WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Annika Sorenstam closed another spectacular year with her 10th LPGA Tour victory Sunday, holding off a spirited charge from Liselotte Neumann with a 12-foot birdie on the 16th hole in the ADT Championship.
Sorenstam finished with two solid pars for a 3-under 69 and a two-stroke victory over Neumann, who three-putted from off the green on the final hole while trying for birdie to force a playoff. Neumann shot a 70.
Sorenstam became the first player to successfully defend her title in the LPGA Tour version of the Tour Championship, and has won the event four times.
She finished at 6-under 282 and earned $215,000, taking her season total to more than $2.5 million. She also captured her sixth Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average, finishing at 69.33, the fourth best in LPGA history. And it was the second time Sorenstam has won at least 10 times in one LPGA season.
The 35-year-old Swede, who also won a European tour event in Sweden this year, has 66 career LPGA Tour victories – 22 short of Kathy Whitworth’s record.
Dunlop Phoenix
MIYAZAKI, Japan – Tiger Woods birdied the fourth hole of a playoff with Japan’s Kaname Yokoo to successfully defend his Dunlop Phoenix title.
Woods, playing with an ankle injury that could force him to withdraw from the PGA Grand Slam this week in Hawaii, reached the green at the par-5 18th in two shots and two-putted for birdie for his seventh victory of the year.
Yokoo missed a 12-foot birdie putt. Woods, who had a one-stroke lead over Jim Furyk going into the final round, shot a 2-over 72 to match Yokoo (69) at 8-under 272 on the Phoenix Country Club course.
The top-ranked American had a chance to win in regulation, but could only manage par on the 18th after his tee shot landed in a bunker halfway down the fairway.
Woods won six times on the PGA Tour this year, including major victories in the Masters and British Open. He was coming off consecutive runner-up finishes in the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship and the HSBC Champions last week in China.
World Cup
VILAMOURA, Portugal – Wales’ Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge won the World Cup on Sunday when the final round was called off amid heavy rain and gusting wind.
Dodd and Dredge shot an 11-under 61 on Saturday in better-ball play for a two-stroke lead over Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth and England’s David Howell and Luke Donald. The Welsh pair earned $700,000.
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AP-ES-11-20-05 1838EST
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