Jordan Higgins wins Symetra Tour opener

WINTER HAVEN, Florida, March 13, (AP): Olivia Jordan-Higgins won the season-opening Florida’s Natural Charity Classic by a stroke Sunday for her third Symetra Tour title.

Jordan-Higgins closed with a 2-under 70 to hold off Christine Song (66) and China’s Yu Liu (67). The winner finished at 10-under 207 at the Country Club of Winter Haven and earned $$18,750.

Jordan-Higgins is from Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands between England and France, and played at Charleston Southern. She also won tour events in 2013 and 2014.

Jordan-Higgins took a two-stroke lead into the final day after opening with rounds of 66 and 70. She birdied the par-3 second and made a double bogey on the par-4 seventh, then — after a nearly two-hour rain delay — rallied with birdies on the par-5 11th and par-4 14th and 16th.

The top 10 on the final money list will earn 2018 LPGA Tour cards.

ship in 2011, was low amateur in the US Open and didn’t finish out of the top 25 in his four PGA Tour starts that summer.

A stress fracture in his back kept him out of golf for two years. Then, he endured a far greater burden a year ago February when his best friend and caddie, Chris Roth, was struck and killed by a car as they were walking to a restaurant for dinner in California.

He looked like he was never gone. Trailing by four shots with 10 holes to play, he ran off five birdies in a sixhole stretch that put enormous pressure on Hadwin.

Hadwin is the third Canadian to qualify for the Masters, joining RSM Classic winner Mackenzie Hughes and 2003 champion Mike Weir.