Ai Miyazato with the HSBC Women's Champions' trophy (Courtesy of Getty Images/HSBC Women's Champions). Click on image to enlarge.

Ai Miyazato's double whammy in LPGA

season's first two tournaments

By Lewine Mair, http://www.hsbcgolf.com/
Ai Miyazato emerged triumphant from a thriller of a last day at the HSBC Women’s Champions to complete the rare feat of winning the LPGA’s two opening events. The last player to do as much was America’s Marilyn Smith in 1966.
Miyazato, though she did not know it, had a two-shot lead over Cristie Kerr coming down Tanah Merah’s 414 yards 18th at the Singapore venue. She bisected the fairway with a stunning drive - and followed it up with a second to nine feet which left the spectators positively open-mouthed. The title was as good as hers.
Having tapped in for a 4, this hugely popular competitor hugged her caddie and, as the applause was giving way to a rousing Lion dance, so she signed for her closing 69 and ten-under-par tally of 278. Kerr finished on 280 with Jiyai Shin, Suzann Pettersen, Yani Tseng and Song-Hee Kim sharing third place on 281.
Guy Harvey-Samuel, the CEO of HSBC Singapore, presented the 5ft 2in Japanese player with the handsome trophy, the size of which is such that she did well to raise it above her head.
Kerr, two parties in front, had held the lead when she teed up at the penultimate hole.
"I know better than to miss the fairway on the left but that’s what I did,” she said ruefully. Her ball ran down into the trees and finished in what the referee termed “a dangerous situation”. He was not referring to the way she had jeopardised her position in the tournament but to the red fire ants which were chasing up and down the TV cables between her ball and a sturdy tree.
Kerr was given a free drop, one which furnished a small corridor of an approach to the green. She almost made the most of it but her shot took a last-minute swing into the left-hand bunker and she ended up with a bogey.
As she fell to nine under so Miyazato made the birdie at the 16th which lifted her to ten under par to Kerr’s nine under.
In going all out for a birdie at the last, Kerr miscued with her tee shot and wound up with a second successive dropped shot. “It was a disappointing finish but I still have to keep my head high,” she said.
Miyazato started her magic at the 269yd 16th on Saturday. After driving the green, she holed an up-hill-and-down-dale putt for an eagle which set the place alight.
On Saturday night, she bedded down in a share of the lead with Juli Inkster but, when she began today with a couple of bogeys, everyone wondered if her best golf was in the past as far as this week was concerned.
As it was, she hit back with a pair of birdies at the fifth and sixth and, after turning in 35, reeled off three birdies in a row from the 11th to put people in mind of the way she came through last week’s field in Thailand with a closing 63. Miyazato herself put the lengths of those birdie putts at five yards, 10 yards and four yards.
“I’m not,” she explained afterwards, “trying to hole this length. I’m just trying to concentrate on the moment and on the stroke – and also to keep a low centre of gravity.”
The winner also revealed what has made her the player she is at the moment….
In her eyes, it is all down to the struggles she had after romping through the LPGA qualifying school in 2006. After that heady start, she had problems with her driving and did nothing to write home about until she won last year’s Evian in France.
“Overcoming the hard times makes me what I am right now.”
Next week, she is playing in Japan. She will try “not to get greedy” but it goes without saying that this great little competitor has her heart set on making it three in a row.

ALL THE FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)

Players from United States unless stated otherwise
278 Ai Miyazato (Japan) 69 71 69 69
280 Cristie Kerr 68 73 71 68
281 Yani Tseng (Taiwan) 74 67 71 69, Jiyai Shin (South Korea) 71 71 72 67, Song-Hee Kim (South Korea) 69 70 75 67, Suzann Pettersen (Norway) 70 70 72 69
282 Vicky Hurst 73 71 69 69, In-Kyung Kim (South Korea) 70 72 71 69
283 Jee Young Lee (South Korea) 73 73 68 69, Na Yeon Choi (South Korea) 73 69 71 70, Sakura Yokomine (Japan) 73 71 69 70, Juli Inkster 70 70 69 74, Angela Stanford 68 71 74 70, Hee Young Park (South Korea) 68 74 69 72
284 Michelle Wie 72 73 69 70, Sun Young Yoo (Kor) 70 70 71 73, Momoko Ueda (Jpn) 75 68 68 73, Hwa seon Lee (South Korea) 73 71 72 68
285 Mika Miyazato (Japan) 73 72 70 70, Karrie Webb (Australia) 70 72 72 71
286 Stacy Prammanasudh 73 71 74 68, Eunjung Yi (South Korea) 72 74 72 68, Katherine Hull (Australia) 71 72 72 71
287 Hee-Won Han (South Korea) 73 67 71 76, Amy Yang 73 70 71 73
288 Brittany Lincicome 71 73 72 72, Maria Hjorth (Sweden) 73 70 71 74, Shanshan Feng (China) 74 72 70 72
289 Meena Lee (South Korea) 75 70 74 70, Anna Nordqvist (Sweden) 73 73 70 73, Christina Kim 69 75 75 70
290 Chie Arimura (Japan) 74 74 70 72, Meaghan Francella 72 74 72 72, Inbee Park (South Korea) 72 73 69 76, Kristy McPherson 70 77 71 72, Kyeong Bae (South Korea) 73 76 70 71
291 Lindsey Wright (Australia) 72 71 71 77
292 Shinobu Moromizato (Japan) 74 72 74 72, Morgan Pressel 74 73 73 72, Lorena Ochoa (Mexico) 68 79 73 72, Stacy Lewis 76 71 73 72, Candie Kung (Taiwan) 71 76 72 73
293 Soo-Yun Kang (South Korea) 77 72 72 72, Se Ri Pak (South Korea) 74 74 70 75
294 Teresa Lu (Tai) 72 74 74 74, Catriona Matthew (Scotland) 73 75 73 73, Nicole Castrale 77 74 68 75
295 Ji-Young Oh (South Korea) 74 77 76 68, M J Hur (South Korea) 73 74 76 72, Brittany Lang 76 72 77 70
296 Eun Hee Ji (South Korea) 77 72 76 71, Angela Park (Brazil) 76 69 77 74
297 Jimin Kang (South Korea) 77 75 73 72, Sophie Gustafson (Sweden) 69 74 74 80
298 Natalie Gulbis 73 77 73 75, Helen Alfredsson (Sweden) 78 70 72 78
300 Wendy Ward 75 77 75 73
302 Bo-Bae Song (Kor) 80 72 74 76
303 Pat Hurst 78 74 74 77
304 Michele Redman 74 79 76 75, Sandra Gal (Germany) 73 77 76 78
310 Amanda Blumenherst 77 76 79 78
323 Joey Poh (Singapore) 82 80 83 78