The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Kerr wins Ochoa event

By Korea Herald

Published : Nov. 12, 2012 - 20:18

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Cristie Kerr (left) and Lorena Ochoa pose with the winner’s trophy on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News) Cristie Kerr (left) and Lorena Ochoa pose with the winner’s trophy on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News)
GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) ― Cristie Kerr won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational on Sunday for her first LPGA Tour victory in more than two years, and Stacy Lewis tied for fourth to wrap up the player of the year award.

Kerr parred the final three holes at Guadalajara Country Club to hold off Angela Stanford and third-round leader Park In-bee by a stroke. Kerr finished at 16-under 272 for her 15th LPGA Tour title and first since the LPGA Championship in June 2010.

Stanford shot 68, and Park had a 72.

The second-ranked Lewis, coming off her tour-leading fourth victory of the year last week in Japan, is the first American player of the year since Beth Daniel in 1994.

Lewis closed with a 68 to match Candie Kung at 4 under. Kung also shot 68.

Suzann Pettersen finished with a 69 to tie 12th at 7 under. She won in South Korea and Taiwan in her previous two starts.

Michelle Wie tied for 14th at 6 under after a 74.

Ochoa finished with a 71 to tie for 19th at 4 under. The Mexican star won 27 LPGA Tour titles before retiring at age 28 in 2010.

Top-ranked Yani Tseng tied for 26th in the 36-player, closing with a 72 to finish at 1 over.

Children’s Miracle Network

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) ― Charlie Beljan felt as if his heart was about to burst out of his chest Sunday at Disney, and he couldn’t have felt better.

This wasn’t another panic attack gone wild, like the one that sent him to the hospital in an ambulance after the second round and made him feel like he was going to die. This was the prospect of winning on the PGA Tour for the first time.

The roller coasters at the Magic Kingdom are nothing like what Beljan went through in the final PGA Tour event of the year.

Two days after he was wheeled out of the scoring room on a stretcher, the 28-year-old rookie was celebrating on the 18th green as the band played “Zippity-Do-Dah.” He arrived at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic with his job in jeopardy, and left with a two-year exemption that will send him to Maui at the start of the year, the PGA Championship at Oak Hill and lots of other tournaments where winners belong.

“Every day I drove underneath that Disney sign coming in here that said, ‘Where dreams come true,’ and that’s just what happened this week,” Beljan said after closing with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot win. “And I’m so grateful and so honored.”