Evian Masters - Final Round

Ai Miyazato birdied the first playoff hole to defeat Sophie Gustafson and win the Evian Masters.  It is the first career victory for the fourth-year player from Japan.  Meena Lee and Cristie Kerr tied for third place at -13 one shot out of the playoff, while Helen Alfredsson, Paula Creamer and Karrie Webb finished tied for fifth at -11.

As I said yesterday, I was out all this morning and part of the afternoon so I missed all of the leaderboard Free-For-All action and half of the TV coverage.  Since I can't do it justice...thank goodness for The Constructivist and his live-blogging!  He picked the perfect day to do it, from my perspective and his.  You definitely want to read his account first, and I'll fill in with details from what I saw over the last hour-and-a-half of Golf Channel's coverage.

Miyazato was playing 15 at -14 when I started watching and was leading by a shot over Gustafson and Lee (who was already in the clubhouse after shooting 65).  Ai bogeyed 15 when she missed her par putt from five feet.  She had five feet for birdie at 16 and missed that one also.  Sophie had only four feet for birdie at 15 but lipped it out.  Miyazato found the bunker at 17 but saved par by making a five-footer.  Creamer nearly sank a bunker shot at 18 which would have tied her for the lead at -13 but she missed the short birdie putt that would have given her solo fifth.  Kerr left a 12-footer for birdie at 17 short.  Gustafson tried to drive the green at 16 but found the trees, forcing her to scramble and save par from eight feet.

At 18, Miyazato had 12 feet for a birdie to take the lead into the clubhouse and she made it to go -14, eliminating Meena.  Back at 17, Sophie had 15 feet to stay tied but missed it left.  Kerr found the trees left at 18 and was forced to punch back to the fairway.  Needing to hole her third from long range to make the playoff, Cristie stuck it to five feet and made the birdie to finish tied for third.  Gustafson went for the 18^th green in two and landed it on the front half, leaving a 25-footer for eagle and the victory.  Her putt stopped about two inches in front of the hole.

At Evian they replay 18 ad infinitum which - being a par-5 - heavily favored Gustafson, much like it favored Alfredsson in last year's three-hole playoff.  I'll take that policy to task in tomorrow's Epilogue.  While she's not a long bomber, Ai Miyazato IS a very effective player off the tee (see my latest Total Driving stats).  She took driver and nailed it perfectly.  Sophie played 3-wood and found the right rough.  Forced to lay up, Gustafson played it perfectly down to the bottom of the hill.  Ai went for the green with her second and landed in one of the right-side bunkers.  Sophie's third was a wedge to ten feet.  Miyazato had a good lie and played her third to about four feet.  Gustafson pulled her birdie attempt left and she tapped in for par.  Ai rolled her birdie putt home to win it.

Much like it was for Natalie Gulbis on that same green two years ago, the moment of victory was one of great relief and emotion for Ai Miyazato.  With the unimaginable expectations of an entire country on her shoulders for nearly four seasons, today's victory finally validated her decision to play fulltime on the LPGA and showed us that yeah, those Japanese players are no slouches at this game either.  Congratulations Ai - I'm so very happy for you (although I'm sure nowhere near as delirious as several million people on the other side of the world and one family in upstate New York!).