Yoo wins Kraft Nabisco after Kim’s miss

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) — Sun Young Yoo won the Kraft Nabisco Championship with an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday, earning her first major title after I.K. Kim missed a 1-foot putt on the final hole of regulation.

Yoo won the LPGA Tour’s first major of the season with steady play down the stretch, but she got to make the traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond only after Kim’s mind-boggling miss on the same green minutes earlier.

Yoo, who earned her second career LPGA Tour victory, and Kim finished at 9 under, but Kim could have all but wrapped up her first major with the tap-in par putt.

Kim might have struck the ball oddly, and it toured the lip of the cup before coming out on the same side it entered. The gallery gasped, and Kim raised her left hand to her mouth in disbelief.

“I played straight, and it actually just broke to the right, even that short putt,” said Kim, a 23-year-old South Korean who lives in the Los Angeles area. “So it was unfortunate on 18, but ... I feel good about my game. It’s getting better.”

Kim’s unbelievable miss on the Dinah Shore course will go down in tournament lore after a thoroughly wacky final round in which five players held the lead.

Kim had been the most consistent contender amid those wild momentum swings, going bogey-free through 17 holes — until she made a mistake reminiscent of Scott Hoch’s missed 2-foot putt that would have won the 1989 Masters, and Doug Sanders’ miss on a 3-footer to win the 1970 British Open.

“On the playoff hole, it’s just hard to kind of focus on what’s going on right now,” Kim said. “Because I was still a little bit bummed (about) what happened on 18, honestly.”

PGA Tour

HUMBLE, Texas — Hunter Mahan won the Houston Open to become the first two-time winner this year on the PGA Tour, finishing with a 1-under 71 on Sunday to edge Carl Pettersson by a stroke.

Mahan, the Match Play Championship winner in February, finished at 16 under at Redstone. The victory moved Mahan to No. 4 in the world ranking, the first time he’s ever been the highest-ranked American.

He earned $1.08 million for fifth PGA Tour title.

Sicilian Open

SCIACCA, Sicily — Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen won the Sicilian Open for his first European Tour title, closing with a 3-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over England’s Chris Wood.

The 22-year-old Olesen finished at 15-under 273 on the Verdura course.

Woods matched the course record with a 64.

Tags: sports, golf