Karrie Webb shot a closing even-par 72 yesterday for a six-stroke win in the Women's Australian Open, her third national golf championship.
Webb, who began the day with a four-stroke lead over Wei Yun-jye of Taiwan, never saw her lead shrink to fewer than three shots at Royal Sydney. Webb finished with a 10-under-par total of 278.
Wei shot a final-round 74 to finish in second place at 4-under 284.
PHOTO: AP
"Hopefully it's a good start to a good year," Webb said. "Obviously four days ago I would've been happy to sit in the clubhouse at two-under, so it exceeded my expectations to finish at 10-under on a very good golf course."
"I feel very good about things," she said. "After the two-month layoff I had, to get straight back into it and play some very solid golf is very encouraging."
Paula Marti of Spain and Minea Blomqvist of Finland, each with closing 69s, finished in a tie for third at 2-under 286. Brittany Lincicome of the US and Shin Ji-yai of South Korea also finished at 69 and were tied for fourth another shot back.
Katherine Hull of Australia shot a 7-under 65, the best round of the day, to move into ninth place.
Laura Davies of the UK shot 77 to finish at 13-over, 23 shots behind Webb, while Natalie Gulbis of the US had a closing 81 and finished at 14-over 302.
Webb, Davies and Gulbis are all scheduled to play next week's ANZ Australian Ladies Masters at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast, which is also co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour.
Webb is a five-time Masters champion and Davies has won the event three times.
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