GOLF ROUNDUP
Annie Park wins ShopRite LPGA
Annie Park won the ShopRite LPGA Classic for her first LPGA Tour victory, closing with an 8-under 63 on Sunday for a one-stroke victory over Sakura Yokomine. The 23-year-old Park, from Levittown, New York, had an eagle and six birdies on a cloudy day over the Bay Course at Stockton Seaview in Galloway, N.J., to complete 54 holes at 16-under 197, a stroke off the tournament record. "I can't describe in words how I feel," Park said. "It's my first win out on tour. I mean, every win is very special, but just having my family out here, my friends supporting me, it's just — all the fans, my friends back home, I would like to thank all of them. Without them and having that support, I probably wouldn't have been here today." Park began the year with conditional status on the LPGA Tour, but her season came around in April at the LPGA Mediheal Championship in San Francisco. She qualified on Monday, tied for 18th and won more than $17,000 to improve her status on the priority list. "It's been a crazy first half of the year," she said. "Came into the year with having partial status and juggling between the Symetra Tour and the LPGA Tour. I think that Mediheal tournament really got it going, Mondayed in, had a great first two rounds, got reshuffled into the mix. And having this first win, it's been crazy." Park used a long putter. "I switched to it this January, and it's actually helped me out a lot," Park said. "I've always struggled with putting. I like it, but it's also kind of hard because it's longer and heavier. It took a while for me to get used to the putter, but I really like it." Yokomine, the winner of 23 events on the Japan LPGA Tour, flirted with a 59 but parred the par-5 18th for a 61 to tie the course record.
Champions washed out, Lehman wins
Tom Lehman was standing outside of a Des Moines-area makeup shop waiting for his daughter/caddie when he got the call to head back to Wakonda Club. Lehman told Rachael Chapman to pay her bill at Sephora as quickly as possible — because dad had a trophy waiting for him at the course. Lehman, the second-round leader, took the PGA Tour Champions' Principal Charity Classic after weather washed out the final round Sunday.
Tournament officials had delayed the start of the third round by nearly five hours because of bands of light but persistent rain before calling the event.
With Lehman set to tee off last, he and Chapman went to a nearby mall to kill some time before the weather cleared out. But it never did — with officials delaying it nine times before calling it.
The 59-year-old Lehman shot a 7-under 65 on Saturday to reach 13 under and take a two-shot lead over Bernhard Langer, Glen Day, Woody Austin and Scott Parel.
"It's like a field-goal kicker getting iced nine times but each one lasts 30 minutes," Lehman said. "There's times when you play that you know that the forecast on Sunday is really lousy and that it's really important that you try to get in Saturday night in the lead if you can because of the chance you might not play. I didn't see that coming."
U.S. rolls to Curtis Cup win
Kristen Gillman led a U.S. singles sweep in the biggest blowout in Curtis Cup history. Gillman, the 20-year-old University of Alabama star from Austin, Texas, beat 16-year-old Annabell Fuller 5 and 4 to cap a perfect weekend at Quaker Ridge in the amateur competition at Scarsdale, N.Y. The Americans won 17-3, breaking the record for margin of victory of 11 set in a 14 1/2-3 1/2 victory at Denver Country Club in 1982. They improved to 29-8-3 in the series, rebounding from a loss in 2016 at Dun Laoghaire in Ireland. "I'm very proud of my players," U.S. captain Virginia Derby Grimes said. "They are a phenomenal group of girls. They've been so much fun to be around, and they just gelled and bonded." Gillman, the 2014 U.S. Women's Amateur champion, joined American Stacy Lewis (2008) and England's Bronte Law (2016) as the only players to go 5-0-0 since the format was changed to three days in 2008.