Karrie Webb wins HSBC
Karrie Webb demonstrated precisely the right mix of patience and pluck as she won the HSBC Women's Champions at Tanah Merah by a shot from Chie Arimura, the game little Japanese player who had led for so much of the tournament. On what was a thriller of an afternoon, Webb, who had been three behind leaving the 10th green, was home in 33 to add a 69 to earlier scores of 70, 66 and 70.
The 36-year-old Australian could not have been more right with her Saturday-night prediction that it would be "a battle right down to the end." Arimura, in spite of her relative inexperience of playing among the LPGA contingent, refused to go away and had a 25-footer at the last to force a play-off.
It may have been Webb's 51st title overall but she could not have looked more elated had it been her first which, for the record, was the 1995 British Women's Open championship.
"It feels great," she said. "It was a bit of an up-and-down day so I feel very happy to be slinking away with a one shot win.
"Chie," she said, "handled herself really well and was in with a chance to the end. I know she's won in Japan but today would have been a different feeling. She really toughed it out."
After nine holes of today's final round, it had looked for all the world as if Tseng was going to win for what would have been a fifth week in a row.
Having started the day six shots off the lead, the Taiwanese player had five birdies on the front nine to be out in a five-under 31. At that stage she was ten under par and only one shot to the bad.
Record crowds surged down the 10th to see how she would capitalise on that arresting start but, to their surprise, they did not have to wait long for the first glitch. After Arimura, armed with her hybrid, had hit through the wind to a couple of inches to the elevated 10th green, Tseng failed to carry the guardian bunker and, like Webb, wound up with a bogey.
What made things worse was that she reacted to her clubbing blunder by hitting through the green at each of the 11th and 12th.
She only dropped a shot over those two holes, but it would have felt like rather more as Webb birdied both to seize a share of the lead with Arimura.
By the time Webb had added two more birdies at 13 and 14, she was 13 under par and out in front. Not only that, but she had all the confidence in the world over her six-to-ten footers. "These putts don't get any easier as you get older," she explained afterwards, "but I work hard on my putting and I've reached the point where I'm pretty sure I can put a good stroke on the ball."
That little run should have spelt the end, only Webb herself proceeded to make things more exciting by taking three to get down from short of the 15th green to cut her advantage from two shots to one.
There were birdies all round at the short par-four 16th and pars at the 17th before Webb did what she had to do at 18 in leaving her 30-foot downhill putt stone dead.
Tseng finished in third place on her own, with Webb marvelling at the way she had played on the outward half. "I obviously couldn't see what I was like at the time I had that kind of confidence but I remember the feeling... You don't think you can do anything wrong."
Asked to pin-point what if any shot had made the difference to her day, Webb opted for the four-iron she had hit to 12 feet at the 11th. "I had been frustrated at being three behind after my bogey at the 10th but, by the time I holed my 12-footer, I was only one-shot off the lead and on my way."
Karen Stupples of England carded an eagle on the par five 9th to make the turn in one under and added a birdie on the 16th. However consecutive dropped shots on holes 9 and 10 followed by two more on 14 and 15 gave the Florida State graduate a final tally of 74 and a share of 24th place.
