Jamie Farr Classic - Final Round

Na Yeon Choi birdied the second playoff hole to win the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.  It is her first win of 2010 and the third of her career, all coming in the last ten months.  A trio of Kims - Song-Hee, In-Kyung and Christina - came up short in the four-way playoff while Jiyai Shin finished fifth and missed the playoff by one shot.

It would have been a great Sunday to follow the developments either on TV or on the online leaderboard but unfortunately I could do neither.  For this recap, I reconstructed the action via the scorecards and final round notes at LPGA.com.  Choi and Christina were playing in the final group, separated by one shot at the start and three shots clear of the pack.  Neither of them could maintain their distance as both bogeyed the first hole.  Christina continued to struggle, going out in +1 and taking double-bogey at 10 to fall to -10 and seemingly out of the picture.  NYC recovered with birdies at 2 and 5 to go -15.  She rattled off nine straight pars after that which, while not seizing control of the tournament, did keep her out front.  Song-Hee had gone out in 29 and reached -14, then bogeyed 10 and birdied 13 to remain one behind.  Shin, playing ten groups and an hour-and-a-half ahead of the leader, birdied the last three holes to cap off a 64 and finish -13.  Inky birdied 12, 14 and 15 to join Shin at -13 but then knocked her out of contention with a birdie at 18 conclude her 64 and finish -14.  Song-Hee took a hit when she bogeyed 16 but she got the shot back at 17.  A par at 18 left her tied with Inky.

Back to the final group.  Christina rebounded from her double at 10 with three straight birdies to go -13.  For the second straight day Choi bogeyed 14, dropping her into a tie for the lead at -14.  Also for the second straight day Choi bogeyed 15 - now she was one behind Song-Hee and Inky and tied with Christina.  Both of the final two parred 16, then Christina birdied 17 to create a three-way tie for the lead.  Back against the wall, Choi birdied 18 from 12 feet to make it a four-way playoff.  Christina had 10 feet to win outright but missed it on the high side.

As usual, the 18th was the first playoff hole.  On this par-5 hole, all four players had birdie putts within 15 feet (Song-Hee's was only five) but none of them connected.  Another par-5, 17 was the second playoff hole.  Choi gave herself three feet for birdie this time and canned it for the victory.  Congratulations NYC!  Sorry we all missed it...