Annika Sorenstam had three birdies on the back nine and finished with a 2-under 70 Sunday to win her first LPGA Tour event of the year by one stroke at the MasterCard Classic.
The top-ranked female golfer, who also won this tournament a year ago, was at even par and tied for the lead after the first nine holes. But she reeled off three birdies in four holes to take the tournament with an 8-under 208 total.
On the 18th hole, the Swede missed a short putt for par, but tapped in to take the victory. It was the 21st time the 35-year-old Sorenstam has successfully defended a tournament title.
"You come here with high expectations to defend a title, it's always tough, but I thought I played really well this week," she said. "This is a great event to start off the season. I got off to a great start."
A mariachi band played as Sorenstam held the trophy high, and one of its members placed a massive brown and black sombrero on her head.
The event at Bosque Real Country Club, outside Mexico City, marked Sorenstam's first LPGA Tour start since winning the ADT Championship in November and her first competitive appearance since teaming with Liselotte Neumann in January to win the Women's World Cup in South Africa.
Last year, Sorenstam also won in Mexico to start her season, closing with a 68 for a three-stroke victory. She has now won 11 of her last 21 LPGA Tour starts and has 67 career victories -- 21 short of Kathy Whitworth's record.
Playing in front of thousands of fans who cheered and chanted for her through the weekend, Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa shot a 2-over 74 to finish 2 over for the tournament.
That was a stroke worse than another native of the western city of Guadalajara, amateur Sophia Sheridan, who shot a 2-under 70 Sunday to finish 1 over.
Luke Donald won his first PGA Tour event while sitting in a locker room, after that week's final round was canceled by two days of rain.
As cheers rained down upon him late Sunday afternoon, victory No. 2 seemed a whole lot sweeter.
Donald used back-to-back birdies midway through his back nine to take the outright lead at 11 under, made a great scrambling par on the difficult 16th to preserve the margin and beat Geoff Ogilvy by two shots in the Honda Classic.
A 3-under 69 was good enough for the Englishman, who bought a house in Palm Beach Gardens last year and pocketed a winner's check of US$990,000. A perfect approach to 1.2m on the 18th set up his final birdie, sealing the triumph.
Donald's only other tour win was at the 2002 Southern Farm Bureau Classic, when he held a one-shot lead after 54 holes and never took another swing. The final round was washed out by 4 inches of rain, and the 1999 NCAA champion from Northwestern had no true winning moment to stash in his memory bank.
Tom Kite won his first Champions Tour title since 2004, closing with a 2-under 70 for a five-stroke victory over Gil Morgan.
The 56-year-old Kite finished with a 12-under 204 total and earned US$240,000for his eighth career victory on the 50-and-over tour. He matched the Valencia Country Club tournament record with an 8-under 64 Saturday.
Kite began the round with a one-stroke lead and was four ahead after six holes.
The lead never went below five on the back nine and Kite cruised to the victory. It was the largest margin of victory in the event and the largest on the tour since Hale Irwin's five-stroke win last year in the Turtle Bay Championship.
"This was way to long of a drought," Kite said. "These last two wins, it's been kind of sparse. When I first came out here and won five or six events, I was thinking this Champions Tour thing was pretty easy."
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