By Canadian Press

Golf roundup: Ewart Shadoff finally wins on LPGA Tour

Oct 9, 2022 | 6:35 PM

CAMARILLO, Calif. — Jodi Ewart Shadoff of England is an LPGA Tour winner in her 246th attempt, closing with a 1-under 71 for a one-shot victory in the LPGA Mediheal Championship on Sunday.

Ewart Shadoff started the final round at The Saticoy Club with a four-shot lead, and that was gone in eight holes as Paula Reto of South Africa started strong. They were tied with four holes to play when Reto made back-to-back bogeys to fall back, and Shadoff played mistake-free down the stretch.

She ended up winning by one over former U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso, who closed with a 66.

Reto had a 69 and tied for third with Georgia Hall (65) and Danielle Kang (67). Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ont., finished 73rd at 8 over.

Ewart Shadoff becomes the 10th player to pick up her first LPGA Tour title this year.

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EUROPEAN TOUR

MADRID (AP) — Jon Rahm closed with a 9-under 62 and won the Spanish Open for the third time to match the record set by Seve Ballesteros.

Rahm raised his putter and gave a hard fist pump after making his second straight birdie to close out a dominant final round that gave him a six-shot victory at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.

He finished at 25-under 259, breaking his own tournament record from 2019 by three shots. Matthieu Pavon of France was second after a 6-under 65. 

A loud “Viva Seve” shout was heard from the crowd that packed the 18th green just as Rahm’s six-foot birdie putt was on its way.

Ballesteros won the last of his 50 titles on the European tour at this tournament in 1995. Rahm’s other Spanish Open titles came in 2018 and 2019. He struggled last year — finishing in a tie for 17th — after arriving as the top-ranked player following his U.S. Open victory for his first major.

Rahm won for second time this year after his victory in the Mexico Open in May on the PGA Tour. It was his seventh European tour title.

LIV GOLF

BANGKOK (AP) — Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra shot a final-round 69 and won the LIV Golf Invitational-Bangkok by three strokes over Patrick Reed.

Lopez-Chacarra had a 54-hole score of 19-under total of 197 after the storm-delayed finish on the newly opened Stonehill Golf Club course north of Bangkok. 

Reed shot a closing 67 while Paul Casey (65), Richard Bland (68) and Sihwan Kim (68) were tied for third, four shots behind Lopez-Chacarra.

Lopez-Chacarra, who turned professional to play on the LIV series, won $4 million. He earned an additional $750,000 through his team victory.

Lopez-Chacarra opened with a birdie but had back-to-back bogeys on his fourth and fifth holes to pull the field back to him. But those were his only bogeys of the tournament.

Dustin Johnson tied for 15th, his first time in six LIV Golf events to finish out of the top 10. British Open champion Cameron Smith, who won the previous LIV Golf event outside Chicago, tied for 41st in the 48-man field.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Steve Stricker followed his plan to perfection until the final hole, and by then it didn’t matter. He closed with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory in the Constellation Furyk & Friends, his fourth PGA Tour Champions title this year.

Staked to a three-shot lead, Stricker played it conservatively at Timuquana Country Club, a Donald Ross design with crowned greens and trouble on all sides. 

The objective was to score on the par 5s, and he birdied them all. He also wanted to keep bogeys off his card, and he nearly made it. Leading by three shots, he chunked an 8-iron short of the green, pitched just over the back and made his only bogey of the weekend.

He finished at 14-under 202 in winning for the third time in his last four spots. Harrison Frazar closed with a 65 to finish alone in second, which gets him into the PGA Tour Champions event next week in North Carolina.

Jim Furyk, the tournament host, ran off four straight birdies on the back nine and rallied for a 69 to finish third, his best finish of the year.

Stricker stays a solid No. 3 in the Charles Schwab Cup with his tour-leading fourth win of the year. He plans to take off the next month during deer hunting season in Wisconsin.

EPSON TOUR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jaravee Boonchant of Thailand closed with a 6-under 66 and won the Epson Tour Championship by one shot on a day in which the leading 10 players on the money list earned LPGA Tour cards.

Linnea Strom of Sweden had a 68 to tie for fourth, moving her past 17-year-old Xiaowen Yin to lead the money list. It’s the second time Strom has earned a card through the Epson Tour.

Nine of the other 10 players stayed in the top 10 to earn cards. The exception was Hoo Joon Jang, whose tie for 11th in the Tour Championship gave her the 10th and final spot. That had belonged to Alexa Pano, who had a 72-75 weekend and tied for 58th.

The other seven players to earn LPGA cards were Lucy Li, Kiira Riihijarvi of Finland, Grace Kim of Australia, Celine Borge of Norway, Gabriella Then, Gina Kim and Yan Liu of China.

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The Associated Press