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Not McKay's day Koch captures Corning Classic for first LPGA title
Updated: Sunday May 27, 2001 6:48 PM
CORNING, N.Y. (AP) -- Finally, Carin Koch is a winner. A runner-up six times in seven years on the LPGA tour, the 30-year-old Swede broke her longstanding jinx on Sunday, shooting a 6-under-par 66 to win the Corning Classic by two strokes over Mhairi McKay and Maria Hjorth. Understandably, there was relief in her voice after a tense final round that had each player in the final threesome in the lead. "It's really more a feeling of relief than I thought it was going to be," said Koch, who took the lead for good when McKay bogeyed No. 11 and played mistake-free golf over the final holes. With two holes to play, McKay still was just a shot behind, but she fell apart with a double bogey on 17. "I gave myself plenty of opportunities," said McKay, who entered the day with a one-shot lead over Hjorth and two over Koch. "I had a lot of really good putts that didn't go in. Other than one swing, I don't think it was a bad round. I felt like I was playing well, too." Koch finished at 18-under-par 270, two shots off the tournament record set three years ago by Tammie Green, and won $135,000. The win made Koch the 13th foreign-born winner in 15 LPGA events this year. Only Americans Juli Inkster and Rosie Jones have broken through. McKay, of Scotland, finished with a 70-272. She birdied the final hole to tie Hjorth, also of Sweden. Jones also had a 66 and finished tied with Grace Park of South Korea at 273. Mi Hyun Kim had a closing 67 and finished alone at 14-under 274. McKay held or shared the lead with her playing partners through the first 10 holes as she also tried for her first victory on tour. But when she pulled her tee shot on No. 11, she ended up two-putting for bogey and fell out of the lead. By then, Hjorth had already started to slip with bogeys on 8, 9, and 10, but she never gave up. "I thought, you're always going to make a few bogeys during a round, but Carin didn't," said Hjorth, who has played against Koch since they were 12. "I made a few bogeys, but I still had a chance to be up there at the end." The drama more or less ended on the par-4 No. 17. McKay's tee shot sailed out of bounds and she couldn't find her ball, and when her fourth shot landed in a bunker at the front of the green, she settled for a double bogey and Koch was home free. Still, Koch wasn't counting on anything until she sank a 3-foot putt for par on the final hole. "I don't think you can ever feel secure because on this kind of course if you hit a bad shot a lot can happen," Koch said. "I've been in that situation myself. I've been the one to hit a bad shot and let someone else run away with it." McKay, one of six players atop the leaderboard without a tour victory, showed great poise on the front nine. After her long putt in a bid for eagle rolled 2 feet past the pin on No. 5, she missed the return putt, and when Koch drained an eagle putt of her own the two were tied at 16 under, one shot ahead of Hjorth. But McKay rolled in a 45-foot uphill birdie putt on No. 7 that broke several inches left. Hjorth also birdied the hole, and the two were one shot ahead of Koch. Jones, who began the day six shots behind, figured she had to go 7 or 8 under to have a shot at her third title here, and looked as if she might do just that on the front nine alone. Jones had two birdies and an eagle on the first three holes and could easily have had another eagle and birdie before the turn. But she failed to convert two short putts and a bogey on No. 9 stopped her momentum. She finished the round with eight pars and a birdie on the final hole. "I tried to put some pressure on Mhairi before she even started," said Jones, who won here in 1996 and 1997. "It's kind of fun to do that. But it really was an up-and-down kind of day. I felt like it could have been a lot better. A lot of shots I can usually take advantage of I didn't." Dottie Pepper and Park, who trailed McKay by four strokes to start the day, quickly gave up another stroke with bogeys on the first hole and never mounted a challenge. Pepper finished alone in seventh at 275 after a 69. Because the U.S. Women's Open is next week and the threat of rain was increasing for both Sunday and Monday from a slow-moving system over the Great Lakes, tournament officials decided to start the final round at 7:30 a.m., with threesomes starting at both 1 and 10. The bad weather did not materialize and conditions remained nearly ideal for the fourth straight day. A thunderstorm finally struck about an hour after play ended.
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