HUIXQUILUCAN, Mexico – The extra practice finally paid off for Pat Hurst.
Hurst shot a 4-under 68 Sunday to beat top-ranked and ex-Arizona Wildcat Lorena Ochoa and Yani Tseng by one stroke at the MasterCard Classic.
Hurst sank a long putt on the 18th green at the tough BosqueReal Country Club to finish at 10-under 206. Top-ranked Ochoa (69) had three bogeys and six birdies, and Tseng (70) had three bogeys and five birdies.
She credited her win to the extra work.
“I’ve been working really hard on my putting, and it really paid off,” she said.
Hurst won $195,000 for her first victory since the Safeway Classic in 2006.
“The 17th and 18th coming in was very exciting,” she said. “I just tried not to get ahead of myself out there, and we made it happen.”
Tseng had led until the last hole.
“I just feel really sad,” she said, wiping away tears. “I just don’t know what to say.”
Ochoa also was disappointed, saying she had a “complicated day” and that her frustration at not being able to beat the course got the best of her.
The steep course outside Mexico City has always been tough for Ochoa. She has yet to win the Mastercard Classic in five attempts. Last year, she opened with a 4-over 76 – her worst score in nearly a year – and ended up tying for eighth.
But Ochoa’s fans were convinced this year would be different. They packed the sun-drenched hillsides to watch the Mexican play. And as she walked onto the 18th green, chants of “Mexico!” and “Lorena!” filled the scrubby valleys.
Some of Ochoa’s most enthusiastic fans are preteen, ponytailed Mexican girls who follow her career as if she were a pop star.
Ochoa still has two other chances for victory on her home turf this year. She will be back in Mexico next month for the Corona Championship in Morelia. The Lorena Ochoa Invitational is in November in Guadalajara, Ochoa’s hometown.
PGA Transitions
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Retief Goosen took an important step toward rejoining the elite in golf Sunday by closing with a 1-under 70 for a one-shot victory in the Transitions Championship, his first PGA Tour win in nearly four years.
Goosen had a two-shot lead with three holes to play on the demanding Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, when just like everyone else, he struggled to hang on. The two-time U.S. Open champion barely made it.
PGA Europe
PORTO SANTO, Madeira Islands – Argentina’s Estanislao Goya won his first European tour title, holding off Scotland’s Callum Macaulay by a stroke to win the Madeira Islands Open.