Wie a winner at last!

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  • November 16, 2009

After years of failing to justify the hype, Michelle Wie has finally won her first LPGA Tour title.

After years of failing to justify the hype, Michelle Wie has finally won her first LPGA Tour title after a two-shot victory in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico.

Starting the final round in a tie for the lead with Cristie Kerr, Wie held her nerve on Sunday and wrapped up victory in style with a closing birdie at 18 to finish two in front of fellow American Paula Creamer.

Wie, now 20, had played in her first LPGA event at the age of just 12 but after being hyped as the female Tiger Woods her game had gone into a slump. The 2007 season seemed to sum up her decline when a wrist injury, supposedly caused by too much mobile phone texting, wrecked her campaign.

And at the start of this year she was priced up at 5/2 by Sky Bet to win on the LPGA Tour in 2009 – a price that suggested she was much more likely to fail than succeed.

However, after previously relying on invites, she had won her LPGA card at the end of 2008 and indicated that a win could be imminent with a series of promising displays.

She was a standout performer in the USA’s Solheim Cup win but until this week still couldn’t get her first win individually.

But after surviving the shock of hitting a tree at the 12th and seeing her ball rebound behind her, Wie overcame the resultant bogey with five straight pars and held a one-shot lead heading up the last.

This was her moment and she took it with both hands. Two big blows at the par five 18th left her in a greenside bunker and she splashed out to six inches before tapping in to seal a long overdue victory.

It left Creamer two shots back in second while an impressive round of 67 from Morgan Pressel saw her move up into a tie for third along with joint overnight leader Kerr and Jiyai Shin.

Tournament hostess Lorena Ochoa finished tied for sixth with Song-Hee Kim, who could not keep up her impressive start to the tournament and only managed a round of 74 on Sunday.

ALL THE FINAL ROUND SCORES
(Kor unless stated, par 72):
275 Michelle Wie (USA) 70 66 70 69
277 Paula Creamer (USA) 67 69 71 70
278 Jiyai Shin 67 66 74 71, Morgan Pressel (USA) 72 68 71 67, Cristie Kerr (USA) 69 70 67 72
281 Lorena Ochoa (Mex) 71 69 72 69, Song-Hee Kim 65 72 70 74
283 Mariajo Uribe (Col) 67 72 74 70, Yani Tseng (Tai) 72 68 69 74, In Kyung Kim 71 74 65 73, Catriona Matthew 68 75 69 71, Brittany Lang (USA) 69 70 72 72, Mi Jung Hur 70 70 72 71
284 Anna Nordqvist (Swe) 73 69 71 71, Brittany Lincicome (USA) 69 70 73 72
285 Ai Miyazato (Jpn) 71 72 70 72, Sun Young Yoo 73 72 67 73, Suzann Pettersen (Nor) 72 67 72 74
287 Na Yeon Choi 74 71 72 70, Kristy McPherson (USA) 71 69 71 76
288 Karrie Webb (Aus) 73 72 70 73
289 Juli Inkster (USA) 71 75 74 69, Candie Kung (Tai) 73 69 73 74
290 Ji-Young Oh 74 72 71 73, Hee-Won Han 71 76 70 73, Sophie Gustafson (Swe) 75 69 73 73, Laura Davies (Eng) 76 69 73 72
291 Seon Hwa Lee 71 73 73 74, Sophia Sheridan (Mex) 72 73 73 73, Eun Hee Ji 68 74 76 73, Katherine Hull (Aus) 70 73 74 74
295 Se Ri Pak 75 73 74 73
297 Angela Stanford (USA) 73 75 77 72
298 Lindsey Wright (Aus) 75 74 68 81
305 Hee Young Park 79 70 78 78

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