LPGA : Putts Fall, and Lopez Wins by 3

Nancy Lopez spent much of the week battling with her errant putter until she finally sank a five-foot putt on the ninth hole Sunday.

“That was the turning point when I made that five-foot putt because I hadn’t been making any putt,” Lopez said after she ran in birdie putts on four of the final seven holes to score a three-shot victory in the $300,000 LPGA Mazda Hall of Fame Championship.

“Then on the back side, they just started falling. The putts at the end were still tricky but not quite as tricky. You just had to stroke it.”

Lopez started the day three shots off JoAnne Carner’s 54-hole lead, but she ran in a pair of 15-foot birdie putts on Nos. 12 and 13 while Carner was bogeying the same holes.

That gave Lopez the lead for good, and she increased it to three shots with two more birdies on Nos. 15 and 16.

She narrowly missed another birdie on 17 when she was distracted by the sound of a photographer’s shutter.

Lopez finished with a seven-under-par 281, three strokes ahead of Carner and third-year pro Allison Finney, who started the day eight strokes off the pace and shot a final-round six-under par 66.

“My putter was as cold as cold could be today,” Carner said. “I three-putted twice from the collar and just couldn’t make anything. I started out fighting my putter and never got it going all day.”

It was Lopez’s 32nd tournament victory, three short of enough tour wins for admission into the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Finney’s final round tied the course record set earlier in the tournament by Mary Beth Zimmerman, and she finishing with a four-under-par 284 total.

Carner bogeyed three holes on the back nine, including No. 17 when she sent a seven-foot putt for par past the hole. Carner had a final-round two-over-par 74 but sank a birdie on the final hole to tie Finney for second place.

Lopez, the No. 2 money-winner on the LPGA tour this season, earned $45,000 for the first prize, giving her $374,231 for the year.

In her last six tournaments, Lopez has won three times, finished second twice and tied for third once.

Japan’s Ayako Okamoto, playing despite a sore back, shot a final-round 71 for a 285 total and tied Sally Quinlan, whose final-round 68 also gave her a 285 total.

Amy Alcott, the 36-hole leader and only one shot off the pace at the start of the final round, faded with a final-round 75 for a 286 total, two under par. She had a string of four straight bogeys to fall off the pace.