Creamer wins one for crowd

Paula Creamer calmly won her biggest LPGA Tour title yet, holding off a large pack in the 20-player Samsung World Championship at Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Playing near her hometown of Pleasanton, the 22-year-old Creamer beat Song-Hee Kim by a stroke Sunday, closing with a bogey-free three-under-par 69 for a nine-under 279 total. Creamer earned $250,000 for her fourth title of the year and eighth overall.

On No. 18, Creamer holed a five-foot par putt that rolled around the right lip of the cup and in. She dropped her putter, and raised both arms as Kim waited nearby for a possible playoff. Kim finished with a 68 for her fifth top-five finish of the year.

Two-time defending champion Lorena Ochoa shot a 69 to tie for third at seven under with Juli Inkster (68), Suzann Pettersen (68) and Angela Stanford (70). After Kim moved into a share of the lead by chipping in for birdie on No. 14 -- the first time all day Creamer wasn’t alone out front -- Creamer made a long birdie putt on 15 to retake control.

“It’s hard coming to your hometown,” Creamer said. “People watch you play all the time, but it’s a different feeling when you’re at home. You are constantly hearing, ‘Go Pleasanton!’ I want to win so badly, especially for everybody.”

------

Long-hitting rookie Dustin Johnson won the Turning Stone Resort Championship at Verona, N.Y., for his first PGA Tour title, holing an eight-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a three-under 69 and a one-stroke victory over Robert Allenby.

Johnson finished at nine-under 279 to take the $1.08-million first-place prize in the $6-million event, which catapulted him from 128th to 41st on the money list. The top 125 at the end of the year retain full exemption for 2009.

Allenby (70), seeking his first victory since 2001, had a chance to tie at 18, but the Australian’s 12-foot putt for birdie stopped inches short of the hole. Tag Ridings (79), tied with Charles Howell III for the lead at eight under entering the day, self-destructed with three bogeys, a triple bogey, and one double bogey in an eight-hole span. Howell (73) finished two strokes back in a seven-way tie for third.

------

South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon won the Korea Open at Seoul, closing with a two-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over England’s Ian Poulter.

Bae had an 11-under 273 total. Poulter (70) bogeyed the 16th and 18th holes. American Anthony Kim (71) and South Korea’s Kim Wi-joong (72) tied for third at nine under.

------

Sweden’s Robert Karlsson won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews, Scotland, birdieing the first hole of a playoff with England’s Ross Fisher and Germany’s Martin Kaymer .