ji had a 15-footer for birdie at 12 which missed but when she also missed the four-foot comebacker, she fell three shots back and never recovered.  Webb continued to struggle as she bogeyed 13 (her third straight) after missing the green short to fall three back with only five to play.  As Karrie was falling back, Lee stepped forward.  After several unsuccessful 10-to-25-foot attempts, Seon Hwa birdied 16 from 12 feet to draw within one. 

Karrie almost immediately turned it around.  Although she missed a 10-foot birdie try at 14, she nearly chipped in for eagle at 15.  Ji-Yai turned it into a two-shot swing when she needed two shots to get out of the greenside bunker and missed an 18-footer for par.  The bogey knocked her back to -1 and put her in a tie with Lee, one shot in front of Webb.  The tie lasted about 30 seconds - Seon Hwa pulled her tee shot at 17 way left, caroming off the waterfall rocks.  Lee took double-bogey to fall two back going to 18, where she would find the water again and bogey to finish with a 74.

Shin stuck her approach at 16 to three feet - the birdie opened up the two-shot lead again with two to play.  Ji-Yai missed a seven-footer at 17 that would have slammed the door shut.  Needing a third two-shot swing in seven holes to force a playoff, Webb rolled in a 30-footer at 18 to close within one but Shin two-putted from about 25 for par to win.

Creamer (diagnosed with peritonitis during an overnight hospital stay) got within three shots when she birdied 12 and 14.  A three-putt bogey at 15 set Paula back to +2 and she couldn't rebound.  Angela Stanford was even par through eight holes but bogeyed six times over the next nine.  Just before playing her approach at 9, Angela's ball appeared to move as she was about to address it.  No penalty was assessed but the bogey there did begin her downfall.  Suzann Pettersen and Jeong Jang were parallels in futility - front nines of 39 and 40 respectively and they both took quadruple-bogey eights at 16, en route to rounds of 79.

Let's see - the season-ending million-dollar championship, a British Open title, a total of three LPGA wins before she has even become a member, eleven wins worldwide in 2008.  Ji-Yai Shin has made it very difficult for the domestic media to ignore her as they so often have ignored her country-women.  You can be sure this favorite for the 2009 Rookie of the Year award (that sounds a little weird for a player who already has three wins) will get her share of coverage on this site in the coming months.