BROKEN ARROW, Okla. -- Player after player noted that Cedar
Ridge Country Club's 6,602-yard layout seemed a lot longer during
the SemGroup Championship because of soggy conditions, the remnants
of storms that hit Oklahoma during the past week.
"You know, the course is too long for me, because it's so wet,
and I'm not a long hitter," Mi Hyun Kim said Sunday. "So I just
keep trying to do it my way."
That way -- playing station-to-station, target golf -- proved
effective enough for Kim, who beat Juli Inkster in a one-hole
playoff.
Kim posted her eighth career win and denied Inkster -- who shot a
2-under-par 69 on Sunday -- an LPGA Tour record in the process.
Inkster, who will turn 47 next month, would have been the oldest
winner in tour history.
Kim shot an even-par 71, finishing regulation tied with Inkster
at 3-under. Kim's only sub-par round of the tournament came
Saturday, a 3-under 68 that followed a 71 on Friday.
"I didn't know even-par two days could get (me) a win today,"
Kim said. "I have a little bit of luck."
Ai Miyazoto and Angela Stanford finished tied for third at
2-under. Four others were at 1-under, including Lorena Ochoa,
Reilley Rankin and Stephanie Louden. Rankin and Louden began the
day in a four-way tie for first with Karin Sjodin and Nicole
Castrale.
As the round progressed, that foursome fell back. Castrale, who
led after the opening round, was still at 4-under through five
holes, but bogeyed four of the next eight. Louden had four bogeys
in her first six holes. Sjodin, who played in college at nearby
Oklahoma State, was tied with Inkster for the lead after six holes
but recorded a triple bogey on the par-4 eighth.
That opened the door for the steady play of Inkster and Kim.
Inkster, who started at 1-under, birdied the first two holes,
chipped in for par at No. 4 and took the lead with a birdie on No.
6. She held at least a share of it until a bogey at No. 17.
That hole "kind of hurt me," Inkster said. "I was right in
the middle of the fairway and only had 8-iron and kind of hooked it
a little bit and didn't get it up and down."
Moments after that bogey, Kim curled in a breaking 15-foot
birdie putt at No. 16 to take a two-shot edge. Inkster hit a 6-foot
birdie putt on No. 18 to close the gap to one shot.
Kim hit her tee shot into the rough on the par-4 17th, but
salvaged par, knocking a 5-foot putt into the center of the hole.
On the 18th, her tee shot landed in the middle of the fairway but
she hit into a greenside bunker and two-putted from five feet for
bogey.
"Kimmy is a phenomenal putter," Inkster said. "She's probably
the best putter I've ever seen. I just thought on 18 it was in."
So did Kim.
"It was a surprise to me, too," Kim said. "That was a
makeable putt."
Kim attributed the miss to nerves, but by the time the playoff
started, she had calmed down.
Kim, whose last tour win came after a three-hole playoff with
Natalie Gulbis in the 2006 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, hit
her second shot in the playoff to the fringe on the back of the
green, about 35 feet from the hole, and two-putted.
Inkster's second shot sailed over the green. She chipped 8 feet
past the hole but missed the par putt and tapped in for bogey,
right before Kim made her final putt from 4 feet.
Kim said the key to her success was simple -- hitting the ball
straight and making putts.
"I just told my caddie to check the course ... then tell me the
target and then which club I have to hit," Kim said.
That proved to be a smart strategy.
"It's kind of like a (U.S.) Open course," Inkster said of
Cedar Ridge. "Par is your friend and ... you just try to take as
many pars as you can get and sprinkle a few birdies in there and
you've had a good round."