Ji-Yai Shin began this year thinking she’d end up playing in the LPGA Tour’s qualifying school.
A major title and a $1 million cheque changed all that.
Shin, this summer’s British Open champion, held off Karrie Webb and an ailing Paula Creamer to win the ADT Championship on Sunday with a final round 2-under par 70 at Trump International. She captured the $1 million winner’s prize, by far the biggest on tour, after a four-birdie, two-bogey day.
In her country’s currency, Shin collected 1.493 billion—yes, billion— South Korean won.
That’s a lot of won for one win.
“A really special year for me,” said Shin, who isn’t even a full-fledged member of the LPGA Tour yet—but won three times in those fields this year, has 21 wins worldwide since 2007 and will likely be an instant LPGA front-runner in 2009.
Webb finished one shot back and Creamer, who spent Saturday night in the hospital because of an inflamed abdominal wall, finished tied for third with Seon Hwa Lee after both shot 74s.
Creamer needed to win Sunday to finish atop the money list, something no American player has done since Betsy King in 1993. Instead, Lorena Ochoa—who didn’t qualify for the weekend at ADT—finished with the money title with $2,762,660.
“I gave it all I had,” said Creamer, who fell ill Wednesday night and could barely eat since the tournament began, plus had to down some medicine on the 13th hole just to finish Sunday’s round. “I tried as hard as I possibly could. I wasn’t going to quit.”
Creamer made two birdies in a three-hole span on the back side, but took a three-putt bogey at the par-5 15th, essentially ending her chances at her fifth win of the year and taking the money crown.
For many, the ADT week was filled with drama, starting with Annika Sorenstam’s final tournament on the LPGA Tour—a farewell that ended Friday when she didn’t make the weekend field—and continuing with Creamer’s illness.
She considered withdrawing Friday morning, almost unable to get out of bed, and wound up getting three CT scans and fluids through an intravenous tube in a South Florida hospital on Saturday night.
“They got to know me really well,” said Creamer, who insisted that doctors released her by 7:15 a.m. Sunday so she could make her tee time.
Meanwhile, Shin stayed steady, never too far up, never too far down. And her approach worked best.
Of the eight players who remained in Sunday’s shootout for $1 million, Shin was the only one to never have her total score rise above par. She started with two birdies in her first three holes, and vaulted to the front when Webb strung together three straight bogeys on holes 11-13.
Webb rolled in a long birdie on the 18th to get within one, but Shin merely needed a cool two-putt for the win.
“I gave myself a chance,” Webb said. “Making it to Sunday was the minimum goal for the week, and today I played very solidly. I just probably needed a couple more putts to go in. I’m just glad I made Ji-Yai think about it on the last hole.”
Eun-Hee Ji was alone in fifth with a 75, Angela Stanford was sixth after a 78, while Suzann Pettersen—who shot Saturday’s round of the day but struggled mightily Sunday—and Jeong Jang both finished with 79s.
