LPGA Tour Championship - Final Round

Maria Hjorth birdied 15 to take the lead and went on to win the LPGA Tour Championship.  It is the fourth victory of her LPGA career but only her second since 1999.  Consequently, Yani Tseng won the Rolex Player of the Year Award while Na Yeon Choi secured the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average.  Amy Yang finished one shot behind in second place while Cristie Kerr and In-Kyung Kim finished tied for third, three shots behind the winner.

Hjorth birdied the first hole to tie Yang at -6, three shots ahead of the pack.  At 3, Amy appeared to shoot herself out of the event when she took a quadruple-bogey 8.  As Yang fell back, nobody else could come forward.  Inky and Morgan Pressel picked up three shots in the first holes to go -3 but Morgan played +6 the rest of the way and Kim found only one more birdie all day.  Kerr bogeyed two of her first three and could never reach -3.  Choi and Laura Diaz ran off three birdies early on the back nine to go -3 but both faded to -1.  Seon Hwa Lee started -3 but six straight bogeys ruined her week.  Maria came back to the field a little with a bogey at 5 but a birdie at 7 gave her a four-shot lead which she carried to the turn.

Having bogeyed 5 and gone out in 41, Yang was five behind Hjorth as they entered the back nine.  Amy birdied 10 and 11 to crawl back to -3.  Maria bogeyed 12 to fall to -5.  The dreaded two-shot swing came at 13 - Yang birdied, Hjorth bogeyed and incredibly the lead was gone in just four holes.  Both players parred 14, then Maria went back in front with her birdie at 15.  After pars at 16, Amy took bogey at 17 to fall two behind.  Yang birdied 18 but Hjorth parred it to secure the victory.

Choi finished one shot behind Kerr to win the Vare by 0.08, 69.87 to 69.95.  Kerr finishes second in POY points with 182 and Choi is third with 180.  Tseng becomes the first Asian Player of the Year - how ironic that the drought of American POYs still hasn't been at the hands of the "invading" Koreans!  Congratulations to all of today's champions!

Once again, the GC coverage begins at 7:30 EST but don't forget to tune in early to watch Karen Palacios-Jansen on 12 Nights at the Academy.