November 23 -- It came down to the final hole in the final round of the final tournament of the LPGA season, but Lorena Ochoa drained a clutch birdie putt on 18 to wrap up player-of-the-year honors by one point over Jiyai Shin.
After what seemed to be a disastrous bogey on the 17th hole of the LPGA Tour Championship, Ochoa calmly drained an eight-foot birdie putt at 18, forcing Shin to match her score on the same hole.
When Shin failed to sink her chip shot, Ochoa had won her fourth consecutive player-of-the-year trophy. The top-ranked golfer breathed a sigh of relief and high-fived her caddie.
And the winner is....In the midst of the riveting Ochoa-Shin battle, Anna Nordqvist breezed to a two-stroke victory over Ochoa after firing a 7-under for the day and 13-under for the tourney.
“This week was just unbelievable,” two-time LPGA winner Nordqvist told Golf Channel after sinking her par putt on the 18th. “I’m very happy and thankful for everyone who’s there for me.”
Even with five birdies in a row between the eighth and 12th holes, Nordqvist was practically an after-thought as Ochoa and Shin watched each other play.
Dramatic ending. The Golf Channel did its part to build the drama, providing point-by-point updates throughout the final round. But the golfers, who were always aware of each other’s progress, needed no help in a finale worthy of the last day of a rather dramatic LPGA season.
Shin, who had what seemed an almost insurmountable lead at the start of the tournament, could not hold off the old pro. Indeed, Ochoa, with a 5-under for the day, outplayed Shin in the final round of the rain-shortened LPGA final round.
Shin, for her part, also misplayed the 17th hole into a bogey, but missed winning the title by only a few inches. She shot a 1-over for the day and ended at 6-under for the tourney.
“Everything came down to the last hole and I’m just very proud of the way I finished,” Ochoa said to Golf Channel. “I’m going to go home and rest and enjoy the top position.”
Scoreboard watching. Ochoa and Shin kept close tabs on each other throughout the day. How could they not, with Shin in the last threesome, one group behind Ochoa?
“For sure, I was aware [of the scores] all day,” Ochoa said. “I wanted to win so I didn’t worry about the points.”
Pressure cooker. But was it too much scoreboard-peering for the 21-year-old South Korean rookie? It almost seemed too much pressure for Ochoa.
Before badly yanking her tee shot to the par-3 17th, Ochoa studied Shin’s missed birdie putt on the par-5 16th. Then, with a logjam on the 17th, and after about a 15-minute wait to tee off, Ochoa misplayed her shot into a green-side bunker as Shin watched from the back of the tee area.
The race seemed all but over when Ochoa dumped her first bunker shot into the next trap and flew her third shot past the hole by 10 feet. Shin’s nervous laughter as she waited on the tee belied the tension that the 21-year-old South Korean was surely feeling.
Ochoa holed her bogey putt as Shin tried to stay loose on the tee. Then, after waiting 19 minutes to tee off, Shin hit a 7-wood into a middle green-side bunker.
With the ball below her feet, a slight downhill lie, and a terrible stance with one foot in and one foot out of the bunker, Shin left her second shot in the rough above the green.
Shin carded a bogey, which dropped her into a tie for eighth place, as Ochoa studied the leaderboard and got ready to putt for birdie on the 18th green.
Learning experience. A still-smiling Shin said afterward she learned a lot from a season in which she won rookie-of-the-year honors and came within inches of sweeping both awards -- a feat accomplished only once, by Nancy Lopez in 1978.
“I [learned] I need more focus and concentration and more everything,” Shin told Golf Channel.
New course record. Four days after Ochoa set the Houstonian Golf & Country Club course-record 66 (and one day after Mikaela Parmlid tied that record), Na Yeon Choi fired an 8-under 64.
Rain may have shortened the LPGA Tour Championship to 54 holes and forced a Monday finale, but the LPGA season-ender did not disappoint. Read about the buildup to the showdown for player-of-the-year honors at Ochoa, Shin take race to frenzied final round.
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