LINCICOME INSPIRES IN TRIPLE-OVERTIME

By Torleif Sorenson on 4/5/15

Brittany Lincicome was on the top page of the leaderboard in the final round of the ANA Inspiration (originally named after Dinah Shore), but thought she was too far behind to get into a playoff. But just like she did in 2009, she eagled the 72nd hole. Unlike 2009, when that eagle won the championship for Lincicome, her eagle got her into a playoff with 2011 Stacy Lewis.

After matching pars with Lewis on the first two sudden-death playoff holes at the 18th, Lincicome hit her tee-shot into the left rough for the second time Sunday afternoon and was forced to lay up. However, Lewis decided to do the same after finding the fairway.

Both advanced the ball to the end of the fairway and each looked to outduel the other with wedges. But when Lewis reached her ball, she found it laying in a sand-filled divot. And with her third, Lewis caught the ball just a tad fat, causing the ball to lose ten yards of distance. It landed short of the green and left her a long chip, which only covered half the distance to the flagstick.

And when Lewis left her par putt three inches short, Brittany Lincicome had two putts to win following a wedge to roughly eight feet.

The Dinah / ANA Inspiration has gone to a playoff just six times, but the three-hole playoff was the longest-ever in event history. And had Lewis matched pars with Lincicome for a third time in the playoff, a Monday morning finish might have been necessary.

In the end, Lincicome, her fiance, her father, and her caddie took the celebratory plunge into Poppie's Pond:

#Splash @ANAinspiration @Brittany1golf pic.twitter.com/d9WlUYqkQt

— LPGA (@LPGA) April 6, 2015

This is her sixth career LPGA victory and, of course, her second major championship after her 2009 victory at Mission Hills.

First-round leader Morgan Pressel also finished strong, just one shot out of the Lewis-Lincicome playoff. 2014 Solheim Cup Team Europe teammates Carlota Ciganda (ESP) and Anna Nordqvist (SWE) finished T-4 at -7 with South Korean Sei Young Kim. The leader after 54 holes, Kim got as far as 11-under-par, but then the proverbial wheels fell off. Five birdies on her scorecard throughout the round were irreversibly perforated with bogeys at 11, 12, 15, and 17, with double-bogeys at the 4th and the 14th keeping her two shots out of the playoff.

2014 champion Lexi Thompson finished alone in 7th with 72-69-71-70 = 282 (-6), three shots out of the playoff.


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