Global Golf Post: UK and Ireland

Japan’s Ueda Wins LPGA
Mizuno Classic In Playoff

SHIMA-SHI, MIE, JAPAN | It was a fight to the finish, but Momoko Ueda of Japan won a three-hole playoff against China’s Shanshan Feng at the Mizuno Classic. The two players were tied at 16-under 200 after three rounds, forcing extra holes at Kintetsu Kashikojima Country Club.

Claiming her second title at the Mizuno Classic, Ueda carded a 3-under 69 in Sunday’s final round, while Feng started the day four shots off the lead and ripped through the course with a 7-under 65 to charge into a share of the lead.

Feng had a 15-foot putt on the 18th hole in regulation to take the lead but couldn’t convert the birdie. Then Ueda, playing in the final group, also had a chance to seal the win in regulation, but left her 16- foot birdie putt 10 inches to the right of the hole.

“When I missed that birdie putt, I thought I had lost my luck to win,” said Ueda, who won the 2007 Mizuno Classic to gain membership on the 2008 LPGA Tour. “But my caddie told me to just enjoy this and to just finish it.” On the first playoff hole, Ueda struck her approach shot to within five feet, but she burned the left edge of the cup and tapped in for par. Feng two-putted from 20 feet for par.

“I really thought she was going to make that putt,” said Feng, 22,

the first full-status member of the LPGA Tour
from the People’s Republic of China. “I thought,
‘Good, she gave me another chance.’ ”
Returning to the 18th hole for the second
extra hole, both players landed their approach
shots to the front portion of the green and both
two-putted for par. Ueda parred the hole from
30 feet, while Feng got up and down for par
from 40 feet.

On the third trip to the 18th hole, Feng’s
approach landed 25 feet left of the hole. Her
birdie attempt missed right and she tapped
in for par. Ueda, buoyed by a swelling crowd
of flag-waving Japanese fans around the last
green, hit her approach to
15 feet and then stepped
up and watched her putt
slowly trickle into the cup.
“It was my first playoff
ever in my life,” said Feng,
who earned her second
career runner-up finish on
the LPGA Tour. “The third time
we played that hole, she made
a good putt to win and I feel
happy for her. This was her
week.”
It also was Ueda’s round. She hit an
errant shot on the ninth hole that ricocheted
off a fan’s head and bounced back into the
fairway. Ueda birdied the hole.