Cristie Kerr overcome an eight-stroke deficit to hand Angela Stanford a crushing loss for the second time in three months, shooting a bogey-free 7-under 65 for a one-stroke victory in the Canadian Women's Open on Sunday.
"Unbelievable! I felt like I played great, but I still can't believe I won," Kerr said. "It was just a magical day ... I'm very proud of myself."
Kerr, who came from four strokes back to beat Stanford in May in the Franklin American Mortgage Championship in Tennessee, finished with a 12-under 276 total on the London Hunt and Country Club course. She earned US$255,000 for her eighth career win.
"I like Angela," Kerr said. "She's a great player ... I feel for Angela. I've been in that position many times and know how it feels."
Stanford, four strokes ahead of Meena Lee after the third round, bogeyed the final two holes for a 74 -- 10 strokes higher than her tournament-record tying opening round.
"I'm not sure how I'm going to react to this one," Stanford said. "It's probably a good thing that I'm playing next week. It's probably good to keep going."
She missed a 7-foot putt on the par-3 17th after hitting into a greenside bunker and three-putted the par-4 18th, leaving her long first putt 8 feet short.
"I just really thought that that green was going to be faster," she said. "The last thing you want to do is hit that putt too far and blow it past the hole. I really thought it was going to pick up more speed and it didn't."
Pat Hurst shot a 68 to finish third at 10 under. Lee (74) followed at 7 under and Jee Young Lee (74) was another stroke back.
Kerr, coming off a second-place tie last week in the Women's British Open, opened with rounds of 67, 70 and 74 to begin the day at 5 under. She flew up the leaderboard with six birdies in a nine-hole span, including four in a row on Nos. 7-10.
She made a 5-foot birdie putt on the par-5 16th -- with the ball spinning around twice before dropping in -- to reach 12 under and cut Stanford's lead to one, but missed a chance to reach 13 under when her 12-foot putt on 18 slid by the right edge.
"I thought I needed to make that to have a chance to get in a playoff," Kerr said.
The 27-year-old star rebounded from a disappointing finish in the Women's British Open. At Royal Lytham, she was a stroke back with three holes to play, but bogeyed 16 and finished with a double bogey to end up three strokes behind Sherri Steinhauer.
"I knew I was playing well," said Kerr, who also closed with a 65 two weeks ago in France to finish 10th in the Evian Masters
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