Honda LPGA Thailand - Final Round

Yani Tseng birdied three times in four holes to start the back nine, pulling away from the field as she went on to win the Honda LPGA Thailand.  It is the sixth victory (just the third non-major) for Tseng in her three-plus seasons on Tour.  Michelle Wie finished second at -10, five shots behind.  In-Kyung Kim and Karrie Webb tied for third at -9 while Paula Creamer wound up alone in fifth at -8.

Early on, things shaped up as a three-horse race - the final group of Tseng and Wie both birdied 1 while Kim birdied 2 and 3 to tie Yani for the lead at -10.  Tseng birdied 5 to go -11, Inky birdied 6 to join her while Michelle also birdied 6 to reach -10.  Meanwhile, Creamer played the first six holes in +1 to fall five back and Webb bogeyed four straight to completely torpedo her hopes.  Wie birdied 7, which would have created a three-way tie had Tseng not done the same.  The three made the turn with Yani in front at -12 leading Wie and Kim by one.

Inky birdied the par-5 10^th to tie for the lead.  Yani did the same to retake the lead but Michelle wasn't able to hold serve, only managing par.  After everybody parred 11, Tseng birdied 12 to take her first two-shot lead of the day.  Kim responded with a birdie at 13 to get back within one but she could only par the next three holes.  Meanwhile Yani kept on truckin' - birdie at 13 was negated by bogey at 14 but another birdie at 15 put her at -15, two ahead of Kim and four clear of Wie with just three holes to play.  Neither Inky nor Michelle could make the late charge - in fact, they both imploded.  Wie bogeyed 17 and only parred 18 while Kim somehow took a quintuple-bogey nine at 17, making her birdie at 18 as anti-climactic as possible.  Tseng parred the last three holes as her competition faded away.

Kim's late struggles allowed Karrie Webb to mount an amazing comeback.  Through five holes, Karrie was +4 on the day and -2 for the tournament.  She birdied seven times in the last twelve holes (three straight at 13, 14 and 15) to finish -9, tied with Inky for third place.  Creamer started coming back around the turn with three birdies to reach -9 and get within three of the lead but she went cold again, finding no birdies over the last eight.  After 2.75 days of mostly stumbling around, Juli Inkster birdied her final three holes to somehow grab solo sixth place.  Some good comebacks there but nobody was able to complete the comeback on Yani Tseng - hard to do that when she starts with the lead and drops a 66 on you.  The World's #1 certainly lived up to her billing this week.