Lewis edges out Tseng for first LPGA Tour title

 

Stacy Lewis held off defending champion Yani Tseng to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship by three strokes in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Sunday, earning her first LPGA Tour title in the year’s first major on April 4, 2011.

 

Lewis shot a 3-under 69 to finish at 13-under 275, rallying from an early two-stroke deficit while going head-to-head with the world’s top-ranked player.

 

Lewis’ putt on the 17th broke abruptly to the left and dropped straight home, with Lewis raising her fist in celebration. The 26-year-old from Texas with her alma mater’s Arkansas Razorbacks head cover on her driver then stood staring at the green, hands on her knees in exhaustion, while Tseng missed a par putt that essentially clinched it.

 

Morgan Pressel, Katie Futcher and Angela Stanford finished nine strokes behind Lewis in a third-place tie. Michelle Wie and 2007 champion Pressel both faltered badly in their final rounds after starting the day within striking distance of Tseng and Lewis, with Wie falling into sixth place.

 

She wore a back brace for seven and a half years and then had spinal surgery at age 18.  In spite of an operation for scoliosis, Stacy wins the LPGA.