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Webb Gets Win Despite Sorenstam’s Charge

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From the Associated Press

Karrie Webb showed her LPGA Tour peers a sure way to beat Annika Sorenstam: get six shots ahead and hang on.

Sorenstam certainly gave Webb a scare in the final round of the Longs Drugs Challenge Sunday in Danville, Calif., clawing away at her lead with a scoring flurry on Blackhawk Country Club’s hilly Lakeside Course, a new course for the tour.

Holding a five-stroke lead after a third-round 66, Webb parred the final five holes Sunday for a two-under-par 70 and a one-stroke victory over Sorenstam, the Swedish star who made things interesting with a 65.

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Webb was definitely feeling the heat.

“I played very solidly for the pressure Annika was putting on in front of me,” Webb said. “I’m just very happy that I didn’t succumb to that.”

Webb won her LPGA Tour-leading fourth title of the year and pushed her career total to 34 -- 35 if you count her win in the 1995 Women’s British Open before she became an LPGA Tour member. The resurgent Australian star, inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, had a 15-under 273 total.

She earned $165,000 to remain second on the money list with $1,873,753.

While Webb dropped two strokes on the 155-yard, par-three seventh after hitting her tee shot into a lake, Sorenstam was making a move in the threesome ahead of her. By the time Sorenstam made a long eagle putt on the par-five ninth, Webb’s lead was down to two.

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Morgan Pressel (68) finished at 12 under, and Lorena Ochoa (66), Cristie Kerr (68), Mi Hyun Kim (69) and Stacy Prammanasudh (68) followed at 10 under.

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Tennessee left-hander Eric Axley won the Texas Open for his first PGA Tour title, closing with a one-over 71 for a three-stroke victory in San Antonio.

Axley, 32, had a stretch of 53 consecutive holes without a bogey or worse on the par-70 Resort Course at LaCantera Golf Club.

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The string ended with a double bogey on the 14th and he went on to finish at 15-under 265.

Three players finished at 12 under, including 21-year-old Anthony Kim of La Quinta, who was playing in his first PGA Tour event with a sponsor’s exemption.

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