GOLF ROUNDUP
Creamer ahead by four
SYLVANIA, Ohio — Paula Creamer is finding out how hard it is to win while leading from start to finish on the LPGA Tour.
The rest of the field is discovering how hard it is to catch her.
Creamer shot a 1-under 70 on Saturday, 10 more shots than she needed in the first round, but still held a four-stroke lead after three rounds of the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.
“You know, winning wire-to-wire — that’s difficult to do,” said Creamer, who stands at 18-under 195 through 54 holes at Highland Meadows. “There’s a lot of pressure on you in that situation, especially when you shoot a 60 the first day and anything higher than that everybody thinks, ‘What’s going on? What’s wrong?’
South Korea’s Eun-Hee Ji was in second place looking up at Creamer, as she has been after all three rounds. She shot a 68 to cut two strokes off Creamer’s lead but wasn’t pleased with her own play entering today’s final round.
Ji could easily have made an even bigger dent in the lead. She cut it to three strokes when she birdied the 11th hole while Creamer, playing in the same group, was three-putting for a bogey. Creamer recovered with birdies at the 13th and 17th holes. Ji was 1 under for the final seven holes and missed two short birdie putts that could have drawn her closer.
Ji, playing her first full year on the tour, missed a 10-footer at No. 16. Then, moments after Creamer saved par with a 7-foot putt at the closing hole, Ji missed a 6-footer for birdie.
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