A golfer from Down Under won a big tournament this week but it wasn’t the Aussie everyone expected to triumph in a tuneup for the first major of the season.
Karrie Webb sets course record on way to Founders Cup victory
Karrie Webb looks strong heading into the final LPGA Tour event before the first major of the season, the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Adam Scott was the Australian golfer with a huge lead heading into his tournament’s final round, but it was countrywoman Karrie Webb who overcame a sizable deficit to score an upset that resulted on Sunday in her second win of the 2014 season.
While Scott, who started the final round at Bay Hill with a four-shot cushion over eventual winner Matt Every, was collapsing in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Hall of Famer Webb was rising from six strokes back to fire a course-record 9-under 63 to overtake rookie Lydia Ko for the JTBC Founders Cup title in Phoenix.
“I didn’t expect to be sitting here at the start of the day,” Webb told reporters after finishing the week at 19-under to eke out a one-shot win. “Even, actually, when I finished the day, I didn’t expect to be sitting here. So I feel a little bit lucky, I guess, to be sitting here. But it doesn’t make it feel any less special.”
Sunday marked the second time in the LPGA’s signature tournament that Webb rebounded from two field goals behind in the final round. The 41-time tour winner did so in 2011, the first year the tourney made it to the women’s calendar.
Webb, who did what Scott could not on Sunday -- successfully maneuver the flat stick -- won the Women’s Australian Open last month.
“I definitely putted probably the best I have all week,” Webb said. “Worked on a few things last night and really got the ball rolling on the back nine.”
On Sunday, 54-hole leader Lydia Ko finished with three straight pars but it was only good enough to get the 16-year-old into a second place tie with 2013 Founders Cup winner Stacy Lewis, Azahara Munoz, Amy Yank, and Mirim Lee.
While Scott will lick his wounds and head to Augusta looking to bounce back from a bitter loss, Webb will finetune her game for the April 3-April 6 Kraft Nabisco Championship at next week’s Kia Classic.
“To be honest, I can’t really say I really thought about winning today,” Webb conceded. “I wanted to just, you know, nail down a couple of things that we’re working on out on the golf course today and sort of take some ‑‑ have a positive round today and take some momentum into next week and then obviously into Kraft.”
