Creamer holds nerve to win title playoff

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Paula Creamer overcame a spell of nerves with her putter to sink an eight-footer on the second playoff hole to win the LPGA SemGroup Championship in Tulsa.

It was the second successive week that Creamer found herself in a playoff against an LPGA Hall of Fame legend and her victory prevented Juli Inkster from becoming the oldest winner in Tour history at the age of 47.

Creamer made it hard for herself because she spurned two chances to sink a putt for the title on the 18th, once in regulation and again on the first hole of the playoff.

Eventually she saw her ball drop into the cup at the par four 10th to give her a sixth LPGA crown.

"We had to have a little chat, my putter and I," she said.

Seven days after losing a playoff to Annika Sorenstam Creamer took control of her nerves to deny Inkster.

"Juli, what can I say? She definitely made me win it. I'm done. I'm mentally done right now," said a relieved Creamer

Inkster, looking for a 32nd LPGA title, forced the playoff with a dramatic 72nd-hole putt from 20 feet.

"That was such a clutch putt at 18. That's why I idolize her," Creamer said. "I look so much up to her. We're so competitive."

Creamer led by two when she reached the 18th tee but fired her approach over the green and blasted her third shot eight feet past the hole. She needed the putt for the title but sent it right of the cup and one foot beyond leaving her with a playoff.

Replaying the 18th hole to start the playoff, Creamer put herself 12 feet from the cup while Inkster pulled her approach well left of the flag. Inkster rolled the ball near and tapped in for par, giving Creamer another putt to win.

On nearly the identical line as her previous prior putt at 18, Creamer's putt went just left and she fell to her hands and knees as the ball rolled just wide.

On the second playoff hole, Creamer dropped her approach at the par-4 10th eight feet from the cup while Inkster, who won eight LPGA events before Creamer was even born, was again on the far side of the green.

Inkster just missed birdie and tapped in for par, and this time Creamer took advantage of her chance to win.

Three times in the final round Creamer followed a bogey with an immediate birdie

Inkster, who was two behind Creamer at the start of the day, birdied the third hole but took a bogey at the sixth and birdied again at seven only to squander it with a bogey at the eighth. She then made nine pars in a row.

American Angela Stanford and South Korean Jeong Jang shared third on 286, one stroke ahead of Americans Dorothy Delasin and Brittany Lang and world number one Lorena Ochoa of Mexico.

Ochoa, who fired a final-round 69, was trying to win an LPGA-record fifth event in a row but could not overtake Creamer and Inkster.

"I tried really hard. It didn't work. Hopefully I will start a new streak next week," Ochoa said. "This was a tough course for me, especially on the greens. It seems I didn't get the breaks." E-mail to a friend