LEMONT (Illinois), July 8: Jerry Kelly won the $4 million Western Open Sunday by two shots from Davis Love III.
American Kelly, who won the Hawaiian Open in January
for his first PGA Tour victory, shot a seven-under-par 65 at the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club for a 19-under-par total of 269.
Love’s final round of 66 left him on 17-under with Brandt Jobe two shots further back in third.
Overnight leader Robert Allenby of Australia slumped with a three-over final round of 75 to finish seven shots behind Kelly.
Kelly went out in three-under 33, and then outlasted Love with four birdies in five holes from the 11th through the 15th.
Love moved into contention with a bogey-free round through the 16th hole, but then bogeyed the par-four 17th to dim his hopes.
287 Frank Nobilo (New Zealand) 71 70 78 68, Craig Perks (New Zealand) 71 72 72 72.
HUTCHINSON (Kansas): Juli Inkster fired a closing 66 to win her second U.S. Women’s Open title by two shots from Sweden’s world number one Annika Sorenstam Sunday.
The 42-year-old American’s four-under-par round equalled the best score of the week and gave her a four-under final total of 276. It was the seventh major victory of Inkster’s career and earned her a first prize of $535,000.
Sorenstam, 31, bidding to win the tournament for the third time, carded an even-par 70 for 278 and was the only other player in the field to complete the 72 holes under par at the Prairie Dunes Country Club.
Australian Shani Waugh (72) was third on 283, three over, with Spain’s Raquel Carriedo in fourth place on 284 after matching Inkster’s 66. South Korean Pak Se Ri was fifth on 285 and Britain’s Mhairi McKay sixth on 286.
Sorenstam, who was aiming for her eighth win of the year, started the day with a two-shot advantage and was the clear favourite to lift the trophy.
Inkster, however, had other ideas. The 1999 champion had complained all week that she was struggling with her game, but suddenly it all fell into place as she birdied the second, sixth and seventh holes in a flawless outward nine of 32.
By the time she made her fourth birdie of the round at the 11th she had edged into a one-stroke lead.