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Kung rallies past Sorenstam to advance to semifinals

4 min read

GLADSTONE, N.J. (AP) – Candie Kung had a simple explanation for her quarterfinal victory over Annika Sorenstam in the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship. “I made one more putt than she did. That’s how I won,” Kung said.

Sorenstam, never comfortable with the slow pace on Hamilton Farm’s rain-soaked greens, blew a two-hole lead with four to play.

“Of course I’m disappointed,” Sorenstam said. “I had a great chance – 2-up with four to go. … Candie played very well. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. To finish with a bogey doesn’t make you very happy.”

After conceding a 2-foot par putt to the eighth-seeded Kung on the par-4 18th, the top-seeded Sorenstam slid her 8-foot par try right of the hole to end a frustrating week on the greens.

“With all the rain that we’ve had, they’re very slow,” Sorenstam said. “I don’t think they’ve been able to double-cut them the way they wanted, but they’re the same for everyone. You’ve got to learn the speed.”

Kung, the former Southern California player from Taiwan who won all three of her LPGA Tour titles in 2003, will face 60th-seeded Marisa Baena in the semifinals this morning. Baena beat six-time major champion Karrie Webb 2 and 1.

“Candie is a good player. She needs all the credit,” Sorenstam said. “She was a seeded player coming into this week and she played really steady. She was 2-down and she turned it around. That takes a lot of strength.”

In the other semifinal, 14th-seeded Wendy Ward will play Meena Lee, a 23-year-old rookie from South Korea seeded 47th. Ward beat 59th-seeded Sophie Gustafson 2 and 1, and Lee held off No. 39 Pat Hurst 1-up.

Kung nearly took the lead on the par-3 17th, but her 15-foot birdie try lipped out.

“I was like, “OK, it hit the lip. Let’s go to 18,”‘ Kung said.

Kung made an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15th to pull within a hole and squared the match with a par on the par-4 16th after Sorenstam drove into the left rough, failed to reach the green in two and two-putted for a bogey.

“I just told myself to hang in there,” Kung said. “I felt confident with my game. I was hitting my shots closer than her most of the day and just wasn’t making the putts.”

They were all square after 11 holes, with Kung winning the first and third and Sorenstam taking the second and fifth. Sorenstam took the lead with an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th and won the par-4 13th with a 6-footer.

In their third-round matches Saturday morning, Kung beat A.J. Eathorne 4 and 3, and Sorenstam held off playoff nemesis Rachel Hetherington 2 and 1.

Sorenstam, 1-3 against Hetherington in LPGA Tour playoffs, won the 16th with a par when Hetherington made a double-bogey 6, then hit her tee shot within 3 feet on the 17th to set up a conceded birdie that ended the match. In the second round Friday, Sorenstam needed a 30-foot birdie putt to finish off Tina Barrett in 21 holes.

Ward is the only one of the semifinalists with a victory this season. The 32-year-old American won the LPGA Takefuji Classic in April for her fourth career title.

“Coming into this week, I said I thought this was anybody’s tournament after just playing the course one time,” Ward said. “I doesn’t really surprise me to see the final four players that have gotten this far.”

Baena, winless in seven seasons on the tour, beat No. 21 Jennifer Rosales in 20 holes Saturday morning, birdieing the par-5 second to win after squaring the match with birdies on Nos. 14 and 17. The 28-year-old Colombian beat No. 5 Natalie Gulbis on Thursday and eliminated major champion Grace Park on Friday.

“It has been an incredible week for me,” Baena said. “Match play is just golf, just 18 holes, and I think whoever is hot that day, that’s who wins.”

DIVOTS: Gustafson eagled the par-5 ninth in her match against Ward. Gustafson hit a 300-yard drive and 220-yard 4-wood approach to set up her 7-foot putt. … Ward held off Christina Kim 1-up in the third round, and Lee beat Liselotte Neumann 3 and 2. … The third-round losers received $25,000 and the quarterfinal losers got $50,000 from the $2 million purse. The champion will receive $500,000 and a gold necklace encrusted with diamonds and rubies.

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