Patty Sheehan scrambled on the final hole before rolling in a dramatic seven-foot putt Sunday to save par and win the first Nabisco Dinah Shore title of her LPGA Hall of Fame career.
After sinking the putt that saved her from facing a four-way playoff, Sheehan raced across the 18th green, jumped into the air and did a cartwheel to celebrate her 35th victory in her 17 years on tour.She finished the final round at Mission Hills Country Club with a 1-under-par 71 that put her 7-under for the tournament, the LPGA's first major of the year.
Annika Sorenstam of Sweden, the LPGA's leading money winner and player of the year in 1995, finished second along with Meg Mallon and Kelly Robbins.
Robbins shot her way into contention with a 68, but a double bogey on No. 15 cost her dearly. At the time, she was 8-under and held a two-shot lead.
Sorenstam, who bogeyed No. 18 when she left her six-foot par putt below the hole, shot 70. Mallon, who won the tournament in Hawaii last month, missed short birdie putts on the last three holes of the Dinah Shore, including a six-footer on No. 18.
Sheehan also had her problems down the stretch before she finally came up with the winning putt on the last green.
After consecutive bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes that dropped her out of the lead, she got back into the thick of it when she hit her tee shot on the par-3 No. 17 within two feet of the hole and sank the birdie putt.
She hit her drive on the par-5, 526-yard 18th into the left rough and the ball bounced perilously near the water alongside the fairway. Her second shot flew across the fairway and into a sand trap, about 120 yards from the water-surrounded green.
Sheehan's 9-iron out of the sand went left, onto the green but about 120 feet from the pin. She lagged up close enough on her first putt to give herself a chance for the par and the victory.
The win, worth $135,000, was the sixth major title for the 39-year-old Sheehan.