SBS Open - Final Round

Angela Stanford overcame a three-shot deficit to win the SBS Open by three strokes over Michelle Wie.  It is the fourth win of Stanford's career, three of which have come in her last seven starts.  Angela Park and Na Yeon Choi tied for third at -4, six shots behind the winner while Yani Tseng and Ai Miyazato were tied for fifth at -3.

With the wind still blowing and rain falling off-and-on, the final group battled through the front nine.  Stanford birdied 3 to take the solo lead but Wie answered with one of her own at 4.  Park bogeyed 6 to fall three shots back and more bogeys at 8 and 10 knocked her out of contention.  Stanford bogeyed 8 to fall out of the first place tie but then Wie birdied 9 to take a two-shot lead.  When Stanford bogeyed 10, the gap was three and the large partisan crowd was feeling that first Wie win coming on.

Unfortunately for them, Michelle opened the door almost immediately.  Despite teeing off with 3-wood, she lost it way right into the hazard at 11 and took double-bogey to cut the lead to one.  After both players made par at 12, Stanford rolled in a 20-footer for birdie at 13 to re-tie for first when Wie's 12-footer came up short.  At 14 Angela roped one to four feet and made the putt to take the lead outright.  Then at 15, she stopped her tee shot about eight feet from the pin and drained that one too to make up her fifth shot on Wie in only five holes and take a two-shot lead with three to go.

Michelle didn't give up.  Her second shot at 16 wound up three feet from the hole but she pulled it just enough to miss.  17 saw her drive into a fairway bunker and drop her second into a greenside bunker.  The resulting bogey dropped her three back with one to play and Stanford parred the last to take the victory.

With Wie the only player finishing closer than six shots, you would be correct to guess that most of the others who started the day near the top had tough rounds.  Momoko Ueda was -6 and only three off the lead through four holes but she bogeyed eight of her next twelve (and five in a row on the back nine) to finish +1 T20.  Stacy Lewis and Vicky Hurst never got going and some bad holes around the turn sank them both.

I'll have more in the Epilogue, probably tomorrow morning.