J Golf Phoenix International Sunday: Karrie Who?

Since Hound Dog picked up on every exciting move on the leaderboard over the 1st 10 holes that I was planning to mention, and since the second coming of Tiger preempted Golf Channel coverage of Karrie Webb going into lockdown mode to secure her 36th career LPGA win, I'm going to have to assume with him that the last eight holes of the J Golf Phoenix International held the kind of drama, if any, that doesn't make it onto scorecards. LPGA.com isn't much help in this regard, but they do help put Webb's 1st win on tour in 44 starts and two seasons in perspective. As does this moment from her interview:

Q. What does this mean to you to get back in into the winner's circle after a couple years?
KARRIE WEBB: It's very important. It means a lot to me. You know, you go through--I mean, I have won in Australia in those two years, but winning on the LPGA against the best players in the world is obviously very important to me. And you just sometimes wonder if--you know you have got the ability to do it, but you are just not putting the scores on the board that indicate that you can still do it. And, you know, even less than a month ago I was still questioning that. And I think watching certain players--you know, not that Phil Mickelson has gone a long time without winning, but he started off pretty rough this year, and then last week Pat Hurst. It really isn't as far away as you think.

Typical of Karrie to get her comeback win the week Tiger gets his. To beat Ji-Yai Shin, In-Kyung Kim, Ya Ni Tseng, and Suzann Pettersen, all of whom got to double digits under par under tough conditions, must have been the icing on the cake. The plot for next week's major, the Kraft Nabisco Open, has officially thickened. The Saturday leader can still be the 1st of the year on the LPGA to hold a lead on Sunday!

Other achievements worth noting: Tseng had the best weekend of anyone, going 67-67, but Hee Young Park wasn't too shabby either; her 69-68 gave her the bronze behind Webb. Song-Hee Kim had another strong Sunday finish; her 67 vaulted her to 6th place. Rounding out the 67 club was Jimin Kang. Morgan Pressel was working on doing all of them even better, until she she took a ride on the bogey train over her final 3 holes to shoot her 2nd straight 70 (still a moral victory for her). Brittany Lincicome followed up 2 straight 72s with a 71, the 1st time she's shot par or better 3 rounds in a row since the Jamie Farr last July. And Moira Dunn avoided her 2nd-straight last-place finish with a fine 71 yesterday (of course her place was taken by another New Yorker, Danielle Downey).

I'll leave you for now with Golf Channel's highlights. Once again, Webb steals the show at the end of them. Congrats, Karrie. Onechan is proud of you!

[Update 1 (7:15 am): I'm sure Jason Sobel is, too, but he buried news of your win on the 16th hole of his weekly 18, commenting on a photo of In-Kyung Kim that reminded him of Tiger. Maybe he should look in the mirror when he wonders on the 10th hole why there is "no hype" for the LPGA in its run-up to its 1st major. When even someone paid to pay some attention to the LPGA doesn't get it as badly as Sobel does, you really have to hope Ryan Ballengee's idea takes off.]

[Update 2 (8:16 am): Who needs GC when you have Seoul Sisters.com? IceCat followed Ai-chan and Angela Park for the front on Saturday (watching the former miss an excruciating number of short putts) and has the play-by-play on the Webb-Shin showdown!]

[Update 3 (9:52 am): Here's Hound Dog's epilogue. And his idea (which Ryan in the link above builds on) for a bloggers' answer to the AP.]

[Update 4 (3/31/09, 4:44 am): Speaking of Waggle Room, Ryan Ballengee also pursues the Webb-Dangerfield connection.]

[Update 5 (4:448 am): I'll forgive Daniel Wexler his Shakespeare heresy b/c he gets Webb's win and the upcoming KNC so right!]

[Update 6 (4/1/09, 6:42 am): Just catching up with Shane Bacon's excellent caddie tales from Papago (he looped for Erica Blasberg and learned a lot).]