Open Playoff Won’t Include Sorenstam

The novice players were supposed to falter under the final-round pressure at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Instead it was one of the top players of all time.

There will be a three-way playoff for the title today at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club and it will not include Annika Sorenstam. Hilary Lunke, Angela Stanford and Kelly Robbins each finished the final round Sunday with 72-hole scores of one-under-par 283 and will play 18 holes today to settle the championship.

Sorenstam, the No. 1 player in the world, fought a balky putter all day, then made a bogey on the final hole and shot two-over-par 73 to miss the playoff by a shot.

Stanford, a third-year pro coming off her first professional victory last week, rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole to finish with a final-round 74 and get in the playoff.

Lunke, a second-year pro who has never played in the final group on the LPGA Tour, hit to within 15 feet out of a fairway bunker on the final hole, missed a birdie putt that would have won the tournament, but tapped in for par to get into the playoff. She shot 75.

Robbins, playing five groups ahead of the leaders, began the day six shots out of the lead but birdied the final hole to shoot 69 and was one of only three players to break par Sunday. She then sat in the scoring trailer for more than an hour and watched the drama unfold at the 18th.

Sorenstam hit a nice tee shot, but sliced her second into a fence on the right side of the green. A scoreboard and grandstands were in the way, and it took rules officials more than 20 minutes to determine where Sorenstam could take her free drop. She finally did, then pitched into a greenside bunker and couldn’t get up and down.

“I didn’t expect Annika to do what she did,” Stanford said. “I didn’t expect that at all.”

Sure, the 18th hole cost Sorenstam at the end, but missed birdie putts from inside 10 feet on the first, third, fourth, sixth and 16th holes will haunt her more. Sorenstam hit 10 of 13 fairways Sunday and reached 12 greens in regulation but needed 32 putts.

“I thought the greens were faster on the first few holes and that scared me a little bit,” Sorenstam said. “I lost the speed of the greens, and I think that’s why I didn’t make any today.”

A disappointing performance for Sorenstam, a 45-time winner on the LPGA Tour, especially considering the leaders came back to her. Lunke started three shots ahead of Sorenstam but shot a front-nine 39.

Still, Lunke could have won with a birdie on the last hole and nearly did. After hitting a pitching wedge from 89 yards out of the fairway bunker, she stood over a 12-foot putt that would have given her the victory. The putt stopped inches short.

“I was not calm,” Lunke said. “My palms were sweaty, my throat was dry, my heart was pumping.”

Stanford, two ahead of Sorenstam to start the day, made bogies at Nos. 5, 6, 8, 11 and 14.

Trailing by one going into the last hole, Stanford needed at least a birdie to get into a playoff. She hit a wedge from 60 yards to within 12 feet and made a dramatic left-breaking putt.

“I thought I would play better today,” Stanford said. “So to have a shot coming down the stretch was pretty cool because I felt like I didn’t deserve it at one point. I’m glad I took advantage of it.”

Sorenstam needed only a par on the last hole to get in the playoff, but went for the win.

“I’m playing aggressive,” she said. “That’s my nature and I’m here to win. Birdie is what I needed. Obviously I’m very disappointed. I wish I could replay a few shots, but that’s the way it goes. It’s going to take a while to recover from this, but at the end of the day it’s just a golf tournament.”

Robbins, 33, who shot a back-nine 32, is the veteran of the playoff threesome. She counts the 1995 LPGA Championship among her nine LPGA Tour victories and has finished in the top 15 at the U.S. Open six times. She hasn’t won an LPGA event since 1999.

Stanford, 25, and Lunke, 24, had to qualify to play in the Open. Stanford had not made the cut in three previous U.S. Open appearances. Lunke finished 56th in the 2000 Open, but missed the cut in her other Open appearance in 1997.

Still, getting Sorenstam out of the picture makes the scenario a little less daunting for the young players.

“I do feel like we’re kind of giant-beaters,” Lunke said.