Karrie Webb
LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Karrie Webb shot a final-round 6-under 66 to win the inaugural RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup in a final round charge at Wildfire Golf Club at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa that included seven birdies and one bogey to prevail by one stroke over three-time LPGA Tour winner Brittany Lincicome.
Webb fired rounds of 71-67-66 to capture her second-consecutive win of the 2011 LPGA Tour season - the 38th LPGA career victory - and only three weeks after the Australian won the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore.
The win earned Webb $200,000 to be donated to her charities of choice, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and Japan Relief.
As one of the most decorated golfers in women's history, Webb's 15-year career now includes 38 LPGA Tour career victories, three LPGA official money list titles, two Rolex Player of the Year awards, three Vare Trophies and the 1995 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award. Webb is one of only six LPGA players to have achieved the career LPGA Grand Slam and the only player in LPGA history to complete the career Super LPGA Grand Slam. She is also the youngest player in LPGA history to achieve these feats.
Webb fended off a star studded duo of Brittany Lincicome and Paula Creamer by one shot. Rolex Rankings No. 23 Lincicome played steady in Sunday’s final round but came up short after a bogey at 18. Lincicome’s 11-under-par 205 tournament total earned her a tie for second with nine-time LPGA Tour winner Creamer. Creamer, who began the day tied for eighth, made a final round charge but a tournament best six-under-par 66 left her one stroke shy of Webb.
Brittany Lincicome, Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr punched their “Ticket to Titleholders” at the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup.By virtue of their top-three finishes, Lincicome, Creamer and Kerr each earned a spot in the season-ending Titleholders event, to be held Nov. 17-20, 2011 at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Fla. The inaugural Titleholders, a season finale with a field made up of three qualifiers from every official LPGA Tour tournament, is a format never previously used in professional golf.
The entire $1 million purse of the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup goes to charity, half to the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf programme, half to the charities chosen by the top-10 finishers as follows:
1: Karrie Webb, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation
T2: Brittany Lincicome, First Tee of St. Petersburg
T2: Paula Creamer, Japan Relief Charity TBD
4: Cristie Kerr, Birdies for Breast Cancer/Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Foundation
5: Angela Stanford, The Angela Stanford Foundation
6: Mindy Kim, Make A Wish Foundation of Central Florida
T7: Morgan Pressel, The Morgan Pressel Foundation
T7: Sun Young Yoo, Japan Relief Charity TBD
9: Seon Hwa Lee, American Heart Association
T10: Sara Jane Smith, Japan Relief Charity, TBD
T10: Stacy Prammanasudh, Special Olympics of Tulsa, Oklahoma
T10: Sandra Gal, Japan Relief Charity, TBD
Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng fired a final-round 69 to finish tied for 29th with the No. 2, Jiyai Shin, carding a Sunday 69 to finish tied for 29th.
Second-round leader Angela Stanford faltered with a final-round 75 to finish fifth.
