HSBC Women's Champions - Final Round

Ai Miyazato posted a 69 today to win the HSBC Women's Champions and become the first player in 44 years to win the first two events of the LPGA season.  She finished two shots ahead of Cristie Kerr and three ahead of Jiyai Shin, Song-Hee Kim, Suzann Pettersen and Yani Tseng.

Miyazato and Juli Inkster, the overnight co-leaders, both started terribly with bogeys at both 1 and 2.  That created a nine-way tie for the lead (I've never seen that before) at -5.  The Sunday Free-For-All was on!  Miyazato, Kerr, Kim and Pettersen grabbed a couple of front-nine birdies to climb to -7.  In-Kyung Kim eagled the par-4 10^th to join them.  Momoko Ueda reached that barrier with a birdie at 11, then punched through to -8 with another at 13.  Inky birdied 11 to go -8.  Unfortunately for those two, that success was short-lived as Inky double-bogeyed 13 en route to finishing -6 and Momoko played her final five holes in +4 to wind up -4.

Pettersen and Kerr birdied 9 to reach -8.  Miyazato did the same but gave the shot back at 10.  Kerr birdied 12 to become the first to go -9.  Ai seemed to seize the day with three straight birdies - 11, 12 and 13 - to break into double-digits.  Pettersen took a bogey at 14 to fall three back and she couldn't make up any ground from there.  Song-Hee Kim couldn't find a birdie at all over the back nine.  Shin got to -7 with her own birdie barrage at 11 through 13 but then she too went dry.  It all came down to between my pick to win this event and The Constructivist's...so obviously, Kerr was doomed.

Miyazato took her fourth bogey of the day at 14 to drop back to -9 and into a tie for the lead.  Playing two groups ahead, Cristie birdied 16 to go out in front alone.  At 17 however, she gave it right back.  On 16, Ai dropped her seventh Sunday birdie to retake the lead.  At 18, Kerr drove badly for the second straight hole and took another bogey to finish -8.  Up two with two holes to play, Miyazato parred them both and The Asian Double was hers.

TC semi-live-blogged the final round over at Mostly Harmless - check it out for his perspective on how it all played out.  Australian Channel 7's coverage (via Golf Channel) airs today at 1pm EST - that 2.5 hours ought to be fun to watch.  For the second consecutive week, Congratulations Ai-sama!