Pettersen wins LPGA playoff

Norway’s Suzann Pettersen survived a near-disastrous final round to claim the LPGA HanaBank Championship in a playoff on Sunday.

Pettersen defeated Catriona Matthew of Scotland with a birdie on the third hole of the sudden-death playoff on the par-72 Ocean Course at the Sky72 Golf Club.

The world No.9 took home $US270,000 ($A262,000) for her first LPGA victory in more than a year after the pair ended the regulation three rounds tied at 11-under.

Pettersen blew her five-stroke second-round lead with a final round 74 which included two double bogeys on two different par-3 holes.

Matthew, who began the day seven shots behind Pettersen, fired a 67, the low round of the day, with six birdies and one bogey.

The two had pars on their first two trips to the par-5 18th for the playoff before Matthew hit her third shot from 115 yards long and left of the pin, and her birdie putt rolled wide left.

Pettersen put her second shot into a greenside bunker, but struck her approach to about six feet to set up the clinching putt.

She had missed two birdie putts of about the same distance on the two previous playoff holes.

Defending champion Yani Tseng of Taiwan finished one stroke out of the playoff in third, the best finish for the slumping world No.1 in strokeplay since April.

Pak Se-Ri, a 25-time LPGA winner and a World Golf Hall of Famer, finished fourth at nine-under. Pak, the inaugural champion of this tournament in 2002, shot a 70 with six birdies and four bogeys.

American Brittany Lincicome and South Korean Park Hee-Young matched Matthew’s 67 and finished in a tie for seventh with four others at seven-under.

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