Creamer holds off Kim to capture Samsung Championship by a shot

Monday, October 6, 2008
Paula Creamer calmly won her biggest LPGA Tour title yet, holding off a large pack in the 20-player Samsung World Championship in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Playing near her hometown of Pleasanton, Calif., the 22-year-old Creamer beat Song-Hee Kim by a stroke Sunday, closing with a bogey-free 3-under 69 for a 9-under 279 total. Creamer earned $250,000 for her fourth title of the year and eighth overall.

On No. 18, Creamer holed a 5-foot par putt that rolled around the right lip of the cup and in.

Two-time defending champion Lorena Ochoa shot a 69 to tie for third at 7 under with Juli Inkster (68), Suzann Pettersen (68) and Angela Stanford (70).

After Kim moved into a share of the lead by chipping in for birdie on No. 14 -- the first time all day Creamer wasn't alone out front -- Creamer made a long birdie putt on 15 to retake control.

PGA Tour

Long-hitting rookie Dustin Johnson won the Turning Stone Resort Championship for his first PGA Tour title, holing an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 3-under 69 and a one-stroke victory over Robert Allenby in Verona, N.Y.

Johnson finished at 9-under 279 to take the $1.08 million first-place prize in the $6 million event, the richest of the Fall Series, that catapulted him from 128th to 41st on the money list. The top 125 at the end of the year retain full exemption for 2009.

Allenby (70), seeking his fifth victory and first since 2001, had a chance to tie at 18, but the Australian's 12-foot putt for birdie stopped inches short of the hole.

Mathew Goggin (69), Steve Allan (69), Woody Austin (69), Davis Love III (70), Ryuji Imada (69), Robert Garrigus (69) and third-round co-leader Charles Howell III (73) finished at 7 under. Nick O'Hern (68), Pat Perez (70), Joe Ogilvie (70), and Jeff Overton (73) were another shot back on the Atunyote Golf Club course.

-- The Associated Press