A Little Luck Lifts Nilsmark to First Win

Just when it appeared Catrin Nilsmark had run out of miracles, that the Swedish golfer would not get her first victory on the LPGA Tour, Annika Sorenstam, the more famous Swede, did the unthinkable.

Sorenstam three-putted from four feet.

It happened Sunday on the first playoff hole at Valley of the Stars Championship at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.

Nilsmark, who missed her birdie try from eight feet, watched in amazement as Sorenstam sent one putt about three feet past, then missed coming back. That made a winner out of Nilsmark, 31, who is in her fifth year on the tour.

“I thought for sure I had lost,” Nilsmark said. “I’m still in shock.”

And after Sorenstam missed the first putt?

“I said to my caddie, ‘Let’s get ready for the next hole,’ ” Nilsmark said. “It would have been better if I had made my putt and Annika had then missed, but a win is a win.

“There were some putts I shouldn’t have missed, but I was pretty lucky all tournament. It takes some luck to beat Annika.”

Nilsmark, who had holed out a bunker shot at 18 on Saturday for an eagle that gave her a two-shot lead in the tournament and a four-stroke lead over Sorenstam, made another unbelievable shot on Sunday.

This time she holed out a 40-foot chip shot from well behind the 16th green to take a two-shot lead with two holes to play.

“I had a real tricky lie,” Nilsmark said. “I was just trying to get the ball over the fringe and let the ball run past the hole. I would have been happy had it rolled only 10 feet past.”

After her miracle on 16, poor tee shots on the next two holes led to a bogey and a par, while Sorenstam parred 17 and birdied 18. On 18, a 440-yard par five, an aggressive Sorenstam nailed her second shot with a three-wood and it rolled through the green into a backside bunker.

Sorenstam didn’t quite hit a shot like Nilsmark did the day before when she holed out from a left-side bunker at the 18th, but Sorenstam did get her bunker shot close enough to knock down the birdie putt from about three feet.

That gave Sorenstam a 67, which matched Liselotte Neumann, another Swede, for low round of the day. Neumann ended up in third place, four shots behind the other two Swedes, who finished the 54 holes of regulation play at 204. Nilsmark had a final-round 71.

Stephanie Lowe, who started the final round in second place, two strokes behind Nilsmark, struggled to a 40 on the front nine and finished with a 76. Lowe, from Chester, England, birdied the 18th to end up tied for fourth at 211 with Jane Geddes, the lone American to crack the top five.

Pearl Sinn, 31, the former Bellflower High sensation who lives in Huntington Beach, hit the shot of the day, holing out a nine-iron from 125 feet on the 17th hole. It was her eighth hole, since she started on the 10th. The eagle helped Sinn shoot a 70 and tie for 20th at 218.

Sorenstam, 28, won $60,510 for second place, which pushed her past the $4-million mark for career earnings. But that did little to ease the disappointment she felt after her three-putt on the playoff hole.

After missing the first putt, she showed her disgust by hitting herself in the head with her putter. She just looked on in disbelief after missing the comebacker.

“I’m very disappointed,” she said, “but look at the bright side. I fought back from four shots down, and this is a hard course to chase someone on. It was a fun day except for the finish.

“It will take a while to get over the disappointment, but I’ll get over it. In a little over 12 hours, I’ll be on the slopes.”

She and her husband, David Esch, are going on a skiing vacation in Lake Tahoe.

Nilsmark is headed for the Ladies Hawaiian Open with her husband, Fredrik Nilsmark, their 16-month-old daughter, Tuva, and their nanny. Nilsmark’s husband took her last name, which Nilsmark said is not too uncommon in Sweden.

But before heading to Hawaii today, the Nilsmarks had planned to party a little. “I’m sure we’ll drink a little champagne,” she said Sunday afternoon.

And they’ll probably talk more golf than they did Saturday night. “We all went out to dinner in Old Pasadena and I noticed no one was saying anything about my round [a course-record 65],” Nilsmark said. “So I asked the nanny if my husband had told her not to talk golf, and he had.

“But when I woke up this morning, the first thing I thought about was what I was going to have to do today. Actually, I did what I set out to do, I played the way I wanted to.

“As I stood there on the 18th hole during the playoff and prepared to watch Annika sink her putt, I thought to myself, ‘You know, I have nothing to be disappointed about. I’ve done everything I could do.’ ”

But, golf being golf, the fates turned and it was Sorenstam who was disappointed.

“Today just wasn’t my day to win,” she said. “It all evens out.”

*

Final Scores

Catrin Nilsmark*

68-65-71--204

$97,500

Annika Sorenstam

67-70-67--204

$60,510

Liselotte Neumann

71-70-67--208

$44,156

*Won on first hole of sudden-death playoff