Karrie Webb took the lead early on the back nine and held on to win the J Golf Phoenix LPGA International.  It is the 36^th victory of her Hall of Fame career and her first since November 2006.  Ji-Yai Shin finished second at -12 two shots behind, In-Kyung Kim was third at -11 while Yani Tseng and Suzann Pettersen tied for fourth at -10.

The front nine featured a great three-way battle between Webb, Shin (the final twosome) and Kim.  Inky opened with birdie at #1 to tie Ji-Yai for the lead.  Webb jumped into the tie with a birdie at 3.  Kim grabbed her first solo lead of the day when she birdied 4 to reach -11 but she gave it right back at 5.  Webb bogeyed 4 but came back to birdie 5 and recreate the three-way tie at -10.  Inky birdied 6 go back on top but minutes later Karrie eagled that same par 5 to seize the lead for herself.  Kim birdied 7 to tie them up again and then birdied 8 (her third straight) to reach -13 and see-saw back in front.  At the turn, Kim led by one over Webb with Shin sitting in third two behind. 

The par-5 10^th was rather important today.  Kim took a double-bogey 7 to go from one up to one down.  Webb and Shin each made birdie and the board suddenly read "Webb -13, Shin -12, Kim -11".  Karrie made it a two-shot lead when she birdied 11 as well.  After the fireworks of the previous several holes, the top three suddenly went into neutral.  Inky parred her last eight holes after the double at 10.  Webb and Shin matched pars until they reached 15, where they both took bogey.  They both parred 16 and 17 and went to the par-5 18^th with Shin still trailing by two.  Ji-Yai finished with birdie but so did Karrie, making the final margin two.

On a day where scoring conditions must have been good once again, those last few holes could have been as ho-hum as my description or as riveting as any golf you'll see this year.  It would have been nice to see the tape-delayed coverage on Golf Channel so I could flesh out this narrative.  Unfortunately, weather delayed the finish of the Arnold Palmer Invitational until almost 8pm EDT and GC MUST air their hour-long Golf Central show at its conclusion.  Supposedly our coverage will start at 8:30 but it'll probably be more like 8:50.  I'll have an epilogue in the morning, watch the final round tomorrow night and update with pertinent info after that.