Kim's late birdie in Lexus Cup gives Sorenstam perfect parting gift
By
Jeanette Wang
Team Asia enjoying the trophy celebrations by spraying champagne at the winners from the Internationals' side. The Lexus Cup went down to the last hole of the final match. -- ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM
See-saw battles, lucky breaks, inspired comebacks, 18th-hole heroics and underdog victors - you bet there were.
And then a fitting farewell for the retiring Annika Sorenstam, with victory dramatically sealed by a Christina Kim birdie on the last hole of the Lexus Cup's final match.
You would have heard the ruckus if you were among the 6,000 spectators at the Singapore Island Country Club yesterday, created by American Kim before, during and after she scored the decisive half-point to give Team International a 121/2-111/2 win over the Asians.
With the other 22 players done with their singles matches and watching anxiously from the sidelines of the par-five 18th, both Kim and Japan's Namika Omata - all square after 17 holes - sent their second shots safely to the green.
'Let's go Asia!' screamed a fan.
'I can't hear you, say it louder!' quipped the 38th-ranked Kim, as she read the green for her 20-foot eagle attempt.
World No.118 Omata, needing to win the hole to send the Lexus Cup into a sudden-death play-off with the Asians trailing 11-12, was up first. She two-putted from 25 feet for a birdie.
Kim, cool under pressure and a partisan crowd, left her eagle putt a foot short. It halved the hole and the match, and gave the Internationals a title they last won at the first Lexus Cup in 2005.
'It's such a thrill to win for Annika,' said Kim, still gushing after her heroics.'I was scared blankless, but it was just great to have it come down to me.'
After the opening foursomes and Saturday's fourballs failed to separate the teams for the first time in the tournament's history, yesterday's singles was bound to be a nail-biting affair.
Sorenstam set the example by crushing Asia's captain Pak Se Ri 3 and 2 in the day's opening match, then proceeded to the more stressful job of spectating.
'I was looking at the board constantly, figuring out who needs to do what and which could be the deciding match,' said Swedish world No. 3. 'In the end, it came down to a putt here and a putt there.'
Both teams had their hits and misses.
American Nicole Castrale needed to sink an eight-foot putt to keep it square going into the 18th hole against Sarah Lee. But she missed to give the Asian vice-captain the lead for the first time and eventually the 1-up win.
Suzann Pettersen, trailing Tseng Ya-ni since the seventh hole, sank a 12-foot eagle putt at the last to halve her match against the Taiwanese world No. 2.
And then 36th-ranked Kim Song Hee of Korea, who was all square with No. 4 Cristie Kerr, got lucky with her approach on the 18th, which hit the roof of a grandstand and rolled onto the green's edge.
Kerr missed her seven-foot birdie putt. Song Hee eventually birdied a two-footer to take the match 1-up, utter disbelief written all over her face.
But the Internationals soon went 12-10 ahead. Korean Choi Na Yeon beat Paula Creamer 3 and 2, but Helen Alfredsson, Natalie Gulbis, Katherine Hull and Angela Stanford all won and Karen Stupples halved with Ji Eun Hee.
Then Candie Kung beat Australia's Nikki Campbell 3 and 2 to set up the final piece of drama.
'I couldn't have asked for a better ending to my career. I'm very proud of my ladies,' said Sorenstam, before hinting to the event's title sponsor: 'If Lexus comes back, I'll be back.'
Pak, too, was elated with her team that had six rookies, saying: 'I don't feel that we lost it. My team gave 110 per cent.'
The way both teams doused each other with champagne at the victory ceremony, it looked like the dramatic day was missing something after all. Losers.
